Congressman Rodney Davis said he is not changing his policy of no Town Hall meetings for the faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Faculty had offered to exclude media and give Davis questions ahead of time. The Taylorville Republican said during a stop in Towanda that the invitation was political."When the debate becomes over the process, you lose sight of what's important in talking about and conversing on the issues where we can sit down in more of a one on one setting and really have some dialog," said Davis.
Davis said he met last week with a smaller group of IWU faculty.
Meanwhile, Davis' fellow GOP Representative Darin LaHood said at the same event he considers public input as in a town hall meeting an important part of democracy even if there is confrontational behavior by citizens.
"I give the benefit of the doubt to the people right? Having a forum and a venue to have interaction on real issues," said LaHood.
LaHood has scheduled a town hall meeting at Five Points in Washington, Illinois, Wednesday evening.
Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth has scheduled a town hall meeting at Illinois Wesleyan University at 2:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin held a similar event recently at IWU.
Davis said he has met with a small group of Wesleyan faculty but rejects the larger setting.
