The consummate public servant, Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D- Texas) can now be summoned by his constituents 24/7 with the click of a remote.
Cable subscribers in Ortiz's district and five others can watch up to 30 minutes of on-demand programming from their legislators, just as they view reruns of their favorite shows and movies. A new service called MiCongress offers members of the House of Representatives the chance to buy their own personal cable channels for an average of $2,000 a month.
A prerecorded video that will air on Ortiz's channel illustrates his path to politics with grainy black-and-white photos of him as a chubby tot in his Sunday best and a young soldier standing at attention.
"Never did I even dream that I would be where I am today," Ortiz explains, accompanied by a wind symphony.
The new technology is raising some eyebrows, however, because taxpayers are picking up the tab.
Representatives can pay for the service with their tax-funded office budgets as long as the videos are nonpartisan and issue-oriented, the same standard set for congressional mailings.
Last month, The Washington Post reported:
So far, five members have signed up: Reps. Donna F. Edwards (D-Md.), James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), Solomon P. Ortiz (D-Tex.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.). The service costs two cents per reachable constituent and allows lawmakers to make available about 30 minutes of video at any given time. They are permitted to use their office budgets under Congress's franking rules, because it is not considered partisan or campaign speech.
The first to sign up was Moran, who has big plans for the channel, spokeswoman Emily Blout said. The target audience is the young professional set that makes up 40 percent of his Northern Virginia district, she said.
"In days gone by, you'd send out a newsletter blast to tell people what you've been doing, but a lot of people these days don't read that stuff," she said. "They don't have the time or the inclination to read a pamphlet. This is another means for the congressman to provide services to the community."
Moran's channel contains clips of him explaining his views on several issues. It also includes a biographical video, though you would be forgiven for mistaking it for a campaign commercial.
So, is MiCongress a way of encouraging deliberation and civic participation, or is it a thinly-disguised campaign tool? Or both?
