Fact Checker: Is Grassley dodging public meetings?

Introduction

'(The hotline) is in reaction to the zero public events being held by the Senator during the first week of his state work period, the unusually low total of just 3 events in his 15 days working in the state, and widespread rumors of unpublicized events being held by the Senator in order to avoid his constituents.”

Source of claim: Why Courts Matter Iowa - a coalition that includes Progress Iowa, One Iowa and the Iowa Citizen Action Network - made the claim in a March news release. In it the coalition created a 'Where is Chuck” hotline and sought calls from anyone who had seen the senator in Iowa.

Analysis

Monica Biddix, communications director with Progress Iowa, pointed to Grassley's online calendar as the original source material.

Why Courts Matter Iowa has been critical of U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, for his refusal to hold confirmation hearings on any Supreme Court nomination by President Barack Obama in a presidential election year.

In its statement, the coalition claims Grassley has been avoiding public events in an attempt to dodge facing constituents.

Why Courts Matter's argument is that Grassley was skimping on town hall meetings, which are open to the public, while focusing on business or factory tours, which aren't necessarily open to the broader public.

The 15 days that Why Courts Matter refers to is the congressional recess, or state work period, that Grassley spends back in Iowa.

The 2016 recess spanned Feb. 15-19 and March 21-April 1. Last year's first 15 days of recess included days in February, March and April and in 2014, the recess included days in January, February and March.

For this year, the coalition is referring to Grassley's March town meetings in Lyon, Osceola and Sioux counties. But the work period also included those five days in February, in which Grassley held five town halls.

The congressional recess began after the Feb. 13 death of Justice Antonin Scalia and Grassley's announcement expressing opposition to an appointment during a presidential election year.

In the two months, Grassley also attended more than a dozen tours and question-and-answer sessions at Iowa businesses and high schools.

It should be noted that Grassley still fields questions from the media and those present during tours and Q&A sessions. The difference is those events aren't widely publicized in advance or open to the entire public.

But let's look at how Grassley's eight town hall meetings this year compare with previous years during the recess periods.

Beth Levine, his communications director, provided the senator's itinerary for 2014-16, with a breakdown of town hall meetings, business visits and stops at service clubs and schools.

For consistency, we're focusing on the public town meetings held during the first 15 days of each comparable congressional recess.

For the 2014 period, Grassley attended four town hall meetings and last year hosted six during the period.

Why Courts Matter argues that Grassley is avoiding his constituents in light of his stance on the court vacancy.

But Grassley has held more public town halls than he did in comparable congressional recesses in 2014 and 2015, and more events overall this period than in the two previous ones.

We give Why Courts Matters claim an F.

Criteria

The Fact Checker team checks statements made by an Iowa political candidate/office holder or a national candidate/office holder about Iowa, or in advertisements that appear in our market. Claims must be independently verifiable. We give statements grades from A to F based on accuracy and context.

If you spot a claim you think needs checking, email us at factchecker@thegazette.com.

This Fact Checker was researched and written by Mitchell Schmidt.