Visit from Bond representative draws little local response

Wednesday, September 3, 2003

On Tuesday, Sept. 2, representatives of U.S. Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond held a listening post, to allow voters a chance to interact with representatives of their elected officials, but all they heard was silence. Patrick S. Morrow, Bond's field representative, said that the point of listening posts is to make themselves available to the public. These events are held several times a year in each county of Bond's district. Morrow said that perhaps the name is misleading. The objective of a listening post is not for people to listen to the views of the senator, but rather for the senators representatives to listen to opinions of voters. "It's intentionally very low key," said Morrow. Normally, a wide variety of subjects are discussed at listening posts. Morrow reported that voters commonly want to know the senator's position about various issues and come seeking help with problems that they are facing that originate from or are administered by the government. "There is not really (one) specific question that we deal with," said Morrow. Morrow said that most of the time when someone wants an official position on something he will take notes on their question and gather information needed to contact that person with the answer. Then, an official response is sent to the constituent. "We are trying to help people in whatever issue they are dealing with -- with the federal government," said Morrow. Morrow said that the turnouts for listening post events vary drastically. He has attended meetings with both small and large crowds. Attendance has strong ties to the tribulations that people are facing. Having no one show up, while not unheard of, is rare. "It might be, in a sense, good news. It might be because there isn't anything bad going on with them.

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