Will someone get the phone? John Shadegg’s calling
May 21st, 2008, 4:27 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Paul Giblin
John Shadegg
On Monday, while I was cleaning the dinner dishes at home, I received an unexpected telephone call from Republican Rep. John Shadegg.
Shadegg was conducting one of his “tele-Town Hall” teleconference and a computer called my home number at random. I’m one of 321,000 registered voters who live in Shadegg’s congressional district, which takes in central and northern Phoenix, plus Carefree, Cave Creek and Paradise Valley.
Shadegg’s tele-Town Halls operate much like radio talk shows. A computer calls homes within specific geographic regions, regardless of the residents’ political party affiliations. Anyone who picks up can listen in as Shadegg takes questions from other constituents who also are on the call. Listeners with questions can get in queue to speak with Shadegg directly.
Lately, Shadegg has been conducting the tele-Town Hall calls several nights a week, whether he’s in Phoenix or in Washington, said his press secretary Abby Winter. The calls generally last about 90 minutes each. If you work the time-zone math, that means that when Shadegg is in Washington, he makes the calls from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time to catch people at reasonable hours in Arizona.
Usually Winter talks to constituents who want to ask questions off-air, so to speak, to inquire about the general topics of their question. Then Shadegg selects from among the callers, whose first names and topics are displayed on a computer in front of him. The strategy allows him to move from topic to topic.
About half the residents want to discuss some aspect of immigration, Winter said. The next hottest topics, somewhat in order, are healthcare, education, gas prices/energy, the Iraq war, the economy, housing and gun rights.
On Monday, Shadegg was a bit of a ham and kept the call entertaining. “Thanks for the question about gas prices, Mark. Next, we have a question from Polly about healthcare. What’s on your mind Polly?”
Alas, Shadegg never got to the topic that was on the top of the list for my lovely wife – calling her sister to wish her a happy birthday – so I dropped off the tele-Town Hall after a few questions to free up the phone line.
