Dreier Dialed In With Home
Nearly 800 constituents attended a town-hall meeting Wednesday evening from the warmth of their homes.
Some were eating dinner. Others were watching television. However, unknown to them, an unexpected telephone call from Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, would take them into a political forum and away from their daily routine.
An innovative new computer link allowed Dreier to personally call more than 11,000 households within minutes, providing constituents with an opportunity to tell their congressional leader what they really think. And 20 concerned citizens did.
The new technology dubbed Tele Town Hall, allows the House Rules Committee chairman to connect with his community in a no-holds-barred manner.
It is also a place where residents, thousands of miles away, have a voice, Dreier said. "California is a high-tech state, so it's only appropriate to use the latest innovations to stay connected when I'm working in Washington," Dreier said. "This is a wide open format - there is no holding back on these calls. We've had the chance to talk about everything from concerns regarding the Middle East to Medicare, from border security to postal delays."
Dreier, who has done hundreds of face to face town-hall meetings, is one of only a handful of congressional leaders who have used the new technology.
Tele Town Hall Inc. is marketed by former Republican Committee member Rodney Smith. The first to use the system was Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, after his election in 2004.
"It allows me to know what matters most to my constituents," Dreier said. "This is amazing technology. We have had more than 2,000 people listening in live during one call."
On Wednesday, after a full day of work on Capitol Hill, Dreier headed to his office. He arrived with 30 minutes to spare, double-checked the computer system with Smith and prepared for the unknown.
The computer link then connected Dreier to a telephone switching network in Las Vegas which routes throughout the country in order to make the system work, Smith said. Calls are routed through exchanges to avoid a system overload, he added.
With a computer screen in his line of site and the Capitol behind him, Dreier watched as hundreds of his constituents joined the call. The number of callers jumped from 40 to nearly 800 within minutes.
The congressman could even see the names of constituents who were waiting to ask a question. Names popped up, and Dreier answered questions. Some residents wanted to thank him for past resolved local issues, others wanted to discuss international politics like border security and Iraq.
Dreier answered 20 in-depth questions while the town hall listened. For more than an hour, he spoke candidly to supporters and opponents, all of whom thanked him for taking the time to listen.
The technology still had some glitches Wednesday night but seemed relatively minor. They included a phone listing not matching a household, Smith said.
"People move," Smith said. "Eventually, the phone listings are updated."
That only happened once during the meeting, and Dreier quickly worked around the glitch - laughing off the problem with the resident on the other line.
The voters are in charge of saying what they want to say and asking what they want to ask, Dreier said.
Dreier's 26th District, which runs from Los Angeles foothill communities into Rancho Cucamonga and Wrightwood, comprises 340,471 registered voters. To date, the Tele Town Hall system has contacted nearly 100,000 phone numbers listed in the district. For residents who are not home when a Tele Town hall meeting begins, a prerecorded message from Dreier is automatically left on their answering machine explaining the town-hall meeting and asking them to join in next time. Today, Tuesday and Wednesday evening Dreier, will contact his constituents again. Dreier, who arrived late Sunday night from a diplomatic trip to Mexico and a tour of the Arizona border, hopes residents will join in and express their views.
"I never imagined I'd be able to speak with thousands of constituents on one call," Dreier said. "It has been a real privilege to hear constituents' views immediately as various issues confronting Congress unfold."
