Protesters motivated by MoveOn.org and their rivals met again today at Kay Hagan's office in Greensboro. Security officers at the building in the Green Valley Road office park ended up asking people to leave, and apparently told them they could no longer park in the building lot -- meaning they would need to take a very long walk to reach their Senator's local digs. The MoveOn group seems to have been the proximate cause of complaints from other tenants, who were probably already agitated by a previous encounter, during which the anti-reform protesters made a racket with a boombox and a motorcycle.
Sounds to me like Hagan, who seems genuinely interested in constituent access -- her staff met today in the office with a group of anti-reform protesters -- may be in the wrong building.
UPDATE: Vernon Robinson, the former Winston-Salem city councilman and erstwhile GOP candidate for the US House of Representatives, offers a first-person account of events after the jump. His version is substantially the same as the story I got from a Hagan staffer, which, along with an earlier phone call from Vernon, informed my original post, although the Hagan staffer cited the MoveOn group, not Vernon's cohorts, as the primary cause of the problem.
Vernon Robinson's account:
So, the private security called the police and the police moved the other people concerned with policy who were outside with signs off the property. I joined them after a while and talked to one of the Greensboro Police officers. He said unless you had an appointment to see the Senator's staff that the property owners were within their rights to have you arrested for trespassing and tow your vehicle. He also said that people without an appointment could protest on the sidewalk but could not park in the parking lot where the Senator's office is and unless one of the other property owner's nearby let you park in their parking lot, you would have to park several miles away.
Kay Hagan may like constituent feedback but her private security guards don't
I subsequently found out from the NC director of Freedom Works, Alan Paige, that while I was upstairs, the building security guards prevented two citizens from entering the building to see their Senator's staff.
This is unacceptable on so many levels. I don't care where the office is. The Senator has an obligation to ensure the constitutional right of the citizens to peacefully petition for redress. The idea that a politician can make opposition go away by denying them an appointment is just not going to cut it.
When I talked to Kay Hagan's Communications Director (Chief of Staff not there, Legislative Director busy seizing one fifth of the US economy), he assured me that Kay Hagan was concerned about her constituents and sought their feedback. I told him that she may be interested in feedback, but the security guards hadn't read the constitution recently and definitely were not interested in her constituents being able to petition her.
Why is Hagan not in the Federal Building in Greensboro or Winston-Salem? According to the Communications Director there was no room in either federal building. Wow, imagine that. The federal government is so bloated that is doesn't have room in federal buildings in two cities to place the Senator's office. A buddy suggested why don't they put the office in Winston-Salem where the IRS now is placed...nobody is going to show up at the IRS office without an appointment.
I wasn't there and I don't know what happened, but I do know the building. Parking "several miles away" is hard to believe. There's local street parking off Cridland and the back of the building is practically in Cone Hospital's circular driveway on Elm Street which has lots of on-street parking. At least that part of the account is inaccurate. Can't speak to the rest of it but that part sounds somewhat embellished. However, I do know the building and it's nice space but if you're expecting big crowds with any regularity, it's not the right building for what Sen. Hagan does.
Posted by: Sue | Jul 23, 2009 at 10:48 PM
You dont seem to know the building too too well.
Posted by: Mick | Jul 23, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Vernon must be losing his touch. So many words and not a single rant blaming the world's ails on gays, hispanics or women.
Posted by: Andrew | Jul 24, 2009 at 02:36 AM
Hyperbole aside, Vernon makes a good point.
Posted by: Roch101 | Jul 24, 2009 at 10:10 AM
And all this happened without a "local right-wing blogger egging them on"?
Imagine that.
Posted by: Jeffrey Sykes | Jul 24, 2009 at 11:34 AM
"The idea that a politician can make opposition go away by denying them an appointment is just not going to cut it."
Vernon, inconsistencies in your logic is just one of many reasons why voters are not likely to send you to Washington to represent. The definition for the word "appointment" is, in the context of this story, "an arrangement for a meeting". You know, two people communicating via phone or e-mail and agreeing on a specific time and place to meet? See, that's why the word "appointment" is very often accompanied by other words like "set" or "set up", because of the need for arranging and agreeing and such.
30 to 40 people showing up at an office does not an appointment make. A more precise (and polite) definition for that is "an unscheduled appearance of a large group of people". I'll leave out the less polite version for now.
I will speculate though, that if you had succeeded in your efforts to get elected to Congress, your staff would be very aware of the difference between scheduled and unscheduled appearances, and security guards would be hovering somewhere and expected to act.
If you want to dispute that, and make the claim that you would see anybody at any time, scheduled appointment or not, and you would drop whatever you were doing at the time to accommodate them, then let's hear it. If not, then stop the charade about poorly informed security guards and ignored constituents, because that's just one more of your embarrassing political antics.
Posted by: Steve Harrison | Jul 24, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Vernon's account casts him and has group as victims of a politcal stiff-arm.
Yet he acknowledges that his group got access to office staff, and Hagan's people say it was the MoveOn folks wandering the halls with signs who irked other tenants and precipitated the ejections.
There's a reasonable question here: is Hagan's GSO office in the right place?
As Roch said, you just have to filter Vernon's version for dramatic license.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jul 24, 2009 at 12:13 PM
The Weaver-Park building that Sen. Hagan uses is a private building and her office is, I think, on the 2nd floor (could be mistaken about that). There are lawyers, foundations, businesses and some medical-related spaces so it's really disruptive to tenants if a fairly large (for the space) group wants to protest or simply gather. Perhaps she should consider a storefront in a strip mall (seriously) for easy access and parking. Anything in or near downtown will generate the same parking complaints (there's an obligation, I suppose, to enabling protestors' parking convenience).
Posted by: Sue | Jul 24, 2009 at 01:16 PM
If I should be elected to Congress, I would rent office space in a location that accomodates the rights of citizens to peacefully petition their elected officials. No one expected Senator Hagan to drop what she was doing. Any elected official would have a staffer take the material and speak with those who had someething to say. That is not possible if the security guards are preventing citizens from coming to the office and threatening them with having their car towed.
Posted by: Vernon Robinson | Jul 24, 2009 at 01:19 PM
If you should be elected to Congress, I'll hunt my ham with a bird gun.
Posted by: Fec the Terrible | Jul 24, 2009 at 01:49 PM
Fair enough, Vernon. And thanks for responding in person.
Now, my next question is: if "peacefully petitioning your elected official" was the purpose of your gathering, then what (in the Sam Hill) was this Tweet about:
"Counter rally sen kay hagans gboro office tomorrow noon july 23. Last time moveon.org tried to hold rally patriots mobbed them. See u ther"
Which actually brings up part of the un-polite definition I left out earlier, namely the word "mob".
This is too easy, and I get the sinking feeling that no matter what, I will come out of this debate in worse condition than Mr. Robinson. It's like fishing with a concussion grenade: it works really well, but if anybody sees you doing it, they just think you're a jerk. :/
Posted by: Steve Harrison | Jul 24, 2009 at 09:44 PM
OK. I am officially confused. Not that it really matters but...
Is Hagan's office on Green Valley Rd or in the Weaver Park Bldng off of Rlm and Cridland?
Posted by: Mick | Jul 25, 2009 at 05:41 AM
Steve, picky, picky, picky. Mobbing, peacefully petitioning, what's the difference?
Posted by: Roch101 | Jul 25, 2009 at 11:26 AM
Quantity of calories burned? The number of stepped-on-toe injuries? The amount of animation used when the story is told later? The number of victims a single fart can encompass? Okay, I'm going to quit with that last one. That's gold. :)
Posted by: Steve Harrison | Jul 25, 2009 at 08:03 PM