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Republican challengers
across the country have found a new way of capitalizing
on the roiling emotions surrounding congressional health
care town hall meetings.
Driven by intense voter interest in the topic, the
almost-certain promise of media coverage and the
opportunity to
upstage incumbent Democrats, GOP
candidates in state after state are holding their own
health care town halls —
and reveling in the subsequent publicity bonanza.
The health care events are proving to be a boon for
those seeking to oust incumbents, delivering the most
precious of political commodities — voter attention and
local press coverage.
Florida Republican Allen West, who is running against
Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.), said his Deerfield Beach town
hall meeting earlier this month drew several hundred
local residents, many of whom stayed long after the
90-minute session ended to chat with him.
Just as important, the event was the subject of
extensive media coverage and was streamed live on a
local news website.
“We made the 11 o'clock news,” said West.
“I just think that if you’re a smart candidate right
now, you should be getting out there and getting in
front of the people,” he said. “If you’re not doing
that, you’re putting yourself behind the eight ball.”
The challenger
town halls serve another
important purpose by offering candidates the chance to
fill the void left by incumbent Democrats who have opted
against holding large-scale, in-person town halls out of
fear of raucous crowds or out of a desire to talk to
constituents in smaller or more controlled settings.
Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who’s running against
freshman Democratic Rep. Deborah Halvorson in
Illinois, held five town halls
to highlight his criticism of the congresswoman’s
avoidance of public health care meetings during the
August recess.
Halvorson’s approach has been to schedule telephone town
halls — events that are akin to a telephone conference
call — and to place a health care reform survey on her
congressional website.
“I just decided that if she’s not going to throw the
town hall meetings, then we’ll do it,” Kinzinger told
POLITICO, claiming that each of his events drew a crowd
of hundreds. “By the time this is said and done, my
campaign will have provided close to 1,500 people the
opportunity to speak out on health care.”
Kinzinger isn’t the only one staging town halls to make
a point. In Washington state, Republican Jon Russell
scheduled a series of four public forums “focusing
primarily on the federal deficit and health care reform”
to provide a contrast with his Democratic opponent, Rep.
Brian Baird, who at first declined to hold open health
care town hall meetings.
Baird, who drew criticism in early August for saying
that health care reform opponents who disrupted meetings
used “Brown Shirt tactics,” a reference to Nazi storm
troopers, later relented and announced his own series of
public meetings, in addition to the telephone town halls
he already planned.
In Arkansas,
Republicans have also wielded town halls as a weapon
against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who is seeking
reelection in 2010.
Lincoln, who originally had no open health care meetings
scheduled for the August recess, generated controversy
in early August by referring to disruptive protesters as
“un-American.” While she later backed away from that
statement, Arkansas Republicans kept the heat on.
Senate candidate Tom Cox, a Tea Party organizer, vowed
in an an August 17 campaign blog post to hold a series
of health care-themed public meetings before the end of
the month—he held his first on Saturday. The state GOP
scheduled its own series of health care town halls,
dubbed the “Listening to Arkansas” tour,.
On August 18,
Lincoln announced that she would
hold three “town-hall style” forums in early September.
Officials with the National Republican Congressional
Committee declined to say whether they were specifically
encouraging GOP candidates to hold town hall meetings in
places where incumbents were avoiding them. But they
said the development would help GOP candidates gain
traction at a time when public skepticism over health
care reform appears to be growing.
“The question so many Democrats are asking themselves is
this: Is it better to duck and cover through Election
Day, or is it better to listen but ignore their
concerns?” said NRCC spokesman Tory Mazzola.
Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee, questioned the
sincerity of the GOP approach.
“Their candidates are getting bashed,” she said.
“Misleading constituents about the facts on health care
reform isn’t something to be proud of, and local press
is calling Republicans out on it. Republican candidates
can parrot Washington Republicans’ misleading talking
points, while Democrats are engaging in an open
conversation about the need for health insurance
reform.”
If nothing else, the counter-town halls have succeeded
in one important way — they’ve been effective in
fostering the impression that some Democratic incumbents
are reluctant to meet with the public.
In the case of Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.), whose
GOP challenger Frank Giunta has a town hall scheduled
for Monday, the scrutiny over her reticence to hold open
town halls led to unflattering press coverage.
The congresswoman made her name as an anti-war activist
who followed the incumbent she defeated in 2006 from
town hall to town hall. She was even escorted out of a
2005 town hall meeting featuring President George W.
Bush, so her aversion to scheduling such events as an
officeholder struck a nerve.
“The conclusion has to be that she doesn't want to face
questions from people who disagree with her positions,
particularly on health care,” wrote the Portsmouth
Herald, in an editorial. “We find this curious and
regrettable, especially given her history of challenging
her predecessor, Jeb Bradley, for nearly two years
during his town hall meetings. Some might say she
hounded him.”
Shea-Porter ultimately relented and agreed to hold a
town hall meeting on Saturday— two days before Guinta’s
event.
In Texas,
GOP challenger Rob Curnock, who has planned a series of
face-to-face public town hall meetings, took credit for
Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards’s recent change of heart on
health care town halls.
Edwards had initially scheduled a telephone town hall
meeting and smaller gatherings with constituents but no
public town hall forums. Yet not long after Curnock
revealed his plans — and after demonstrations outside
his district offices — Edwards announced that he would
hold three in-person forums before the end of the month
despite his “initial concerns about a handful of people
disrupting the discussion.”
“Evidently we really put him on the spot,” said Curnock,
who also ran against Edwards in 2008. “This has stirred
up a real hornet’s nest. I feel strongly that people
should have the chance to have their say, and if the
congressman won’t do it, I will listen.”
Two weeks ago, the two ended up holding dueling events
on the same night, with Curnock participating in the
first of his four town hall meetings and Edwards
speaking to his constituents via conference call.
A spokesman for Edwards noted that the congressman was
able to reach many times more residents than Curnock.
“Congressman Edwards spoke to nearly 20,000 constituents
directly about health care Thursday night,” said Edwards
spokesman Josh Taylor. “Mr. Curnock, according to press
reports, spoke to approximately 100. Those results speak
for themselves.”
While Democrats have mostly been the targets of the
challenger town halls, there’s at least one Democrat who
has turned the tables on an incumbent Republican — Ami
Bera, who is running for Congress in northern California.
While his opponent, GOP Rep. Dan Lungren, has been
holding town hall meetings across the district, Bera is
hoping to take advantage of his background as a
physician by hosting his own health care forums next
week. He called health care “the driving reason” he
entered the race.
“I’m compelled to talk about it and compelled to hear
people’s stories — in many ways these are my stories as
a doctor,” said Bera. “Would I be doing this anyway?
Yes. Does the focus on health care right now accelerate
the need for these conversations? Yes.”
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