was eli crane's town hall real?

Before I begin, I received news that my university is also utilizing Flock cameras. Joy. (See 20250319)

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Last Tuesday, April 8th, I received an email from Eli Crane's office announcing that, after months of public pressure, he would be holding a tele-town hall the next day, April 9th, at 5pm AZ Time. It included the phone number to call into.

The next day, at 5:05pm I called that number and immediately received an automated message: "This event is not active. Call back closer to the event start time". I thought that they may be a bit behind, so I call back later. Same thing. I kept calling for the next hour - same message - and was convinced that he just didn't do it.

I emailed the KNAU news team about this because of how unusual it was and that constituents were not being served. After some back and forth, we both agreed that is was odd and had a hard time finding anyone who was actually able to call in. By the next morning the Crane office posted on social media that over 8,000 people joined the call. Where were they?

I put out some feelers. I found many more people who called the advertised number and were unable to join. Eventually, I found two people who have never contacted the Crane office, but were cold called by a different number with the caller ID showing "Rep. Eli Crane". When picked up, an automated voice asked them to stay on the line for the tele-town hall. Neither of the people I spoke to stayed for long, because they have never interacted with Crane's office and didn't even know about the event.

This information took me for a bit of a whirl. Anyone who called into the number wanting to participate was unable. Everyone who was cold-called without knowledge of the event (and stayed on the line) was able to stay. KNAU staff seem to have found the same stories, but the Crane office will not comment. "Technical difficulties".

Now, there is a recording available that, in my opinion, sounds incredibly scripted. Eli Crane took about 4-5 questions, and they were just ridiculous and were not given serious answers. This makes sense, as anyone informed of the event wanting to ask a question was not able to join.

To get to the title, was it real? In the barest sense of the word, perhaps. Was it enacted with the best interests of constituents in mind? I don't think so.

Truthfully, I've been told that no-one cares about this. That is likely true. I'll choose to keep my high standards to my own detriment. Call your representatives.