About three dozen constituents of Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District rallied once again Monday outside Rep. Glenn Thompson’s Bellefonte office asking for the congressman to hold a town hall meeting.
It’s the fourth time in the past two months that a group of residents, dubbed ‘Where’s Thompson,’ have gathered outside the Benner Pike office requesting a town hall meeting for Thompson (R-Howard Township) to hear their concerns.
Residents organized a town hall meeting for Feb. 25 and, aware the Congress would be in recess at the time, invited Thompson. Through a spokesperson, he said at the time because of prior commitments he would be unable to attend. The town hall went on anyway, with about 350 people in attendance. The session was recorded and a link to the video sent to Thompson.
‘I think we’ve drawn a lot of attention to the need for a town hall,’ said Marc Friedenberg, of Ferguson Township, who has helped organize the rallies. ‘We had a fantastic turnout last Saturday. The congressman has responded saying he’s going to be scheduling a town hall. Our message for today is when and where.’
While no specific date was offered, Thompson’s communications director Renee Gamela confirmed that the congressman was planning a town hall.
‘Rep. Thompson uses many methods of communication with his constituents, so he can listen to their concerns and bring their homegrown solutions to Washington, D.C.,’ Gamela said in an email. ‘This includes individual meetings, like today, telephone town halls once a month, and traditional town halls, including one in the Centre Region that Mr. Thompson is planning later this spring.’
Thompson was holding scheduled one-on-one meetings with constituents while the rally was going on outside. Three members of the ‘Where’s Thompson’ group went into the office and briefly spoke with him.
‘We reiterated our position that we are calling for a town hall and [reminded] him that his personal meetings, while they are admirable, are not a matter of public record and we all serve to benefit from hearing his positions on the issues,’ said Justin Wheeler, of State College. ‘He reiterated that he prefers one-on-one conversations as a method of working out problems. Those are admirable but they are just not enough in the current political climate. We have executive orders being rushed through. We have complications with foreign relations and things happening that his whole constituency is worried about.’
Wheeler presented Thompson with a letter outlining the group’s request, noting that Thompson represented the largest district in the state and one of the largest in the nation and that ‘Periodic town hall meetings across your district require a minimal demand on your time, yet allow you to effectively reach hundreds of your constituents at once.’
The group suggested 24 dates between now and the end of April and offered to help with scheduling, booking a venue and finding an impartial moderator.
‘Everybody has their own issues and this isn’t a partisan thing,’ Friedenberg said. ‘We really just want a chance to be heard. However many of us are here today, we could probably have a thousand or more who would want to hear from him. I think a town hall is the optimal way to do that.’
Maria Bills, of State College, was one of the residents attending Monday’s rally, along with her 10- and 13-year-old daughters, who are on spring break from State College Area School District.
Bills said her family attended the town hall on Feb. 25 and that many questions and concerns were raised that she would like Thompson to answer.
‘What we’ve been doing so far we’ve been doing as a family,’ Bills said. ‘We were all at the town hall together. This affects them, affects their futures even though their not able to vote yet.’
She cited health care, education and government ethics issues as concerns she would like Thompson to address.
‘I think our country is facing a real ethics problem right now and I’d like to know what Mr. Thompson is prepared to do to protect our democracy,’ Bills said. ‘There are so many things and every day there is more stuff coming that is very disturbing. This is our way of trying to do something.’
On Thursday, Thompson, as part of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, addressed a “Fix Not Fight” rally in Washington, D.C., which called for Congressional members on both sides of the aisle to ‘work together to build a better, safer, and stronger nation.’
That rally, according to a release from Thompson’s office, demanded that Congress come together to find solutions for issues related to jobs, the economy and national security.
‘Proudly, I gathered with nearly a 1,000 people to share a message of bipartisanship,’ Thompson said. ‘I spoke to the fact that I do not introduce legislation without a Democrat to cosponsor the bill. This is because it is so important to build consensus.
‘The American people are tired of the politics and it was helpful to send a message to those across the country that there are people such as myself who want to get the job done. Our constituents send us here to represent our districts, not a party or a president. While we may disagree on policy points, there is more room to work to address the challenges facing our country.”
In November, Thompson won his fifth term representing Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District.
The 5th Congressional District is Pennsylvania’s largest geographically and represents Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, McKean, Potter, Venango and Warren counties, and parts of Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Huntingdon and Tioga counties.
