Taking Measure of an Incumbent’s Health

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MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. — Rep. John Hall (D-N.Y.) may have been a rock star in his former life, but you’d never know it from his public demeanor.

Sure, someone yelled “Hall and Oates?” at him as he trudged down Main Street on a recent muggy Friday — “No, Orleans,” the Congressman was forced to reply, smiling weakly. But Hall is more sweaty than slick, more earnest than apt to talk in sound bites.

And if he had his way, the second-term Congressman would spend as much time as he could working to convince each and every one of his constituents that a Democratic health care reform plan featuring a public insurance option has the most merit.

As he visited with merchants in this economically and ethnically diverse village 30 miles north of New York City — and at the southern end of his Hudson Valley district — Hall spoke at length about the Democratic reform plan and his conviction that it will offer consumers the greatest number of choices and save taxpayers money in the long run.

“It’s kind of like the post office,” he said in Just Dogs, a high-end pet supply shop. “We have a government option for mail. Congress is not going to mandate that you use FedEx or UPS.”

In the air-conditioned cool of the three or four stores Hall had the time to pop into during his 90-minute visit, he found a receptive — if captive — audience, excited to hear him say that health insurance plans for most businesses are unlikely to change.

“I don’t really understand what all the anger is about,” said Leslie Bijoux, proprietor of Yogi’s Paw, a hip clothing boutique, after listening to Hall for several minutes.

But out on the hot streets, it was a different story.

As he walked from store to store, Hall encountered several people along Main Street who seemed almost to appear out of the blue to express their anger — fearful that their health care is going to be taken away from them, worried about a government-run system, and convinced that their children and grandchildren will wind up paying a heavy price in the end.

Most were anything but respectful, considering this was a Member of Congress they were talking to. Hall tried to reason with them, but it didn’t seem to work.

“Are you here to berate my local operation or here to talk health care?” he asked one critic, lawyer Tom Ferrara, who had ambushed him as he started his tour.

“We can’t have a conversation if you’re just going to contradict me and not listen,” he said to a woman, who refused to give her name.

“My biggest fear is the Democrats are going to stay in office,” the woman told reporters after yelling at the Congressman for five minutes.

Watching all the give-and-take as he accompanied Hall down Main Street, Vince Lemma, the president of the Mount Kisco Chamber of Commerce and owner of a real estate insurance business, shook his head.

“And I thought I had a tough job,” he said.

At least some of the heat that’s been generated over health care in the 19th district comes from Hall’s likely 2010 opponent, state Assemblyman Greg Ball (R).

While Hall spent August in a variety of meetings on health care with business leaders, merchants, medical providers and patients, Ball held four very public and very raucous town hall meetings on health care reform across the district.

Just a few hours after Hall’s Main Street walk, Ball held one of his town halls in Cornwall-on-Hudson, a community along the river some 25 miles northwest of Mount Kisco. Despite violent storms, about 200 people packed into a community center — most dead-set against the Democratic health care reform plan and all too happy to express their anger.