No town hall in South Sound

It is so frustrating to read how Dave Reichert and Denny Heck prefer to not hold face-to-face town hall meetings with large numbers of constituents because they are not “productive.”

By now everyone else in the U.S. understands that democracy is messy, and to be an effective representative you need to meet often with larger groups of individuals to get the full sense of the public will, even if it is unpleasant.

Large campaign contributors certainly get face-time and all the access they want (no need for Denny Heck to guess what the WEA wants). Voters instead are treated to those tidy sessions where a moderator reads a question allegedly submitted by constituents, which offer no opportunity for follow-up and most often result in evasive responses. That approach smacks of arrogance.

I like to believe that our community deserves better.

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 5:59 PM with the headline "No town hall in South Sound."