Sep 08 Teresa's Town Halls Touch A Tender Nerve

Teresa Collett apparently didn't get the memo that 4th Congressional District of Minnesota was a safe Democratic seat. She's been doing all the things that a candidate for office does, meeting people around the District at multiple "Coffee with Collett" events,

attending public events (the Minnesota State Fair, the Constitution Ride), getting on both local and national media (the Northern Alliance Radio Network, and the Ed Morrissey Show), and holding town hall meetings in South St. Paul and Maplewood.

I believe these efforts are bearing fruit, as Teresa recently showed up on Jim Geraghty's national radar as a potential upset. He writes:

 

Reasons the challenger should have no chance: This is a D+13 district; McCollum won it in 2008 by 37 percentage points. Reasons the challenger has a chance: Upon winning the primary, Collett, a University of St. Thomas law professor,challenged McCollum to four debates. She’s still waiting for a reply. On the stump, Collett makes her points in a crisp, clear, direct style. Outgoing governor Tim Pawlenty is giving Collett some help. Collett is severely underfunded, but McCollum has only $160,634 in cash on hand as of July 21, which is fairly low for an incumbent.

Geraghty's article is relatively old news, but I received something this weekend from which I got the distinct impression that Teresa is getting to Betty McCollum. I recently received a newsletter from Representative Betty McCollum, containing the following passage (her links):

On August 25, Chairman Rocco Landesman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) joined Congresswoman McCollum for a town hall meeting at SteppingStone Theatre in St. Paul. More than 300 citizens attended the public forum to hear Congresswoman McCollum and Chairman Landesman discuss the importance of arts and arts related jobs to the economy.

If the name Rocco Landesman doesn't ring a bell perhaps these efforts to influence artists to promote the Obama agenda will jog your memory. But I want to show that there are at least three at the very least not-quite-the-whole-truths in the above paragraph.

1) "Public Forum" When Rocco Landesman was intereviewed in the Star-Tribune, there was no mention whatsoever of his addressing the general public. I didn't receive an email about this event, and if you live in the 4th CD (Mitch, Flash), you probably didn't either. Priority was given to people who RSVP'd by August 20, five days before the event. The fact that this event was only reported in MinnPost betrays that it wasn't very well publicized.

2) "Citizens" While it is true that the people in attendance were citizens, they were also artists and supporters of federal support for the arts. It would be more to the point to refer to them as "potential grant recipients."

3) "Town Hall" - A town hall meeting is when you have a meeting for the voters in a particular area. If I were to invite a bunch of people to a meeting, and they like me because I'm in favor of giving them federal money, that is not a town hall meeting. That is a love-in. Not that there's anything wrong with love-ins. There's a time and a place for everything. But in my mind, it isn't right to have a love-in, and call it a town hall meeting. And the point of all this is...

BETTY MCCOLLUM HAS TOWN HALL ENVY.

Perhaps in her heart of hearts, she wishes she didn't have to bring in speakers like Nancy Pelosi and Rocco Landesman under cover of darkness, and then announce the event after the speakers are out of town. Perhaps she wishes she was better at debating, or better at articulating her ideas to people who disagree with her. Perhaps she wishes she didn't act like she was morally and intellectually superior to the Republicans in her district. There is a debate scheduled on September 19, but until then...

Betty will stay in a secret, undisclosed location, some place like here, safe from the danger of having to deal with her constituents.