Posted on 08/14/2009 3:04:24 PM PDT by Hoffer Rand
SALT LAKE CITY -- People in Utah's 2nd Congressional District won't be seeing any town hall meetings on health care during the August break.
Congressman Jim Matheson's spokeswoman Allison Heyrend said the congressman has opted instead to continue to use a telephone town-meeting approach.
She said they've had five such meetings since the first of the year. "We had about 46,000 Utahns participate, and I would say 90 percent of the questions and the discussion was about health care," she said.
Heyrend said the call-outs for the telephone meetings were based on voter registrations and involved members of all parties.
"There's been an opportunity for the congressman, definitely, to take the pulse of Utahns on health care reform," Heyrend said.
Matheson, as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was among a handful of Democrats who did not support the House version of a health care reform bill.
In the 3rd Congressional District, Congressman Jason Chaffetz has a number of general town meetings scheduled in coming weeks, but none specific to health care reform. But Chaffetz expects that will be the main topic, even though he doesn't anticipate much in the way of protest. "I'm on the right side on this issue," he said.
He said he still prefers the in-person approach to town meetings and anticipates a lively crowd.
A staffer at 1st District Congressman Rob Bishop's office said he will hold town meetings as well. Some of those dates have now been posted on his website.
E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com
Do as some others have done - hold your own town hall meeting. Invite the “blue dog”, but if she doesn’t show, have a cardboard cutout with her photo pasted on it to stand in for her “in absentia”. Ask the cardboard democrat questions. Lay the mockery on thick and heavy. Put it on YouTube.
A new Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday shows voters favor the GOP on the issue of healthcare by a margin of 44 percent to 41 percent.
A similar poll conducted last month had the American public favoring Democrats on the healthcare issue by a slim margin of just four points. In June, the margin was 20 points, and in May, 18 points.
The dramatic plunge in support of Obama’s plan for healthcare reform is attributed not only to the American public’s concern for the contentious legislation, but also for the confusion the proposal brings.
More Americans are coming out against the idea of healthcare reform, Rasmussen reports, as town hall protests intensify.
Other findings of the poll show:
# The GOP holds a six-point lead on the top issue of the economy.
# The GOP holds a three-point lead on the issue of education.
# The GOP holds a four-point lead on the issue of social security.
# The GOP holds a four-point lead on the issue of national security.
# The GOP holds a strong 16-point lead on the issue of taxes.
# The GOP holds a 10-point lead on the issue of abortion.
There must be some Republican officeholder in Salt Lake City who can make a race of it.
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