The Birth of Where’s Rothfu$ Wednesdays

“Where’s Rothfu$ Wednesdays” began in answer to Representative Rothfus and his staff avoiding contact with constituents. On February 15, 2017, a group of constituents met with two staffers in the Ross office to discuss issues and ask that Representative Rothfus hold a town hall meeting during the February recess week.

The staffers and the constituents agreed to a followup meeting the following Wednesday at the same time to get a reply to our request. When we returned February 22nd, to our surprise and dismay, the staffers weren’t there.

We went back again the same time the next week, March 1st. And again, they weren’t there. Their absence was the first reply to our request for a town hall.

Undaunted, we returned the following week, and on March 8st, staffers met with us and told us Representative Rothfus would definitely hold at least two (2) large town hall meetings (in different locations to span the district). We also discussed many issues of concern to us, including his recent votes, upcoming legislation, healthcare, the possible connection between Trump and Russia. This seemed like progress.

On March 15, just a short month after the first meeting, we met with staff again. Apparently meeting with concerned constituents was not a priority for Representative Rothfus and his staff, as we learned that there was no progress on town hall meeting plans.

On March 29, we found out that Representative Rothfus was attending a conference of municipal officials in Seven Springs, PA on April 9th. We offered to arrange a town hall there, so that all he and his staff had to do was to attend. A staffer got back with us a few days later. Representative Rothfus declined our offer to attend the town hall.

Over the course of the following weeks, our numbers and our frustration grew. We changed our plan. Instead of meeting with staffers to get unfulfilled promises of being heard by our representative, our plan became where some of us would try to meet with staff inside the office and where others would demonstrate outside the office in public view.

This was the birth of “Where’s Rothfu$ Wednesdays.