Connelly: Washington's senators should hold town meetings



less Even a huge turnout of protesters last February has not persuaded Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., to change his mind and hold a town meeting. Reichert is the lone Republican member of Congress from the Puget Sound region. Even a huge turnout of protesters last February has not persuaded Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., to change his mind and hold a town meeting. Reichert is the lone Republican member of Congress from the Puget ... more Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Connelly: Washington's senators should hold town meetings 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

After meeting with voters in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, for his 815th town hall during stints in both houses of Congress, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., ducked over the state line to Walla Walla for a flight to Seattle.

Wyden fell into conversation with an activist returning from Washington State Democrats' spring meeting in the Eastern Washington city. Do Sens. Murray and Cantwell do town halls, Wyden asked idly?

The question, which stumped Wyden's conversation partner, should be on the minds of voters north of the Columbia River.

Our state's six Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives hold town halls regularly, from the high school in Sequim to a coffee house in Langley, to the Horizon House seniors home on Seattle's First Hill.

Our four Republican House members do not.

Hundreds have shown up in Spokane for a town meeting WITHOUT Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. The No. 4-ranking House Republican leader prefers controlled, by-invite "Coffees with Cathy." So does protege Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., in southwest Washington.

It's getting well nigh impossible to find out what Rep. Dave Reichert is doing. I did see a Facebook photo in which the gun-shy sheriff was meeting with Conservation Northwest.

Which brings us to our two senators, both Democrats.

As a journalist, I see them at choreographed issue events in Seattle, always with a backdrop of people who agree with them. Sen. Murray sends regular email blasts to her contributor list, urging them to sign petitions against Republicans' nefarious acts.

They're fighting against Trump: Murray takes a buckshot approach, firing forth on just about every appointment and action. She ginned up an almost-successful national movement against confirmation of Republican mega-donor Betsy DeVos as U.S. secretary of education.

Cantwell is more to honing in on specific targets: Witness questioning that shed light on how little dim-bulb U.S. Energy Secretary-designate Rick Perry knew about the Cabinet portfolio he was about to assume.

Both senators are accessible to the press. But the point is, they need to spend more time with the folks, in situations where the folks can talk back.

The Democrats ought to be unsettled by last November's vote. They won statewide offices, thanks to top-heavy majorities in King County. They lost local and legislative races in Snohomish, Pierce, Thurston, Grays Harbor and Clark counties. Donald Trump won in historically blue-collar Democratic counties.

Listening is learning, even if rants must be endured. Town halls, in towns around the state, would provide a tonic from the wack-a-doodle politics of the Seattle left.

Town halls can be charming, and evoke the famous New England setting of Normal Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" painting.

House Speaker Tom Foley, who represented Eastern Washington for 30 years, used to field global-market questions from wheat farmers and global-conspiracy questions from local extremists. He'd go at it for hours, then help a Colfax High School student with his term paper.

Sure, there are bumps in the road. Rep. Rick Larsen hears out obnoxious, if-you-disagree-you're-evil opponents of the Navy's A-6 growler get at Naval Air Station Whidbey. A socialist took on Rep. Adam Smith down in the Rainier Valley.

It goes with the job, or should.

In particular, Murray needs to grow out of ritualistic, kabuki dance-style meetings. A lineup from a field of occupations speaks to a problem. Murray explains how she has introduced legislation to solve it. (Never explained: The bill isn't going anywhere.) Murray receives praise.

So, how 'bout it? If Ron Wyden can do Eugene, Milton-Freewater and Philomath, our senators could do Bellingham, Walla Walla and Aberdeen.

Get a good moderator. Insist that filibusters are not welcome in this Washington. Keep your cool, and have aides present to handle individual constituent problems.

If the crowd appears agitated, begin with the pledge of allegiance and maybe a tune everybody can get into -- "The Star Spangled Banner" or "America the Beautiful."

A LATE FOLLOWUP: Sen. Cantwell's communications director says she has agreed to hold a town hall, date and place and format to be announced. Mazel tov!