Lawmakers fundraise amid rising town hall pressure

A number of top members of Congress hit the fundraising circuit over last week’s congressional recess instead of holding constituent town halls.

To be sure, lawmakers regularly spend much of their time raising money for reelection and to help colleagues in more competitive races.

Members of leadership in particular are expected to raise huge sums for the parties’ campaign organizations.

So it’s not unexpected that lawmakers, particularly top leaders, would spend at least parts of the Presidents Day recess last week attending fundraisers and schmoozing with big donors.

{mosads}But the timing of these most recent fundraisers came as Republicans face pressure to hold public town halls with constituents looking for time to question their representatives about the Trump administration and plans to dismantle the 2010 healthcare law. 

None of the top four House GOP leaders, Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Majority Whip Steve Scalise (La.) and Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), held traditional town halls over the recess. 

But Ryan spent time raising money in Florida, Texas and California, along with touring the U.S.-Mexico border last Wednesday as Congress figures out how to provide funding for the wall promised by President Trump.

McCarthy attended a fundraiser in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif., where protesters gathered to ask why he had time for that event but declined an invitation for a town hall the following day. A McCarthy spokesman told the Fresno Bee that the majority leader had a previously scheduled “charitable event” on the same day as the proposed town hall. 

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) was the keynote speaker at the same Bakersfield fundraiser. Nunes, who is among the lawmakers charged with investigating Russia’s role in influencing the 2016 elections, has also recently drawn protesters to his office demanding a town hall meeting.

Scalise, meanwhile, held a tele-town hall on Friday with nearly 4,000 constituents.

Fundraiser invitations obtained by The Intercept and the Center for Media and Democracy found other examples of lawmakers meeting with donors over the recess but avoiding town halls with constituents.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the Senate Republican Policy Committee chairman, attended a fundraiser over the weekend at a ski resort in Jackson Hole, Wyo., according to The Intercept. Donors were asked to provide $5,000 per political action committee or $1,000 per individual.

About 200 people held an “empty chair town hall” in Jackson Hole to air their concerns about the Trump administration. Since Wyoming’s representatives in Congress — Barrasso, Sen. Mike Enzi (R) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R) — all declined to attend, organizers provided cardboard cutouts in their place. 

Boozman attended one fundraiser in Palm Beach, Fla., over the recess and has another planned in Washington on Monday.

A local anti-Trump Indivisible chapter invited Boozman to speak at a town hall-style event last Friday, but he cited previously scheduled commitments and declined to attend. 

Other invitations to fundraisers obtained by The Intercept are taking place this week while lawmakers are back in Washington for a legislative work week.

Lawmakers regularly attend fundraisers while in the nation’s capital and can only hold call-in town halls at the most while they’re out of their home states and districts. 

Scott Wong contributed.

This story was updated at 3:42 p.m.