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Glad Stefanik is holding public forums

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik gestures as she answers a question from a member of the audience during a “Coffee with Your Congresswoman” April 24 at the Shirley J. Luck Senior Citizens Center in Johnstown. (Photo — The Leader-Herald)

We’re glad northern New York’s representative in Congress, Elise Stefanik, has again started holding public forums where she answers constituents’ unfiltered questions. Also, her recent “Coffee with Your Congresswoman” events in Johnston and Lyons Falls were open to the media so people who weren’t there can find out what was said from an independent source. That’s essential.

Stefanik will also take part in a community forum on Mountain Lake PBS at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 8, moderated by Thom Hallock, producer and host of the station’s “Mountain Lake Journal” news show. Mountain Lake PBS will live-stream the forum and also tape it for broadcast at 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 9. The studio can only hold 100 audience members, for which the station is holding a lottery, but the station invites those unable to attend in person to join the conversation with questions and comments while watching the live stream at http://mountainlake.org/stefanik.

These recent public appearances are an improvement for Stefanik, who has faced criticism — mostly by progressives — for shying away public town-hall-style forums. She has held them in the past — her staff says the Johnstown “Coffee with your Congresswoman” was her 15th — but not much since President Donald Trump took office and ramped her world up to a new level of scrutiny. She meets with plenty of constituents but prefers lower-profile methods such as “tele-town hall” call-ins and small-group meetings.

She has explained this by saying activists often make town hall forums unruly. They sometimes do, but thankfully, these “Coffee with Your Congresswoman” events were civil and orderly, even though the Johnstown forum was heavy with Trump critics.

Some people there asked Stefanik to hold bigger forums, and we hope she does. We still haven’t heard from her about our invitation to help her hold a town-hall-style forum in Lake Placid.

In the meantime, media coverage amplifies even small forums to help inform the electorate, especially when stories are shared between media in New York’s vast 21st Congressional District. We are fortunate to have a sister paper in Gloversville, whose story on the Johnstown hearing we picked up, and we also enjoy agreements to share stories with three other daily newspapers in the district.

As we have said in the past, Stefanik is smart, hard-working, a pretty good listener and committed to actually governing — but she’s guarded to a fault and beholden to big-money special interests, especially Wall Street firms and military contractors that contribute big bucks to her campaign fund. She has won two elections, but she already has an energetic Democratic challenger for the 2018 election and can’t afford to rest on her laurels.

She knows she can’t get away with merely walking the Republican Party line (although it’s doubtful whether there is a Republican Party line anymore) because even though the North Country mostly votes Republican, it’s still a diverse mix of interests, yet distinct from other parts of the country. She won’t be able to make everyone happy, but putting herself out there will go a long way toward building trust, whether people agree with her policy positions or not.

While she’s putting herself out there, she needs to let people know her position on the newly revived Republican health plan. It’s unacceptable to keep waffling on such a critical issue.

Public forums are a good way to nudge our congresswoman toward being more open, accountable and dedicated to serving the voters rather than her campaign donors — in other words, better at her job. Although she is already in her second term, she still has a lot to learn from her constituents.

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