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No shortage of calls and e-mails to Minnesota's delegation in health care debate
The health care issue has moved constituents to voice their views, prompting the delegation to seek dialogue, not diatribe.
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As the national health care debate grows more strident, members of Minnesota's congressional delegation say constituents are swamping their switchboards and e-mail in-boxes to weigh in on the issue.
Despite a full plate of other issues facing the Obama administration and Congress -- from the still-sickly economy to dual wars overseas -- health care trumps them all.
Fully half the calls made to Democratic Sen. Al Franken's office are on health care. It's also Topic One in the office of U.S. Second District Rep. John Kline, where more than 3,000 calls, letters and e-mails have poured in, with most running against the proposed reform.
At Third District Rep. Erik Paulsen's office, the number of letters and e-mails has quadrupled the past two months.
Amid this outpouring, the delegation is scrambling to figure out the best way to talk to voters during the August congressional recess while avoiding the chaos that has engulfed congressional town hall meetings coast to coast.
After meeting with a handful of constituents at a private home in Rochester on Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Tim Walz says he will hold a traditional town hall meeting sometime next week and hopes to have the event televised.
Seventh District Rep. Collin Peterson said Tuesday that he will hold town hall meetings in Willmar on Friday and Bemidji on Monday.
Peterson, criticized recently for saying he doesn't hold town halls because they attract conspiracy theorists, sounded a different note on Tuesday.
"I'm happy to listen to people," Peterson said. "I don't really get hung up on what their motivation is. It's a free country and they can participate and I welcome it.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar is opting, for now, to stick with a series of meetings with small groups of constituents. "That's how I've done it," she said. "I'm not going to just change because some people are getting screamed at."
She and Franken, like six of the state's House members, are considered likely to vote along party lines, regardless how much they hear from voters.
That prompted the state's Republicans to crank up pressure Tuesday on Minnesota's Blue Dog Democrats -- Walz and Peterson.
Republicans launched a television ad targeting the two on Tuesday, asking viewers to call and register opposition to the overhaul.
Peterson has said he will probably oppose the heatlh care initiative plan if it resembles the current version.
The ad, created by the Republican National Committee against selected Democrats across the country, parodies Viagra ads, dubbing the health care plan "Reforma."
According to the ad's script, "side effects" of the reform push "include bureaucratic waste and delay." "Not recommended for anyone who may need actual medical care."
The DFL promptly denounced the ad as a grab bag of "lies and fear-mongering," amounting to "sarcastic and misleading spin on the airwaves."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. vonste@startribune.com • 612-673-7184 eric.roper@startribune.com 202-408-2723
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