Background: In '06 former Orleans co-founder and progressive anti-nuke activist John Hall beat the incumbent Republican Sue Kelly in NY-19. This victory turned the district blue for the first time in over 100 years.
In '08 Congressman Hall was re-elected with 58% of the vote. In '10 he will be challenged by a potentially strong candidate named Greg Ball. Ball, 32 years old, was first elected to the NYS Assembly when he primaried and beat the incumbent Republican and then went on to beat the D challenger in '06.
He is an Air Force academy graduate, is classically handsome, has a well developed public speaking style, raised over $100k in the last Q for the upcoming race, and is a deeply right wing idealogue dressed up in moderate clothing.
For the past several weeks Assemblyman Ball has been holding fake town hall health care forums throughout the district. These "gatherings" have featured much the same kind of off the wall anger and insanity you are well familiar with.
Follow me over the fold for why we need to confront Ball now ...
On a parallel line John Hall has been holding public forums throughout the district for the past several weeks. Given the political makeup of NY-19 and deep reservior of RW anger going back to his '06 victory over Sue Kelly it's not so surprising he has been somewhat circumspect in publicizing the details of the events well in advance.
Last week Congressman Hall was asked to speak to the Southern Dutchess chapter of the NAACP about health care. The group meets in a church basement (limited space) and each NAACP memeber was told they could bring one guest. When news of the meeting (planned for last night) got out Greg Ball's office distributed the following email ...
>>from Greg Ball to Alison MacAvery & a list of supporters:
After extrordinary pressure, the current congressman is now hosting his health care town hall forum, tonight, at St. John the Evangelist Church in Beacon.
At the last minute, he has opened up the event to the public, so please make sure to go, bring your questions, and bring your neighbors.
Make sure to arrive promptly at 7:00 p.m., and be on time.
The congressman's health care town hall will be held at St. John the Evangelist Church in Beacon, located at 31 Willow Street, Beacon New York.
This is healthcare alert from Assemblyman Greg Ball.
As I am a known progressive and the meeting was only 3 blocks from my apartment I received a request from the congressman's office and email from a local progressive listserve to come down.
When I arrived approximately 100 people (all white) were milling about on the lawn outside the Church. Now the NAACP is open to members of any race (the Southern Dutchess chapter has a fairly large percentage of white members) but this skewed demographic told me that many of the assembled were stone cold deathers.
Assemblyman Ball was there with an electronic megaphone speaking to his people and giving sidebar interviews to the press (3 newspapers, one regional TV station).
After a few minutes of listening to the crazy talk I engaged a sliver haired nutter in dialogue. There was a bit of heat and not so much light but I did get out of him that he was on Medicare, had VA benefits, was about to start collecting SS benefits and supported privitizing both Social Security and Medicare.
After some back and forth about who might be allowed in to the meeting it was announced that 120 people could enter the church and attend the event. Three local police officers were on site and counted as people filed in and took seats. It turned out that everyone was able to fit in the room.
We said the pledge, listened to introductions and groundrules and then John spoke for about 10 minutes before taking questions. The crowd was mostly civil except for one 60-something grounch who kept shouting out when John said something he didn't like.
I looked over to the police to see if they were going to do anything about it and when they did not walked over to the "gentleman" and told him he was violating the rules of decorum and open dialogue. He snapped back that he didn't care and asked me my name (???). The police came over and I asked if they were going to let him keep making outbursts. They said that I should back off and then spoke to him. Over the course of the event he was ushered out by police 3 times as he got disruptive only to return again later.
Near the end of the meeting this same "gentleman" came back with a sign that said RECALL HALL ... he walked around the room waving it about and then stood behind the congressman so he could get into the shots. I asked the cops if they were going to let him continue doing that and they said that as long as he wasn't threatening anyone they would not stop him.
At this point I walked over to Assemblyman Ball, introduced myself (he said I have a good firm handshake????), and asked if he condoned or supported this kind of behavior. He said "no way, if this were my meeting I would throw the guy out". I told him (based on his behavior at the previous fakke town hall forums he had held) that I thought he was not telling the truth. At that point he said I didn't know him and I should call him in his office.
Right.
You can read more about the event in local news stories here here and here.
There is also great local blogging about this and Greg Ball's tactics at Left of the Hudson
So tonight he has another forum and I will be there.
I request that all able Kossacks in the area (Lower and Mid Hudson Valley) join me in counteracting the RW talking points that seek to undermine our chance at health care reform and a PUBLIC OPTION!!!!
What is critical tonight is that we get AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE to show up at Ball's fake town hall forum to:
- Tell him in plain terms that we support the public option.
- Ask him if he supports privitizing Medicare, SS, and VA benefits.
- Call him out on his support for the nasty, anti-democratic, uncivilized, goonish beahvior he has encouraged.
PLEASE COME OUT TONIGHT AND IF YOU CAN'T PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS ...
6pm sharp
Friday August 21st
Munger Cottage (behind the little league fields)
183 Main St.
Cornwall, NY 12518