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Only one Republican is running for a seat on Johnstown City Council.

Mark Amsdell is a U.S. Marine Corps and National Guard veteran who served in Afghanistan.

With no other competition in Tuesdays GOP primary, Amsdell will represent the party in the general election, barring unforeseen circumstances.

There are four open council seats for which 10 Democrats also are vying.

Mark Amsdell

Age: 47.

Neighborhood: Moxham.

Occupation: CDL truck driver; UAV operator.

Background:Associate degree in aviation science; certified as auto mechanic, airframe/powerplant mechanic; machinist (CNC and conventional); A+ trained in computer repair.

Why do you want to serve on council?: It is absolutely necessary that people with clear vision and leadership stand up to stop the continued mismanagement before there is nothing left of Johnstown but collapsing buildings.

What do you believeare the most important issues facing the city?: Primarily, Johnstown needs a council that truly recognizes the situation it is in and will work toward real, lasting solutions, and the ability to communicate that to the community. ...

Secondly, a city government that understands its role, and that is willing to make the necessary changes to put Johnstown on a track toward sustainability. Even our new city manager agrees that Johnstown will not last much longer with the path it is on. Johnstown needs not only employees that will adjust to the roles they need to fill, but a City Council that is willing to listen to all of its residents, not just the loudest ones. ...

You may be asking why I didnt include jobs, drugs, crime, etc. Simply because those problems will solve themselves when the city is ready to fulfill its role properly.

We are the biggest obstacle to our own success, sometimes.

Not to say that these other issues do not also need a little coaxing, because they do. It would simply take too long to explain everything for every topic that is wrong in Johnstown. (It has been) 35-plus years of leadership doing nothing.

Dave Sutor is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at(814)532-5056. Follow him on Twitter@Dave_Sutor.

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Lone Republican runs for City Council - TribDem.com

James Hohmann/WaPo;

THE BIG IDEA: The biggest news out of Donald Trumps Thursday interview with NBC was his confession that the Russia investigation was on his mind when he fired FBI Director James Comey.Undercutting 48 hours of denials by his aides, the president said: In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story; its an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.

But what may ultimately get Trump into bigger trouble is his story about Comey assuring him he was not under investigation during a one-on-one dinner at the White House.Lester Holt askedthe president to elaborate on his claim, made in the letter firing Comey, that hed been told three times he was not under federal investigation. He wanted to stay at the FBI, and I said Ill, you know, consider and see what happens,Trump said. But we had a very nice dinner, and at that time he told me, You are not under investigation.

David A. Hopkins/Honest Graft:

Why Congressional Republicans Won't Abandon Trump Over Comey

To McConnell, Republican support for any Democratic calls to investigate Trump would only signal to voters that Trump had indeed done something wrong, further reducing the president's public support and thus giving the Democrats even more of an advantage. Converting every Trump-related controversy into a partisan food fight instead allows Republicans to summon their base to rally behind them in yet another polarizing battle against the left. Since Democratic supporters are already likely to be highly motivated to turn out against Trump in the next two elections, Republicans are concerned about whether their own side will match their opponents' level of engagement.

Of course, this approach carries certain risks. The most obvious danger is that congressional Republicans could wind up chaining themselves more tightly to Trump just as he plummets off a political cliff. The lack of a meaningful difference between Trump and the rest of the Republican Party gives anti-Trump voters good reason to replace even personally popular Republican incumbents with Democratic challengers. Unless Trump finds a way to bolster his national popularity in the future, even a relatively energized Republican base may not be enough to protect the party against a wider popular backlash among Democrats and independents.

It's also quite possible that Ryan and McConnell would be better served in the long run by buzzing a warning pitch or two under Trump's chin at this stage of his presidency. Automatic party support for his various antics in office may only reinforce bad behavior on Trump's part, making future Comey-scale debacles all the more likely and dragging the entire party into an inescapable political morass. Occasional demonstrations of independence by congressional Republicans might have a constraining effect on a president with flawed knowledge, instincts, and judgment, encouraging him to consult with a wider array of interlocutors and steering him away from the most disastrous courses of action. Normally, party leaders' interests are not well-served by greater intra-party tension. But we are, at the moment, a fair ways off fromnormalcy.

Vann Newkirk II/Atlantic:

How Unprecedented Is James Comey's Firing?

A Q&A with historian Beverly Gage about the history of conflicts between FBI directors and the executive branch

Vann R. Newkirk II: Ill start with the big question. Is James Comeys firing by Donald Trump an unprecedented clash between president and FBI?

Beverly Gage: The answer is yes and no. It is unprecedented in its extremenessno president before this moment has fired an FBI director who was engaged in conducting an ongoing and politically sensitive investigation of his own campaign. On the other hand, this sort of conflict between the FBI and the executive branch is not itself totally anomalous. It's something that we've seen over the course of American history. During J. Edgar Hoover's day, he had repeated conflicts with presidents, and he had a kind of autonomous power that allowed to withstand and sometimes win those conflicts, for better or worse. Since then, most presidents have been cautious about this kind of direct confrontation.

Amanda Taub/NY Times:

Comeys Firing Tests Strength of the Guardrails of Democracy

Norms about political behavior and power serve as soft guardrails for democracy, said Steven Levitsky, a professor at Harvard who studies authoritarianism.

In a healthy democratic system, when politicians violate important norms, other institutions push back, ensuring that the violators pay a hefty price and the guardrails are preserved for another day.

But in collapsing democracies, the opposite happens. Instead of banding together to protect democratic norms, warring parties take violations by their opponents as justification for breaking other norms in response. Its a process of escalation that often begins with minor stuff and ends with coups, Mr. Levitsky said.

Dave Weigel/WaPo:

Republicans misstate, again and again on TV and at town halls, whats in their health-care bill

That means these lawmakers face two potential backlashes: one if opponents of Obamacare perceive the bill does not go far enough, and another from Americans worried that the bill would eliminate their coverage.

The result has been a confused sales effort and a series of flat misstatements and contradictions about whats actually in the bill.

Its a risky strategy especially in front of the skeptical crowds and interviewers Republicans have been speaking to in recent days. On Wednesday, Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) spent nearly five hours answering questions from a disgruntled audience of constituents, some of whom spoke at length about what Medicaid meant in their communities. MacArthur was blown back by laughter when he argued, as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has, that caps on per capita Medicaid funding would leave the system stronger.

I am trying to save a system so it continues to help you, he said. I am trying to make sure Medicaid is strong enough to continue.

Later, MacArthur argued that the tax cuts in the bill were for everybody but when a constituent calculated that MacArthurs own savings would amount to $37,000 if the bill was passed, the congressman agreed that the bills large investment tax cut was not going to benefit everyone equally.

Paul Krugman/NY Times:

So its nave to expect Republicans to join forces with Democrats to get to the bottom of the Russia scandal even if that scandal may strike at the very roots of our national security. Todays Republicans just dont cooperate with Democrats, period. Theyd rather work with Vladimir Putin.

In fact, some of them probably did.

Now, maybe Im being too pessimistic. Maybe there are enough Republicans with a conscience or, failing that, sufficiently frightened of an electoral backlash that the attempt to kill the Russia probe will fail. One can only hope so.

But its time to face up to the scary reality here. Most people now realize, I think, that Donald Trump holds basic American political values in contempt. What we need to realize is that much of his party shares that contempt.

Laurence Tribe, Richard Painter and Norman Eisen/USA Today:

Whether the presidents clumsy and seemingly ill-thought-out steps will backfire is impossible to predict. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had promised to recuse himself from all Justice Department matters involving Russian interference with our election, but waded right into the middle of the decision to discharge Comey. Perhaps Sessions will step aside while Rosenstein attempts to redeem himself for his role in the pretense that Comey was fired overmissteps in the Clinton email probe. The deputy attorney general could do it by appointing an independent special counsel.

But the constraints under which such a special counsel would have to operate under current law, and the constitutional subservience of any such counsel to the president as head of the executive branch, are a prescription for a replay of an ugly drama: President Nixonfired two attorneys generalbefore finding someone (Robert Bork) willing to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox only to be pressured into appointing another special prosecutor,Leon Jaworski, who ended up being as determined and unshakable as Cox.

Peter Beinart/Atlantic:

L'Etat, C'est Trump

The president and his advisors believe loyalty to the country and loyalty to him are the same thing.

Its not just that Trump has never worked in government. Hes never worked in a job devoted to a cause larger than self-enrichment or self-aggrandizement. Hes spent virtually his entire professional life in a family business where he sets the rules and where people answer to him. Note how promiscuously Trumps uses the first person possessive: my generals, my African-American. Last spring, when journalists asked him who his Israeli advisors were, hewheeledout his Jewish lawyers. He sends his children on diplomatic missions, where they also hawk his products. He doesnt really distinguish between public and private interest, between obeying the law and obeying him.

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Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Republican cowards and enablers buckle but don't act - Daily Kos

WASHINGTON A commencement address by the No. 2 Senate Republican was canceled Friday after opposition from students at the historically black university where he was scheduled to speak.

The cancellation of Sen. John Cornyn's planned Saturday address at Texas Southern University came just days after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was booed and heckled as she delivered a commencement speech at a different historically black university, Bethune-Cookman University in Florida.

Students at Texas Southern University in Houston had circulated a petition demanding the Texas senator be withdrawn as a commencement speaker, citing various stances he has taken. These included his confirmation votes in favor of DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his opposition to funding for so-called sanctuary cities that protect immigrants and his support for photo IDs for voting. The petition also cited Cornyn's low rating by the NAACP.

"Having a politician such as him speak at our institution is an insult to the students, to TSU, and to all (historically black colleges and universities)," said the petition on the change.org site. "This is our graduation. We have the right to decide if we want to refuse to sit and listen to the words of a politician who chooses to use his political power in ways that continually harm marginalized and oppressed people."

Senator John Cornyn of Texas walks to the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014. J. Scott Applewhite / AP

The university released a statement saying that, "Every consideration is made to ensure that our students' graduation day is a celebratory occasion and one they will remember positively for years to come. We asked Sen. Cornyn to instead visit with our students again at a future date in order to keep the focus on graduates and their families. We, along with Sen. Cornyn, agree that the primary focus of commencement should be a celebration of academic achievement."

Cornyn's spokesman said, "Sen. Cornyn was honored to be invited to address TSU's graduates, but he respects the administration's decision and looks forward to continuing to engage with the university in the future."

The development comes amid a nationwide debate over free speech on college campuses, in the wake of two high-profile incidents at Berkeley where planned speeches by conservatives ended up getting canceled amid fears of violent student protests.

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Commencement Speech by No. 2 Senate Republican Canceled After Students Protest - NBCNews.com

Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill through Congress that would allow the president to sack the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at any time for any reason.

But what are the odds President Trump would fire the head of a government agency he has issues with?

Cough.

The Republican legislation, coupled with this weeks ouster of FBI Director James B. Comey, should make CFPB Director Richard Cordray very nervous.

But when I sat down with him Wednesday, he came across as cool, calm and unfazed by the increasingly ugly attacks on him and his watchdog agency.

I dove right in and asked if the FBI mess made him anxious.

Cordray fixed me with a poker players stare and said he had no comment. He noted, though, that he and Comey had been classmates at the University of Chicago Law School.

Cordray probably meant nothing by it. Still, I took it as a veiled way of saying, There but for the grace of God go I.

Trump said last month that he plans to give the law that created the CFPB a very major haircut.

Although weve spoken in the past by phone, this was my first face-to-face conversation with the embattled bureau director. He was in Los Angeles for a CFPB hearing on lending to small businesses.

Cordray seemed sincere when he said the bureau remains focused on its job of safeguarding consumers and that he and his staff go to work every day committed to fighting financial practices that are unfair, predatory or downright illegal.

People are entitled to, and they deserve, someone to make sure these markets are fair and transparent, he told me. Theres a need for this agency. And theres more work to do.

The Republican-controlled House Financial Services Committee voted last week along party lines, 34 to 26, to approve the so-called Financial CHOICE Act and send it to the floor for a vote by the full chamber. (Thats CHOICE as in Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs.)

Among other things, the bill would allow the president to fire the director at will, rather than the current standard that the CFPB chief must be found guilty of inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.

It would strip the CFPB of its authority to monitor the day-to-day activities of financial firms and prohibit it from cracking down on practices deemed unfair, deceptive or abusive. The bill also would shut down the bureaus database of consumer complaints, which contains more than 700,000 searchable listings.

In its most cynical ploy, the Republican legislation would change the name of the bureau to the Consumer Law Enforcement Agency, although it would be anything but.

I cant do a good James Brown, but I feel good, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the author of the bill and chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said as he and his Republican colleagues cast their votes in favor of the Financial CHOICE Act.

I asked Cordray if he cared to respond with his own in-your-face reference to the Godfather of Soul.

He smiled and said, Im more inclined toward easy listening, such as the Mamas and the Papas.

Yeah, OK. But maybe next time he encounters Hensarling, he might want to borrow a lick from Browns The Payback and whisper, Payback is a thing you got to see, hell, never do any damn thing to me.

The conservative congressman has been a vocal critic of the CFPB since it opened for business in 2011. The bureaus creation was part of reforms put in place after financial firms recklessly steered the world to the brink of economic collapse.

I reminded Cordray of Hensarlings blatantly insulting tone when the CFPB director was summoned to testify last month before the Financial Services Committee.

Hensarling mockingly said at the time that he thought Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, would miss the hearing because hed be in his home state running for governor, which he isnt.

Perhaps the rumors of your political aspirations are greatly exaggerated, Hensarling sneered.

Cordray told me he doesnt dwell on the congressmans comments.

I didnt make much of that, to be honest, he said. I dont take any of it personally.

Conservatives insist that the CFPB is a rogue agency with too much power, thumbing its nose at oversight by coolheaded and responsible members of Congress.

The reality is that the bureau is a pebble in the shoe of Republicans and their business buddies by exposing practices that any reasonable person would acknowledge to be anti-consumer.

The CFPB fined Wells Fargo $100 million for the bank having opened unauthorized accounts on behalf of millions of customers. It fined Citigroup $28.8 million for failing to inform homeowners about ways to avoid foreclosure. It fined the credit agency Experian $3 million for deceiving people about the value of its credit scores.

In total, the CFPB estimates that it has returned about $12 billion to consumers over the last six years.

Which makes Hensarling trying to get on the good foot with his consumer-unfriendly bill all the more remarkable.

Cordray said hes not surprised by the pushback from business interests and their Republican allies.

Weve had challenges over the course of our existence, he said. We have consistently and steadfastly emphasized doing our work on behalf of consumers.

I also spoke with California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra at this weeks small-business event. He was in a decidedly sports-minded mood.

Continue reading here:
Consumer agency chief, his job on the line, takes Republican attacks in stride - Los Angeles Times

WILLINGBORO, N.J. Representative Tom MacArthur knew well what he was getting into when he showed up in this Democratic stronghold on Wednesday .

The second-term lawmaker who had almost single-handedly resuscitated the House Republican health-care bill would hear from the constituents who now despised him for playing hero at their expense. He had come back to face a particular kind of musicthe cacophony of boos, jeers, and deprecatory chants that make up the 21st century congressional town hall.

But MacArthur was determined to play his own song first. He would tell the health-care saga of his family: his biological mother who died of cancer when he was four, his step-mother who died of cancer many years later, and the most wrenching of all, his daughter Gracie who died at age 11 after struggling her entire brief life with a rare brain condition. A wealthy insurance executive before entering politics, MacArthur would use Gracies story as an ice-breaker, a reminder to the 200 or so antsy and angered constituents seated around him that he knew something about their anxiety over hospital bills and preexisting conditions, and to explain that he struck his deal with House conservatives because he genuinely wanted to improve the nations health insurance market.

He wanted to disarm them, but they did not want to be disarmed. And they did not want to hear Gracies story.

Shame! one constituent yelled almost as soon as MacArthur uttered his late daughters name.

Weve heard this story! shouted another. We know all about you!

MacArthur appeared momentarily taken aback. I will say shame on you, actually, he replied, more in disappointment than in anger. If you want me to listen to you, Im going to ask you to listen to me.

It was going to be that kind of night.

* * *

Town hall meetings have long since lost their innocence as the purest incarnation of American representative democracy. In the post-Tea Party era, they are largely performative events, set pieces for the pre-ordained political backlash. Activist groups mobilize attendance, ensure television coverage and Facebook live-streams, prepare talking points and detailed questions for constituents to ask. Citizens confront their legislators with ever increasing and perhaps slightly rehearsed passion, sometimes reading their questions from a script or shouting a monologue aimed as much at the cameras in the back as at the congressman in front of them. In response, congressional offices are trying harder to ensure the event hall is filled with actual constituents, not outsiders bussed in from districts far and wide.

The House Votes to Repeal Obamacare

As town halls have lost their authenticity, many House Republicans are forgoing them entirely. In the week after passing legislation to reshape the nations health-care system, barely more than a dozen of the 238 GOP lawmakers have scheduled in-person constituent events. And none were higher on the marquee than MacArthurs.

The Willingboro community center named for John F. Kennedy seemed ready for a much bigger starperhaps a top-tier presidential primary contenderthan a local congressman unknown outside his district until a few weeks ago. The parked cars snaked back more than a quarter-mile along the suburban streets leading up to the Kennedy Center, situated in the middle of a township in south Jersey a couple miles east of the Delaware River and the Pennsylvania border.

The strong showing suggested a venue much larger than it actually was: There were seats for about 200 people in a theater-in-the-round set-up, but hundreds more who lined up outside were turned away. A separate group of protesters picketed nearby, complete with a human-sized inflated chicken, signs that read This Congressmen Hates Women, and others much nastier than that. Police patrolled outside, and electronic signs warned constituents that neither large bags nor any signs or posters would be allowed inside. (A few of the demonstrators stayed all night, watching the town hall via Facebook on their phones until their batteries eventually died.) Those who did make it in wore stickers that said MacArthur Constituent, and many of them snuck in red and green handkerchiefs to wave in approval or disapproval.

MacArthur, 56, won his second term representing New Jerseys 3rd congressional district in November with nearly 60 percent of the vote, an improvement over his 53-44 margin in 2014. But the district is more narrowly divided between the parties, split between heavily Republican Ocean County and the much more liberal Burlington County across the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Were here to show him were unhappy and he should know were coming in 2018, Penn Reagan, a 64-year-old retiree, told me just before MacArthur entered the room. But he added: Im not actually expecting to hear anything I want to hear.

A former councilman who speaks in the easy manner of a warm but practiced politician, MacArthur chose to hold his town hall in Willingboro precisely because the majority-African-American town is on the other side of his political base.

Donald Trump won 9 percent of the vote here, he told the restive crowd, eliciting a few claps and chuckles. I crushed it with 12 percent of the vote.

Ostensibly, MacArthur had come to Willingboro to explain and defend the GOPs American Health Care Act, and in particular the amendment he wrote that saved it. Back in January, he had been one of just nine House Republicans to vote against a budget bill that laid the procedural groundwork for the party to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Three months later, however, he was instrumental in the effort to do just that. MacArthurs amendment bowed to a demand from the conservative House Freedom Caucus that the GOP bill allow states to seek a waiver opting out of some of Obamacares core insurance mandates, including its ban on insurers charging higher premiums to people with preexisting conditions. His deal with conservatives annoyed fellow members of the moderate Tuesday Group, of which MacArthur is one of three co-chairman. But it infuriated the 3rd district residents who lined up early on Wednesday evening to make sure they could confront him directly.

One by one, over a nearly five-hour marathon of questions, MacArthurs constituents berated him in visceral terms over the health-care billand to a lesser extent, his steadfast support for President Trump. Not one of the dozens who spoke on Wednesday night praised either the AHCA or the president.

I have sympathy for your mother. I have sympathy for your daughter. But you did not listen to the lessons they were trying to teach you, Geoff Ginter, a 47-year-old medical assistant wearing his hospital scrubs, told MacArthur. Ginter described how his wife, who has a preexisting condition as a result of having survived breast cancer, would now have renewed fear because of the possibility that he could lose his insurance and cause her rates to skyrocket under the loophole MacArthurs amendment could create. You came after my wife, Ginter said, his voice slow and rising. You have been the single greatest threat to my family in the entire world. You are the reason I stay up at night. When Ginter initially suggested he would not relinquish the microphone, two police officers began to edge closer to him. MacArthur allowed him to speak for 10 minutes, after which Ginter told him he didnt even want to hear his response.

Other constituents trained their ire on Trump, demanding to know whether MacArthur would back a special prosecutor to investigate his campaigns ties to Russia (Not yet, he said) and practically pleading with him to stand up to the president. Why do you Republicans all sit and listen to Donald Trump lie? asked one woman. He lies and lies and lies. You have to know hes lying. Trump was the topic MacArthur least wanted to discuss, and he replied with something of a refrain. Im neither going to defend nor attack everything the president says, he answered. At another point, he drew more boos when he said of Trump, Congress is not the board of directors for the White House, and Im not going to answer for everything he says or does.

At the beginning of the event, MacArthur had promised to stay until every question had been asked. And despite a couple of moments when the room nearly deteriorated into shouting, he kept his word. Though the crowd thinned from a couple hundred to a couple dozen as the hours dragged on, the congressman stayed standing, and responding, for nearly five hours.

Youve really taken a beating tonight, a constituent named Ruth Gage told him. For both the congressman and the crowd, that appeared to be the point.

MacArthur kept his coolmostly. When one constituent shouted him down as an idiot! MacArthur complained about the lack of civil discourse. I wonder, he said to the crowd, how any one of you would perform in Congress with that attitude.

After MacArthur asked them at another point not to be disrespectful, one man replied: Can I be disrespectful on behalf of all the people youre going to kill?

* * *

Through it all, however, a strange thing happened: A Republican congressman had a candid, detailed discussion about health-care policy with his constituents. When they spoke up on behalf of a single-payer, Medicare-for-All plan, MacArthur explained why he didnt support it. When he warned about allowing government bureaucrats to make too many health-care decisions, they asked why it would be any worse than insurance company bureaucrats doing the same thing now.

The residents who came to give MacArthur a piece of their mind were deeply familiar with the particulars of the bill he supported and the amendment he authored, because they knew it could impact them directly. When one attendee asked people to stand if they had a preexisting condition, nearly everyone in the room rose. They knew that even though MacArthur was correct in saying the GOP maintained the requirement that insurers offer coverage to everyone, his amendment could allow companies in some states to charge them much more money for a policy.

A 39-year-old named Derek described how because of a heart condition he had had since he was 23, he could be priced out of the insurance market if he lost his job and went without coverage for more than two months if the AHCA became law. This is something that is very real, he told MacArthur. Without health-care coverage, Im dead.

The congressman acknowledged his point. Your question shows that you really understand the issue. Youve nailed the issue, MacArthur told him. He explained that the Republican proposal included $138 billion to help that class of people, who could face steep rates in high-risk pools in states that received waivers from the federal government. Health policy analysts have warned that pot of money wont be nearly sufficient, and by the end of the evening, MacArthur conceded that might be the case. If it turns out its not enough, he said, I will be the first on line to make sure it is enough.

After hours of back-and-forth, that seemed about as far as anyone had moved. MacArthur listened intently to the emotional pleas and angry lashings of his constituents, but he voiced no regrets about his handling of health care or his support for the AHCA. When someone would vociferously defend Obamacare or denounce Trump, MacArthur would point back to the Republican voters across the Pine Barrens: I hear you, but there are loads of other people who dont see it that way. It was a polite way of pointing to the scoreboard, and the 59 percent of 3rd district voters who sided with him in November.

There are indications, however, that MacArthurs position isnt as safe as he might assume. Political forecasters have moved his district a notch toward Democrats after the Republicans voted for their unpopular bill last week, making it the kind of House seat that could flip parties in a wave election. A former national-security staffer who coordinated anti-ISIS strategy for the Obama White House, Andy Kim, has already started raising money to challenge him and could make a stronger opponent than the Democratic nominee last year, who was haunted by legal troubles. And while there didnt appear to be any Trump voters in attendance on Wednesday night, there were Democrats and independents who had voted for MacArthur. I told everyone you were the best thing since cream cheese, Ellen Bertuglia, 73, told the congressman. I see something thats happened to you, and it scares me. She said MacArthur had become too close to Trump and hadnt kept his commitment to work with Democrats. He zonked you, Bertuglia said of the president.

In an interview later, Bertuglia said she was worried about the health-care bill (I got pre-existing stuff all over) and probably wouldnt vote for MacArthur again. But she added a caveat: If he stands up and does something about Trump, I might change my mind.

Its a show, Nmawa Toe, a 40-year-old computer repairman, told me after many in the crowd had left. He wants to show that hes not afraid, but hes not answering any questions.

Earlier in the evening, Toe had confronted MacArthur directly. Youve been talking a lot about your constituents on the other side of the Pine Barrens and how they affect your policy decisions, he said. If you want to come back here, if you want another term, you might want to listen to what these people have to say, too.

MacArthur said it was a great question. Im always trying to find the intersection of what I believe and what my constituents believe, he replied. The congressman seemed genuinely to believe he had found that sweet spot, notwithstanding the hundreds of people who disagreed, and who on Wednesday night tried so desperately to make him see that he had not.

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A Republican Congressman Meets His Angry Constituency - The Atlantic