Suffolk Closeup: Bridget Flemming Democratic Candidate For Congress

SUFF0LK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Legislator Bridget FlemmingBy launching a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives this month, Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming is moving early and strongly to get the Democratic nomination to run next year. In recent years Democratic primary battles have diverted Democratic fundraising and complicated the party’s runs in the lst Congressional District.

Ms. Fleming is clearly likely to get the Democratic Party’s designation.

At a press conference on May 3 at which she announced running for the seat held since 2015 by Republican Lee Zeldin, Ms. Fleming was flanked by Suffolk Democratic Chair Rich Schaffer; the presiding officer of the Suffolk Legislature Rob Calarco; a bevy of town Democratic leaders; and John Durso, president of Local 338 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

If Ms. Fleming ends up winning the lst C.D. post, she would be the first woman to represent Suffolk County in the U.S. House of Representatives since the seat was established and held in 1789 by Declaration of Independence signer William Floyd of Mastic.

If Ms. Fleming, a Noyac resident, wins, she as an East Ender will follow Tim Bishop, a Southampton Democrat, who held the seat from 2003 to 2015 and, earlier, Otis Pike, a Riverhead Democrat, who held it from 1961until his retirement in 1979.

Might gender figure in her run? Women have made gains in being elected to the House. Currently, of its 435 members, some 118 are women. But that’s a minority—yet more than 50 years ago when there were just 13 female House members, or 30 years ago when there were but 19. The numbers have increased in the last several years going to 72 in 2007.

The two women who ran for House seats from Suffolk last year—Nancy Goroff in the lst C.D. and Jackie Gordon in the neighboring 2^nd C.D., both Democrats—were defeated. The lst C.D. covers the five East End towns, all of Brookhaven, most of Smithtown and part of Islip. 

Also, being an East Ender could be a liability as the Brookhaven town is the political gorilla in the lst C.D. political room—the largest town in area of New York State’s 932 towns (bigger than all of Nassau County) and the second most populous town (after Hempstead) in New York State. In Suffolk, many voters traditionally vote based on their geography.

Mr. Zeldin is from Shirley in Brookhaven town where he has done well. It seems quite probable at this point that he will get the Republican designation to run for governor of New York next year, also announcing early for that run. In recent weeks he has gotten the endorsement of many Republican county committees. His run for governor would open the lst C.D. seat. Would the GOP pick another Brookhaven resident to run in his stead? That is likely.

However, Ms. Fleming’s county legislative district encompasses not only Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island towns but also includes a section of southeastern Brookhaven—as far as Eastport to the west. She thus has had visibility in that portion of Brookhaven.

Meanwhile, she will be on the ballot this year for re-election to the legislature.

She has an exceptional public record. Before moving to Noyac in 2001 with her husband, Bob, she was for nearly a decade an assistant DA in Manhattan. She served as a member of its Trial Bureau and also Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit and then was chief of the unit that tackled fraud in public programs. She was first elected to the Southampton Town Board in 2010 and won a seat on the Suffolk Legislature in 2015. Last year, she was edged out of being the Democratic candidate in the lst C.D. as result of a three-way Democratic primary won by Ms. Goroff.

“For too long our district has been represented by someone who cared more about his job than he did about those of his constituents, and someone who cared more about his own political future than he did about our future generations,” Ms. Fleming said in her announcement. “That changes the day I’m elected to Congress and that’s why I’m running.”

Mr. Schaffer said: “Bridget Fleming is the champion Long Island families need fighting for them in Congress in this critical moment in our nation’s history. As a tough-as-nails prosecutor, a town councilwoman, and a county legislator, Bridget has the backbone to stand up to both parties in Washington to deliver tax relief for our middle-class communities in Suffolk County.”

Ms. Fleming commented: “This is going to be an expensive race.” Indeed, these days millions of dollars are spent in campaigns for seats in the House. But, she says, it is a “flippable district,” yet a “formidable challenge.”

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.