The meetings are scheduled for this coming Saturday, August 29, in Manchester and Portsmouth.
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Norris Cotton Federal Building
275 Chestnut Street
Manchester, NH 03101
Doors open at 10:00 a.m.
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Thomas J. McIntyre Federal Building
80 Daniel Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Doors open at 1:00 p.m.
Note that both meetings are being held at Federal Buildings.
Apparently, Carol Shea-Porter doesn't want to talk to a whole lot of people. Scheduling these events at a Federal Building is likely to result in a significantly smaller crowd due to significantly smaller space.
She also doesn't appear to want people carrying legal firearms anywhere near her meeting, either. Every visitor to a Federal Building is required to pass through a security checkpoint with a metal detector.
Federal Buildings also come with their own on-site security personnel of the Federal kind. Step out of line at this meeting and, odds are, it won't be the local police escorting you to a holding room--it'll be the Department of Homeland Security.
Carol knows she's in for a tough time at these meetings. She's trying to give herself a "home field advantage" of sorts by stacking the deck in her favor. She can't control the conversation, but she's going to try as hard as she can to control the environment that conversation takes place in.
The only reason she's having these "Faux Hall Meetings" is because GOP hopeful and current Manchester mayor, Frank Guinta, shamed her into it. He decided to have a real Town Hall--open to anyone who wants to attend--at the Exeter Town Hall at 6:00 p.m. on August 31. If Guinta and his team hadn't made a big deal of this, she wouldn't be anywhere near New Hampshire voters during this recess. This is her response?
For Carol Shea-Porter, the people in her district are apparently only good enough to talk to when she can lock them in a room on her terms.
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