CSP’s Botched Town Hall Strategy
August 30, 2009Could Carol Shea-Porter have mishandled her faux town hall meetings much worse politically? First she looked like she was afraid to face her constituents by not scheduling any town hall meetings during the long August recess, while finding time to meet with like-minded liberal bloggers at the out-of-state Netroots gathering instead. Then she looks like a hypocrite, having stalked former Rep. Jeb Bradley at his many town halls. Then she finally schedules two meetings, but does them in deliberately small venues (keeping people out) and for deliberately short, one-hour sessions (preventing people from expressing their opinions).
Hold them in Federal buildings (instead of town halls) and throw in a heavy police presence and she comes across as looking like she’s trying to quash dissent. (Here’s Foster’s account: “Portsmouth police had a number of officers — both in uniform and in street clothes — positioned inside and outside the building, though no arrests were reported. Federal law enforcement officers were also on scene, and everyone entering the building was screened and put through a metal detector.”)
Everyone from school principals and teachers, police to restaurant managers knows that when you’re dealing with frustrated people, you want to give them opportunities to vent and release, not build up tension and make them more frustrated and angry. The simple act of letting people feel like they’ve had an opportunity to express their opinion and be heard is perhaps the single most disarming thing a politician can do. Carol Shea-Porter has done just the opposite. She comes off as looking like she’s afraid to face her constituents and like she doesn’t want to hear what people think.
What she should have done was hold several town hall forums in large venues around the district with no time limits. Say “Everyone is welcome and I’ll stay until everyone who wants to speak or ask a question has had the opportunity to do so.” Say “I’m here to listen today” and “I’m going to do more listening today than talking.” Get her own supporters there to make sure the crowd isn’t dominated by those who oppose her. She handled the whole thing very badly, politically.
erniegore
Aug 31, 2009
Fergie proved, during his tenure with he NHGOP, that he is the expert on botched strategties!
Vis Unita Fortior
Aug 31, 2009
I think you should call him “Fergiekins” or “Fergus Fergus bo bergus, fe fi fo Fergus”. It would help people to take your criticism more seriously, ernie.
erniegore
Sep 1, 2009
A rose by any other name is still laden with the thorns which pricked the Republican finger which drained blood from the Republican body politic which destoyed the NHGOP.
TimothyHorrigan
Sep 2, 2009
Mayor Guinta did a faux town hall meeting of his own, and he gave a good performance. However, he did side with his political party rather than his own police force when he didn’t even slightly disagree with comments similar to Fergus’s.
Yes, I know Guinta is a Republican Congressional candidate, but he is also a sitting Mayor elected in a NON-partisan election. It was his own city’s police force provided most of the police presence at Shea-Porter’s Manchester event.
Guinta should have had the decency to at least triangulate the issue. Ideally, he should have backed up his own police chief and his own rank and file offcers.
Matt Suermann
Sep 2, 2009
Timothy,
Actually if you look at the videos you’ll see that it was Federal Protective Service that removed Mr. Tomanelli from CSP’s town hall. CSP’s own press release said: “It is a tribute to all 250 participants that only one unruly person had to be removed by the FPS, who had sole responsibility for security at the federal buildings.”
While MPD may have been outside, it was all FPS inside the building and the ones that removed Mr. Tomanelli.
As many know, the Manchester municipal elections maybe officially non-partisan. In actuality, both parties play a major roll. I seem to recall large numbers of signs printed by the Dems being deployed in the dark of night prior to the election and offering GOTV services. Are you saying that because its a “non-partisan” election that the city parties should also sit on the sidelines?
TimothyHorrigan
Sep 2, 2009
I was not at the Manchester event. I was at the Portsmouth event. There were Portsmouth Police Department officers inside and outside the meeting room.
Mr Tomanelli did appear to be unruly in a video of the event. Videos can lie of course. The Tomanelli video was taken from an angle which made him appear even bigger than he is in real life; and it leaves out the events leading up to that ejection.
Mr Tomanelli did speak at Guinta’s Exeter forum; and he didn’t cause any trouble. He did however (even in a friendly forum with only about 25 liberal thugs like me in a crowd of 125) angrily ramble on and on for 8 minutes about nothing in particular, snarling and jabbing his index finger forcefully in people’s faces. This is not illegal, and it was within the ground rules for Guinta’s event, but that doesn’t mean it was wrong to eject from the earlier event when he was disruptive.
Grant Bosse
Sep 2, 2009
Timothy,
I was sitting behind you for most of the Exeter event, and you’re way off base. Mr. Tomanelli may not have reached your high standards of oratory, but he had a point to make and was passionate in making it. He felt insulted that his Representative would rather throw him out of a public meeting than listen to his concerns simply because he didn’t win the privilege of being allowed to speak.
Carol Shea-Porter’s attempts to fake real interaction with her constituents were a debacle, and she’s rightfully paying a high price in public ridicule.