Congressman Rick Larsen deals smoothly with healthcare reform town halls

August 10, 3:24 PMSnohomish County Progressive ExaminerChad Shue

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Snohomish County Progressive Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Washington's 2nd Congressional District Representative, (Democrat) Rick Larsen has been using his time during the congressional August recess to hold town hall meetings on the subjects of Veterans issues and Health care Insurance Reform. The latter issue has been receiving the lion's share of the coverage as, across the nation, thousands of people have been holding rallies to protest what they refer to as "Obamacare." Many of these rallies have been rather hostile in nature with scattered reports of physical violence. In Larsen's case, while the crowd numbers have been large, for the most part they seem to be relatively absent the "mob mentality" seen elsewhere across the country. Much of this can be attributed to the organizing of the local Democratic Party, Organized Labor, and the Obama for America organization. These groups have been doing a good job of mobilizing "issue friendly supporters" to act as buffers against the would-be antagonists at these town hall meetings; but a good deal of the credit goes to Larsen himself for the way in which he engages the event attendees. One criticism that will never stick to Rick Larsen is that he dodges issues where there is conflict. Quite the contrary, Rep. Larsen will always tell you where he stands and why. I know this because he and I have had more than one occasion to disagree on policy.

I ran into Congressman Larsen at Zippy's, an Everett coffee house, on Sunday morning as he was heading out and I was just coming in. He was kind enough to give me a couple minutes of his time. I began by joking with him that I was happy to see that he was still able to walk and that he didn't appear to be too badly bruised from the town hall event in Mount Vernon the day before. He told he that he was genuinely surprised at the number of people who had turned out for the event - he estimated them at over 1,000. The room capacity for the meeting was about 250 so the rest of the folks had to listen on speakers that were placed outside. He mentioned the fact that there were probably as many "friendly faces" as there were "protesters." For folks who don't know, the politics north of Arlington tend to play out much more liberal than the other areas of the congressional district. For Larsen, who is among the so-called "New Democrats" in congress, this means he can be assured of catching as much heat from the left as he does from the right in places like Mount Vernon and Bellingham and Saturday's event was no exception. As a matter of fact, on one of the evening newscasts reporting on the event, Larsen is caught addressing the crowed outside the meeting room where he says, "I thought I was going to be heckled by the right wing. This is great! I'm being heckled by the left."

Rep. Rick Larsen (D- WA2); getting hit from the right and the left

While most of the coverage of these events centers on the folks who are apparently against any type of reform of the current health care delivery system, there is a hardcore group of activists who are demanding a government run "single payer" system and an larger group who are willing to settle for what is being referred to as the "public option" where the government's role would be more limited and access to it would be optional. Larsen is opposed to the single-payer plan currently being pushed in the US House and is only lukewarm to a watered down version of the public option. He told me that one of the ways he was able to keep things from getting out of his control was by moving back and forth between the folks inside the room and going outside to take a few questions. This way, he said, people could feel like he was doing his best to address as many of the attendees as possible. Below is a video shot by a Snohomish County Republican activist and blogger "pudge" with some fairly even handed coverage of the event:

There is another town hall forum scheduled for this Wednesday (8/12) in the Weyerhauser Room in the Everett Transit building on Smith Street in Everett. However Larsen told me that, after taking into account the numbers of people at the previous two events (and the fact that the main access to the venue is one elevator in a crowded transit center) he would be discussing a possible change of venue with his staff and local officials. Considering that the three groups I mentioned before are filling email in boxes with requests for health care reform activists to attend this event and a note in Jerry Cornfield's column about our local Monroe chapter of the "Tea Baggers" promising to be in attendance, it would probably be a wise move to relocate to someplace more open and accessible. I will update this piece if that should happen.

Peace,
Chad Shue