PORT TOWNSEND — Congressman Norm Dicks, who had been under pressure to hold town hall meetings on proposed health care reform but feared they would be disrupted by protesters, has decided to seek public input on the issue through a meeting in the Fort Worden State Park Commons on Aug. 31.
The town hall meeting will be from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in room 210 of the park’s commons, said Dicks’ office in a prepared statement issued Friday.
The 6th Congressional District representative also plans a second forum that day at the Kitsap Conference Center in Bremerton from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
George Behan, spokesman for the Belfair Democrat, said that protests last week in Port Angeles and Port Townsend, which criticized Dicks for not conducting town hall meetings, influenced Dicks’ decision, but emphasized that they were only one factor.
“He did not want to be viewed of as not seeking the widest amount of input,” Behan said Saturday.
But ultimately, he said that Dicks chose to hold the upcoming meetings after seeing that similar health care town hall meetings held by other congressional representatives around the nation had become less raucous.
Several such forums received widespread media coverage for being disrupted by opponents.
Behan said there is room for about 600 people at the meeting in Port Townsend. Seating is first-come, first-served.
The Belfair Democrat’s office announced the forums one week after he spoke to a group of about 100 people in Port Angeles about President Barack Obama’s plan to reform health care.
The event, sponsored by the Clallam County Democratic Party and attended by people who reserved seating, at the Red Lion Hotel on Aug. 14, was greeted by more than 125 people who protested the plan on nearby sidewalks and denounced the congressman — whose district includes Clallam and Jefferson counties — for not holding a public forum on the issue.
About 40 supporters of reform held a counter-protest.
Supporters outnumbered protestors when Dicks spoke to the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce on the same issue last Monday.
At the meeting in Port Angeles, Dicks said he was hesitant about holding a public forum out of concern that it would be disrupted.
“If people are not going to try to exploit the situation, and people will act in a civil manner and have civil discourse, we can have one,” Dicks told the Peninsula Daily News after speaking to the group.
Clallam County Democratic Party Chairman John Marrs defended the reservation system for attendance at the Port Angeles meeting, which also addressed education, by saying that it had been planned months before it became such a hot topic.
“In the beginning, we didn’t think there would be that much interest in it,” he told the PDN at the meeting.
“By the time it had become apparent . . . we had already been committed to this location.”
More than 5,000 letters
Reflecting the importance of the issue to constituents, Dicks’ office has received more than 5,000 letters for and against health care reform since mid-June.
“It’s far in excess of most of the issues,” Behan said.
He said the protocol of the two meetings has not been determined.
“We will simply try to make it as open as possible,” Behan said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
