Republican lawmakers dodge town halls – so activists bring one to their door

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/07/republican-town-hall-congress-protest-pennsylvania

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Four members of Congress dodged hundreds of their own constituents who attempted to hold an impromptu town hall with them on Monday afternoon.

The Republican lawmakers – Lloyd Smucker, Pat Meehan, Charlie Dent and Ryan Costello – had all avoided holding in-person town halls during the recent congressional recess, dubbed “Resistance recess” because of the number of angry constituents who confronted their representatives during the week.

A group of activists intent on confronting them any way they could staged a spontaneous town hall at the site of a local chamber of commerce event.

Keystone Progress, a Pennsylvania-based progressive group, had reserved a meeting room in the same Reading, Pennsylvania, hotel where the congressmen were attending their meeting.

The plan was to have voters approach the politicians as they left that meeting, and ask them to attend a town hall just 100ft down the corridor.

But the scheme failed as the four congressmen left without interacting with voters – a staff member for congressman Ryan Costello expressing concern that people filming the event might use the footage to show Costello doing “funny faces”.

About 150 activists had gathered outside the Double Tree hotel in Readingat around 2.30pm.

Activists, including one wearing a very large papier mache Donald Trump head, chanted “Do your job” as the 3pm start time of the chamber of commerce meeting approached. Some had signs referencing Trump’s healthcare and immigration plans, but most of the signage requested that the congressmen hold town hall events with voters.

Costello did at least walk out to meet voters on Monday, shaking hands and speaking briefly, although his effort was not entirely appreciated.

“He went: ‘How are you doing?’,” said Thea Seamless, who lives in Coatesville – an area represented by Costello.

“I said: “Oh, you do exist.”

At 4pm activists began filing into the Double Tree hotel, to the “Maple” ballroom that had been reserved by Michael Morrill, the executive director of Keystone Progress. The room had been set up for a town hall meeting, with name cards for each of the four congressmen set out on stage.

The plan to approach the congressmen had been kept secret even from some activists, in an effort to retain the element of surprise.

“Our two goals are either to have a town hall meeting, or embarrass the members of Congress,” Morrill told the group.

“Tell them we’re not going to do any yelling or screaming. [Tell them]: ‘If you come in we will listen to you.’”

Katey Dyck, 36, had been selected to approach Meehan, who represents her town of Fort Washington, about 10 miles north of Philadelphia.

“I brought my little congressman bait,” Dyck said, referring to her two children Natalie, nine, and Gabriel, seven.

Just before 5pm Dyck and her bait took up position outside the chamber of commerce meeting. She said she was not nervous about approaching Meehan.

“This is my representative, he works for us. I’m not concerned about speaking to someone who works for me. Or doesn’t work for me, as the case may be.”

As it turns out Dyck, who works with the Philadelphia branch of Moms Demand Action – a gun reform group – had nothing to be concerned about anyway; at 5pm the hotel manager told her Meehan had already left.

“Oh bummer,” Dyck said. She had wanted to ask Meehan about gun control, specifically the potential abolition of gun-free zones – a goal of the influential National Rifle Association.

A little further down the corridor Bernie Hines Corbit, who lives in Exeter and is represented by Costello, was having more luck. Kori Walter, district director for Costello, had come out of the chamber of commerce meeting to talk to her.

Walter seemed receptive to the town hall meeting, as long as no one filmed the event.

“It’s not the constituents that are the issue. It’s other folks who are here with cameras and use that footage for other purposes other than having a discussion,” he said.

“People don’t record what he’s saying accurately and quite honestly they use it for, you know, people close their eyes and do funny faces.”

Walter said he would discuss the town hall with Costello and went back into the room where the chamber of commerce meeting was taking place, prompting Hines Corbit to describe the development as “a win”.

But Walter never came back, and 10 minutes later the hotel manager announced that everyone had left the meeting.

Later a spokesman for Costello told the Guardian in a statement that the congressman had “offered to meet with the protesters but they declined. They do not wish to have an open and honest dialog. Their goal is to cause a scene and get it on camera.”

Dent and Meehan did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment. Smucker’s voicemail was full.

After the disappointment, Dyck and Hines Corbit headed to the Maple ballroom to recount their experiences. Their retelling elicited boos from the activist crowd, but Morrill was sanguine.

“We knew they weren’t going to come,” he said.

“But I’m proud of the way people handled things. I’m proud of the turnout. And this will mobilize people.”