Town halls helped shape the midterm. Will they in 2020?

Early after the election of President Donald Trump, a small but vibrant part of America’s political debate played out in old-school, face-to-face events involving elected representatives and the constituents who pay their salaries, events also known as town halls.

And the conflicts that often erupted in those town halls – scenes often recorded on video and posted to the Internet – helped shape the results of the 2018 midterms.

Except when they didn’t.

In the past 12 months or so, many elected reps – primarily Republicans – became so frustrated with the lack of true discourse and the bad publicity that they stopped holding town halls altogether. Instead, many turned to telephone town halls, which didn’t generate viral videos and typically are built around pre-screened questions.

So the lack of conflict, too, played a role in the midterms. Opponents called reps who chose not to meet face-to-face with the public arrogant or out of touch or simply afraid of their constituents. Often, those opponents won.

Now, as a new Congress takes shape, some wonder this: Going forward, how will representatives meet with voters?

It’s not a new question.

Town halls and similar events took adversarial turns during the Clinton administration’s health care reform push of the mid-1990s and, later, when tea party activists voiced frustration with Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, said Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at the University of La Verne.

But recent shifts in technology — and the potential for political violence — have changed the town hall equation.

“The probability of events going viral expanded exponentially with the popularity of smartphones that can record video,” Godwin said.

“Security needs have also gone up,” she added. “There have been (fewer) open events since Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) was shot (while meeting with voters) in 2011.”

The backlash over the GOP’s failed attempt to repeal Obamacare played out in town halls hosted by House Republicans in 2017 and 2018.

A videotaped confrontation between an enraged father and Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-New Jersey – “You have been the single greatest threat to my family in the entire world,” voter Geoff Ginter yelled at the congressman – became a symbol of public anger over the effort to repeal Obamacare.

MacArthur, a two-term congressman who in 2016 won re-election by 20 points, lost on Nov. 6 to newcomer Andy Kim by about one percentage point, or 3,400 votes. Kim promised to be, among other things, “the most accessible, transparent, and accountable Member of Congress.”

It’s not just Republicans getting a hostile reception.

Democratic State Sen. Kevin de León’s support of California’s so-called “sanctuary state” law led to him being heckled at a Riverside immigration policy summit in May 2017. Critics of the law, which limits local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, called de León, who this year ran for U.S. Senate, “anchor baby,” “traitor,” and “lawbreaker.”

Hecklers also disrupted an October debate featuring reps. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, and Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks — and Republicans challenging their re-elections — leading to an early end to the debate.

That tone, which played out around the country for all political parties, resulted in fewer face-to-face meetings involving elected representatives and voters.

During this year’s August congressional recess, representatives around the country scheduled 180 in-person events, down nearly 70 percent from a year earlier, according to a report in POLITICO.

“People screaming”

Town halls, or the lack thereof, became an issue in the race between Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, and Democrat Julia Peacock. Critics of Calvert, including Peacock herself, hammered the longtime Inland congressman for not holding an in-person town hall and said he only wanted to meet with people who agree with him.

Calvert’s spokesman noted the congressman held telephone town halls in 2018 and, last year, was the keynote speaker at 15 events held by community organizations.

“Congressman Calvert believes meetings where he and/or his staff have meaningful conversations with small groups of constituents are the most effective means of communications,” Jason Gagnon said.

Calvert was re-elected this month, beating Peacock by about 15 percentage points.

But the no town hall strategy didn’t work for two-term Rep. Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Beach. She lost her inland Orange County seat to Democrat Katie Porter in the midterms, about 18 months after she stopped hosting increasingly fractious town halls.

Walters previously had held town halls, but as she sided with the Trump administration on issues such as health care, environment and taxes — and opposition to those positions grew in her district — she switched to telephone town halls.

“I’m more interested in having a productive telephone town hall than I am in having a bunch of people screaming,” Walters said in October.

Porter and her supporters repeatedly brought up Walters’ stance on town halls during the campaign.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Costa Mesa also made the switch to telephone and Facebook town halls in the past two years. Like Walters, he said such meetings were more constructive and less disruptive.

As of Tuesday, Rohrbacher was losing to Democrat Harley Rouda in his bid for a 16th term in a seat that covers much of coastal Orange County by about 6.6 percentage points.

Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Redlands, is among the Southern California members of Congress who continually has held some in-person town halls, as well as telephone town halls.

“One of my top priorities is making sure I’m accessible, and town halls give Inland Empire families the opportunity to ask me questions, raise issues and give feedback in-person,” Aguilar said in an emailed statement. “That feedback is invaluable, and allows me to better represent our community when I’m in Washington.”

Republicans in 2017 were three-and-a-half times more likely than Democrats to host non-face-to-face town halls, according to an analysis by the congressional information website LegiStorm.

Town Hall 2.0?

A UC Riverside professor of public policy and political science thinks he’s found a way to improve the town hall experience.

Kevin Esterling, along with researchers at Ohio State University and Northeastern University, used a webinar-style platform to host 19 town halls with 12 House members and their constituents.

Each event was focused on a single topic and, prior to going live, participants were given “high-quality, unbiased informational materials about the topic to be discussed,” read a UC Riverside article on the National Science Foundation-funded experiment.

Constituents, the article noted, were free to ask any question or make any comment, provided they were on the topic of that event. After the querries were typed and uploaded, officials would answer by reading the question aloud and offering his or her response as a captionist transcribed the exchange.

Esterling said people who turned out for the events were more diverse than the groups who typically attend conventional town halls. He added that attendees generally wer well-prepared and offered reasons and evidence to back up their arguments.

“Members of Congress often found themselves disagreeing with constituents, and giving reasons for that,” Esterling said. “It was a real, meaningful interaction that was respectful and constructive and civil.”

The experimental format isn’t meant to replace in-person town halls, Esterling said. But he hopes it helps to bridge the gap he’s seen between elected leaders and the people they represent.

“Our thinking is that if we can use technology to design (something) that’s conducive to a productive discussion, it’s an opportunity for all of us to feel connected and have a voice in government,” he said.

Staff Writer Jordan Graham contributed to this story.