Congress choosing job fairs over town halls

More and more members of Congress are hosting job fairs in their home districts, finding them far less risky than those acrimonious town halls of summers past.

CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports that his summer has seen Congressmen host job fairs across the country. Illinois Republican Judy Biggert is just one of a growing number of House members organizing job fairs this summer.

"There's a lot of people that are hurting and we want to give them hope," Biggert says.

Job fairs -- with their implied concern for the jobless -- are far less confrontational than those town halls full of venting voters, like those that gave John McCain an earful last month.

"They want to vent a lot of their frustration to me, and I'm more then eager to do that," McCain said afterwards.

There is no wondering why elected representatives prefer the quieter setting of job fairs.

"This is an environment in which they can control the message a little bit better, and also keep the message focused. The very event itself is focused on jobs, which is really all their voters want to talk about," said John Dickerson, CBS News political analyst.

According to one national survey, there were 500 Congressional town hall meetings during the Capitol Hill summer recess. But that's down from 659 such gatherings in 2009, when a tide of angry Youtube moments rolled over lots of incumbents.

Angry voters are still out there for sure, and many are accusing congress of ducking them this time around.

In Richmond, Va., last week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor held an invitations-only meeting with constituents, avoiding speaking to protestors lined up across the street. Those left out didn't like it.

"It's difficult for constituents to try to reach him, even when you go to specific places to see him, or make arrangements," said Gwendolyn Hedgepeth, Richmond, Va. resident.

Some who lined up to attend Representative Biggert's job fair last week appreciated her gesture, but others, like unemployed engineer Gib Schneider, said she and her colleagues should have stayed on the job in Washington.

"They all take the summer off, but the job hunters are still looking during the summer trying to find something," Schneider said, adding that if they'd do their job, finding one for himself might not be so hard.