A diverse group of people attended last night’s town hall meeting at the Schlow Centre Region Library to listen to Michael Pipe discuss his campaign and pressing issues with State College residents.
The crowd — composed of community members, students, and even some Penn State faculty — listened to Pipe introduce himself and describe his stance on certain issues.
But the members of the audience weren’t there to just listen to Pipe — they were also present to voice their opinions and field questions to the Democratic congressional hopeful.
And the crowd’s involvement on Tuesday night was excellent, Pipe said.
“There was a great range of things we talked about,” Pipe said.
After introducing himself for ten minutes, Pipe opened the floor to questions from the audience.
The ability to have a diverse group of people speak and voice their concerns was one of the benefits of a town hall meeting, Pipe said.
“It’s necessary for people to voice their concerns,” Pipe said. “I will bring people into the process.”
The questions asked Tuesday night covered a broad spectrum of topics. Everything from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, education, healthcare, economic recovery and even Pipe’s plans to debate and interact with incumbent candidate Congressman Glenn Thompson, R-5th District, were discussed.
Through the entire town hall meeting, Pipe addressed the questions but also interacted with the audience in attendance to see what information they had about each topic.
Richard Shreve, a Bellefonte area resident, attended Tuesday’s town hall meeting in an effort to learn more about Pipe.
Representing the 5th Congressional District in a way that is currently not happening was one of the major concerns going into the town hall meeting, Shreve said.
Other residents asked pipe about his stance on issues of foreign policy and amending the Civil Rights movement to include sexual orientation, but one of the main issues continually discussed at the town hall meeting was the Marcellus Shale industry.
Numerous residents voiced concern over the proposed oil and natural gas drilling in the district.
The Marcellus Shale industry is a gold rush scenario, Pipe said. Supporting the safe extraction of natural gas and oil from Marcellus Shale is one of the key aspects of the issue, Pipe he said.
Pipe said that he supports strong regulation at the drill sites in order to prevent other disasters such as the Clearfield County blowout.
Broader national issues were also discussed at the town hall meeting such as the age of other congressmen in relation to Pipe, who only recently graduated from Penn State in 2009.
Encouraging the members in attendance to get involved and recruit others is a major part of the campaign, Pipe said.
“I want you to be a part of the political process,” Pipe said.
Tuesday night’s town hall meeting in State College was the tenth such meeting for Pipe in his campaign for the 5th Congressional District of Pennsylvania.
But even after ten town hall meetings, the experience is always difficult to gauge and is almost always different, Pipe said.
“There was a great range of things we talked about,” Pipe said. “I hope I kept people engaged.”