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Column: Winning, losing and outsourcing blame

DANA SHAW PHOTO | Congressman Tim Bishop (left) and Randy Altschuler during a debate in October.

Outsourcing is a hot-button issue, which was especially hot in the bitter election contest of 2012 between Congressman Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) and Randy Altschuler. It was the race that drew the most attention of any Long Island race last year with outsourcing the key issue.

There were some who felt this was unfair, that Mr. Altschuler had a right to have started and made millions from OfficeTiger, a business that arranged jobs for U.S. corporations overseas. Several newspaper editorials stressed that outsourcing has become part of the global economy. Why, it was asked, should Mr. Altschuler be attacked for taking advantage of this business development?

Mr. Bishop, to put it mildly, attacked Mr. Altschuler. A regularly repeated Bishop print ad demanded: “Randy Wouldn’t Hire You, So Why Should We Hire Him?” In his television ads, Mr. Bishop kept repeating a statement by Mr. Altschuler that, “In India, you get a much higher standard of person.”

Mr. Altschuler fired back stressing that OfficeTiger also produced jobs in the U.S., and blasting Mr. Bishop for being a “corrupt career politician.”

Yes, it was a very nasty campaign. And it was one of national import, too. Republican strategists believed Mr. Altschuler could likely win considering he only lost to Democrat Bishop two years earlier by 593 votes. And, they noted, Republican Altschuler had Independence Party backing this time, worth perhaps 6,000 votes. In the end, Mr. Bishop widened his 2010 margin, winning in the rematch with Mr. Altschuler by 13,875 votes.

Was outsourcing the issue that decided the race? An entity called Patriots for Freedom recently released an analysis determining it was. Patriots for Freedom is a “Super PAC,” a political action committee with funding abilities beyond traditional PACs.

Its analysis is based on a poll done for it by In The Field Consulting. The analysis said that “an astounding 40 percent” of 300 voters polled said Mr. Altschuler’s “record of outsourcing influenced them to vote for Bishop.”

Further, “voter disdain for outsourcing was not unique to Democrats … 15.3 percent of Republicans polled said outsourcing ‘definitely’ influenced them to vote for Mr. Bishop. Another 10.8 percent” of Republican voters said Mr. Altschuler’s “outsourcing somewhat influenced them to vote for Bishop.

”The analysis says that Mr. Altschuler’s outsourcing-linked “failure to win Republican votes likely cost him the election.” It concludes that his involvement in outsourcing renders him “unelectable.”

Mr. Altschuler questions the veracity of the poll. He says it was “done by a group fronting for George Demos.” In a GOP primary, Mr. Demos took on Mr. Altschuler to run against Mr. Bishop in 2010, and he began a primary challenge last year, but withdrew citing his upcoming marriage. A former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor and long-time Shelter Island resident, Mr. Demos also emphatically raised the outsourcing issue. Now living in Holbrook, he is expected to make a Congressional bid again in 2014. Mr. Altschuler will not.

Online records list the treasurer of the Patriots for Freedom as Kevin Tschirhart, deputy manager of the 2010 Demos campaign and his campaign manager in 2012. The website of In The Field Consulting displays under “Some of Our Clients” the logo of “George Demos for U.S. Congress.” Its founder and principal, Rob Cole, was a consultant to the Demos campaigns in 2010 and 2012. He also was a Mitt Romney advisor in his 2008 and 2012 presidential runs.

Whether outsourcing made the difference in the lst C.D. race — Mr. Altschuler says, “factors other than outsourcing were clearly at work” — it remains a hot issue in many ways.

An article in The New Yorker this month connected problems with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to outsourcing. Those behind the 787 project “came up with a development strategy that was supposed to be cheaper and quicker than the traditional approach: outsourcing.” Utilizing 50 “strategic partners,” Boeing built “less than” 40 percent of the 787. It “had less control than it would have if more of the operation had been in-house.” Because of overheating and fire problems with the Dreamliner’s made-in-Japan lithium-ion batteries, all 787s worldwide are now grounded.

Meanwhile, there’s been somewhat of an outsourcing reversal. A recent article in The Atlantic — “The Insourcing Boom”— tells of major U.S. companies turning away from outsourcing for reasons including “recalibration” of the costs of overseas operations and “the competitive benefits of keeping production stateside.”