- Revision10/11
In our third year conducting nationwide rapid research into the schedules of members of Congress--and encouraging Americans everywhere to show up and speak out to their elected officials . . here in Arizona it looks 'one-sided' from the Town Hall Project report and from the Cronkite News story linked to in the opening.
WASHINGTON – "Congress returned this week from a two-week recess, a time when lawmakers can go home and meet with voters – except that many of them don’t. . .
Town Hall Project Executive Director Nathan Williams said there is a general disparity between Republicans and Democrats on the national level, but said he finds Arizona’s one-sidedness unusual.
“That’s unfortunate… We don’t see this as a partisan issue,” “There shouldn’t be anything inherently conservative or progressive about meeting your constituents.”
Requests for comment from delegation members were not returned. But with the 2020 elections around the corner, challengers across Arizona were quick to turn the lack of town halls held by incumbents into a campaign talking point.
The Town Hall Project said Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko has not held a single town hall since she took office in 2018. She and other GOP delegation members were more likely to host telephone town halls , which they have defended in the past as allowing a larger number of people to participate in the conversation.
One reason for their reluctance may be the hostility some lawmakers faced in the months after President Donald Trump took office. After Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert , was repeatedly booed at his last town hall in April 2017, he turned to telephone town halls – a method Rep. Paul Gosar , R-Prescott, also uses.
Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., was still a House member when she attended her last town hall in February 2017. She originally declined to attend what she said would be “about trapping people in a political ambush for political theater,” but later agreed to the event hosted by liberal-leaning groups – only to be berated for her statements over the course of the night.
David Barker, director of American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, said Arizona could be a swing state in 2020, and with Trump under a microscope, state Republicans want to avoid having to defend or denounce his actions in front of a crowd.
“They’re going to potentially put you in a really difficult position of having to go on record there and either doubling down on your support for Trump, which might anger independent or swing voters you might need,” Or you’re going to have to voice your displeasure with Trump, which for a lot of these people could also spell doom.”
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> The Town Hall Project only counts events held within a lawmaker’s district that is
free and open to the public
announced at least 24 hours in advance
has an open question-and-answer session.
It does not include site visits to businesses or schools, and
it does not include meetings on social media or by telephone.
> Unlike face-to-face meetings, “it is very common for questions to be screened at these telephone town halls,”
“It is very easy to pick and choose the questions you want to answer and the people you want to answer.”
Democrat Anita Malik invited Rep. David Schweikert , R-Fountain Hills, to a town hall in September that he did not attend. She said she was not surprised, as she said Schweikert has not hosted a town hall in his district in years .
Malik said Republicans argue that town halls lead to more divisiveness among voters, but she accuses Schweikert, currently the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation , of just trying to “stay under the radar.”
“They just wanted a platform to speak those words and feel like someone is paying attention,”
Malik said it may not be fun to face critics and tough questions, but it is an essential duty of a representative’s job to listen to constituents – regardless of their views.
Muscato agreed, saying younger voters are seeking more transparency from their representatives than ever before.
“If we can’t do the most simple and commonsense representation, which is to simply listen in a public setting, then we don’t have representation
Congress has been on a two-week break - time to go back home to meet-and-talk with the people elected them. Right? Nah - Neither of the state’s senators have had a town hall this year and no Republicans in the state’s House delegation had done so, with Arizona joining Missouri as the only states where no Republicans had a single meeting.
