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Despite the Spitzer taint, Massa won the 29th from Kuhl by the same margin he’d lost it two years earlier, with 51 percent of the vote. Massa attributed Kuhl’s loss to his support for President Bush, and referenced a picture “of Randy [Kuhl] and the president in the back of the limousine” that “tells the story of how disconnected [Kuhl] had become from voters.”
Once seated, Massa quickly proved he was further to the left than anyone anticipated, particularly with regard to public health. When swine flu began to sweep across the U.S. in April 2009, Massa called for draconian measures to contain the disease. “The public needs to be aware of the serious threat of swine flu, and we need to close our borders to Mexico immediately and completely until this is resolved,” Massa told the Washington Times.
The following November, Newsday reported that Massa was one of several New York representatives to sign a letter asking federal officials to “investigate how Wall Street firms ended up with scarce vaccine for the potentially deadly H1N1 flu.”
The letter drew attention specifically to vaccinations administered to employees of Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and was sent even after Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control testified during a Senate hearing that “New York hospitals, doctors, schools and health departments” had received their shipments of the vaccine first.
Also in April of 2009, Massa renewed his commitment to passing health-care reform and the public option, telling an audience at the Netroots Nation Convention, “I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district,” adding “I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them.” New York GOP operatives created video based on Massa’s remarks, which were caught on camera, and distributed the video — titled “Democrats Think You’re Stupid” — to New York news agencies.
Since then, Massa has stayed true to his word, joining a very short list of representatives who voted against the November House health-care bill, arguing that it would “enshrine in law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry.”
Several times during the last year and a half Massa broke ranks with fellow Democrats. He voted against rebuking Republican Rep. Joe Wilson after Wilson interrupted a speech by President Obama. Massa also refused to chastise Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel in late 2009 when House Democrats first began distancing themselves from the ethically challenged New Yorker.
The only reason Massa has given for his resignation is a resurgence of cancer, which he first contracted while still in the Navy in 1998. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Massa apparently did not inform party leaders of his plans, and left them racing to find a candidate to replace him.”