Some booed him. Others shouted him down. But for the most part, scores of residents on Wednesday listened to Rep. Rush Holt's take on the contentious issue of health care reform.Squeezed to the rafters of the auditorium at the Middletown Arts Center, the mixed crowd of supporters and opponents of amending the nation's health care system did not get a chance to grab a microphone and tell the Democrat from the state's 12th Congressional District what they really thought of him.
Instead, they wrote questions on pieces of paper before tossing them into a box. Boy scouts reached in and handed them to Holt.
"On average, Americans are living sicker, dying younger and paying more," Holt said. "The health care system in this country is broken. It's not working."
A small-framed, bespectacled physicist, Holt occasionally spoke forcefully to hecklers, saying he would not respond to questions shouted at him from the crowd, but only to the inquiries submitted before the start of the meeting.
"It's not helpful when you interrupt because others cannot hear," said Holt to one man who kept shouting at him.
Hundreds not admitted
With the auditorium's capacity at 258 people, it didn't take long for the space to get filled and for hundreds of people to be left outside.
Unlike at other town hall meetings related to health care, where several sessions were held to allow everyone a chance inside, only one session was held on Wednesday.
Middletown Police Chief Robert Oches said he made the decision to only allow one session.
"This was what was agreed upon beforehand," said Oches, who staffed several officers to work overtime to manage the crowd. "It was too late to change plans."
Oches pointed out several venues in the township that have a larger capacity than the Middletown Arts Center, including Middletown High School North's auditorium and an arena at Brookdale Community College.
"We want to make sure no one gets hurt," Oches said. "It's a public safety issue for me and nothing else."
Zach Goldberg, a spokesman for Holt, said the congressman intends to hold more town hall meetings on the issue in the near future.
"In the past, (258) was a sizable number for a town hall meeting," Goldberg said.