Herrera Beutler's hush-hush town hall (Politico)

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) asked a local paper not to publicize her town hall meeting out of concern that it would attract protesters, a new report says.

One of Herrera Beutler?s staffers contacted the Washington newspaper The Chronicle to invite them to cover a town hall meeting. However, the office requested that the newspaper not announce the details in advance of the town hall, according to another local newspaper, The Columbian.

Continue Reading

The Chronicle declined that request and published an announcement in Saturday?s paper.

Herrera Beutler?s office justified the move by saying that they were concerned that publicizing the event would attract protesters, especially from outside the district.

?In our experience, when we put out a press release and announce such events well in advance, interest groups ? often from outside the district ? use the information to organize and follow the congresswoman from event to event to dominate the conversation, and local residents lose out,? Casey Bowman, Herrera Beutler?s communications director, wrote in an email to The Chronicle.

Bowman also stressed in that same email that they did not screen for favorable constituents to invite to meetings.

?Our focus is on giving everyone in Southwest Washington a chance to say what?s on their mind to their representative in Congress. Recently, we?ve stuck to phone calls to invite people ? but we do not screen who we invite within a community. Period,? he said.

Herrera Beutler faced a loud and divided crowd in a town hall meeting in May 2011. The meeting involved hostile questioning on her vote on the Paul Ryan budget plan and her views on the federal debt limit, which led to both applause and boos in the crowd, according to a The Columbian report at the time.

Herrera Beutler?s public meetings are not always been so controversial, however. In fact, thirty job seekers were hired after the congresswoman held a jobs fair in September.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1011_66358_html/43312016/SIG=11m5pcvk1/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66358.html

pumpkin bread linus pauling chris cooley chris cooley stevan ridley breast cancer awareness month breast cancer awareness month