By JOAN KENT | La Farge
Why is Rep. Loren Oldenburg, R-Viroqua, holding a listening session mid-weekday in a bar with no virtual option?
Oldenburg will hold listening sessions on the state budget in Vernon, Crawford and Monroe counties, which have portions in the 96th Assembly District.
The Vernon session will be 1–2 p.m. Friday, April 9, at Gassers Bar and Grill, 920 N. Main St., Viroqua. As a Vernon resident, I called his office to learn if there would be a virtual option. I was told none is planned.
So if somebody is working, or not willing to go into a bar/grill because we’re still in a pandemic, we’re out of luck.
The other sessions won’t be in a bar/grill, but they won’t have virtual options either. Crawford’s will be 7–8 p.m. Thursday, April 8, at Prairie du Chien City Hall, 214 E. Blackhawk Ave., and Monroe’s, 5–6 p.m. Friday, April 9, at the Cashton VFW, 905 Front St.
Seems to me these are charade listening sessions, without intent to give all of Oldenburg’s constituents a chance to speak with him in person.
Is he afraid people will ask him questions he doesn’t want to answer? Has he voted, or intends to vote, in a manner that many of his constituents oppose?
With so many groups offering virtual options, it makes one wonder why somebody in a public office would not show such respect to voters in his district. Maybe that’s not the kind of person we want representing us.
