First District Congressman Jim Hagedorn sent out an email to multiple constituents on Monday July 15th, 2019 barring them from coming to his official Congressional office in Mankato or meeting with his staff.
Indivisible St. Peter/Greater Mankato has been visiting Congressman Hagedorn’s office once a week for an average of 15-20 minutes to inquire about town halls and to enable constituents to share their concerns with the Congressman about his votes and public statements. Two recent visits - to address the telephone town hall for Nicollet County (June 18) and to address the humanitarian crisis at the border (June 27) - attracted more concerned constituents and took longer because the office only allows 6-7 constituents in at a time. We have remained respectful in all of our visits to Congressman Hagedorn’s office and have been grateful to his staff for listening to our concerns. We have the utmost respect for the work of a Congressional office.
That is why we wanted to specifically address the unequivocally false allegation that Congressman Hagedorn made that a member of our group stated that we were trying to ‘keep staff from attending to other work’. This is absolutely not our intention.
In fact, we have stated many times that if office staff have pressing matters to attend to, we would be happy to wait or come back another time. Indeed, we have offered to set up a private meeting to discuss productive ways going forward that would meet the needs of constituents while being sensitive to the apparent staffing challenges in Rep. Hagedorn’s office and have been ignored.
For this reason, we were shocked to see our visits being characterized in this way and, especially, to see this accusation made against us. We do not expect Rep. Hagedorn to vote in line with our positions all of the time but we do expect, at the very least, to be able to convey our concerns about how he is representing us in the First District.
Indivisible St. Peter/Greater Mankato has been visiting Congressman Hagedorn’s office once a week for an average of 15-20 minutes to inquire about town halls and to enable constituents to share their concerns with the Congressman about his votes and public statements. Two recent visits - to address the telephone town hall for Nicollet County (June 18) and to address the humanitarian crisis at the border (June 27) - attracted more concerned constituents and took longer because the office only allows 6-7 constituents in at a time. We have remained respectful in all of our visits to Congressman Hagedorn’s office and have been grateful to his staff for listening to our concerns. We have the utmost respect for the work of a Congressional office.
That is why we wanted to specifically address the unequivocally false allegation that Congressman Hagedorn made that a member of our group stated that we were trying to ‘keep staff from attending to other work’. This is absolutely not our intention.
In fact, we have stated many times that if office staff have pressing matters to attend to, we would be happy to wait or come back another time. Indeed, we have offered to set up a private meeting to discuss productive ways going forward that would meet the needs of constituents while being sensitive to the apparent staffing challenges in Rep. Hagedorn’s office and have been ignored.
For this reason, we were shocked to see our visits being characterized in this way and, especially, to see this accusation made against us. We do not expect Rep. Hagedorn to vote in line with our positions all of the time but we do expect, at the very least, to be able to convey our concerns about how he is representing us in the First District.
“Congressman Hagedorn has the duty to represent all people in Minnesota’s First District, even those he disagrees with,” said Jennifer Andrashko, a First District constituent. “A group of his constituents went to his District Office to respectfully share their views in an attempt to have meaningful and productive dialogue with Congressman Hagedorn and his office. While we were appreciative of the Congressman’s staff making the time to listen to our concerns up to this point, we are deeply disappointed in Congressman Hagedorn’s false accusation and his using this as a justification to shut out constituents whose views he disagrees with. Congressman Hagedorn has demonstrated he is only interested in listening to those who agree with his views, not all southern Minnesotans.”
This is not the first time that Congressman Hagedorn and his office have attempted to mischaracterize and intimidate First District constituents. On June 27th, the police were called and asked to remove us from the premises, even though the group was completely peaceful and respectful and followed their instructions to wait outside in the rain rather than in the building. The Mankato Police Department’s report noted that our group acted respectfully and they found no reason to remove us from the property.
Police were called on us, again, the following day as we were meeting with First District constituents in Rochester just before the town hall on June 28th. Police, again, said they could see that there we weren’t up to any trouble and thanked us afterwards for our civil engagement.
While Congressman Hagedorn’s behavior is disappointing, it is unfortunately in line with his widely reported history of insulting and dismissing people and groups with whom he disagrees with. There are many urgent issues facing our district: poverty and hunger in southern Minnesota, disaster relief for farmers, affordable medication for seniors, etc.
We will continue our attempts to engage in respectful and productive issue-based dialogue with the Congressman and his staff so that he may have a fuller grasp of all the viewpoints held by his constituency, many of whom have direct expertise and personal experience that would be relevant to the Representative’s understanding.
This is not the first time that Congressman Hagedorn and his office have attempted to mischaracterize and intimidate First District constituents. On June 27th, the police were called and asked to remove us from the premises, even though the group was completely peaceful and respectful and followed their instructions to wait outside in the rain rather than in the building. The Mankato Police Department’s report noted that our group acted respectfully and they found no reason to remove us from the property.
Police were called on us, again, the following day as we were meeting with First District constituents in Rochester just before the town hall on June 28th. Police, again, said they could see that there we weren’t up to any trouble and thanked us afterwards for our civil engagement.
While Congressman Hagedorn’s behavior is disappointing, it is unfortunately in line with his widely reported history of insulting and dismissing people and groups with whom he disagrees with. There are many urgent issues facing our district: poverty and hunger in southern Minnesota, disaster relief for farmers, affordable medication for seniors, etc.
We will continue our attempts to engage in respectful and productive issue-based dialogue with the Congressman and his staff so that he may have a fuller grasp of all the viewpoints held by his constituency, many of whom have direct expertise and personal experience that would be relevant to the Representative’s understanding.
Here is the document sent out by Rep. Hagedorn's office indicating the Constituent Ban: