Kelly Ayotte “Town Hall” Meeting

Kelly Ayotte held a “town hall meeting” in Fitzwilliam, NH on May 2. I attended, and rode with a few others from Keene. The crowd was larger than I expected, and included several dozen members of the media.
The event began with Senator Ayotte giving a brief powerpoint presentation on some of her key talking points, and then moved to the audience Q&A.
One of the audience members who was chosen to ask a question asked about expanded background checks. A woman sitting maybe 10 feet in front of me then held up a piece of paper with a message supporting expanding background checks. A cop hurried over to her to tell her that she was not allowed to have a sign (36:43 into the video), after about a minute, she finally put it away.
The only other memorable moment was at the end of the Q&A after Kelly Ayotte answered what was supposed to be the last question, a woman stood up and asked a question about “equal pay” legislation (1:04:19 into the video) and asked if Kelley Ayotte believed that she should be paid less than her male counterparts in the Senate.
Senator Ayotte said she normally doesn’t take questions in such a manner, but would answer, and said there is already “equal pay for equal work” laws in place and she does not support new laws. The Senator was then quickly whisked away, and protected from the media who had been peppering her with questions as she walked out of the room.
After the event, I was able to interview 3 audience members; one was an Ayotte supporter, and the other two were the women who had caused the disturbances.
I was also able to ask State Representative Jane Johnson about ballot access fairness.