EDITORIAL: Town hall is chance to speak up, don’t throw it away

As you’ll read in this week’s paper, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle) is coming to the island next Thursday to hold a town hall — one of several she has scheduled for various locations throughout the 7th legislative district she now represents, having won the seat in November’s election after former Rep. Jim McDermott retired after 28 years in the House.

This is not the first time a congressional representative has made the trek to our rock in the sound — McDermott’s last visit was five years ago — but it does come during one of the most chaotic and contentious political climates this country has ever experienced.

Town Halls have long been a way for politicians to meet with and “hear” their constituents in order to maintain legitimacy, built on a history of informal, populist discourse stemming all the way back to the colonial meeting houses of 17th century New England. And though they have certainly evolved over time, one principal remains a cornerstone of these events: accountability.

Jayapal is a progressive Democrat representing a district that is well known for being the most predominantly liberal in the entire nation. She’s an Indian-American woman, who has spent the better part of the last two decades advocating for immigrants and women, as well as civil and human rights. She took the reigns from an older, white male Democrat and with progressive top gun Bernie Sanders solidly in her corner, our new representative seems like she couldn’t be a better fit for our collective ideals than if we’d matched on E-Harmony.

But Jayapal is not coming here for a pep rally, campaign stop or even a vegan dinner at Snap Dragon followed by a long walk on the beach.

It’s not enough that the majority of voters here helped elect her. Now it’s time to make sure that the job of representing her constituents is being done. Yes, it’s early going. But it’s never the wrong time for accountability.

Consider that Jayapal’s run for McDermott’s position was not without its issues.

During what was in fact a brief tenure in the state senate — Jayapal was elected in 2014, sworn in in January of 2015, then declared her candidacy for Congress just a few months into 2016 — she missed 106 votes (according to washingtonvotes.org). Only four other senators missed that many or more and for comparison, Senator Sharon Nelson (D-Maury Island) missed 54 during the same time period. That’s half as many, for those keeping score at home. Yes, there can be many reasons for elected officials to miss legislative votes. However, missing so many more than the majority of her counterparts in such a short period of time deserves some thought.

It has also been pointed out that Jayapal took what some saw as an opportunistic or easy path to the national stage, instead of potentially making more of a difference by running in her own district. It is well known that Jayapal does not live in the 7th District (at lease she didn’t during the campaign/election). We know that she used to, until some lines were re-drawn in 2011 and since then she’s been living in the 9th District. She did not challenge the 9th’s incumbent, Adam Smith — a Democrat, but also a white, male establishment centrist — whom she could have replaced to represent a far more racially and culturally diverse district than the one she chose. We could have sent both a gay man of color (Brady Walkinshaw, Jayapal’s opponent for McDermott’s seat) and a woman of color to Congress instead of just one of them.

And politics being what it is, there is the small matter of her trying to take credit during her campaign for something she had almost nothing to do with, Seattle’s $15/hr minimum wage.

At the end of the day, does any of this really matter? In the greater scheme of things, given the current state of the union, this is all small potatoes and some will say too harsh. Let’s face it, it’s not like she colluded with a foreign power to affect the outcome of her election. So why even bring these things up?

Rep. Jayapal is someone who has done, and has the potential to do, a lot of good work. But she should not get an automatic pass because of that. She is human, and she is our representative, and we cannot be complacent. We cannot assume that the work that needs to be done, will be done. We cannot be afraid to ask tough questions and we should expect, and deserve, answers.

Jayapal’s website says “Town halls are an important way for constituents to connect with their representatives in government and hold them accountable.” We couldn’t agree more.