During a Sunday event at a senior center in Madras, Oregon, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) was confronted by the largest town hall crowd he's seen all year--approximately 200 people in a town of 6000.

Merkley has hosted over two dozen such events since February, and, according to his spokesman Marc Siegel, the tone of these events has become significantly more aggressive in the last few weeks, culminating in Sunday's raucous event.

"Many of the procedures laid out in the memo were implemented," Siegel told me, referring to this document, authored by a small group called Right Principles and disseminated to protest organizers across the country via an online list serv.

Siegel says the Deschutes County Tea Party boasted of sending people to the event in Madras (a town in Jefferson County) from its base in the city of Bend, approximately 45 miles south.

That's not galling in its own right. As a senator, Merkley represents residents of Bend and Madras alike. But their behavior intimidated local residents, many of whom were cowed into silence by the out-of-towners.

According to Holly Gill, news editor of the Madras Pioneer, the scene was "raucous," if not quite as disruptive as some of the episodes that have made the rounds on cable news. "I've never seen such a large contingent of people behaving in such a disrespectful manner," Gill told me via email.

Madras has just over 6,000 people, with over 22,000 in the county, but I usually recognize most people at public meetings. Of the 150-200 people at the meeting, I probably only recognized about 30. I didn't recognize the most disruptive individuals. We've received three or four letters to the editor decrying the behavior on display at the meeting.... I've been to numerous town halls or meetings with Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Greg Walden, or former Sen. Gordon Smith (Merkley's predecessor) and have never before been embarrassed by the way the community was represented.

Gill's article about the event is here. Merkley was able to finish the event, but it wasn't a civil discourse.