My Congressman, Democrat Pete Aguilar has always held informal meet-your-Congressman gatherings which are always interrupted by out-of-district distrupters. But he held his first formal Town Hall yesterday. People on his mailing list were sent invitations to RSVP, which I did. The Town Hall was held in a large meeting room at the local fairgrounds. People who RSVP'd got to go in first and get the best seats, next, non-RSVP-ers who live in the district. Seats in the back went to non-constituants.
The Congressman took answers submitted on cards and also questions from the floor. Most of the questions were about health care and the economy. There were questions about the VA (veterans think it does great work) and a lot of love from the crowd. Pete was asked if the House is ever going to proceed with the investigation into Russian meddling with the election. He said that he didn't think the House committee was going to get very far into it and he said he trusted the Senate more than the House on that.
But his best answer was the shortest. One questioner said that he is a pollworker and that "voter fraud is rampant". Would the Congressman support requiring photo IDs at the polls? Pete's answer: No.
The local newspaper, The Sun, has it as front page article today. Which is a good thing. We here in San Bernardino often have much more depressing news on our front page.
Pete is a class act.