Town hall meetings replaced

For Nevadans who want to talk with their congressional representatives, the meetings probably won't be face-to-face during the August recess.

Members of the delegation reached this week say they will be meeting with Nevadans but that any town hall meetings will be of the virtual variety - by telephone.

Stewart Bybee, spokesman for Republican Rep. Dean Heller, said there will be no physical town halls. He said, however, Heller likes the format and has conducted some 20 telephone town hall meetings this year - practically one a week.

Thus far, Bybee said, Heller has spoken to some 200,000 Nevadans in those phone-in sessions. Heller said when he started using phone meetings that they give constituents in rural areas a chance to participate.

"He's been talking to Nevadans about health care for two months now, having interactions with Nevadans across the state," Bybee said.

A spokesman for Democratic Sen. Harry Reid said the Senate majority leader also plans to hold telephone meetings with constituents rather than face-to-face town hall sessions.

Neither of the representatives had a set date for the virtual meetings.

Reps. Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley, both Las Vegas Democrats, have both used the tele-town hall. They are scheduled to do a joint telephone call in a meeting sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons on the subject of health care this month.

David Cherry, representing Berkley, said they did a tele-town hall July 28 before the recess.

"We had about 2,000 participants in the course of an hour," he said.

Cherry said Berkley likes the format and plans to do another during the August break in addition to the AARP event.

"Obviously she wants the input from constituents," he said. "We've even done one online and each attracts maybe a little bit of a different audience."

Cherry said many people like the tele-town hall format because they don't have to travel to an event and find baby-sitters.

"If people want to be disruptive, they're going to be disruptive," he said. "What we would try to avoid is having an event where the information got lost because people came there with the intent of trying to block the discussion from taking place."

Congressional representatives holding town hall meetings to discuss the proposed health care reform across the country have been met with angry crowds protesting the bill. Violence has broken out at some of the gatherings.

Titus spokesman Andrew Stoddard said Titus has held a number of forums on health care in recent months including what she calls "Congress on the Corner" where she sets up a table in a Las Vegas grocery store for several hours and talks with constituents. He said a June 15 telephone town hall drew more than 2,000 people. She has also held much smaller roundtable talks with constituents.

A spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said his plans are still being worked out for the recess but that he intends to travel around the state and talk to constituents. She said Ensign will also have tele-town halls during the recess.

Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.