This seems to be the meme today

[Mass]

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/politics/28489627/detail.html

BOSTON -- Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who won last year's special election by tapping into populist voter sentiment, has yet to hold a public town hall meeting to take questions from Massachusetts residents.
Massachusetts Democrats, who are hoping to win back the seat once held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, are tweaking Brown for failing to schedule a meeting to let members of the public express their concerns.
A Brown spokesman acknowledged Brown hasn't had a town hall-style meeting, but said he's attended more than 200 events in Massachusetts and is focused on creating jobs.
Brown won the office by labeling Kennedy's former seat the "people's seat" and burnished his everyman image by driving a pickup truck and wearing a barn jacket.
Democratic Sen. John Kerry has held five town hall meetings since Brown's election.

Read more: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/politics/28489627/detail.html#ixzz1RYd3wjom

Good to see that the blinders are starting to fall off (at least at AP).

[wisteria]

1. Yes, nice to see they are starting to notice that Brown is MIA. n/t

[karynnj]

2. I have wondered when the Democrats would start to push this

As Brown seems unimpressive talking off the cuff and he seems to know it as evidenced by his reluctance to take questions. He did exactly one talk show - and though Bob Scheifer was very entranced by him, his answers were awful and needed retractions.

I wonder if this is a Democratic gamble - either he has no town halls and they use it as an issue that tries to take away the media assigned label of him as "responsive" to the people OR they push him into town halls and use the likely gaffes.

[Mass]

5. It was good to see AP and the local media report this.

[ladym55]

3. He hasn't really needed town hall meetings

From what I have seen in the Globe, they are very busy making excuses for him, taking his mugshot at every event and photo op, and breathlessly covering his every "I don't have an opinion on that yet" statement. However, I was hoping that the VOTERS would begin to notice that he was MIA. Governor Patrick and JK were on the spot when the tornadoes hit Springfield ... the Senatorfold was nowhere to be seen until a few days later.

[Mass]

4. That is very unfair. He was there the next morning.

and has been in the Springfield area several times since. Certainly, he does not seem happy to be there and he could have cancelled his event the first night, but this is not a fair criticism. In fact, he was there before Neal, as Neal was voting in DC and concluded he could wait until Friday to show up).


At least, people have heard about him not having town meetings ( a criticism who was in the past addressed to Kerry) and all have reported it in a way or another, even if Globe's blogger and journalist Glemn Johnson of course tries excuses. No wonder that the Globe is becoming more and more irrelevant, and Brown's numbers have been declining.


http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/07/dems-hit-brown-for-dearth-town-hall-meetings/77X0HjVRT23fvuz6rPUPwK/index.html

The Massachusetts Democratic Party has launched an online clock accusing US Senator Scott Brown of not holding an open town hall meeting since being elected in January 2010.

The clock is featured on the party’s Internet homepage.
...
Late today, Brown’s Senate staff sent out an e-mail highlighting his “busy couple of weeks,” including events from tornado-damage inspections in Springfield to a St. Peter’s Fiesta procession in Gloucester.

It also included a list of his recent legislative activity - but no rebuttal of the specific townall criticism.

It has the potential to dent the image of a politician who has cast himself as a man of the people.

...

The strategy has allowed Brown to control his message and minimize deviations as he seeks reelection to his first full, six-year Senate term in November 2012.

The Globe reported in late March that no member of the state’s congressional delegation had held a town hall meeting during their most recent recess, despite public debates about a US bombing campaign in Libya, the federal budget deficit, and the threat of a government shutdown.

Brown’s senior Senate colleague, Democrat John Kerry, protested the description, noting that he had held two town hall meetings in February and early March. Kerry has subsequently held three more.
...

Even Johnson had to note that Kerry held 5 town how meetings since the beginning of the year.

[karynnj]

6. The key sentence here is "It has the potential to dent the image of a politician who has cast

himself as a man of the people." That image seems from a distance to be almost self awarded and repeated by an unquestioning media. What I wonder is, if like John Edwards, this man who genuinely did move from lower to upper class, really does feel above the people his image says he was one of. Things like his initial dismissal of a woman lobbying him for help on diabetes coverage which her child suffered from does suggest this - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=158x16599 In a way, he was all about himself (and Ayla) at the Pan Mass event last year too. I realize that this is too little to suggest that this is the case, but enough to raise the question.

Brown has had adoring press coverage, but there have been no or few stories of him going out of his way - without a camera - to help anyone.

I do think that he looked liked he seemed oddly disconnected in some of the Springfield area trips - especially when he tagged along walking behind Kerry, Patrick, and the Mayor of Springfield looking like a not completely wanted little brother. However, I think he was more in his element when he was with the Salvation Army passing out food. To his credit, missions like that are why he joined the NG.

[ladym55]

7. My mistake

I was following it all from a distance reading the Globe on-line every day after the tornado. I read about Gov. Patrick and JK regularly, but nothing about the Senatorfold. Given how the Globe hangs on every word of Brown, I assumed he wasn't around much.

I lived just south of Springfield a long time ago, so was extremely upset at what happened to an area that has struggled economically for so very long.

[karynnj]

8. Setti Warren, who had 24 open town halls in the time SB was Senator, has challenged him to have one

in Newton.

http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/07/warren-offers-brown-town-hall-meeting-challenge/LNwnPR5Tvs5HffhOooJvgN/index.html