Busted! Town Hall Hooligan is GOP Operative, Claims to Be 'Just a Mom'

Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) faced a “heated” discussion about health care at a town hall meeting yesterday, with people in the crowd who were heckling, interrupting, and filibustering him.

One vocal attendee was a woman named Heather Blish, who identified herself as “just a mom from a few blocks away” and “not affiliated with any political party.” When interviewed by the local NBC affiliate, Blish insisted she was not a member of the Republican Party. “I left the party,” she said. Blish’s statements, however, are distortions. From NBC’s report:

Her LinkedIn page shows something different. She was the vice chair of the Republican Party of Kewaunee County until last year. She worked on the John Gard campaign, who ran unsuccessfully against Kagen last year. And it says she’s a part of the Republican Party for Kagen’s district, as well as the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and the Republican National Committee.

Watch it:

Huffington Post’s Sam Stein notes, “Blish’s deliberate misleading of the local NBC reporter feeds into the suspicion that she — like other protesters at these events — are there because of political reasons not policy disagreements.”

Indeed, Republicans have been heavily promoting these protests. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) has said that the time for polite town halls is “over,” and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has said that Democrats will have a “very, very hot summer.” State Republican Parties have also joined in.