![]() Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, has hosted 46 town halls since January 2019, with 25 held virtually over the past year. Porter has hosted 48 town halls, including 33 virtual events that have been done via a mix of telephone, Zoom and social media. ![]() He also records his town halls and puts them out as a podcast available on several major platforms. ![]() He’s often accompanied by guests to discuss topics ranging from the pandemic to systemic racism to climate change. “When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he immediately increased the frequency of his town halls and had local public health experts join him to ensure constituents had all of the information they needed to stay safe and healthy,” said Eric Mee, Levin’s spokesman.Īs of Friday, May 21, Levin had held 15 in-person events, which also were live-streamed via Facebook, and 59 virtual town halls. Since taking office in January, 2019, Levin has held 74 town halls, a rate of 2.5 town halls a month, the highest of all House members representing Orange County. Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, has exceeded that pledge. You deserve a member of Congress who keeps showing up.” “I’ll hold at least one town hall a month. “Our retiring member of Congress, Darrell Issa, held three town hall meetings in the last decade,” Mike Levin tweeted in April 2018, as he ran for CA-49. When a slate of Democrats campaigned to flip four Orange County House seats in 2018, one of their talking points was how some of the longtime GOP incumbents who’d represented those districts did not regularly hold town halls. “It appears to have become almost a requirement of public office to do these things,” Smoller said. But Smoller said the specific expectation that elected officials regularly hold town halls - with some lawmakers touting how many they’ve held and some challengers calling out incumbents for not having enough - is a relatively new phenomenon. Voters meeting face-to-face with elected officials, in some way, has been an expectation since America took shape. “The virtual meeting has now become just another of the tools available for the congressman to connect with his constituents.” ![]() “I think the future will likely be a hybrid of in-person and virtual events,” he added. “The pandemic has certainly changed the way we think about doing such events as so many people have become comfortable during the pandemic with using video streaming technology - an acceptance that was not there prior to the pandemic,” said Keith Higginbotham, spokesman for Rep. A spokesperson for Kim said her office is looking into what went wrong and working with their phone session vendor to make sure it doesn’t happen again.īut in surveying local representatives, it’s clear that at least some virtual town halls are here to stay. Young Kim, R-La Habra, held a telephone town hall (her third since taking office in January) where residents who pre-registered to “attend” were supposed to get a call connecting them as the event went live. Pre-pandemic, Porter’s biggest live audience had been a space-limited 400.īut technology also can bring challenges. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, drew more than 100,000 people. In April 2020, a virtual event hosted by Rep. (TNS) - Politicians haven’t been kissing many babies of late, but some Orange County Congress members have been holding more town halls than ever, trying to share information about the pandemic and political issues while taking advantage of the convenience - and marketing reach - that comes with virtual meetings.įrom the politician’s view, virtual town halls have their perks, starting with the fact that anybody, in any district, can tune in without changing out of their pajamas.
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