The Empire Page

Over the past few election cycles New York Democrats have put extensive financial and personal resources behind efforts to elect Democrats to Congress.  In doing so, we thought we would get reliable Democratic votes when we needed them, even if we disagreed with the candidates on some issue. In the last two election cycles we won three big races, Eric Massa, Michael McMahon, and Scott Murphy were all elected in previously Republican Districts. Democrats from throughout New York State gave money, made phone calls and helped in many other ways to get them elected.

We invested these resources in what we expected would be good Democrats. Yet what happened in one of the first major votes of their terms, the vote to support the President and pass health care reform, all three of our new Democrats voted no.  If ever there was a bill where party loyalty was important this was it.  Health Care reform is the signature issue of the Obama administration and a 39 vote Democratic majority in the House should have made passage easy. Yet the House Leadership had to count votes in the end and compromise with the anti-abortion forces in order get the bill passed. The votes of Massa, McMahon and Murphy could have made the margin larger and compromise unecessary. While I know that all three are in districts that either marginally voted for Obama or voted for McCain, voting no on health care reform better reflects conservative districts in the South, not New York. As I have mentioned New York Democrats did not expect to agree with every vote these Congressmen made and would have given them a pass on other ones, but voting no on health care reform?? Aside from being a centerpiece of Obama’s Presidency it is also morally the right thing to do and is supported by a majority of Americans. Massa, McMahon, and Murphy need to explain their votes if they want New York Democrats to support them strongly in 2010 to give them the support they need to win.