Freshman Rep. Scott Rigell (R-2nd) held his first town hall meeting since taking office Monday evening. An overflow crowd showed up for the event, which was held in the auditorium of the Virginia Beach Central Library. The event itself started a little late, because Rigell stood in the hallway talking to those who were unable to be seated in the auditorium. I was only able to get a seat because of space saved for the press.
Rather than rehash it all, my tweets from the meeting can be found here. But two issues arose that require further comment.
First, the Chinese drywall issue. Rigell was rightfully incredulous that no federal legislation had been put forth to address the issue – because it has been. Sen. Jim Webb introduced an amendment 6/15/10 to force the IRS to issue regulations on the filing of a casualty loss deduction, which they did last October. I suspect, though, that those speaking of this were looking for something else, since the financial cost of dealing with the issue can be overwhelming.
Second, there was the question regarding Rigell’s vote on a motion related to H Res 38, which was described in The Virginian-Pilot as a Democratic bid to “curb the practice of U.S. companies sending jobs overseas.”
The motion sought to deny federal contracts to any company determined by the Department of Labor to be outsourcing its work force.
Rigell, while not specifically remembering the vote initially, blamed his vote on “gotcha” politics. Perhaps that was the truth – I haven’t looked at the exact wording of the motion – but a far better answer would have been to explain why such a motion was a bad idea; otherwise, it looks like he put politics above governance, and that’s not what he was elected to do.
I spoke briefly with Rigell before the start of the meeting. He told me he intends to hold these meetings every other month. In addition, he plans to do telephone town hall meetings in the off-months. He mentioned that he is not using franked mail to contact constituents and is going to rely on these meetings instead. So if you missed Monday night’s meeting, you will have other chances to question him.
What he did was vote lock step with the Speaker, something he accused Congressman Nye of doing during the campaign! So much for an independent voice!
Posted by BTCM | Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 2:54 pmI hate to quibble but one thing really bugged me about the reporting on this meeting. The Pilot mentioned it was an overflow crowd of Rigell “supporters”. Had I attended, I’d be automatically counted as a supporter, which I’m not. I’m a constituent anxious for access to my rep.
Next time we need to rally a larger group who will stand a little more visibly as the folks in the audience who are not on the band wagon and wanting to keep Rigell honest and on his toes. Nothing is worse for these novice GOPper egos than a Town Hall love fest!
Posted by Eileen | Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 8:28 amI agree – it would have been more appropriate to refer to them as constituents.
But I will say that the large majority of people – at least those in the auditorium – were supporters of his.
Posted by Vivian J. Paige | Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 6:16 pm