I recently received a postcard from Mr. Visclosky stating that he was holding several "town hall" forums throughout his district. This seemed pretty convenient to me since it is an election year so I decided to look up the history of town hall forums.
It seems that town hall forums are a variation of the original town meeting. In a town meeting, all the eligible members of a town would meet to discuss the business facing the community. Election of local leaders may be included in these meetings at times. In the east, many communities still have a variation of the town meeting style of government.
Recently, politicians have seized upon the town hall idea to appear in touch with the voters. These meetings are arranged by a politician, the dates, times, locations and, most importantly, format are all set by the politician. Often the politician will open with a self-serving statement that takes up much of the allotted time.
These meetings are often held on public property. In city halls, libraries and municipal civic centers. In addition to using taxpayer dollars, using official buildings gives an air of legitimacy to the event. Despite the fact that these venues invariably have rules against campaigning on the property, these town hall forums turn into a campaign stop for the candidate-just another incumbent perk at our expense. Opposing candidates are not invited to speak and opposing viewpoints are often quelled quickly. Under these circumstances, is it really appropriate to hold a "town hall" forum on public property? If Blue Cross wanted to hold a public forum on health care in City Hall we would complain that Blue Cross has a vested financial interest in the topic. If Blue Cross wanted to hold a CPR class at city hall, we may not be so quick to complain. The question then to me is, to what extent is the "town hall" a legitimate exercise of constituent communication and to what extent is it a campaign stop. Should public property be used for town hall meetings?
I would be interested to hear your comments on this.
3 comments:
Town Hall meetings are used in the same way those bright glossy postcards are that you receive from a legislator every few months. Your tax dollars pay for that mailer while anyone running against that incumbent has to spend at least $10,000 of his/her own money or campaign money to put out the same mailer.
Are either one right? I guess it depends on which side you're on!
Oh, I almost forgot...Town Hall meetings are used in the same way also as city and town parades are. I found years ago in wanting to enter a candidate in a couple of 4th of July parades, the towns refused and would only allow elected officials to walk in the parade. Not sure if their policies have changed since then, but I found it to be very disciminatory against change.
I agree 100% that they are used in the same way. The difference is that the franking privilege, like it or not, is specifically authorized by law. Using city and county property for a purported informational session is not.
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