Jim Swift.@lynnschmidtrn -> Visions of sugar plums and election reform and a stocking full of good candidates https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/lynn-schmidt/schmidt-visions-of-sugar-plums-and-election-reform-and-a-stocking-full-of-good-candidates/article_2c16c3e3-299e-54f2-b254-564576dc5c2e.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share via @stltoday
jillkent@JimSwift @JimSwift The second item on that wishlist really made me think of just how rare the townhall meeting has become. During the Obama years, they were pervasive even though I live in a region where a ham sandwich could get elected as long as it ran as a republican. They died out with the Trump administration-both in person and via telephone.
@jillkent Having helped run telephone townhalls, they were just for show. The in-person ones were circuses. I'm not sure how much value they really added then, and now they're just too much of a risk, in the mind of the pol, so they don't do them.