“We’re going all over the district,” said Barr. “We have at least 14 town halls planned throughout upper and northern Michigan. “This is our tour for change, and these are our town halls for change. We want people to come out and share with us what they want for the future … We know that the incumbent Jack Bergman hasn’t had an open, public town hall in over 3,000 days – you know, eight years. That’s unacceptable.

“You don’t hide from people because you may disagree with them. Having these open, public town halls is a really important step in rebuilding trust, and touching grass, and making sure that we’re aligned in what we need for this district. This is not a seat for Republicans or Democrats, this is a seat for the people of the Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan. And the only way you can accurately represent folks is to meet and to hear what’s happening on the ground.”

Town halls are a common way in which elected officials or those running for office meet with their constituents.

“When we have folks come in, we want them to come with their ideas, with their questions,” said Barr. “We anticipate that how this is going to go is I will share some of what I’ve been hearing around the district, and then we open it up to folks to tell their story and to share what they want.”

BARR

Some of the concerns Barr anticipates hearing about at these town halls have to do with local housing, income, food and essential health care.

“I hear a lot about just meeting our basic needs,” said Barr.

Town hall meetings are also a way for candidates to let people know about their policy positions.

“The most urgent thing right now is health care,” said Barr. “We need to make sure that Medicaid is funded … we need absolute insurance reform.”

Barr spoke to The Mining Journal several days after The Detroit News published an article titled “Michigan congressman’s top aide defends what critic calls ‘shady’ side gig,” referencing Bergman’s chief of staff Tony Lis and his company Right Way to Win LLC.

“What we had is Congressman Jack Bergman underpaying his staff so that they didn’t have to report hundreds of thousands of dollars they made on a side hustle,” said Barr. “It’s corruption. This is about not being transparent. I believe that if you’re paid to do a job, you do that job. But that seems to be an issue with his office. He doesn’t show up for us, he doesn’t live here, he hasn’t had a town hall in over 3,000 days, right? He’s not doing his job, and he’s not expecting his staff to either.

“If your chief of staff is being paid by the federal government, by our taxpayer dollars, that should be his full-time job. And here it hasn’t been. He’s been actually underreporting his income so that he can have a side hustle, a political consulting firm, and have a whole other job that he’s doing. And so we have people that are getting paid by us, and they’re not giving us their full-time effort, and it shows.”

Barr says that her campaign is different.

“The town halls are a great example,” said Barr. “I’m listening to the needs and making sure we’re meeting them.”

Barr was absent from the series of candidate forums hosted by various local groups across the 1st district, including the one hosted in Marquette on March 21, in which Democratic, Republican and Independent primary candidates for the 1st congressional seat took turns asking audience-submitted questions.

“I’m really grateful for Indivisible as a group,” said Barr. “They’ve really worked to get people engaged and in the political process, and that’s a really good thing. And I know that they held these candidate forums for folks that were interested in running for office. That’s really great.

“But for this campaign, I’m really excited to have these open, public town halls. And like I said, I’m doing these all across the district at a time when I think it’s the right time to do that. The outpouring of support we have had across this district has been humbling and encouraging. The hundreds of people that have come out just shows me that we’re ready to take back this seat for us.”

More information about Callie Barr’s campaign can be found at https://callieforcongress.com/.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.