Telephones were ringing throughout the 8th Congressional District the evening of Aug. 6. It was Congressman Dave Reichert calling 47,000 of his constituents. If they were home, they heard this recorded message:

Hi, this is Congressman Dave Reichert. I'm currently holding a live town meeting over the phone. We'll be discussing issues important to you and I'll be happy to take your questions. If you'd like to join, please press one on your phone. Again, I'm here on the line. To hear the latest updates on activity in Washington and ask me a question, please press one and we'll have a chance to talk.

About 400 people pressed "1" and joined Reichert for his first district-wide "tele-town hall." It was about an hour-long conference call that for Reichert has replaced the old-fashioned, in-person, town hall meeting.

Actually, Reichert, a two-term Republican, has never held a traditional town hall meeting. Early in his first term he convened a panel discussion to talk about Social Security. But that didn't go well.

"People started chanting and yelling," Reichert's chief of staff, Mike Shields, said this week. The forum was moderated by Times editorial page editor Jim Vesely. He wrote afterward that the event turned into a "hockey game." That was the end of any plans for open-door town halls for Reichert. Said Shields:

The old school town hall meting where Norman Rockwell-like citizens stand up to ask their elected representative a question just isn't possible. ... It'd be better to just say, "Let's have a rumble." It's political theater. That's what town halls have turned into.

Reichert has not stopped meeting with constituents. There are small-group meetings in the district. In D.C., Shields said, "he meets with anyone who wants to see him." That has included representatives of the liberal group MoveOn.org, union officials and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane has also used the tele-town hall, though she continues to do in-person events as well. I checked with a few other members of the delegation. Democratic Reps. Adam Smith, Brian Baird and Jay Inslee haven't done any conference calls and continue schedules of in-person events. Baird has done an online session. He has three in-person town halls scheduled this month, which will bring his total to 285 town halls since being elected in 1998. Smith has a town hall in SeaTac Aug. 22 and Inslee has three scheduled next month.

Tele-town halls are operated by a contractor who has a database of active voters in the district. For Reichert's event last week, only registered voters who voted in both of the two most recent elections — so-called two-of-twos — got calls inviting them to join the discussion. That provides an audience of the most regular voters.

If people have a question, they push a button on their phone and they talk to a call screener. Reichert's staff worked with the screener and a moderator to choose the questions, Shields said. Argumentative people can easily be cut off. Repetitious questions can be avoided. Shields said:

The tone, the demeanor is different. People aren't going on a rant. We just think that's a better way to communicate with people.

But it also allows Congressional staff to screen out any potentially embarrassing questions or even challenging or probing questions. Shields said they didn't do that. Reichert wasn't asked any questions about Iraq. But Shields said that's because no one posed a question about the war. He said there was no censorship.

There were questions about immigration, energy policy, campaign finance and a plea for Reichert to support a Constitutional amendment for congressional term limits. (He doesn't support that.)

The tele-town hall allows members to take instant polls of their constituents. About half-way through Reichert's call, the moderator announced there would be a survey that callers could answer by pushing buttons on their telephones:

An interesting feature of these conference calls is we can take live calls and get live feedback with folks who are on the phone and sort of hear about what you're thinking. And the congressman can get your votes on certain current issues and we can talk a little about how people are feeling and get live data reported right back to us.

The question was about what people thought should have happened with the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which Congress recently renewed.

Reichert voted against the renewal because he objected to how it would be financed.

Reichert said he could not vote for an expansion of the children's program that would be funded partially by cuts to Medicare Advantage, a Republican-backed program that provides seniors with health care from private insurers.

Reichert gave a lengthy explanation of the bill and outlined his objections. He said that he knew the vote would be used against him. He told callers:

Over the next few weeks you'll hear some media, they'll say, "Reichert doesn't support children's health care." Dave Reichert does support children's health care, but not at the cost of taking health care away from our seniors.

And that's how the question was posed:

Press the corresponding button on your phone to indicate your opinion: To pay for this critical children's health care program we should, 1) cut Medicare, 2) raise tobacco taxes or, 3) we shouldn't renew the program.

Reichert's position is No. 2, raise tobacco taxes. In an e-mail newsletter sent afterwards, Reichert said:

I wanted to poll the callers on how they would fund health care for children — giving callers the same choice I had when I took my vote: to fund the program through cigarette taxes or by cutting seniors' health care by $200 billion. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of taxing cigarettes. Not one person chose to cut seniors' health care, echoing my vote on the floor.