Will constituents be excluded from Gardners telephone town halls?

On a new page on his official web site, announcing a series of “telephone town halls,” U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) writes, “To join our conversations, complete the form below and we will call you before each event starts.”

But if Gardner selects specific people, he may be breaking U.S. Senate rules.

“{Gardner’s} communications director told me that they and other U.S. Senators have a company that sets up telephone town halls according to senate rules that require participants be selected randomly from voter rolls,” CBS4 political specialist Shaun Boyd reported Jan. 30.

I had no luck locating the rules referenced, and my phone call to Gardner’s office routed me directly to voice mail and was not returned. A call to Vakeo, which apparently operates Gardner’s tele town halls, was not returned.

But a Google search yielded numerous references to the “random” selection of participants on telephone town halls organized by Members of Congress, like Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA).

- See more at: http://www.coloradopols.com/diary/92396/will-constituents-be-excluded-from-gardners-telephone-town-halls