Activists gearing up for Bucshon town hall

July 20--In theory, 8th District Rep. Larry Bucshon's strategy of asking people to submit written questions read by a moderator at Friday night's town hall should ensure the event is orderly.

But you can ask Dave Brat how that theory worked out for him.

Brat, a Republican congressman from Virginia, is one of several GOP lawmakers who have tried requiring written questions at town halls across the country this year -- only to be drowned out anyway by chants from supporters of anti-Trump group Indivisible. Brat's Feb. 21 town hall in Blackstone, Va., was widely covered by national news outlets who described an acrimonious scene.

Brat said Bucshon approached him on the House floor in Washington on Tuesday to talk about his own looming town hall in Evansville. The meeting is set for 6 p.m. Friday at the Southern Indiana Career & Technical Center. Indivisible Evansville expects some 200 of its supporters will show up.

"We had a good chat," the Virginia congressman said. "I told him all about mine -- we all share notes."

Brat didn't divulge what he told Bucshon, but he told the Courier & Press that Indivisible activists ignored his attempts to impose order on the meeting in Blackstone right from the start.

"We had a preacher come in to give the prayer, they booed him. They booed when the name of the church was invoked. They booed when I said rights come from God. There wasn't a whole lot of respect in that room, it was right from the get-go," Brat said.

CNN also described a raucous scene with a 200-seat venue filled to capacity and a long line outside.

"Nearly every answer was met with loud rebuke from attendees, drowning out (Brat's) comments at times," the news network reported. "One woman standing in the back yelled at (Brat) throughout the evening, and police asked her to tone it down."

If there is noise at Friday night's town hall in Evansville, Indivisible may not be the only group making it.

Indivisible leaders said this week that some supporters will be outside the Career & Technical Center assembly hall waving signs -- but there will be voices supporting Bucshon too. Vanderburgh GOP Chairman Wayne Parke, who said he will be present, said notice of the town hall meeting was included in an email that went to 1,000 Republicans. Jim Bratten, director of tea party group Hoosier Patriots, said "a handful" of his group's supporters also will attend.

Law enforcement officers will be present at the meeting.

Edie Hardcastle, president of Indivisible Evansville, said the group has asked its supporters to keep things civil -- to a point.

"Of course we don't have control over everybody that's going to be there by a long shot -- but we're certainly asking our members to refrain from booing," Hardcastle said.

But that doesn't mean silence will reign.

Bucshon's office has said questioners will be asked to stand when their questions are read. They will not be given microphones. But Hardcastle promised that Indivisible supporters will feel free to speak up "if they feel their written question wasn't sufficiently answered."

"We think it's reasonable to ask for a follow-up," she said. "We don't necessarily expect that to happen. The problem really is, it's going to be (Bucshon's) moderator -- so he'll only get questions that he feels comfortable answering."

Bucshon's office declined Thursday to identify the event's moderator. The Career & Technical Center said it doesn't know.

There are other indications that Indivisible will be adversarial Friday night, if not loud and contentious.

Hardcastle acknowledged Indivisible Evansville approved a group text sent by Oakland, Calif.-based anti-Trump group Rapid Resist asking individuals to come to the town hall to "hold (Bucshon) accountable for his support of the corrupt & incompetent Trump administration." The California group has a "texting team" that seeks to generate turnout among Democrats and progressives for events around the country that "make(s) the resistance to Trump visible."

Indivisible Evansville also has asked its members to give their questions not only to Bucshon but to the group -- so it knows which ones weren't answered. The group said in a July 15 news release that Bucshon's written-questions policy shows he wants to "screen questions and silence criticism."

On Wednesday, Hardcastle said some Indivisible supporters would convene at Zion United Church of Christ Thursday night to make signs for display outside the Career & Technical Center before and during Bucshon's town hall meeting. There might be a line outside the assembly hall. The Career & Technical Center said Thursday that Bucshon's district office asked it to prepare for 200 people -- the number Indivisible alone expects to generate.

Bucshon declined through a spokesman to be interviewed, but in March he called Indivisible a "national liberal organization" that is disrupting public meetings in other congressional districts with confrontational questions and angry rants about Republican President Donald Trump and GOP legislative priorities.

The four-term congressman has said he seeks a law enforcement presence at his public meetings out of concern for the safety of everyone present, not just him and his aides. In a statement issued last week, he called Friday's town hall "a great opportunity for me to continue this open, honest, and respectful dialogue with the citizens I represent in Congress."

Virginia Congressman Brat applauded Bucshon for holding Friday night's meeting in what could be a hostile setting. Brat said his advice to his fellow Republican is to "just stay positive."

"You know, he's doing his best," Brat said. "The people will read through what the other side is doing."

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