Congressman Lamar Smith, Twenty First Congressional
District of Texas
(WASHINGTON) – Congressman Lamar Smith Tuesday night held a telephone town meeting with his Hill Country constituents. He uses the new technology, also known as a “tele-town hall”, to stay connected with constituents when he is in Washington for votes.
“The feedback from constituents has been tremendous,” said Smith. “This technology enables me to reach out to people in the comfort of their own homes, get their opinions on issues before Congress and answer their questions. It’s one of the ways I try to stay in touch and it helps me to do my job better.”
The automated call went out to Smith’s constituents in Comal, Kendall, Kerr, Bandera and Real counties asking them to participate in a live telephone town meeting. After some opening remarks, Smith randomly took questions from participants throughout the five counties. The call peaked with 1,267 participants on the call during the one-hour telephone meeting.
He also asked three poll questions, the results of which were tabulated by the tele-town meeting technology:
1) Do you favor or oppose the health care plan proposed by President Obama and the Congressional Democrats?
87% opposed.
8% favored.
4% no opinion.
2) Do you think that the President should authorize General McChrystal’s request for additional troops for the war in Afghanistan?
79% said yes.
15% said no.
7 said no opinion.
3) Do you think that the country is heading in the right direction or down the wrong track?
89% said the wrong track.
8% said the right direction.
2% said no opinion.
Smith said that he plans to conduct more tele-town halls in other parts of his district in the coming weeks.
