MANKATO — Organizers of town halls planned Saturday in Mankato and St. Peter said they extended invitations to U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad to participate but have yet to hear a response.
DFL Rep. Luke Frederick, of Mankato, and DFL Sen. Nick Frentz, of North Mankato, are holding a state Senate District 18 town hall at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Intergovernmental Center in Mankato. In a legislative update on March 14, Frederick stated they invited Finstad and Rep. Erica Schwartz, of Nicollet, and hadn’t heard back from the GOPers.
As of Thursday nothing had changed, Frederick said, adding he doesn’t anticipate Finstad or Schwartz being there.
Constituents in the 1st Congressional District have been calling out Finstad’s lack of town hall participation in recent weeks. The district includes southern Minnesota from the eastern state border with Wisconsin to the western border with South Dakota.
Finstad’s office didn’t respond to The Free Press’ multiple inquiries into the issue earlier this month.
An invitation by local Indivisible groups for Finstad to attend their Saturday town hall in St. Peter was also met with silence, said organizer Marian Broida. The progressive group, with chapters in St. Peter/Greater Mankato and New Ulm, will have an empty chair at the event.
“The plan includes questions generated by our members, some will be pre-submitted and some from the floor,” Broida said of the format assuming no Finstad. “Then we’ll have personal stories about how policies Mr. Finstad is supporting will hurt people.”
People interested in attending can reach out to either the St. Peter/Greater Mankato or New Ulm Indivisibles on Facebook for specifics on time and location, Broida said.
Outside of the Mankato area, Gov. Tim Walz’s Saturday town hall in Rochester is in direct response to Republican refusals to hold in-person town halls. Doors open for his event at 9:30 a.m. and it’s expected to go until noon.
The town halls are timed for when Finstad is on recess from Congress. Known as a district work period, the recess lasts through Sunday and is a time designed for lawmakers to engage with constituents and work on local issues.
During the recess Finstad’s Facebook has posts about meetings with a law enforcement association, a group of constituents in Washington, D.C., and Rochester’s mayor. His posts frequently have commenters calling for town halls.
A Finstad staffer attended a Tuesday meeting in Mankato on how Medicaid cuts would have a widespread, painful impact on Minnesotans in his district. The staffer told attendees he’d report back to Finstad.