Jean Mikle

@jeanmikle

WARETOWN - Cathy Vives didn’t like a lot of Rep. Tom MacArthur’s answers at the wide-ranging, more than two-hour town hall the GOP congressman held Monday night at the firehouse here.

But, she did admit, “he came across as more human than I expected,” and more willing to listen, at least, to opposing views.

MacArthur, who’d been criticized — along with many Republican representatives — for not holding a town hall meeting, promised at the end of the session that there would be more meetings with constituents.

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“I’m sure we’ll have more,” he said of town hall meetings. More than 250 people packed the fire hall for the meeting, and at least a few people were stuck outside because, MacArthur said, the room had reached capacity.

“Congressman MacArthur held a standing-room-only event here just last year,” MacArthur spokeswoman Camille Gallo said. “This is the largest venue in Southern Ocean County that was available on this date and time.’’

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Some of the people who stood by the front door for more than an hour in the cold eventually were let in. Before they were let in, at least one shouting match outside between a Trump supporter and a critic of the president could be heard from inside the fire hall.

MacArthur is the second House Republican from New Jersey to host a town hall this year. Since President Donald Trump took office and Republicans took initial steps to change the nation’s health care law, MacArthur and GOP colleagues have generally avoided the town hall format after some events turned rowdy.

MacArthur previously held a telephone "town hall" and said that he had not held a public forum because he did not “want to be baited into having an event that some outside group can just make a spectacle out of."

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Unlike some other town hall meetings, where members of Congress have been shouted down by angry audiences, MacArthur's Monday event was mostly congenial.

There was occasional applause and some groans, but only a few shouted responses from the crowd. MacArthur drew applause from the crowd when he said he would not support eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency or back a national right-to-work bill that could devastate unions.

He also vowed to protect Medicare and Social Security, benefit programs he described as "a sacred pact, from one generation to another."

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But many in the crowd were visibly unhappy when MacArthur said he did not support an independent prosecutor to investigate Russian influence in the presidential election and did not think Congress should compel the president to release his tax returns.

At least two people who asked questions Monday criticized MacArthur for saying previously that protestors have been bused in -- and in some cases have been paid -- to disrupt events held by other GOP members of Congress.

"In Ocean County, we don't have paid protestors," said Barnegat resident Marianne Clemente. "We need to hear from you personally. Right now, the country is in a crisis. We are scared, we need to know what's going on."

Geoff Ginter, Pine Beach, said he is both "a protestor and a constituent" and said MacArthur should not attempt to "marginalize" constituents who protest.

"I know there are not paid protestors here," MacArthur said. "That doesn't are mean there are not paid organizers out there." His statement was met with some groans from the crowd.

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Still, MacArthur endeavored on Monday to show that he’s a pragmatic thinker who is willing to buck members of his own party if he doesn’t agree with legislation they propose.

"I am not Donald Trump," he said at the start of the meeting. "I am not Paul Ryan. You might have guessed I'm not Hillary Clinton. I'm not Nancy Pelosi."

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He said members of Congress have to "get past, 'I see it my way and you see it your way and we can't do business together.' "

In response to a question on the Affordable Care Act, for example, he noted that he had voted against an initial GOP motion to repeal the law, better known as Obamacare, because there was no replacement bill.

MacArthur was one of only nine GOP House members to vote against the preliminary budget resolution on repealing Obamacare.

“The healthcare system is too big to try to fix in two months,” MacArthur said. He said he supports allowing adult children to remain on their parents’ health plans until age 26 and also wants to maintain insurance coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.

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He said he will not support “pulling the rug out from under” those people who have received insurance through a Medicaid expansion.

On the Russian investigation, MacArthur disappointed many in the crowd when he says he does not support a special prosecutor to look into the matter, but said, "it would appear to be pretty credible that Russia interfered with our presidential election."

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MacArthur, who visited Eastern Europe last year, described Russian President Vladimir Putin as "a thug," but said it was not yet time to call for a special prosecutor.

“I want to see what the FBI, the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee come up with,” he said in response to a question about a special prosecutor. “I think what you’re asking for is premature.”

He also said he does not think Congress should compel President Trump to release his tax returns.

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"President Trump should release his taxes, because he said he would, multiple times. Period," MacArthur said. But he said he was "not there yet" when it comes to Congress demanding the returns, or obtaining them from the IRS.

More than 1,000 people attended each of the two town halls hosted by Rep. Leonard Lance, who was the first New Jersey GOP member of the House to hold a public forum this year. The remaining holdouts are Reps. Chris Smith, Frank LoBiondo and Rodney Frelinghuysen.

Jean Mikle: (732) 643-4050, jmikle@gannettnj.com

Press Staff Writer Bob Jordan contributed to this story.