Congressman Sullivan Holds Town Hall In Bartlesville

First District congressman John Sullivan held a town hall meeting in Bartlesville Monday afternoon. 

Monday, August 24th 2009, 7:55 am

By: News On 6

Congressman Sullivan Holds Town Hall In Bartlesville

By Chris Wright, The News On 6

BARTLESVILLE, OK -- Congressman John Sullivan hosted his first meetings with constituents on Monday in Bartlesville.

"I haven't found too many people that liked our health care plan that's been out there. Some of you may support it, some of you don't. We'll talk about that," said Congressman John Sullivan.

In a sign that town hall fervor may be settling down, Congressman Sullivan, a Republican, addressed an auditorium with plenty of empty seats. But, those who showed up were passionate.

One man sported a hard hat to prove his point.

"I see it taking a wrecking ball to a system that's working pretty good, that needs some repair, not wrecking ball. That scares me," said Tom Windle of Bartlesville.

The crowd was also more bi-partisan than the ones that attended last week's gathering. Several people criticized the Congressman's decision not to support the Democrats' plan.

"I was happy to see there were other Democrats in the room. It kind of gave me the courage to ask my question," said Sherrie Laskey of Tulsa.

And, the most heated exchange of the day happened when a man defended the president.

"I see you stand up there and criticize and ridicule our president and the Democratic party," said the man.

"I'm going to continue to criticize this president when he tries to take over the health care system, run our banks, run our banks, take over our banks, energy policy, everything. It's wrong," said Congressman John Sullivan.

But, for the most part, the discussion was civil. Congressman Sullivan is pushing for reform that will focus on more preventative care and less government intervention. It's a message he will reiterate during two more town hall in the upcoming week.

The first will be a so-called telephone town hall scheduled for 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning on the congressmen's website. He'll also be taking questions in person next Monday at NSU in Broken Arrow at 2 p.m.