March 13, 2017 10:29 AM UTC

Jared Polis Owns The Town Hall

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Boulder Daily Camera’s Jennifer Rios reports–this weekend, Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder held two public in-person town hall events in Broomfield and Fort Collins, both by all accounts highly successful and packed to the proverbial gills:

A warm welcome and words of gratitude greeted Rep. Jared Polis in Broomfield where the congressman answered community questions at the first of two town halls Sunday.

A mariachi group serenaded the approximately 1,000 constituents from Broomfield, Boulder, Longmont, Erie, Lafayette and Louisville who formed a line outside the Broomfield High School gymnasium.

Polis, who represents the 2nd congressional district, gave a short address before turning microphones over to residents who asked questions on topics that ranged from education and health care to the environment, as well as general fears and disdain about the Donald Trump administration.

And the Loveland Reporter-Herald’s Saja Hindi reports from Fort Collins:

Earlier, he held a town hall in Broomfield that drew 1,000 attendees. The CSU event attracted 800.

“So many people are engaged and worried about what’s going on or want to know what’s going on,” Polis said in an interview.

Despite the Republican majority in both houses of Congress and the White House, Polis told attendees at the event that he’s working on several bipartisan bills and said he would work with the president if there’s a way on tax policy and infrastructure.

However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hold serious concerns, ones that attendees at the event appeared to share from their questions — the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and replacement with one many won’t be able to afford; anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies; taking a step back on LGBTQ equal rights; and defunding Planned Parenthood; among others.

And with that, Rep. Polis just showed up every other member of Colorado’s congressional delegation! Polis isn’t the only Colorado congressional representative who makes a point of retail politicking–Rep. Ed Perlmutter regularly holds his “Government in the Grocery” outreach events as well, and Rep. Diana DeGette regularly engages locally including a press conference today in Denver on the future of the Affordable Care Act. Although GOP Rep. Scott Tipton hasn’t held any in-person town hall events since the beginning of he year, Tipton did show up unannounced to an in-absentia town hall in Paonia organized by the Indivisible group.

But as of now, Polis has set the standard that every other representative in both parties should live up to. That includes both of Colorado’s U.S. Senators. Yes, he faced a friendlier audience than a Republican would today, and found common ground with attendees where Republicans would meet with hostility.

But this, as much as anything, is their job.