SUFFOLK CLOSEUP
By Karl Grossman
Perry Gershon, in running a second time against incumbent U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin, will take a similar approach to that of Otis Pike decades ago. Democrat Pike initially lost to a lst Congressional District Republican incumbent and then spent two years moving around the district meeting with voters person-to-person.
Two years later, in 1960, Mr. Pike of Riverhead defeated three-term Representative Stuyvesant Wainwright of Wainscott. Ultimately, Mr. Pike was elected to nine two-year terms—holding office until 1978—the longest tenure ever for any lst C.D. representative.
Joseph Quinn of Smithtown worked should-to-shoulder with Mr. Pike. Mr. Quinn, a teacher, was a key Pike campaign aide and was a staff assistant to him through his Congressional years. Mr. Quinn also would become, for 23 years, the Democratic leader of Smithtown—a town which might be critical to Mr. Gershon’s chances.
Mr. Gershon of East Hampton was defeated last year by 11,000 votes, a narrow 4 percent of votes cast. He won Southampton, East Hampton, Shelter Island and Southold towns. But Mr. Zeldin won in Brookhaven, Riverhead and Smithtown—where Mr. Gershon lost by 7,000 votes. “He lost the race in Smithtown,” commented Mr. Quinn last week.
Back in 1958, in his first race for Congress, Mr. Pike did worse. “He lost by 40,000 votes to Wainwright,” Mr. Quinn recounted. The strategy of Mr. Pike, a Riverhead town justice, for his re-run was to move around the district, connecting with voters, speaking at every venue possible. If there were “three people he could go and talk with, Otis would be there,” said Mr. Quinn.
Mr. Pike used humor. “He made fun of himself. He would tell people in 1960 that in the 1958 election” Democrats he’d name in various states “got elected—but Otis Pike got murdered!”
Mr. Gershon, with $5 million spent (including in a primary) in his campaign last year, would not be emulating Mr. Pike on campaign spending. Mr. Pike spent but $12,000 on the 1960 campaign, said Mr. Quinn, extremely low even then. But Mr. Pike was famously frugal—including as a congressman. There was but one piece of campaign literature in 1960, a four-page flier. Emphasizing that this was a shoestring campaign, shoestrings were sold at Pike campaign appearances for $1 a pair.
Mr. Wainwright, meanwhile, came from money. Financer Jay Gould, a railroad magnate considered one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age, was his grandfather.
Both men had solid World War II military records. Mr. Pike was a Marine fighter pilot in the Pacific. Mr. Wainwright was an Army officer overseas with the Office of Strategic Services.
It was very helpful to Mr. Pike that John F. Kennedy was running for president and heading the Democratic ticket in 1960, said Mr. Quinn. Will Mr. Zeldin’s chances in 2020 with incumbent President Donald Trump expected to head the GOP ticket help or hurt him? Mr. Zeldin of Shirley and President Trump are politically and personally close. In Smithtown, said Mr. Quinn, since Mr. Trump’s election two years ago activity in Democratic politics has increased greatly. Democratic meetings that used to bring out few people now bring out many, he said. Whether this will translate to votes remains to be seen. And Mr. Trump won in 2016 in Smithtown by 28 points, the largest margin of any Suffolk town.
A big break for Mr. Pike came in 1960 when “Wainwright was out sailing on his yacht off Nantucket and missed an important vote.” Mr. Zeldin, however, has actively worked the district in his three terms.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gershon’s emphasis will be traveling the district to “convince the district at large that I represent a better future for its people.” It will be maximum exposure, Pike-like.
Another example being cited of a Democratic challenger in the lst C.D. running twice and then winning is George Hochbrueckner, then of Coram (now of Laurel). He ran and narrowly lost to incumbent Representative William Carney of Hauppauge in 1984. But unlike Mr. Pike, he didn’t face an incumbent the second time—Mr. Carney dropped out. With the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster happening in 1986, opposition in Suffolk to the Shoreham nuclear power plant and Mr. Carney’s zealous advocacy of it had become yet more intense. So after four terms, Mr. Carney, who began as a Conservative with GOP endorsement, didn’t run again. Mr. Hochbrueckner faced Republican Gregory Blass of South Jamesport, presiding officer of the Suffolk Legislature, and won. The Shoreham plant was stopped from going into operation. And Mr. Carney became a lobbyist in Washington for the nuclear power industry.
Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.