Paulsen’s moderate cred called into question at town hall

Rep. Erik Paulsen. Photo: Facebook

Updated, with video: The person dressed as a dog marked “Erik Paulsen, Michele Bachmann’s lap dog” may not have been the most surprising attendee at Paulsen’s town hall meeting in Edina last night. His DFL challenger for the 3rd Congressional District seat, Jim Meffert, showed up. But from the sounds of a Doug Grow report, neither one stole the show: A woman challenging that Paulsen ran as a moderate but voted in Congress as a conservative, apparently did. She likely had a fan in the costumed dog, who handed out sheets that said Paulsen voted with Bachmann 93 percent of the time.

The exchange, from MinnPost:

“You ran as a moderate,” said a woman who said she was from Edina. “But you’re [sic] behavior suggests otherwise.”

She asked three questions:

1. Did Paulsen act as a host at a Sarah Palin-Bachmann fundraiser?

2. Has he accepted contributions from MN Forward, a new business-oriented political action organization?

3. Did he vote against extending the hate crime bill to violence against women and gays?

The questions, asked angrily, got a big round of applause.

Paulsen tried to dance.

“In terms of being a moderate,” he said, “I voted with the president a third of the time. … I see myself as solution oriented.”

The woman didn’t like the dance.

“Were you a host at the Palin-Bachmann fundraiser?” she yelled.

“You’re asking a question you know the answer to,” Paulsen said.

“We’re you a host?”

“It was a Republican Party event,” he said.

“Did you vote against the extension of the hate crimes bill?”

“I did,” Paulsen said. “I believe judges should have discretion in sentencing.”

Meffert kept quiet throughout, Grow reports, as he intended. In a release preceding the event, Meffert’s campaign said the Democrat would be attending as “a constituent concerned about what Congress is doing to create jobs, control health care costs, improve our public schools, and move America toward clean energy.”

Update: The UpTake has video of the town hall.