Rallies slated for Feb. 23 at offices of state's Republican House members
If the state's four Republican U.S. House members won't hold open town meetings, a substantial number of constituents plan on coming to them.
Rallies are planned next Thursday, Feb. 23, outside U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert's office in Issaquah, as well as offices of Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler in Vancouver, Dan Newhouse in Yakima and Cathy McMorris Rodgers in Spokane.
Reichert has scheduled a "Facebook Town Meeting," but he and other Republican lawmakers are keeping a low profile in the era of Trump. Seattlepi.com has repeatedly asked to know what Reichert is doing in or outside the 8th Congressional District over the Presidents Day recess. The response: Icy silence.
Allison Rae Hannigan, a Reichert constituent, will be outside his office, at 22605 S.E. 56th St. in Issaquah, at 11 a.m. next Thursday. She has voiced her opinions to Reichert's aides and finds his office "very civil and very professional. It's a very civil arrangement."
But, as a constituent, Hannigan wants face time.
"I'm not satisfied with not having a town hall," said Hannigan. "I'm grateful for a Facebook town hall, but ... I would really like to hear from him in person. It would be nice to have contact, to hear him speak, to watch him take questions."
The situation is not without irony.
Republicans went after then-Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat, for not meeting enough with his constituents in 2009 during the height of raucous 2009 Tea Party protests. But his successor, Rep. Herrera Beutler, has largely substituted tightly controlled, by-invite coffees for town meetings.
McMorris Rodgers, who chairs the House Republican Conference, has been working with House Speaker Paul Ryan on "talking points" for members to take home, making broad promises for how the GOP proposes to replace the Affordable Care Act.
But she has yet to announce any open meeting in her Eastern Washington district where the "talking points" can be rolled out and questions taken.
Back in Washington, D.C., McMorris Rodgers has brought in Reichert to deliver advice on how to beef up security, as Republicans have lately encountered a raucous reception on the home front. Reichert has talked about such measures as having a back door for ducking out if the atmosphere gets ugly.
Reichert used to be renowned as a cool hand in dealing with critics, notably delegations of riled up liberals from MoveOn.org. He would ask them to bring a manageable number, welcome them, offer coffee, and sit down to hear them out. After all, Reichert was once a hostage negotiator in his days at the King County Sheriff's Office.
In recent years, however, Reichert has gone to ground. Trying to get a schedule is like going through Mont Blanc before they built the tunnel.
Democrats are being more open. Rep. Adam Smith is serving on all sorts of panels and will hold a town hall on Saturday, March 4, at 10 a.m., at the Rainier Arts Center.
Rep. Derek Kilmer has a 5:30 p.m. town hall meeting Tuesday, Feb. 21, in Tacoma's Lincoln High School, and a Wednesday session with constituents at the Admiral Theater in Bremerton. He will meet with Olympic Peninsula constituents the following week.
Rep. Rick Larsen holds more town meetings than anyone else in the delegation. He recently held three sessions on the Affordable Care Act in his northwest Washington district.
By contrast, the Facebook page for Rep. Suzan DelBene says: "Congresswoman Suzan DelBene does not have any upcoming events."
Rick Larsen has seen it all and deployed deft humor to disarm tense situations.
He managed to maintain civility in 2009 at an Everett sports stadium evenly divided between Tea Party critics and union supporters. He was booed by Bellingham liberals days before voting AGAINST the Iraq War authorization. He has shown the patience of Job dealing with fiery critics of the Navy's EA-18 Growler jets at Whidbey Island.
The free form of Larsen and Kilmer town meetings contrasts with the tight control exercised by McMorris Rodgers, who brings an agenda to meetings with citizens and at times has a drawing for who asks questions.
Karen Dorn Steele, retired investigative reporter with the Spokane Spokesman-Review, wrote on Facebook last week: "Cathy McMorris Rodgers isn't holding town meetings in Spokane, Colville or Walla Walla ... only carefully controlled 'coffees' with selected guests."
McMorris Rodgers found herself in a rare, uncontrolled setting when she attended a Martin Luther King Day rally last month in Spokane. The latter part of her speech was drowned out by chants of "Save Our Health Care."
The Issaquah, Yakima, Vancouver and Spokane rallies, all at 11 a.m. on Thursday, will bring a variety of causes to the House members' doorsteps: Possible repeal of Affordable Care Act, and the risk of losing health insurance; funding of Planned Parenthood health clinics; the Trump "Muslim ban" on travel; and immigrants' rights.
Leaving aside politics of the moment, town halls are a tradition that needs restoring -- even in times of turbulence.
As speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom Foley returned in the early 1990s to Colfax, Walla Walla and other small Eastern Washington towns, often for heated encounters over Clinton administration policies.
Then-Rep. Jay Inslee, in his one term as a Central Washington congressman, traveled to Cle Elum-Roslyn High School in 1994 to defend his vote for an assault weapons ban to an audience of rural gun enthusiasts.
And the man who beat him, conservative GOP Rep. Doc Hastings, would publish a schedule of mid-winter meetings up and down an often-icy and snow-covered U.S. 97 through Central Washington.
Foley, Inslee and Hastings were carrying on an American tradition, one celebrated in Norman Rockwell's famous "Freedom of Speech" painting that graced the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.
A controlled coffee, with politician-scripted talking points, doesn't cut it.
By: Joel Connelly
Source: SeattlePI