Join thousands at legislators’ ‘telephone town hall’

Written by Ralph Schwartz | The Bellingham Herald | February 21, 2013

By Ralph Schwartz

Rep. Kristine Lytton, D-Anacortes, will lead a telephone town hall tonight, with her cohorts in the 40th Legislative District — Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, and Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon.

Per Lytton’s press release, which I paste below, legislators say they like the telephone town hall because it allows them to hear from constituents who won’t travel to Olympia or ordinarily weigh in on issues.

Morris, who led last month’s tele-town hall, touted the fact that they attracted 3,800 citizens. The number was probably helped by the fact that everyone in the 40th district (which includes south Bellingham and southwest Whatcom County) was robo-called right before the meeting started.

All the details of tonight’s meeting are below:

Lytton, Morris, Ranker slate telephone town hall for Thursday, February 21

OLYMPIA – Residents of the 40th legislative district and members of the media are invited to participate in Rep. Kristine Lytton’s telephone town hall this Thursday, February 21, at 6 p.m. The telephone town hall will focus on issues currently before the state Legislature, including education, agriculture, energy, and jobs and the economy.

Joining Lytton for the one-hour telephone community forum will be her 40th-district House seatmate, Rep. Jeff Morris, and state Sen. Kevin Ranker.

More and more, state lawmakers are turning to telephone town halls during the busy legislative session as opportunities to connect with constituents who might not be able to travel to Olympia, or even come out to participate in district-based meetings.

A telephone forum last month hosted by the three lawmakers saw a total attendance of nearly 3,800 constituents, with a peak participation of 922 at one time. Both numbers are many times larger than the turnout for in-person legislative town halls.

40th-district residents should receive a call at about 6 p.m. on the 21st. Those wishing to participate can simply pick up the phone and follow the prompts. The lawmakers will deliver short opening thoughts and then will take questions until the town hall concludes at 7 p.m.

Constituents who don’t receive a call can still take part by calling 1-877-229-8493 between 6 and 7 p.m. Thursday and entering 18646 when prompted.