by Jason Bellamy-Fults, Recording Secretary, IBEW Local 1205, proud member of the North Central Florida Central Labor Council
On a rainy August morning, dozens of Alachua County citizens, dismayed at the decisions that their elected state and federal representatives have been making, made the trek to Newberry’s municipal building for a “town hall” hosted by Newberry Mayor Tim Marden. The event had advertised the appearance of state Rep. Chad Johnson, state Senator Stan McClain, and Congressional representative Kat Cammack, though the fine print noted that speakers were “subject to change without notice.”
Upon arrival, we were greeted at the door by Mayor Marden, who it is worth noting, is the current Chair of the Alachua County GOP as well as the National Development Officer for The John Birch Society. He informed those who arrived early that the municipal building was hosting an invitation-only catered event and that anyone who wasn’t on the invite list would need to wait in the small vestibule area or outside on the porch. Attendees would be welcome into the main meeting area at the advertised start time of the event. He also informed us that there would be no opportunities for the public to speak during the 1.5 hour event; he wanted to prevent any “grandstanding,” so attendees could submit their questions directly to him on small notecards.
A few minutes before 9:30, we were allowed to file into the main hall and help ourselves to a few leftover donuts. A table at the front of the room included Marden, a representative from Cammack’s office, and the two state legislators, Johnson and McClain.
The crowd was probably 100-150 people deep, and it became clear pretty early on that it was fairly evenly split between the “invite-only” cheering squad and the uninvited, many of whom were there to ask hard questions of their electeds.
Marden went over the agenda, which included opening statements by the electeds, their responses to a set of questions written up by Marden and shared with them in advance, and then the last 45 minutes for questions from the submitted notecards, which would be asked by Marden.
Members of the audience immediately protested the event format and were reminded by Marden for the first of many times that this was “his event; if you don’t like it, go have your own event.”
This was an ironic statement given the multiple “empty chair town halls” that residents throughout Cammack’s district have held in recent months and made all the more laughable by Cammack’s staffer’s opening comment: referencing the recent birth of Cammack’s child, she said that she was tempted “to send Kat a picture of today’s event, but I can’t do that because not being able to be here would just break her heart.”
The “grandstanding” that Marden had allegedly sought to avoid took place, of course, but primarily from the speakers’ table. Speakers reminded us of their conservative bona fides and gave at times rambling monologues on their bios, their upbringing, and their political philosophies. A few amusing quotables from the event:
Marden’s repeated exhortations to “be grateful that these people are here” when frustrated members of the audience spoke out against the format of the event or attempted to retort some of the speakers’ comments.
Marden often paraphrased people’s written comments rather than reading them directly, often inserting his own language, such as referring to undocumented people as “illegals.” When members of the audience protested his massaging of the questions, he repeatedly responded “The more you interrupt, the less questions we’ll get to.”
After Cammack’s staffer dodged a healthcare-related question and alleged that “everyone has healthcare access, Kat has looked into this,” an audience member shouted back, “We don’t have healthcare because of her.” Marden responded, “I’m pretty sure you can go to the Shands emergency room and they are not going to kick you out.”
Rep. Johnson gave a strange little civics lesson in which he explained that the problem with the government is that, because it’s answerable to its constituents, it tries to deliver goods and services for them and that’s just not sustainable because that stuff has to be paid for with taxes. His monologue actually goes a long way in explaining some conservatives’ vision for this country, but felt a bit hypocritical coming from someone who also talked about the importance of government support for farmers and for government funding to make sure that rural people have access to all the same services that urban people do.
The event got a bit rowdy at times, with numerous rejoinders from the audience and repeated shouting matches between the divided audience members. Had another 50-100 progressives shown up for the event, my sense is that we could have pretty easily just shut this conservative pep rally down entirely.
I was honestly sort of surprised that more people weren’t there, especially given the size of some of the public protests that have happened throughout our county in recent months. The very people that we have been protesting after all were there, in the room, and clearly needing to hear from more of us.
That being said, a special shout-out is due the North Central Florida Indivisible group, who actively worked to turn people out for this event. I estimate that most of the progressives who were in the room for this meeting were affiliated with them.
While I’m editorializing a bit here, I’d also like to point out what I believe can be an over-emphasis on federal politics.
While Trump is obviously an authoritarian lightning rod and a focus on him is understandable, our state legislature not only grossly enables Trump and his ilk, it has also been screwing us over directly for years and continues to do so each and every session. Using our base of progressive local power to focus on our own legislative delegation is a necessary component of any long-term strategy. D
.recent birth of Cammack’s child, she said that she was tempted “to send Kat a picture of today’s event, but I can’t do that because not being able to be here would just break her heart.”
The “grandstanding” that Marden had allegedly sought to avoid took place, of course, but primarily from the speakers’ table. Speakers reminded us of their conservative bona fides and gave at times rambling monologues on their bios, their upbringing, and their political philosophies. A few amusing quotables from the event:
Marden’s repeated exhortations to “be grateful that these people are here” when frustrated members of the audience spoke out against the format of the event or attempted to retort some of the speakers’ comments.
Marden often paraphrased people’s written comments rather than reading them directly, often inserting his own language, such as referring to undocumented people as “illegals.” When members of the audience protested his massaging of the questions, he repeatedly responded “The more you interrupt, the less questions we’ll get to.”
After Cammack’s staffer dodged a healthcare-related question and alleged that “everyone has healthcare access, Kat has looked into this,” an audience member shouted back “We don’t have healthcare because of her.” Marden responded, “I’m pretty sure you can go to the Shands emergency room and they are not going to kick you out.”
Rep. Johnson gave a strange little civics lesson in which he explained that the problem with the government is that, because it’s answerable to its constituents, it tries to deliver goods and services for them and that’s just not sustainable because that stuff has to be paid for with taxes. His monologue actually goes a long way in explaining some conservatives’ vision for this country, but felt a bit hypocritical coming from someone who also talked about the importance of government support for farmers and for government funding to make sure that rural people have access to all the same services that urban people do.
The event got a bit rowdy at times, with numerous rejoinders from the audience and repeated shouting matches between the divided audience members.
Had another 50-100 progressives shown up for the event, my sense is that we could have pretty easily just shut this conservative pep rally down entirely. I was honestly sort of surprised that more people weren’t there, especially given the size of some of the public protests that have happened throughout our county in recent months.
The very people that we have been protesting, after all, were there, in the room, and clearly needing to hear from more of us. That being said, a special shout-out is due the North Central Florida Indivisible group, who actively worked to turn people out for this event. I estimate that most of the progressives who were in the room for this meeting were affiliated with them.
While I’m editorializing a bit here, I’d also like to point out what I believe can be an over-emphasis on federal politics. While Trump is obviously an authoritarian lightning rod and a focus on him is understandable, our state legislature not only grossly enables Trump and his ilk, it has also been screwing us over directly for years and continues to do so each and every session. Using our base of progressive local power to focus on our own legislative delegation is a necessary component of any long-term strategy.