Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Sept. 24, 2018

Members of Congress spent last month playing it safe, holding hundreds fewer town halls this year than in August recesses past, according to data compiled by LegiStorm.

During the House's recess period, members of both chambers held only 273 in-person town halls, apparently choosing campaign events aimed more at their fellow partisans over broad public gatherings with all constituents. It's common for members to spend election years eschewing town halls in favor of fundraising and other campaign events. But last month's town-hall count was particularly low, even by election-year standards: Members held 528 and 600 town halls — about twice as many as this year — during the same periods in 2016 and 2014, respectively.

Although Republicans held the majority of this recess's town halls (170), GOP members were more likely to hold multiple events, and those 170 were hosted by only 46 members. During that time, 54 Democrats held a total of 102 town halls.

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