ELNORA — Constituents, young and old, came to the Elnora American Legion Friday to speak with their congressman.

And for some, Congressman Brad Ellsworth had some explaining to do.

Ellsworth, D-Evansville, fielded questions about the recent economic turmoil, the recently passed $787 billion stimulus package and other issues.

But the economy was at the forefront of Friday’s Town Hall-style meeting.

“A lot of people are concerned about unemployment, what’s going on in the county,” Ellsworth said. “Daviess County is at 4.8 percent unemployment. That’s four points below the state average and as the state goes, that’s not too bad.

“That doesn’t mean our country and our state isn’t hurting.”

Ellsworth was one of 11 House Democrats to vote against the first version of the stimulus, then estimated at $819 billion. He later voted for the compromised version, $787 million.

The former Vanderburgh County Sheriff explained that he did not like the first version because of excess spending, but some form of rescue was needed.

“There’s still stuff in the bill that I say doesn’t belong in there,” Ellsworth said. “(When) the voting light comes on, you don’t get ‘Yes, but’ or ‘No, but’. There was more good in it that try to save our economy than bad.”

Ellsworth said the stimulus is not a political victory, but rather a “life preserver.”

“This isn’t Republican problems or Democrat problems, this is American problems,” Ellsworth said. “This is affecting all of us.”

Ellsworth said after the meeting that he never heard a bad word from the House Democratic leadership after his first “No” vote.

“I never felt any pressure for that,” Ellsworth said. “I had to come home and explain my vote and I didn’t feel good about that first package. The second one is not perfect but it is a lot better.”

Jerry Beck, member of the Elnora Town Board, asked what funding will make its way to small towns and cities like Elnora. Ellsworth said the stimulus is broken up into three parts, government spending, tax cuts and help for states. Money from the federal government will pass through the state first and be distributed.

Ellsworth has been in contact with Gov. Mitch Daniels and said that office has sent letters to town officials on filing for stimulus dollars.

“What they are looking for are projects that are called ‘shovel ready’ or projects that will put people back to work quickly or create jobs,” Ellsworth said. “For towns this size, you all will be competing with other towns the same size.”

Beck said the town is looking for additional funding for a sewer project.

“We’ll face it,” Beck said. “We want to bring as much home as we can.”

Even though the stimulus will spend money at a high rate, it stings for Ellsworth who has been against deficit spending since winning election in 2006.

“To say that we are going to spend $787 billion of what we don’t have makes you want to throw up,” Ellsworth said. “But when you sit there and listen to these record layoffs, the worst since the Great Depression, it may not be the way I would have wrote the bill.”

But it had to be done. One questioner asked about the bailout of the big three U.S. automakers and asked why the government should dump money into failing and irresponsible companies.

Ellsworth said although there is not a major big three plant in the eighth district, helping U.S. automakers helps Toyota, who has a plant in Gibson County.

“They’re doing everything short of laying people off,” Ellsworth said. “The suppliers that supply Toyota are the same suppliers for them.”

Ellsworth said after the meeting the mood of the country has really changed from last year’s Open Door listening tour, even from last November’s election.

“We really have (noticed a mood swing,) Ellsworth said. “This comes on the heels of the stimulus bill and people are frustrated, concerned. There’s a lot of blame going around. There’s a lot of confusion.

“They are worried and this is real,” Ellsworth said.

Up next for Ellsworth is work on the a new housing relief package and a possible second loan to automakers.

“Anything else on financial institutions,” Ellsworth said. “Combine that with everything else. We can’t stop and say we are going to work on the stimulus and the economy. We have troops over in Iraq and Afghanistan and we are not going to forget about them either.”