Hearing from constituents is crucial to being an effective, open, and transparent representative. Town hall meetings give members of Congress a chance to hear from people in their districts and answer their most important questions. Congressman Tom MacArthur begs to differ. After his infamous town hall in May 2017, the Congressman has become notorious for dodging people in his district. Instead, he has opted to host big-money fundraisers with special interests – which might explain why he’s voting to stack the deck in favor of his special interest donors at the expense of New Jerseyans.
Because MacArthur refuses to meet face-to-face with his constituents in a public forum, we’re proposing 3 questions:
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Was the $800,000 fundraiser that President Trump rewarded you with last year for drafting the MacArthur Amendment to repeal health care worth it, even though the number of uninsured people in NJ-03 could have risen by 112%? And at what price would you stop catering to donors and hurting families in your district?
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You were the only member of New Jersey’s entire congressional delegation to vote for the tax bill that would ultimately raise taxes on most New Jersey families, increase the debt, and potentially threaten Social Security and Medicare, did you support it because mega-donors demanded it, or because a Republican super PAC threatened to run ads against you if you didn’t?
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Before you voted for the tax bill, did you buy up to $250,000 in stocks in four oil and gas companies because you knew your vote would give that industry a $25 billion tax break and give you a big profit?
In December, ECU named Congressman Tom MacArthur to the Big Money 20, the group’s list of top targets to defeat in 2018 because they represent the worst of Washington’s rigged system. While MacArthur has accepted more than $677,000 in corporate PAC donations, his opponent Andy Kim is rejecting all corporate PAC donations.