Next week, a Czech ensemble, Cirk La Putyka, brings its contemporary take on the circus to the stage, blurring the lines between acrobatics, dance, puppetry and music, and a couple of weeks after that it’s the boisterous “Hello, Dolly!” musical that’ll be filling the theater’s seats for a two-week run. But Saturday, Feb. 18, it was legislative updates and a lively, pointed exchange about public policy that drew a civic-minded crowd to the Lakewood Cultural Center.

“There’s this thing called the Kennedy Rule,” U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter said with a smile and then gestured toward the state representative, his former campaign manager, who stood a few feet away on the unevenly lit stage. “Chris Kennedy can claim it, but it’s really John Kennedy. And the Kennedy Rule came into play earlier this morning, where you pick a venue slightly smaller than the crowd you expect.”

The theater filled with laughter but the discussion quickly took a more serious tone as Perlmutter, Kennedy, state Rep. Brittany Pettersen and state Sens. Andy Kerr and Cheri Jahn, all Jefferson County Democrats, resumed taking questions from the audience.

Roughly 250 constituents showed up for the four state legislators’ monthly town hall at Lakewood’s city hall complex, but the unexpectedly large crowd quickly outgrew the large community room where the meetings have been routinely held for years. So, while members of the crowd sipped coffee – there didn’t turn out to be enough for everyone – and munched on donuts, organizers arranged to move the event down the hall and past the lobby into the center’s theater, home of the Lakewood Symphony and a popular venue for a wide variety of visiting performers.

After everyone got settled in the new venue, Kerr welcomed the crowd – they were sitting in his senate district – and got in a dig at public servants across the country who have been ducking town halls amid passionate and sometimes angry public reaction to national political developments.

“We just wanted to prove to you that, while some of your elected officials are hiding in other states, folks like Ed Perlmutter and the rest of us here are willing to stand up and chat with you, have a two-way conversation,” Kerr said.

Pettersen said she was happy to see the evident enthusiasm about government and policy, adding, “I think this is reflective of the moment and what’s going on. I think people are concerned and upset, ready to get involved and find out answers to the questions – I think there’s a lot of uncertainty now.”

Noting that it was the biggest crowd she’d ever seen at one of the Lakewood legislators’ monthly town meetings, former state Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, who took part in a panel on women’s health concerns, said, “Something’s got people energized.”

That something was the month-old Trump administration and the nearly nonstop news pouring out of Washington.

Delivering a brief legislative update, Kerr sounded a similar note.

“We know that you are here today because of the unease, the feeling we have as citizens of a country that many of us are having difficulty recognizing, and supposed leaders in Washington, D.C., that we don’t identify with and we don’t recognize anymore,” he said. “And a little bit of that is going on at our state Capitol, as well.”

Kerr pointed out that, as of that week, all five of the bills he had introduced in the Legislature – including one aimed at making it so the national popular vote determined the winner of presidential elections and another to fund full-day kindergarten across the state – had been killed by Republican-controlled committees in the Senate.

“We have got to make some changes. We have got to start here and now,” he said. And then he got in another dig at politicians who haven’t held traditional town halls open to the public in order to hear from constituents: “I’m looking forward to hearing from our congressman, who is not too shy or too busy with fundraisers in other states to come out and talk with you.”

In Colorado, Republicans U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman have been under fire in recent weeks from constituents and political opponents for declining to hold public town halls last week, while Congress was in recess. As he made his way to various private events with industry groups and others last week, protesters greeted Gardner, demanding he face his constituents. Some threw their own town hall events and invited the senator, but he didn’t attend. Coffman, for his part, met with medical professionals and patient-advocacy groups last week and plans to hold telephone town halls in March. His aides said late last week he would hold a traditional town hall sometime in April.

Perlmutter – clad in cycling gear, as he’d ridden his bike to the meeting – painted a grim picture of the month since President Donald Trump had been inaugurated.

“Obviously, it’s crazy in Washington, D.C., and it’s not fun. It is not fun,” he said. “Every day, it’s, ‘Flynn is a great guy,’ and then he’s resigning, and then he’s a great guy again.” He was referring to General Michael Flynn, who served as President Trump’s national security adviser for a few weeks until he resigned amid allegations he’d misled Vice President Mike Pence about conversations Flynn had with the Russian ambassador.

“We have various appointees that the president has selected that really, I don’t think, represent the kind of country I’d like to see, but he’s the president, he selected them,” Perlmutter said, noting that just one nominee – fast food magnate Andrew Puzder, who withdrew as Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Labor after domestic violence allegations surfaced – had so far been rejected. “I wanted to bring that up. Your voice is heard. It may seem, when you’re writing the letters and you’re doing the phone calls that, geez, they’re just going off in the stratosphere someplace, but it’s heard.”

Another example, Perlmutter said, was the fate of legislation to sell millions of acres of public land that had been proposed and then withdrawn by Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz. “And because of the outpouring of objections to that bill, he’s pulled it back,” Perlmutter said. “Now, he may bring it back in some other form, but it was all the phone calls, all the letters, all the comments that really did have an impact.”

Perlmutter pointed out – “it’s your civics lesson” – that with the country under “unified Republican federal government: Trump, Republican House, Republican Senate,” the usual checks and balances weren’t going to accomplish much. “The real checks and balances are between the people and the White House, the people and Congress, and the states and the federal government,” he added.

It wasn’t all grim, Perlmutter suggested, just nearly all of it.

“All I can tell you,” he said, “I think there’ll be common ground on infrastructure, and we’ll see how that plays out. But there is pretty much an assault on everything I’ve been working for, and certainly the prior administration did, whether it’s on immigration or education or health care or the environment or you name the subject, there’s some real differences of opinion, and it’s your job to make sure your opinions are known, whether it’s to me or your state legislators or whoever.”

Perlmutter wrapped up his opening remarks by urging audience members to pay attention to upcoming school board and municipal elections.

“The engagement that we’ve seen from people because of concern about what they see happening has got to be sustained,” he said. “We’ve got to stay involved and stay engaged and make our voices heard to make sure the future we have in America is the future we want to see.”

The first question from the audience was about Republican plans to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and block federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Perlmutter said that internal divisions within the GOP could slow, if not derail, some of those plans. Moderate Republicans, he said, wanted to maintain Medicaid funding similar to current levels, while the more conservative Freedom Caucus – “they call themselves that, they’re the tea party guys,” he said – want to cut it dramatically. “And pretty much the entire Republican caucus would like to defund Planned Parenthood.”

Democrats, he said, will try to keep the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Planned Parenthood funding intact, adding, “To the degree we can improve it, we want to do that. The Republicans have infighting as to how they want to make these changes now, and if we can capitalize on their infighting, we need to.”

Asked whether cities in Jefferson County were planning to protect immigrant residents as the federal government steps up deportation action, the Lakewood City Council member whose name is simply Shakti joined the lawmakers on stage. “If you look at the substance of what we’re doing,” she said, “I think that we are an open and inclusive community. We are not calling ourselves a sanctuary city or bringing attention to that issue, but in terms of the underlying decisions, we are being inclusive.”

Edgewater Mayor Kris Teegardin, who was standing near the back of the auditorium, said his city had recently passed a resolution declaring itself “an inclusive community,” and added that he planned to encourage the Metro Mayors Caucus to deliberate on the question.

Pettersen told the crowd she’s been hearing from teachers whose students are staying home from school because they’re worried about being deported. “We have people in our community that do not feel safe right now, so it’s our job to tell them we’re here for you, we’re with you, and we’re going to keep fighting for you,” she said.

After a few more questions – a man wanted to know if Congress would draw the line at paying for President Trump’s frequent trips to his Florida resort to play golf, a small business owner wanted to know whether Republicans wanted to make it harder for her and her husband to get health insurance, and a woman said she was frightened for the future if the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt rolled back regulations like he’s promised – the lawmakers thanked the crowd and joined constituents in the lobby for another half hour of discussion.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com