"Town Halls" Having Negative Connotations for Liberals?

Yesterday, Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) was supposed to have a "town hall meeting" at Greenbriar in Marlboro. Well, at the last moment, they changed the name to "press conference" (the new name was taped over the original one). When asked, one of the local organizers said that "town hall has negative connotations".

I checked the definition, and it is: "A town hall meeting is an informal public meeting. Everybody in a community is invited to attend, voice their opinions, and hear the responses from public figures and elected officials."

So which part of this has negative connotations for Rush Holt? Is it the public? The voicing of opinions? Having to give answers? Anyway, the event was supposed to be secret liberal shindig, and the change occurred after Holt's people found out that there will be conservatives in the audience. He would've liked to keep it private, but since he was there in his position of Congressman (so the event was taxpayer-funded), they couldn't deny admission to anybody.

Oh well, and the press conference went really well, Rush Holt took 3 questions from the public, after which he said he has a train to catch and left.