After attending the town hall meeting in Maple Valley this past Saturday morning, I had planned to write about “citizen apathy” this week.
That’s because only about twelve people showed up to hear Rep. Jay Rodne and Rep. Glenn Anderson talk about what’s happening in Olympia. Plus, half of those were either connected to the paper, the building we were in, or work with the representatives themselves.
With $5 billion left to cut in the next two-year budget, and only about $11 billion in spending to cut that from, you’d think folks would be a little more interested. Lots of people benefit from spending on public schools, higher education, medical assistance, prisons and roads.
This was a chance to get in the faces of the people making those decisions. For one hour, it’s a chance to tell them how you really feel; up close and personal. I left my house early, because I wanted to get a seat close enough to hear them over the shouts, harrumphs and guffaws from the crowds.
I shouldn’t have worried. Out of over 20,000 people in Maple Valley, only about six people showed up to speak and be heard. It ended up being a nice chat, and everyone got their questions answered. Both representatives got to tell us about the upcoming train wreck of a budget they have to deal with next and the likely $2 billion tax increase referendum that Democrats are putting together for the fall. It was probably a routine town hall meeting for both men.
But then I went to Covington for their town hall meeting a half hour later. About 80 people managed to crowd into Tully’s Coffee to listen to Rep. Mark Hargrove, Rep. Pat Sullivan, and state Sen. Joe Fain. OK, so it’s still “only” 80 people out of about 17,000, but it was a beautiful sight. It was probably the first time I’d felt like I was living in a democracy where the citizens actually cared.
Stop the presses! We gotta rewrite the citizen apathy column.
The crowd was fairly diverse, but it was mostly filled with people concerned about traditional Democrat issues, such as school funding, teachers, public health clinics and pro-abortion supporters. That meant a number of muted outrage and general discontented muttering when the two Republicans gave their perspectives on state funding. One of them was even accused of being a socialist.
It’s easy to see why these guys were elected. They are all likable, they speak thoughtfully without using political buzzwords or catchphrases, and they seem to get along with each other. If I didn’t know what party they were from, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. They all seemed like thoughtful moderates who might only vote differently on a few issues.
Meeting elected officials in person will certainly give you a different perspective. You can get past the headlines and sound bites to see that these are just regular people. When you see their family members at these events, you know that even the House Majority Leader probably has to yell at his kids to take out the trash, or get the shoes out of the doorway. You meet their wives and think, “Well, they can’t be all that bad. Somebody in this world loves them besides Jesus and their moms.”
You can’t get that kind of perspective from watching them on TV news or even reading about them in the paper. Town hall events give the kind of intimacy you can’t get if you don’t know the elected official personally and they avoid the talking-points stump speech of the campaign debates.
Hopefully, I’ll see you at the next one.
