WASHINGTON - Ed Rossier of Citrus Heights had just finished dinner Wednesday and was settling in to watching the television news when Rep. Dan Lungren called to find out if he had any questions.

"I was surprised," said Rossier, a Democrat.

Lungren is surprising a lot of people these days as the Gold River Republican tests new technology for reaching his constituents.

Using a computer link that connects him to a Las Vegas telephone switching network, Lungren can literally dial up tens of thousands of his constituents in a matter of minutes and conduct a town hall meeting with them from the comfort of their own homes.

While most of the calls go into answering machines or result in hang-ups, hundreds of constituents join in for at least part of the session - and they seem to like the exchange.

"This is really great, your forum here," John Taylor of Citrus Heights told the congressman before asking a question about immigration reform.

Even Rossier, who wasn't sure Lungren answered his question about the investigation of the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity, thinks Lungren might be onto something.

"If this gets information out there, I think it's a good deal," he said.

For Lungren, it's an easy way to stay in touch.

Staring into a computer screen that tells him constantly how many constituents are listening in and automatically queues the next one waiting to ask a question, Lungren answered questions for 80 minutes as easily as if all 627 participants were sitting in his office.

Staying in touch is one of the biggest challenges members of Congress have. The most common way to do it is by sending out mass mailings from Washington or flying out to the district and holding live town hall meetings that require arranging space, mailing invitations and hoping you haven't picked back-to-school night.

"I just thought there must be a way to use technology in a way that costs less," Lungren said.

Lungren is in his first year as a Sacramento-area congressman but retains seniority from a decade representing the Long Beach area in the House before he left to seek state office. He served eight years as California attorney general.

After his election last year to succeed Doug Ose representing the 3rd Congressional District, Lungren regrouped with Rodney Smith, an old friend from their days three decades ago working for the Republican National Committee.

Smith is a direct marketing consultant who signed up Lungren as the first customer of Tele Town Hall Inc. The small startup is seeking a patent on the computer system Lungren is using to hold his virtual town hall.

Smith said that eventually the system will be so smooth that it can be operated without assistance. But on this night, Smith is in constant communication with a colleague monitoring a series of computers in Chicago, which in turn are connected to a data center in Las Vegas that hooks the computers to telephone lines.

When the button is pushed, the system is programmed to dial 25,000 3rd District registered voters - Republicans, Democrats and declined-to-state. To avoid overloading the telephone system, the calls are routed through exchanges all over the country.

When constituents answer the phone, they hear Lungren give a brief welcome and then invite them to join in by pushing a button on their phone.

Not surprisingly, most calls result in hang-ups. On this night, nearly 9,000 calls reached answering machines on which the system automatically delivers a prerecorded message from Lungren.

But 627 people pushed the button to be connected to the conference. For most of the 80-minute session, the actual number of listeners at any given moment numbered more than 200.

"That's about what we would get at a typical town hall out in the district," said Lungren, who has conducted 10 events in person locally so far this year. "The biggest turnout we've ever had is about 250 people, and the smallest was about 50."

The system is still in the testing stage. A minor snafu Wednesday evening just as the calls first started going out may have inadvertently disconnected 34 constituents.

The test was the seventh for the system. Lungren wanted to talk about flood control and even had three questions programmed for an unscientific survey that could be answered with the push of a button.

But of the 15 or so questions Lungren received, flood control wasn't the only thing on constituents' minds. They also asked about immigration, the state of the Republican Party, the investigation into the CIA leak, the state of emergency preparedness and other topics.

Lungren seems pleased with the results.

"From this we get a good sense of what the people are concerned about - what's hot," Lungren said. "There is some persuasion involved in this, but I also want to get a sense of how the people are feeling.

"This is not staged. People don't know I am going to call, and I am reaching them in a setting in which they feel very comfortable - their own home."

Before the tests began, Lungren said, he vetted his experiment through the House committee that oversees office mailings to make sure all rules were being followed. The cost of the Wednesday evening session was about $1,200 for the telephone calls, which Lungren pays for out of his office account.

Lungren said he is trying the calls at different times of the day to see which produces the best "turnout," but so far time doesn't seem to make much difference.

On Wednesday, Lungren finally pulled the plug on the conference 20 minutes past its scheduled end time, still with 93 people listening and 28 remaining in line to ask a question. They were urged to call his Gold River office with their questions.