State Senator Dan Soucek (R-Boone) hosted a meeting to mine constituents for ideas on how to change education policies. Soucek then told people they could not record the event electronically:

“These are private citizens, teachers, parents, and I wanted this to be a safe environment, where they felt safe that we could have a robust conversation that wouldn’t show up somewhere where it would defame them,” Soucek said.

Reportedly, the sheriff’s department did not think the forum was open enough to be an open meeting. Watauga’s county attorney could not comment.

This was not all:

Soucek said some who attended the event were paid by liberal groups such as the Democratic Party, the NAACP or MoveOn.org and were expected to be disruptive.

“It’s disappointing, because it’s not democracy, it’s — I have a lot of words I could use,” he said.

The first group denied paying anybody, and the other two could not be reached for comment.