Dan Nowicki, and Ronald J. Hansen

The Republic | azcentral.com

WASHINGTON — With tensions rising over President Donald Trump's agenda and the fate of the Affordable Care Act, liberal activists and voters are demanding lawmakers hold events where they can vent their frustrations.

The public town-hall meeting is a classic American political tradition, giving voters the opportunity to ask questions or complain to their elected representatives.

But recalling the lessons of the 2009 "tea party" uprising in which conservatives swarmed such meetings — and a few more recent examples in which Republican lawmakers around the country were drubbed by angry crowds — some senators and representatives are rethinking their approach.

The goal: Don't go viral.

Sensing an organized liberal effort to set them up for bad publicity at town-hall meetings, some lawmakers are conducting Q&A sessions via large telephone conference calls, where participants can be screened, or with the employees of a private business, an audience that usually is better behaved because their bosses are watching.

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In a widely covered incident, U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the House Oversight Committee chairman, earlier this month took a beating from constituents who said he has been lax in holding Trump accountable for possible conflicts of interest. Video clips of the gathering circulated widely on social media.

U.S. Reps. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., and Diane Black, R-Tenn., also have been on the receiving end of outbursts at town-hall meetings; McClintock exited his forum with police help.

Progressive pressure groups using the name "Indivisible" have sprung up around the country, trying to force Republicans to hold more public meetings. An online "Indivisible" guide makes their intentions clear: Use the same tea-party tactics that hurt President Barack Obama and the Democrats to resist Trump and the GOP.

"MoCs (members of Congress) regularly hold local 'town halls' or public listening sessions throughout their districts or state," says the guide, which apparently was put together by erstwhile congressional aides. "Tea Partiers used these events to great effect — both to directly pressure their MoCs and to attract media to their cause."

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Nobody knows the damaging political optics of a hasty escape from an unruly crowd better than U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Last year, he ran television ads featuring August 2009 footage of his Democratic Senate challenger, then-U.S. Rep Ann Kirkpatrick, fleeing a constituent event at a grocery store in Holbrook.

One pro-McCain TV ad said Kirkpatrick "betrayed Arizona on 'Obamacare,' walking out on constituents when questioned about it."

McCain and U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., this year have been deluged with telephone calls and emails from activists who want them to oppose the confirmation of certain Trump Cabinet picks or take action on other issues.

McCain, who was famous for holding town halls in New Hampshire and other states while running for president in 2007 and 2008, told The Arizona Republic that he intends to host some sort of modified town-hall sessions in the future. But the gatherings might not be open to everybody.

"We may do like we've been doing and that is go to a company or a corporation or a business in Arizona and have it with them," McCain said. "There's been almost constant sit-ins in my office, as you know. And the phones have been tied up. You want to have a town-hall meeting where you can listen to people and they listen to you. If it's just going to be one of these filled with demonstrators, there's no point in it."

The group "Indivisible AZ" organized an event Saturday in Mesa using the hashtag #SearchForFlake. The message was that Flake has been missing in action in Arizona and has not scheduled any town-hall meetings for this week.

Flake, who is up for re-election in 2018, told The Republic he will hold some town halls at some point, and has just been too busy in Washington to have had any in recent weeks.

Because Senate Democrats are not cooperating, the confirmation process is taking longer, and Flake and other senators must be prepared to work on the weekends sometimes, he said. That makes scheduling constituent events a challenge.

"We'll be doing some telephone town halls coming up, but I'll have regular town halls as well," Flake said. "The last thing you want to do is schedule a town hall on a Saturday and then have to cancel it, because then people will say, 'Oh, they canceled because they're afraid of the crowds or whatever else.' ... I enjoy them, but you've got to be able to make sure you're there."

U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., who represents southern Arizona's competitive 2nd Congressional District, also scoffed at suggestions that she is afraid to face voters, even calling it "a bit insulting."

"Some of the feedback is like, 'McSally was courageous in combat but she's afraid to face her constituents.' Give me a break," McSally, an Air Force veteran, said. "I put my life on the line for us to have the freedom and opportunity to have the kind of dialogues that are important to representative government. ... I'm not afraid of anything."

McSally said a "focused effort, nationally" has been helping coordinate the demands for town-hall meetings. She said she has been "engaging tirelessly" in her district for the past two years using different models, including Facebook, meeting with small groups and even protesters, and answering letters and emails. She held a telephone town hall on Tuesday.

"If your goal is to be disruptive, that's not useful," McSally said. "But if your goal is to have a civil dialogue on people's concerns across the board, whether it's related to actions by the administration or anything else, then there are ways to have civil dialogues."

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Carl Genthner, the founder of "Indivisible AZ CD2", said his group of about 70 people wants more public access to McSally as well as Flake and McCain. Small group meetings at work sites don't allow rigorous political discussions and teleconferences can have calls screened, he said.

"There's no substitute for being able to ask a question and then ask a follow-up," he said. "I'm not going to lie; we've got some tough questions for her (McSally). Right now, all the political theater is on her end."

Genthner, who said he spent 20 years in the Air Force, acknowledged he is active in Democratic politics, but wants his representatives to hear the views of all their constituents.

Other House Republicans echoed McSally's comments about disruptions.

"Everybody has a right to speech, but you don’t have a right to disrupt," U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said.

Gosar is hosting a Thursday event in Gold Canyon with U.S. Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., the tea-party conservative best known for upsetting former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., in his 2014 primary. It's not a Q-and-A with the audience.

"This is a conversation between me and Dave Brat," Gosar said. "It’s not an open town hall. It’s learning about people who are in the news today.”

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., said he understands that GOP lawmakers have been advised by leaders not to hold town-hall events. The Republicans are in a bind, he said, because they are not yet able to articulate how they plan to replace Obama's Affordable Care Act, which critics on the right have dubbed "Obamacare."

"That's what happened to us: We went out for the ACA without having the president's plan or anything," Grijalva recalled of the 2009 public outpouring of opposition that presaged the 2010 midterm elections in which Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives. "Just, 'We're going to do health reform. Here are the basic forms.' And that's when we got hit with 'death panels.' We were defending something that we weren't fully informed of what it was. I think that's what's happening to the Republicans."

U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., said Democrats are feeling pressure too.

"The phone calls, letters and emails have dramatically increased," Sinema said. "In fact, we are in the process of adding an additional staffer to help us deal with the volumes of letters. At home, I do constituent events on a regular basis and the interest and the volume of attendance has skyrocketed."

The monthly "Kyrsten In Your Community" events offer constituents one-on-one access to Sinema and her staff.

"There are some people who come who are frustrated, but we talk and everything's fine," she said. "I try to be who I am, which is someone who is empathetic and caring and listening. If someone is upset, I want to hear why they're upset."