Constituents Brave Chill To Protest LaLota's Lack of In-Person Town Halls

While U.S. Representative Nick LaLota was upstairs on Tuesday, February 18, at Inlet Seafood, talking about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ emergency dredging of the navigational channel of Montauk Harbor, a few dozen of his constituents braved bone-chilling cold and a powerful wind that made the 23-degree morning feel like -4 degrees to give voice to their discontent with the congressman.

“Hey Nick! HOLD A TOWN HALL” was the message on a banner unfurled by participants, including Anna Skrenta, chairwoman of the East Hampton Democratic Committee.

“Congress is in recess next week, but Nick LaLota will not be holding a town hall,” read an announcement issued last week by Progressive East End Reformers. “Since taking office in 2023, Congressman LaLota has never held an in-person town hall. Not once.”

“Hey, Nick, stop kissing the ring, Donald Trump is not a king,” chanted the group lined up across East Lake Drive from Inlet Seafood.

“They keep talking about this overwhelming mandate that Trump has,” Skrenta said in an interview during the demonstration. “If there’s such an overwhelming mandate, why is Nick LaLota afraid to meet with his constituents? He works for all of us, not just the people who support Trump, and not just the people who voted for him.

“We’re waiting for Nick LaLota to hear from us,” she continued. “We want to know what he’s going to do to protect Long Island from Trump and Musk’s cuts to the federal government, gutting of federal agencies, and taking away federal funds that all Long Islanders depend on to keep us safe.”

During a press conference at Inlet Seafood, LaLota was asked about the constituents’ calls for him to hold a town hall event. He sidestepped the question, instead offering a defense of President Trump and Elon Musk’s moves to sharply cut staff in myriad departments, or effectively shut them down.

“I’m not going to deal with politics right now,” he said, adding that the country is $36 trillion in debt and has a $2 trillion annual budget deficit. “We have to cut some spending. We should have a deliberate debate over where specifically those cuts ought to come from.

“I have asserted that, while protecting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other regional projects, like the one that we’re here championing. … we should have a deliberate and educated conversation. The parties will disagree, most likely, on where those cuts ought to be, but we should actually be able to agree … there ought to be some cuts, because at the end of it is reduced inflation.”

Outside, Betty Smith said that she had come “to protest what’s going on in this country, with Donald Trump and Elon Musk just destroying this country.”

“I’m horrified by the taking over of the federal police actions and trying to take over the administration of the country,” said Bob Pine. “It’s a very bad sign, and it’s typical of authoritarian regimes starting.”

“We pay taxes, we pay his salary,” Skrenta said of LaLota. “We want him to do his job.”

A spokeswoman for LaLota later sent a statement from the congressman: “Since taking office two years ago, I have hosted over 20 town halls, where neither payment nor party affiliation were required,” it read in part, referring to virtual events.

“I maintain an open-door policy for all constituents and am proud to have successfully resolved more than 3,680 constituent cases, with hundreds more actively being addressed. I plan to hold our next town hall via teleconference during the first full week of March.

“In our diverse district, a variety of viewpoints is expected, yet the extreme language used by groups such as Suffolk Progressives, Progressive East End Reformers, and the LI Progressive Coalition at recent protests against my staff requires bipartisan condemnation,” he said.