Republican U.S. Senator from Florida Marco Rubio has eschewed town hall meetings with constituents in recent months (if not years) — so much so that critics have held mock town hall meetings to express their concerns over the way he votes.
Although he's apparently not gung-ho about hearing from people who think his policy positions are shite, there is one special group of people with whom the senator is willing to congregate: people he agrees with.
Hence, Rubio is reportedly headlining the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee's Lincoln Day Dinner on Friday, May 19 at the Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon.
“We're really excited he's coming to our district, but he still refuses to do town hall meetings with his constituents. He's done zero town halls this year and there are a lot of people who really want to talk to him and have questions for him," said David Higgins, an organizer with Indivisible FL-13 (referring to the congressional district in which it operates).
He said activists may have a "presence" near the event venue (i.e. public rights-of-way where they can legally protest), but they've got an idea for catching Rubio's eye as he makes his way to the event from I-275: a large billboard calling him out for dodging the people who pay his salary (a digital rendering of said prospective billboard is pictured above).
It reads:
"Rubio refuses to do town hall meetings — Floridians deserve to be heard. So we made this billboard."
Across the bay, Indivisible Tampa has put up two billboards challenging Rubio for his lack of contact with constituents went up earlier this month. One sign near the intersection of North Dale Mabry and Hillsborough Avenue and one is visible from the Veterans Expressway near the Hillsborough Avenue exit.
Both chastise Rubio for his support of a policy that critics say would put Americans' search engine history up for sale.
But this seems to be the first billboard of its kind in Pinellas County.
Much like Indivisible members across the bay, activists set up a GoFundMe page aimed at raising the money to pay for the billboard, which would go up on May 15 and stick around for three weeks.
“We have real concerns," Higgins said. "We have real questions. We're concerned about the direction of this country. We're confused about some of the positions he's taken, frankly.”
Among those concerns, Higgins said, are Rubio's about-face on President Trump's then-nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, his vote to change Senate rules killing the filibuster for U.S. Supreme Court nominees and apparently changing his mind on bombing Syria once it was a Republican president who was calling for it. And, of course, his support for repealing the Affordable Care Act, which would leave millions of people without insurance.But obviously they can't talk to him about these concerns directly, however much they would to.
“He said that he's not going to do town hall meetings because he doesn't think they're going to be productive, because he thinks people are going to show up and yell at him or whatever," Higgins said. "First of all, you can't really represent the people of your state if you don't talk to the people of your state. And apparently he only thinks it will be productive if he speaks to people that agree with him.”
Out of its $3,380 goal, the six-day-old page has raised $2,980 as of this post.
If successful, the sign would go up just off the I-275 exit for Ulmerton Road, which is right on the route to the hotel where the event is taking place.
This article appears in Apr 20-27, 2017.