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Session:         Page of 617

LBH
Interview # 17
Interviewee: Congressman Edward I. Koch
Interviewer: Ed Edwin
New York City
Jan. 12, 1976

Q:

I was thinking we might pick up from something you said in the last interview. You said that your administrative assistant or that neither you nor your administrative assistant had ever been to Washington. I might if you might briefly tell how it was when you got down there in setting up your plans for all of your Congressional activities, not just the technicalities of the office but what kind of help was made available to you as a freshman Congressman?

Koch:

Well, the first problem was that Kupferman, who was leaving, would not give me any space in his office nor the telephone nor any real cooperation. That's not really like him. But I can only tell you that we didn't get any great cooperation from him. You see, you pick up the telephone number, not the office, but the telephone number from the Congressman who occupied the seat that you're taking. It's just a continuous telephone number from the year one. And it's not released until he physically leaves, and he didn't leave until the last day of the Congress -- and so I couldn't even get a telephone.

Anyway, prior to actually taking the office in November, David Brown went down to Washington and spent a week down there interviewing people. The House office has an employment staff, and every new Congressmen gets letters from people who are leaving












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