Spokesman: Halvorson [D-IL11] not Ducking Constituents

Here is a link to an article that appeared in the Morris Daily Herald on Friday, August 14th by Jo Ann Hustis, and below is a letter I wrote to Jo Ann.

Jo Ann Hustis-

I enjoyed your Friday column concerning Halvorson ducking her constituents. And when I say I enjoyed it, I mean I found it amusing.

If Congresswoman Halvorson has any intention of being reelected, she needs to fire people like Communications Director Roxane Geraci-Militello. Roxanne is either willfully ignorant or cynical. If she performs in any sort of advisory capacity to the Congresswoman or is responsible for helping her decide which meetings to take and when, her performance in this regard is so deficient as to raise doubts if she is indeed acting in the Congresswoman's best interests. At the very least she, like Halvorson has badly underestimated her constituents.

Roxane Geraci-Militello's primary argument against having a town hall is that the district is too large. “There’s no way we can schedule five town hall meetings,' she said in reference to the size of the district." In case she's unaware, all districts are about the same size, around 600,000 people. Oh, she probably means the geographic area. In that case I'd like to introduce her to Dennis Rehberg, Congressman from Montana who managed to schedule 14 town halls, while serving the entire state of Montana...by himself . Perhaps willful ignorance and cynicism. She goes on to admit that constituents are demanding town halls, saying that Halvorson, "feels so many people are waiting to talk to her" and that the "office is receiving many calls from constituents. Others are willing to come to her office." So here we have acknowledgment of a demonstrated demand from a vocal majority of voters in her district asking for a town hall, and what does she do? She makes an executive decision to ignore those requests. Anyone, in any type of public relations or advisory role, who recommends such a course of action or proclaims to have recommend one, needs to have their motives, competence, or honesty evaluated. She goes on to say, "and we’re not going to cancel with people who have been waiting since February to talk to her.” In other words, Halvorson is unwilling, or unable to prioritize, multi-task, or otherwise alter her agenda to meet the dynamic and myriad challenges that we would expect a member of the United States Congress to be able to manage. In the face of such an implied admission, perhaps the voters of the 11th district would do well to seek more qualified representation. Which leads me to my next point. You wrote of "Halvorson’s only announced opponent thus far in the November 2010 election, Republican David McAloon of Bourbonnais." This is inaccurate. Adam Kinzinger formally filed his candidacy in February 2009 as a Republican candidate for Illinois’ 11th Congressional District. But he may have been off of your radar, literally, as he left for Iraq later that month, his fourth deployment to the Middle East.

Geraci-Militello has the audacity to use the word "invite" in referring to a teleconference, saying “Come to the teletown hall meeting. We’re there for you." Sure I'll come...I suppose I can summon the effort to drag myself all the way to my phone. Ironically, that seems to be about all the effort that Halvorson is putting forth.