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Mia Love’s Rules for Constituent Meetings: No Recording, No Media

Constituents say she’s dodging town hall meetings

Utah Republican Rep. Mia Love  was criticized for having strict guidelines on meetings with constituents. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Utah Republican Rep. Mia Love  was criticized for having strict guidelines on meetings with constituents. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, is getting criticism from constituents over new rules she set for meeting with them.

At least three residents of her congressional district told KUTV in Salt Lake City on Tuesday that Love will only meet with them if they play by her rules.

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Terry Mitchell, a Realtor who lives in district, told the TV station that she went to the congresswoman’s West Jordan office on Friday to ask if Love would hold a town hall meeting.

“I was told that we could do a meeting with four to five people at a time, in the office,” Mitchell said, adding that Love’s office informed her no recording devices or media would be allowed.

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Mitchell and Matt Nielsen, who was also in that meeting, protested.

“When there’s no press — there’s no nothing, there’s no audience — she can pretty much say anything she wants to say,” Nielsen told the TV station. “She can dodge pretty much any question that she wants to dodge.”

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Mitchell said Love’s district director, Laurel Price, told her that “most people would just be grateful that they even get to meet Mia Love.”

The strict rules on meeting with constituents might not come out of nowhere. Republican lawmakers have faced rowdy crowds at some meetings in their districts.

Fellow Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, head of the House Oversight Committee, had several tense exchanges with the audience at a meeting in his district last week.

[Chaffetz Hears Jeers and Boos at Town Hall]

Love’s spokesman, Richard Piatt, released a statement saying Love will hold town halls in the future without giving a specific date.

In the statement, Piatt said Love “welcomes elevated dialogue and reasonable conversations with her constituents,” adding that “shouting matches and verbal abuse are not what constitutes a Utah style civic dialogue.”

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