Town hall meetings give public chance to be heard

Public’s hunger for congressional town halls seems 'insatiable'

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By Jessica Wehrman, Staff Writer Updated 11:28 PM Sunday, August 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — While many lawmakers are a little wary of town hall meetings this summer — one only needs to view footage of shoutfests on CNN to see why — U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan positively beamed the day after one near Mansfield last Thursday.

“It was awesome,” he said, saying he’d heard 400 people crammed into a meeting organized by the Richland County Republican Women. “It was a blast.”

Sure, Jordan, R-Urbana, was among like-minded voters. Most in the crowd, like Jordan, have deep reservations about the health care proposals now being debated in Congress.

But Jordan was also happy to draw a crowd.

He said town hall meetings are typically sleepy events that draw at most a few dozen people, many of them elected officials.

Not this year. Town hall fever has swept the country, and now lawmakers’ staffs can hardly answer the phone without being exhorted to hold a town hall meeting.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who has held more than 130 roundtables in all 88 Ohio counties since he’s been elected, nonetheless faced scores of phone calls from angry constituents earlier this month urging him to have one on health care. He did — and still faced complaints that he hadn’t sufficiently advertised the meeting.

Others, like Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, are holding off on town hall meetings until details of health care legislation are more clear.

“At this point there’s a lot of posturing and hooting and hollering,” said Bruce Pfaff, a spokesman for Schmidt. “That’s not what the debate needs at this point.”

Keep reading: Public’s hunger for congressional town halls seems 'insatiable'

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