That's neat. 31 of the 39 Democratic representatives who didn't vote for the health care bill are in districts that had more McCain voters than Obama voters last year. Mmm hmm! Also, twelve of them are former Republicans of formerly Republican districts. (And to be noted: 1 of the 39 was Dennis Kucinich, who voted against the bill because it was too friendly to insurance companies.)
Monday, November 9, 2009
8
my representative voted against it because his margin of victory in the special election (took Gillibrand's seat) was about 100 votes, in which case, my email, instead of being well-thought out, should have just read "well, fuck that shit"
A comment on Dennis Kucinich's Facebook status update, linking to why he voted No:
"If they would've voted Cindy Sheehan in things wouldn't be the way they are now."
Disclosure: my sister has given his gorgeous wife a haircut.
Wait, where did you see that 12 were former Republicans? 12 are in districts that were represented by Republicans before 2008, which is not the same thing?
Also, does anyone know what the deal is w/Artur Davis's no vote? he is an up-and-coming African American rep. from Alabama that a friend of mine who is a Congressional staffer thinks highly of. He's from an overwhelmingly pro-Obama (and overwhelmingly black) district, is not a freshman or Blue Dog, has high numbers of uninsured in his district, etc. Did he too vote against coz it was too conservative or something?
Answering own question: apparently he likes the Senate version better. Also, in a surely totally unrelated matter, he is running for governor of Alabama.
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/the-democratic-countdown-begins/
Aha, yes. He's running well to the right of his district now that he's in the gov race.
I'M REALLY SLEEPY SORRY.
Massa claims to have voted against it for Kucinich's reasons (it's not single payer) -- but I think that's bullshit and he's just trying to have it both ways. He raised a lot of money off the ActBlue crowd, and now that is unlikely to be repeated.
So, these 31 who voted against it and are in McCain2008-winning districts may have been representing their constituents? Huh.