Steve Israel

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Steve Israel
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 2nd district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Rick Lazio
Member of the Huntington Town Board
In office 1993 – 2001
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Marlene Budd Israel
Residence	Huntington, New York
Alma mater	Nassau Community College George Washington University
Occupation	public relations executive, political assistant
Religion	Jewish

Steve J. Israel (born May 30, 1958) is an American politician from the state of New York, currently representing the state's 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

[edit] Biography

Israel was born in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from Nassau Community College, and George Washington University. He was elected to the town board in Huntington, New York in 1993.

He lives in Dix Hills with his wife, Marlene Budd, who had served on the Huntington Town board before being elected as a county family court judge in 2005. Israel has two daughters.

[edit] Congress

[edit] Campaigns

After Rick Lazio left his House seat to run for the United States Senate in 2000, Israel was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat. Israel received 48% of the vote, defeating Republican Joan Jonhson, who received 34%, and three independent candidates who received 6% of the vote each.

[edit] The second district

Israel represents the New York's 2nd congressional district, located on Long Island, which includes the towns of Huntington, Babylon, Islip, and Smithtown in Suffolk County and part of the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County. It comprises such communities as Huntington, Dix Hills, Melville, Northport, Commack, Brentwood, Central Islip, Bay Shore, Deer Park, North Amityville, and Wyandanch. Israel's district was once one of the most conservative districts in the East. In 2002, however, the district was gerrymandered to Israel's advantage, removing much of the heavily middle-class, Republican South Shore neighborhoods and incorporating some of the more liberal and heavily Jewish areas on Long Island's affluent North Shore into the district. Until recently, the 2nd district was the only district on Long Island (excluding Brooklyn and Queens) where Democrats outnumber Republicans, though the 5th district, which is part in Nassau and part in Queens, also has a Democratic registration advantage both in the Queens and Nassau sections. With the Democrats making up quite a bit of ground on Long Island in voter registration, the 4th district also has a Democratic advantage in voter enrollment.

[edit] Congressional career

In his first term, Israel voted to authorize George W. Bush to use military force against Iraq, even though over 60% of his Democratic colleagues in the House voted against the bill.^[1] He said he was most proud of a bill that would accelerate research and treatment of ovarian cancer.^{[citation needed]} He has said his primary interests are national security, healthcare,and the environment.^{[citation needed]} Newsday called Israel "rookie of the year" in his first term and later identified him as one of eight "rising stars" nationally.^{[citation needed]}

In his second term, Israel was tapped for a leadership position as Assistant Whip. He is one of only two New York Members of Congress to serve on the House Armed Services Committee. He also serves on the House Financial Services Committee. He is the founder and chair of the Democratic Study Group on National Security, the Congressional center aisle caucus, and co-chairs the bipartisan House Cancer Caucus and the bipartisan Long Island Sound Task Force.

In his third term, Israel was appointed to chair the House Democratic Caucus Task Force on Defense and Military, a group of 15 Members of Congress who will outreach to the defense community and advise the House Democratic Leadership on military policy. In 2006, Israel harshly criticized Jimmy Carter for his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid and at the same time criticized the Palestinian government.^[2]

In his fourth term in Congress, Israel was appointed to the Appropriations committee.

Israel supported a study on the feasibility of switching from Tuesday to weekend voting.^[3]

According to Newsday,^[4]in early October 2009, Mr. Israel held a town hall meeting at Suffolk Community Collage in Brentwood, NY. At the meeting, shouts and insults flew at Mr. Israel by his constituents for not taking on the fight against socialized medicine and out of control spending by the US Congress. Despite the unpopularity of the healthcare bill before congress in his town hall meeting, Steve Israel voted for the bill on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 11:15PM^[5].

[edit] Committee assignments

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
  • Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies

[edit] Leadership positions and Caucus membership

• House Democratic Caucus
  • Assistant Democratic Whip
  • Chair, House Democratic Caucus Task Force On Defense and the Military
  • Co-chair, House Democratic Study Group on National Security Policy
• Co-chair and founder of the House Center Aisle Caucus
• Co-chair, House Cancer Caucus
• Co-chair, Long Island Sound Caucus

[edit] Electoral history

New York election law allows for fusion voting, where a candidate can run as a member of multiple parties. In 2000, Israel ran only as a Democrat in his winning bid for Congress, but since 2002 he has run under the Democratic Party, the Independence Party, and the Working Families Party. The pooled vote totals for candidates are listed first, and the split of the votes among the parties they ran as is listed beneath.

[edit] Controversy

Steve Israel was an honorary member of the gala host committee for the J Street Gala Dinner on October 27, 2009. J Street is a non-profit political organization founded by progressive Jews to lobby the US government to adopt a more even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to counter the more right-wing influence of organizations like AIPAC. In the weeks leading up to the Gala dinner American neoconservatives and those aligned with the Likud, the right-wing political party of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, attempted to marginalize Rep. Israel and those supporting the alternate voice of J Street. Weekly Standard blogger Michael Goldfarb called the J Street dinner an "anti-Israel bash." ^[8] But Lindsay Hamilton, Rep. Israel's spokeswoman, told the Jersualem Post: "It's absurd that this has become a controversy... The congressman agreed to be on the gala host committee. That doesn't mean he agrees with every viewpoint of every speaker at the event." ^[9][10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Steve Israel

• U.S. Representative Steve Israel, official U.S. House site
• Congressman Steve Israel, official campaign site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Steve Israel profile