Grayson picks union hall for 'balanced' town hall meeting

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, picked a somewhat small union hall to host a town hall meeting tonight at 7:45, but a spokesman said the location was not picked to “stack the deck” and avoid critics.

Numerous congressional town hall meetings around the country in recent weeks have devolved into hostile shouting matches, with conservative critics often deriding efforts to reform health care.

Grayson’s spokesman Todd Jurkowski said moments ago that the choice of venue — the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall at 820 Virginia Dr., which holds 125 to 150 people — was picked because it was free, available, and would not hold a crowd so large as to become unwieldy.

A union meeting will be breaking up right before the meeting is to start — but Jurkowski said the timing of Grayson’s session was not planned to keep out critics.

“What we would like is a well-represented crowd with a balance of viewpoints,” Jurkowksi said. “It wasn’t a conscious effort to stack the deck.”

Jurkowksi argues that Grayson has not ducked fire from constituents on his health care stances. First, he says, on July 27 Grayson held a health care meeting geared toward local professionals and which was noticed as open to the public three days in advance.

“And not one single member of the public showed up,” Jurkowksi said.

Plus, Grayson still plans to hold a telephone town hall on Thursday at 7 p.m., where folks with questions or concerns can call in from around the large district — which stretches into Lake and Marion counties — and will allow the congressman to hear from critics Jurkowski said. Check the congressman’s website for details, he said.

Andy Sere, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, was quick to launch a partisan fusillade: “This isn’t democracy – it’s political thuggery. Alan Grayson’s brazen stunt is clearly intended to muzzle middle-class families and intimidate seniors who disagree with his support for government-run healthcare. Central Floridians would be right to ask for an apology, but wrong to assume their congressman has any capacity for shame,” he said in an e-mail.

Tonight’s meeting could be interesting because even with the short 24-hour notice, critics are mobilizing. Rich McKay of our staff reports that A.M. radio host Neal Boortz is stirring up his listeners to pack the meeting tonight with opposition to health care. He’s telling his listeners that the hall will be packed with union members so “real Americans” better get their early.
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