Protesters Decline Private Meeting With Congressman LaLota, Continue Calls for Town Hall

The protesters who gathered outside U.S. Representative Nick LaLota’s office in Hauppauge and Inlet Seafood in Montauk last week — calling for the congressman to hold an in-person town hall meeting — declined a subsequent invitation for a sitdown in the representative’s district office.

Since assuming office in 2023, LaLota has not held an in-person town hall, the groups argued, and the gatherings last week, which one protester said drew 400 people to LaLota‘s office, were intended to call for the congressman to hold one.

LaLota this week offered to sit down privately with the organizers of the five groups that organized the protests in order to listen to their concerns.

Of the five groups in total, three outright declined his invitation — Long Island Network for Change, Suffolk Progressives and LI Activists — while two others, Long Island Progressive Coalition and Progressive East End Reformers, did not reply, he said in a release.

The congressman’s office sent out emails the day after the protests to the leaders of each organization, using contact information on file, according to the release.

“Instead of a serious response, the congressman posted attacks on social media to divide his constituents,” the Progressive East End Reformers said in a release. “He appears only interested in having a brief closed-door meeting during a workday. With less than 24 hours notice to rearrange their schedules, those who did receive the invite had to decline, while other groups received no such invitation at all.”

The congressman announced a virtual town hall, which will be held on Wednesday, March 5, at 6 p.m. — but that did not satisfy those calling for an in-person event.

“Residents of Congressional District 1 continue to invite Congressman LaLota to show up for his constituents and hold an in-person public town hall to address their questions and concerns around the unprecedented actions of Elon Musk and the Trump administration, which are harming the working families of Congressional District 1 and the very foundations of our democracy,” the PEER release went on.

Further, Kathryn Szoka of Sag Harbor, one of the leaders of PEER, added in an email that “our interests are in him speaking publicly to all constituents, and not behind closed doors to a select few.”

LaLota’s office did not return a request for further comment.