Thanks to Casey Farrar at the Keene Sentinel, liberty activists got coverage in Sunday’s paper. The story features the spokesman for “senator” Jeanne Shaheen running cover for Pamela Russell Slack, who has been touring parts of New Hampshire working for Shaheen’s office. He’s not telling the truth, of course, and we have the video to prove it. Here’s the story, and check the first comment for my rebuttal to his misinformation:
Shaheen meetings targeted
Activists, staffers clash over formatA slew of town-hall style public forums on health care hosted by Democratic legislators across the country this summer have stirred up some heated debate.
Earlier this week, White House officials counseled Democratic senators on how to cope with orchestrated disruptions from opponents confronting them about President Barack Obama’s health reform proposals during the forums.
Recently, activists in the Granite State have used a similar approach at meetings with staff members for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in communities including Grafton and Keene.
Shaheen staffers say they’ve been scheduling office hours to allow constituents to talk with them one-on-one about individual issues — not as public forums.
But messages on a handful of Web sites for conservative and liberal groups alike have dubbed them town-hall forums, with some even implying that Shaheen would be present, according to Michael A. Vlacich, state director to Shaheen.
And demonstrators have shown up carrying video cameras and demanding to be allowed access to private meetings between constituents and staff members, Vlacich said.
A group of activists, including some members of the Free State Project — an effort to recruit 20,000 people who prefer limited government to live in New Hampshire — showed up at Keene City Hall during scheduled office hours Friday morning.
They say they came because it was billed as a public event and they don’t understand why Shaheen representative Pamela Russell Slack (who is also a Keene city councilor) turned them away without meeting with them.
Slack did not return a message seeking comment.
Vlacich said staff members have to take their safety and the safety of the constituents into consideration during the meetings and the activists were making people uncomfortable.
Keene Police Lt. James A. Cemorelis said two officers were sent as a precaution after bailiffs from Keene District Court contacted them about a disturbance on the second floor of city hall.
The office hours format, with Shaheen’s staff members holding meetings in town halls and public libraries, goes back to when she served as governor from 1997 to 2003, Vlacich said. Staff members meet with small groups or individuals about concerns or questions they may have, ranging from how to navigate new bank and foreclosure processes to veterans trying to access medical benefits.
People from all points of view are invited to meet with the staff, including opponents of Shaheen’s stance on issues, but they are expected to treat each other and the staff members with respect, Vlacich said.
“I appreciate that folks demand accountability of elected individuals and their staff, but what stunned me was the harsh tone (the demonstrators) took with their neighbors and the constituents that were there,” Vlacich said. “You have to respect there are fellow neighbors here who have serious issues and all you’re doing is making them uncomfortable and in some cases turning them away because they don’t want to be videotaped.”
But Ian “Freeman” Bernard, an outspoken Free Stater who hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk show based in Keene, said he attended the session as a member of the press, and while Slack had already met with some other constituents, she told him she would not meet with the Free Staters.
She also said the video cameras carried by some of the demonstrators would not be allowed in the room where she was meeting with constituents, he said.
“She just doesn’t like video cameras and she doesn’t like tough questions,” Bernard said.
Vlacich said Slack was concerned about people filming her during one-on-one discussions with constituents. At one point, he said, Slack escorted an upset woman to her car and returned to find that some furniture in the meeting room had been rearranged to allow for a camera to be set up.
“People were having private meetings with her,” he said. “It wasn’t an appropriate place for them to be filming.”
Brooke Kelley, an activist who said she’s not tied to the Free Staters, said Slack sat down with her but ended the meeting after only a few minutes when she learned that Kelley doesn’t live in Keene.
Kelley, who calls New Orleans home, has been traveling the country for more than a year to promote Restore the Republic and Campaign for Liberty, groups she volunteers for. She said she was in town, heard about a meeting on the radio and wanted to talk with Slack about health care, but felt Slack had just been looking for a reason to end their conversation.
“I didn’t think that it was a public meeting where everyone was going to speak together and that was fine,” Kelley said. “But I’m a citizen of the U.S. and I’m one of the people that health care is going to affect, so for her to say she’s not going to meet with me because she’s not my representative doesn’t make sense.”
Vlacich says Shaheen’s staff members will continue to provide office hours for the public.
“We want it to be a welcoming forum for all constituents, including those who disagree with Sen. Shaheen,” he said. “But there has got to be a way to do this that does not intimidate people and chase them away.”
Casey Farrar can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1435, or cfarrar@keenesentinel.com.
