February 16, 2017
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey hosted a “tele-townhall” this afternoon.
The dearth of Toomey’s town-hall events in his home state of Pennsylvania has been the focus of several stories at a time when protesters show up at his offices across the commonwealth on a weekly basis.
Steve Kelly, a spokesman for Toomey, said the senator has held 47 of these calls in the past three years (13 in 2014, 24 in 2015 and 10 in 2016). Today's is a result of having heard concerns about constituents' access to their senator.
“He has found these calls to be a great way to hear from folks when he is stuck in Washington,” Kelly said Thursday. “Since there is such interest in how Senator Toomey hears from his constituents, we have added a web audio method for anyone to participate in the call.”
Toomey announced the event in a Facebook post around 12:30 p.m.
The vendor who manages the tele-townhall system will dial 100,000 random numbers across the commonwealth (including Philadelphia) in advance. Those people will be able to listen in over the phone.
But those who don’t get those calls can listen in via this link – it goes live around 1:55 p.m. – or submit questions via social media.
