Cravaack to Hold Town Hall Meeting in Duluth, After All

Via MPR News Polinaut blog and MPR’s Dan Kraker…

Amid mounting pressure, 8th District GOP congressman Chip Cravaack has announced he will hold an open town hall meeting at 4 o’clock tomorrow afternoon at the Duluth airport.

A lot of the push back that I have experienced on this subject, including this letter in the DNT, has involved people complaining that “Oberstar was never here” so why are we so worried about Cravaack being here, all of a sudden. Did anyone else have that experience, that Oberstar was hard to reach or access? I remember calling him at home when I was in college for an assignment and he actually took the time to answer my questions, no problem. If I had thought he’d actually answer I wouldn’t have ever made the call. I was 18 or 19 years old, it was my first semester and my only other memory is being terrified during the entire conversation!

So he’ll do a town hall meeting in Duluth, tomorrow, 8/24/2011, at the airport. Are you going? What will you say to him? And finally, does anyone else find it ironic that he’s holding the meeting there at the Duluth Airport, a place that he originally described as wasteful spending that we cannot afford? Of course, he turned an about face on that issue and now says that he supports the expansion. I’m glad he did that, and also glad that he’s made an about face on a Duluth town hall, too.

UPDATE 3:43 PM 8/23/11
According to the MN Progressive Project, Chip Cravaack is NOT having a town hall meeting tomorrow at the Duluth Airport:

Will Chip Cravack Keep His Promise to Hold a Town Hall in Duluth?

Cravaack’s Duluth office denies knowing about a town hall in Duluth tomorrow and refuses to comment further. The location of this promised town hall is also uncertain. As of 2:15 pm, the Duluth Airport Authority reports that they have not been contacted by the congressman’s staff. Furthermore, the schedule shows the banquet room at the airport, the Skyline Room, is booked by the restaurant for an event from 3 to 5pm tomorrow. The only other possible venue at the airport, Monaco Air Duluth, also has not been contacted by Cravaack’s office.

In the video Cravaack says he will have a town hall at the airport “tomorrow at 4 o’clock.”

UPDATE 9:18 PM
False alarm, it’s on. Verified here by numerous media sources.

34 Comments

Sam

about 13 years ago

The reason Cravaack is in town is to meet with a conservative lobbying group.  It seems this "town meeting" is an afterthought. http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/207454/ 

Is there a large room in the airport for a real town meeting?  It seems like a poor venue for meeting with constituents.  What room at the airport can hold that many people comfortably? 

And it makes it look like he is just about to run out of town, which might be his excuse for leaving  after a few questions.

adam

about 13 years ago

I hear he's going to be at Sacred Heart on August 30.

wildgoose

about 13 years ago

What's he doing at Sacred Heart?  Hopefully he knows where not to park?

drifter

about 13 years ago

What he's doing at Sacred Heart is going to be fucking epic.  Not to be missed.

TimK

about 13 years ago

I talked with Congressman Oberstar probably a half dozen times during his tenure in the 8th District. Once, when I just turned 18 and the Selective Service had just been re-instated. While registering, I wanted to make sure my form had conscientious objector status and the clerk at the post office refused to take my form. After calling Oberstar, the problem was resolved quickly. Other times, I met the Congressman at various functions and events and would talk briefly about various policy topics of the day. We didn't agree 100% of the time, but he always listened to my opinion and showed genuine concern. Cravaack, on the other hand, has never returned a call. The 2 times I have written to him, I got form letters in return that basically said, "I disagree with you, and will therefor ignore your concerns."

Claire

about 13 years ago

Oh great, a town meeting (finally) with one day's notice. I can't imagine where at the airport he'd do it. Like a friend of mine told me after that person's organization met with Cravaack -- it's just going to be another photo op, and nothing substantive will be said.

Claire

about 13 years ago

Adam! Do tell! What do you know about Cravaack and this Sacred Heart event on August 30???

moosetracks

about 13 years ago

In the time of Oberstar's last term, even if he was not available, it was easy to talk to his staff members in the office at the Federal Building.  They were always welcoming to my group and listen to our issue even if it was something Oberstar did not support.  When we try to do the same for Cravaack's staff members, we have run into a locked door.  

I attempted to call his Washington office in order to try to make an appointment for a meeting, and they directed me to an email address for the scheduler, and I never even got a response.  Oberstar may not have been perfect by any means, but at least he and his staff pretended to care about constituent groups that may not necessarily agree with them.

Eric

about 13 years ago

I may not be able to make it tomorrow.
Someone should ask him why he supports striping union rights from airline workers, especially since he is currently receiving disability that was negotiated in an airline union contract on his behalf. Also ask if because of his stance on Airline Unions will he be willing to give-up those disability benefits?
http://mnpublius.com/post/3482658615/chip-cravaack-union-benefits-for-me-but-not-for-thee

jason

about 13 years ago

More news about Chip from MinnPost.com

That's a pretty good union Northwest Airlines used to have. Eighth District Congressman Chip Cravaack's long-delayed financial disclosure statement shows, according to Catharine Richert at MPR, "Cravaack's earned income for fiscal year 2010 topped out at $92,273; the cash comes in the form of disability payments for sleep apnea, which ended his flying career with Northwest Airlines, now Delta Airlines, in 2007. According to the documents, Cravaack has between $843,219 and $1,696,000 in assets and unearned income, including stocks and retirement savings. (Asset value is reported in ranges rather than exact numbers.)"

Baci

about 13 years ago

The dood snores and that's disability? WTF????? No wonder his wife live in a different state than him.

Dave Sorensen

about 13 years ago

"Everybody go home."

Biff Nimrod

about 13 years ago

The Skyline room at the airport is pretty large ... get there early.

sarafenix

about 13 years ago

And hopefully there will be no need for TSA patdowns to see him. Also, isn't the airport a federal site that is subject to Homeland Security scrutiny. Sorry, 1960's paranoia slipping in.

Dave Sorensen

about 13 years ago

Y'all made it onto the Huff Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/chip-cravaack-town-hall-meeting_n_934411.html

[email protected]

about 13 years ago

I wonder how long such a Town Hall meeting can be? Anything less than an hour is worse than no meeting at all, in some ways.

Bad Cat!

about 13 years ago

Not that I want to defend Chippy, but snoring is not the same as sleep apnea. Snoring is just that, snoring. Sleep apnea is not breathing, as in your brain doesn't get oxygen, making you much higher risk for stroke or heart attack. It can be a very serious medical condition.
Now, do I believe that it qualifies as a dissability? I'm not sure I can really answer that... :/

Iron Oregon

about 13 years ago

If sleep apnea is a disability then you would think that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. should also.

Bad Cat!

about 13 years ago

Except if he was a trained pilot with severe apnea, he would be at risk of falling asleep while flying (which is bad).

I'm not sure if disability means "you can't do the job you were trained for," or "you can't do anything else."

Claire

about 13 years ago

So those who can't do anything else b/c they suffer from sleep apnea should run for congress? I'd think that sitting listening to people filibustering all day would make the sleep apnea a more serious problem.

TimK

about 13 years ago

Obviously this guy was oxygen-deprived.

Lojasmo

about 13 years ago

Are you fucking kidding me?  A hundred grand a year for sleep apnea?  That's Bachmann level dole!  Outrageous!

Slingfade

about 13 years ago

Trashing a guy that actually served his country--twice.  

More than can be said for the fucking derelicts on this site.

wildgoose

about 13 years ago

I don't care for the way Slingfade put it, and I don't like his blanket statement about the "derelicts" on this site - as in, I wonder if he has any idea how hard-working and community-oriented the people he references are?  However, I do like his point about trashing the Congressman. Sleep apnea seems like a bizarre reason to get a huge disability pension, especially if all of his training was paid, on-the-job by me and you via the US Navy. However, it is certainly not "snoring" as Bad Cat! indicated.  We can do better than put downs about his help.  There are substantive things to criticize him for.

edgeways

about 13 years ago

Serving in the military does not give you an automatic pass, it does not automatically make you a better, or worse, person. Timothy McVeigh was a vet. Am I not allowed to say anything negative about him? 

If your ideas are dangerous and stupid, I don't care where you worked or volunteered, the ideas are still dangerous and stupid. Chip Cravaack has done little in his time in office except decide to move to the east coast and blather on like a Bachmann lite. His accessibility to Duluth, the largest city in his representative area, has been limited to fundraising and holding a spur of the moment meeting at the edge of town during business hours that his own office in Duluth didn't know about for much too long. Yeah, I guess I'm a fucking derelict. Guarantee you though I pay a higher % of my total income toward taxes then Chippers does, (especially when they flee to their tax haven).

zra

about 13 years ago

Speak for yourself, Slingfade. I wore the uniform. Whatchagot now?

Claire

about 13 years ago

And I actually live in the state of Minnesota, which is more than I can say of my Congressman.

Danny G

about 13 years ago

Yeah...but people actually WANT him to live in the state.





I really am sorry for that.  Couldn't resist.

Danny G

about 13 years ago

Hey!  I said "sorry."

Darcie Rolfe

about 13 years ago

I would still like to know what is happening on the 30th and what time it will be. I would like to go and protest. Thank you!

wildgoose

about 13 years ago

Here's a link to the Facebook event page.  You could also try googling "Mr. Nice Duluth" or "Sacred Heart Music Center" and see what that gets you.

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