PHOENIX — Town hall-style public meetings that gave Arizona residents the opportunity to ask questions of their congressional representatives used to be common during the August recess but are becoming rare.
Avoiding those face-to-face events, most delegation members now visit workplaces, offer in-office meetings or hold tele-town halls.
The new approach means senators and representatives rarely have face-to-face encounters with frustrated and angry constituents that have produced viral videos and campaign fodder for their political opponents, the Arizona Republic reported last week.
Town halls can help provide accountability but also can go awry for elected officials in the current polarized environment, said Michael Neblo, a political science professor at Ohio State University.
“These are human beings and they’re being treated like piñatas,” Neblo said.
Liberal activists challenged then-Rep. Martha McSally, a Republican, during a traditional town hall event in the community of Sahuarita in February 2017, and Republican Rep. Andy Biggs was booed repeatedly during an April 2017 event in the city of Mesa.
Another Republican, then-Sen. Jeff Flake, was swarmed by dissenters during his last town hall in April 2017.
“This is what democracy looks like,” Flake said after the two and a half hour meeting.
Five-term Republican Reps. Paul Gosar and David Schweikert regularly hold tele-town halls. Those events do not provide face-to-face encounters but give more constituents than can attend a town hall a chance to dial in, listen and maybe ask a question.
McSally has not held any town halls since moving to the Senate from the House but said she has numerous other face-to-face meetings with constituents that allow people to express themselves.
“We’re out and about in Arizona all the time,” she said. “We’re visiting people where they are. We’re engaging them in their workplace, at schools, at senior communities; you name it. We are engaging with constituents in our office, everywhere.”
Rep. Tom O’Halleran, a two-term Democrat, is by far the leader in holding traditional town halls among the state’s congressional delegation.
“That’s what you’re expected to do,” O’Halleran said. “You get more personal contact with the citizens you represent.”
