Congresswoman Grace Meng held a telephone town hall on May 19 that drew more than 2,500 callers from across New York’s 6th Congressional District. The format has since become a point of contention in her Democratic primary race against Chuck Park, a former U.S. diplomat running to her left, with Park supporters arguing the phone-in event prevented constituents from pressing pointed questions about ICE enforcement, the Israel-Palestine conflict, health care costs, and campaign funding from Political Action Committees (PACs).
Ahead of the call, Meng’s team circulated a Google Form for constituents to submit questions in advance, and attendees could also submit questions during the event by typing them into their phones. A moderator read 11 questions to Meng during the call, which she hosted alongside U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, the House’s assistant Democratic leader, and Donna Norton, executive vice president of MomsRising. A full, unedited transcript was released afterward, her campaign said.
According to a QNS report by Renee DeLorenzo published June 3, several constituents who participated in the May 19 call said their questions were either passed over or stripped of their specificity before reaching the congresswoman. Melissa Bair, a Woodside resident who submitted a health care question, told QNS she wasn’t certain the question the moderator read was actually hers. “You didn’t hear the voice of a single constituent,” Bair said. “There was no way of trying to correct the question or ask for clarity.” The moderator read a question framed as: “How are you making high-quality health care actually accessible to Americans?” Bair told QNS it felt generic compared to what she submitted, which she described as specifically about constituents who lack any health care access at all.
Rafael Shimunov, a Forest Hills resident and executive board member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, a 6,000-member grassroots organization that advocates for a ceasefire in Palestine, told QNS he and several friends submitted questions about Israel and Palestine that the moderator never read. “It was not meaningful or substantive,” Shimunov said. “It makes me lose hope in the whole process.” No Israel-Palestine questions were relayed during the call, though Meng addressed the war with Iran in her opening remarks, saying she has “concerns about the U.S. getting drawn into long, broad regional wars” and cautioning that the country “cannot afford another Iraq or Afghanistan.”
Ximena Frankel, a Forest Hills resident and board member of Central Queens Independent Democrats, which has endorsed Park in the primary, told QNS she has repeatedly called Meng’s office asking for a dedicated town hall on ICE, noting that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hosted similar events. “The emails and responses I get back never address or even acknowledge what we’ve called about,” Frankel said. Meng has not committed to abolishing ICE but has said she supports “dismantling” the agency in its current form and has introduced legislation requiring ICE agents to identify themselves. Frankel, an immigrant herself, told QNS those measures fall short. “ICE has had these issues since it began,” she said.
Meng’s campaign defended the format in a statement to QNS, saying the event allowed her to “reach every corner of the district,” including seniors who may not be able to attend an in-person event. Howard Schoenfeld, a Kew Gardens Hills resident who serves as a Queens County Democratic committeeman and judicial delegate, told QNS he found the phone-in format appropriate and more conducive to productive exchange than in-person events, which he argued attract bad-faith disruption. “A few people who want likes and clicks just go to disrupt things,” he said. “It doesn’t help anybody.” Schoenfeld, who listened to the May 19 call without submitting a question, also noted that pro-Palestinian protesters have previously gathered outside Meng’s Bayside home in early morning hours and that many older constituents find calling in more accessible than traveling to an event.
Park has held three in-person town halls in Jackson Heights, Flushing and Bayside, with another focused on the borough’s Chinese-American community scheduled for June 13. His most recent Bayside event was held at Hana Adult Day Care, a community-based facility that supports seniors, a choice Park’s team said was intended to broaden accessibility for older residents. Bair, who said she first connected with Park by cold-messaging him on social media and meeting him for coffee with neighbors, contrasted that experience with Meng’s phone event. “That’s what really gets you, that you can have a conversation, share information and talk about experiences,” she told QNS. “He’s not even representing us and he’s already having a constituent affairs moment.”
Featured image: Congresswoman Grace Meng Press Office / Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
