Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) won’t hold an open town hall meeting with constituents during this week’s congressional recess, despite the demands of a vocal group of constituents, Zeldin’s spokesperson said yesterday.
Instead, Zeldin is holding individual and small-group meetings this week, by appointment only, as well as mobile office hours Friday, March 3 (10 a.m.) at the Hagerman Fire Department in East Patchogue.
Zeldin has also scheduled a telephone town hall for Thursday evening from 7 to 8 p.m. Constituents who submit the “opt-in request” form will get a phone call to join the meeting.
NY-1 constituents have organized an effort to pressure the congressman to hold a town hall meeting in order to question him about issues such as the future of the Affordable Care Act, immigration reform and the congressman’s support for President Donald Trump, they say. Similar efforts have been launched in Republican-held congressional districts across the nation, with some representatives scheduling town hall meetings in response — often facing the boos and jeers of angry and sometimes unruly crowds.
Meetings like that are not productive, said Zeldin’s communications director Jennifer DiSiena. The congressman has instead opted to meet with constituents individually and in small groups this week, she said. Individual and small group meetings have included people who have been involved in protests, DiSiena said. Though these “take more time,” they have “proven to be much more productive,” she said.
“Rep. Lee Zeldin’s constituency is protesting for a town hall where he will stand in front of the people and fearlessly lead a discussion with a respectful crowd,” said Eileen Duffy of the “Let’s Visit Lee Zeldin” group, which has organized meetings with Zeldin’s district manager in Riverhead as well as protests outside the congressman’s Riverhead office. The group has more than 2,000 followers on Facebook.
“One-on-one meetings and tele-town halls allow the congressman to vet who can ask a question, or indeed who can participate,” Duffy said. The opt-in form for tomorrow evening’s telephone town hall was unavailable after eight hours and a lot of people were unable to sign up, she said. (The form was posted on Zeldin’s government website yesterday morning, but became disabled yesterday evening. Zeldin’s communication director said this morning there was a technical problem that has now been corrected.)
“In addition, many of those asking for a town hall have put in requests to meet one-on-one and have yet to hear back from Rep. Zeldin or his staff,” Duffy said. “We will continue to ask for a visit where all are invited and allowed to speak. It’s the least our representative can do.”
“Way too many of the people at the moment requesting town halls across the country are doing so with the purpose of disrupting the town hall without any interest at all in decorum,” DiSiena said. “It’s impossible to take a request like that seriously.”
The Let’s Visit Lee Zeldin group has staged demonstrations outside Zeldin’s Riverhead at least weekly since the beginning of the year. Its members have also participated in demonstrations outside Zeldin’s Patchogue office. Those are going on all week during the Congressional recess. An all-day “vigil” is planned today in Patchogue.
Zeldin held a series of meetings with constituents in his Riverhead office yesterday evening. Demonstrators stood outside the office building at 20 West Main St. while the congressman was in the building. They did not see the congressman enter or exit the building, Duffy said.
A photo of Zeldin with a group of people was posted on his “Congressman Lee Zeldin” Facebook page last night.
“Had several really great meetings today in my Riverhead office with constituents who may be on the other side of the aisle,” said the post accompanying the photo, “but were very thoughtfully sharing their questions and concerns on important policy issues facing our country. Just because we sometimes disagree politically doesn’t mean we can’t have productive dialogue as fellow citizens.”
The group of five people in the photo with Zeldin are members of East End Action Network, a group formed by Rebecca Dolber of Center Moriches, who stands to his left in the photo.
Dolber said a representative of the group had been writing to the congressman’s office every few days requesting Zeldin to hold a town hall meeting. On Monday evening, they were contacted and asked to meet with Zeldin in Riverhead yesterday. The group got a 30-minute meeting. They went primarily to ask him to hold a town hall meeting in his district.
“We believe a town hall is what he needs to do, a series of town halls, really — not just for Zeldin to hear us but for people who support him to hear us too,” Dolber said in an interview this morning.
Dolber said the discussion with the congressman was “enlightening.”
“He’s not having a town hall because he doesn’t feel he’s going to be able to say what he wants to say. He told us that any Republican having a town hall doesn’t get to finish his sentence,” Dolber said. She said the congressman asked them why he’d want to put himself in that position.
“I don’t know that we changed his mind, but it was important for him to hear what we had to say and he did,” Dolber said.
The other thing they wanted to speak with him about is “his social media demeanor,” she said.
Zeldin’s second Facebook page, an individual page linked to his campaign website, often strikes a far more partisan chord than his official congressional page. Late Saturday night, for example, a post to Zeldin’s individual page called people attending town hall meetings and protesting around the country “liberal obstructionists.” That term has used by his page in the past to describe constituents.
“I asked him what’s the difference between a liberal and a liberal obstructionist?” Dolber said. People who are liberals are still his constituents and still have a right to be heard, she said.
The congressman said people have been calling his office in large numbers in order to block his phone lines and take up his staff’s time so they can’t do their work, Dolber said.
“I asked him how he would know that. How do you know that’s their purpose instead of calling to let their point of view be heard?” The congressman, Dolber said, “deflected.”
Dolber said she drew a comparison to the Tea Party movement, which locally helped Zeldin unseat former Rep. Tim Bishop in 2014. Tea Party protestors had dogged Bishop at appearances throughout his district and turned out with disruptive force for town hall meetings Bishop held, beginning with the rise of the Tea Party movement in 2009.
“I asked him, ‘what do you think the Tea Party was?’ but he didn’t respond,” Dolber said.
“I think he has to have the town hall, has to hear things he doesn’t want to hear,” Dolber said. “But people need to give him the space to talk, to let him answer.”
Her group and others will continue to speak out with protests and demands for a town hall meeting with Zeldin, despite opposition from Zeldin supporters who often counter that protestors should accept the election result and “shut up.” Zeldin was elected to a second term of office in November with nearly 60 percent of the vote.
“I don’t think democracy works that way,” she said. “Look at how our government is set up. It’s bipartisan. We’re still supposed to work together. We’re still supposed to have a voice.”
Dolber also points out that NY-1 has long been a swing district, alternating between Democrats and Republicans.
Democrat Otis Pike held the seat from 1961 through 1978. He was succeeded by Conservative/Republican William Carney, who served from 1979 through 1986, when Democrat George Hochbrueckner was elected to succeed him. Hochbrueckner was defeated by Republican Mike Forbes in 1994. Forbes in July 1999 switched his party to Democratic and was not renominated. Republican Felix Grucci was elected in 2000. Grucci was defeated by Democrat Tim Bishop in 2002.
“Zeldin is a young man with a potentially long career ahead of him,” Dolber said. “As a practical matter, it would make sense for him to communicate with people who have not been his supporters.”
Editor’s note: This article has been amended to clarify the date of the congressman’s mobile office hours, scheduled for Friday, March 3 at 10 a.m. at the Hagerman Fire Department.
