For Connolly, town hall fraught with politics
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
August 25, 2009
Democratic Reps. Gerry Connolly and Jim Moran will face their constituents on health care reform Tuesday at town hall meetings that promise to echo into the 2010 midterm elections.
For Connolly, a first-term Democrat who last year took over a district held by the GOP for 14 years, the event is especially fraught with politics. Two of his past opponents -- Keith Fimian and Mychele Brickner -- plan to join protesters at the afternoon town hall at Greenspring Retirement Community in Springfield.
Fimian, a Republican who lost to Connolly by an 11-point margin in November, is again challenging the Democrat. His campaign will likely be built on opposition to the agendas of President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats.
"The atmosphere is going to be different" in 2010, Fimian said.
Brickner, who unsuccessfully opposed Connolly in the 2003 election for chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, has been working to mobilize protesters in Northern Virginia against a government expansion of health care.
A protest outside Connolly's Annandale office Saturday drew a crowd of about 200.
"The intent is to really show [Connolly] that there are people out there who have questions and concerns about health care," she said. "And he basically has been hiding from us, not setting up any public meetings."
Connolly's office sharply disputed that last assertion. Spokesman George Burke said Tuesday's forum is geared specifically toward seniors, featuring speakers from the AARP, the Fairfax Area Agency on Aging and other senior advocates. Other forums on health care, he said, have been completely open to the public and well advertised in local papers.
Greenspring expected about 400 attendees, almost all of them residents of the retirement community, said spokesman Jason Connors. He said about 100 people have been wait-listed for the town hall.
Moran will speak to constituents later this evening at a health care town hall at South Lakes High School in Reston. He will be joined by former Vermont Governor and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
