Group Holds Town Hall In 2nd District Without Lewis; McCollum Talks Health Care In 4th District

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In the midst of the health care debate, constituents for Minnesota's 2nd District held a town hall Saturday afternoon without their Republican congressman.

The group Indivisible Resistance held the meeting. They say Congressman Jason Lewis hasn't hosted one recently and telephone town halls are not sufficient enough.

The group says it will record concerns about health care and immigration and deliver notes to the congressman.

"We the people are not getting the opportunity to dialogue with them. It's embarrassing," constituent Cheryl O'Daniel said.

Lewis did not attend but responded to Saturday's meeting. He said in part, "I do not endorse a partisan, political point-scoring event filtering down from nationally organized 'Indivisible' groups with handbooks from Democrat former staffers. I want a respectful exchange with those who want to be heard."

Meanwhile, Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum held a town hall at Macalester College for 4th District voters.

People posed questions about where the health care debate goes now -- and brought up other issues

"We've got other big things coming up, the budget, with all the deep cuts to transit, housing, more cuts to health care by cutting some of the research and development that's done at the NIH and then of course I oversee a lot of the environmental budgets and the cuts to the EPA which are going to put public health at risk," McCollum said.

The congresswoman says she thinks Democrats and Republicans need to work together to make the Affordable Care Act stronger.