{"id":4821,"date":"2009-08-18T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-18T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/concerns-elsewhere-arent-stopping-local-town-halls\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T15:22:40","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T21:22:40","slug":"concerns-elsewhere-arent-stopping-local-town-halls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/concerns-elsewhere-arent-stopping-local-town-halls\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns elsewhere aren’t stopping local town halls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Members of New Mexico\u2019s congressional delegation are holding a number of town hall meetings on health-care reform despite the unruliness, shouting and occasional scuffles that have characterized similar meetings in some other states.<\/p>\n

Rep. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n<\/a> held a town hall meeting on health-care reform in Santa Fe<\/a> on Monday. Sen. Jeff Bingaman<\/a> is holding one today in Clovis<\/a>. Rep. Harry Teague<\/a> will hold a \u201cHarry in Your Hometown\u201d event in Las Cruces<\/a> on Wednesday that could turn into a town hall or individual meetings with constituents, depending on the desires of those who attend. Rep. Martin Heinrich<\/a> is holding a town hall in Albuquerque<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And Sen. Tom Udall<\/a> will soon announce details for four town-hall meetings on health care and other topics that he plans to hold in the next few weeks, spokeswoman Marissa Padilla said.<\/p>\n

While some health care town halls in other states have been characterized by rowdiness, threats and, in at least one instance in St. Louis, violence, there haven\u2019t been problems at the few that have been held in New Mexico during the current debate about reform. But that isn\u2019t stopping at least one member of the delegation — which consists entirely of Democrats — from taking extra steps to be prepared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve increased security precautions due to the nature of how some of these have played out,\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n

Bingaman spokeswoman Jude McCartin, on the other hand, said her office \u201cdid not take any special security considerations\u201d for today\u2019s event in Clovis, but added that she assumes the civic center where the event will be held \u201chas its own security for events like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite potential security concerns, Padilla said Udall has held hundreds of town hall meetings during his time in the House and Senate and thinks it\u2019s important to continue holding them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe likes the format a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cHe likes being able to engage directly with New Mexicans in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s obviously what\u2019s on everyone\u2019s mind\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Since the current health-care debate began, Teague has held four \u201cHarry in Your Hometown\u201d events, spokeswoman Sara Schreiber said. At those meetings, people can sign up to speak one-on-one with Teague for a few minutes, or Teague can meet with the group as a whole.<\/p>\n

Schreiber said the events have gone smoothly so far, adding that there have been \u201cpassionate conversations with constituents that are legitimately concerned and have serious questions about health insurance reform and the implications it will have for them and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teague\u2019s office specifically asked in a news release that people come to Wednesday\u2019s event — the fifth since the health-care debate started — with questions about health care. Teague will be willing to turn the event into a town hall on health care if that\u2019s what people want, Schreiber said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously what\u2019s on everyone\u2019s mind, and we\u2019re very aware of that,\u201d Schreiber said. \u201cBut he also doesn\u2019t want to abandon his practice of what he\u2019s been committed to — that people can come sit down with him one on one.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to today\u2019s event in Clovis, McCartin said Bingaman plans several additional town hall meetings throughout the state during the current recess. One will be held Monday in Albuquerque and will be hosted by New Mexico First<\/a>. Details for the others have not been released.<\/p>\n

Bingaman is one of the \u201cGang of six,\u201d a bipartisan group of members of the Senate Finance Committee working toward a compromise health-care bill.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Heinrich\u2019s Saturday town hall is the only one he has scheduled during the August break. Spokesman John Blair said in a statement released by his office that Heinrich wants to \u201cbring together New Mexicans from across the district to ask questions as he works to address the health care crisis in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working to ensure that anyone who attends the event is safe and secure and can participate in a productive, open forum,\u201d Blair said.<\/p>\n

Lujan doesn\u2019t have any additional town-hall meetings scheduled but plans several \u201cCongress in Your Community\u201d events<\/a> — one-on-one meetings with constituents.<\/p>\n

\u2018A positive event\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Luj\u00e1n\u2019s Monday town hall was attended by nearly 200 people, and Luj\u00e1n and other panelists met after the meeting with about 100 people who couldn\u2019t get into the first. The Santa Fe New Mexican described that atmosphere as \u201crelatively sedate.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

In a commentary<\/a> published today, New Mexico Independent columnist Brigette Russell wrote that Luj\u00e1n\u2019s town hall was held at the same time as a GOP event in Santa Fe, which prevented her from attending.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing I\u2019m not a conspiracy theorist, or I might suspect that it was more than coincidence,\u201d Russell wrote.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n spokesman Mark Nicastre said it was a coincidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know the Santa Fe GOP\u2019s schedule, and judging by their track record in Santa Fe neither does anyone else. If we did know their schedule, it would have absolutely no bearing on our schedule,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a news release following his town hall, Luj\u00e1n said it was \u201cconstructive and helpful for me and hopefully for the many New Mexicans who attended the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a point of pride for me that we were able to hold a positive event that focused on the substance of health insurance reform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of New Mexico\u2019s congressional delegation are holding a number of town hall meetings on health-care reform despite the unruliness, shouting and occasional scuffles that have characterized similar meetings in some other states. Rep. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n held a town hall meeting on health-care reform in Santa Fe on Monday. Sen. Jeff Bingaman is holding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}