If one wants to urge a senator or representative to adopt a certain position, what is the most effective means of communication: email, phone, or snail mail?
Snail mail. And write your concern on the back of a campaign contribution check.
Sorry, that’s not true. You should send the contribution check first. then wait a couple of weeks until you get a thank you note. Send your letter outlining your preference or concern to the return address on the thank you note.
D. Lobbyist.
A handwritten letter generally has more weight, because it takes more effort, and it means you’re probably a senior and more likely to vote.
Email is meaningless. The staffers just pile all the emails together into a summary statement, and you are just one of a thousand. Snail mail is best, if you are looking for input into the critter’s decision-making process. If you have a problem and are seeking their help, call their local office and follow-up with a letter. This can get a very quick response if the critter has a half-way decent staff. Props to Sen. Diane Feinstein(D-CA) in that regard. Her staff is always polite, efficient and on the ball.
It did up until 2001. After the anthrax scare, all mail to Congress (and a lot of state legislators, as well) is now routed to a secure sorting facility, screened, and then delivered whenever it finally gets through the screening process.
The best way to reach your representative is through the contact link on his or her website.
Here’s what my Representative’s link looks like. Note that it has a list of issues for easy sorting by the staff.
Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it means that when the legislator does read that summary, they’re going to know how many people like you urged the same thing you did.
Yup. Also, remember that these emails are being read by either unpaid interns or badly underpaid junior staffers - which means that if you want it to be as effective as possible, convey your position clearly and briefly. No one in the office particularly cares about the eloquence, humor, or passion with which you argue your point - they just want to know what your point is, so they can summarize it correctly. And if you send a five-page screed, they might miss your point - in which case, you’ve wasted your effort.
I type a letter and post it. It’s never failed to get me a response. I don’t think an email carries nearly as much weight.
I would imagine that it depends on the person, and each representative/senator treats these things differently.
But I did hear a US congressional representative speak at a letter-writing event last year, and she said:
Letters that are hand-written make it to my desk.
Letters that are typed are read by a staffer.
E-mails are tallied, to know how many are for an issue and how many are against.
I wrote via US Mail and wrote via email.
President Obama. Never heard back.
US Senator, Dick Durbin never heard back
US Senator, Roland Burris, sent back form letter.
US Representative, Luis Gutierrez, never wrote me back but put me on is email list
Mayor Daley of Chicago, never heard back
So of all my major politicans only TWO even bothered to address me after I sent them both US mail and emails.
And one was a form letter basically saying “Thanks for writing, I’ll look into it.” and the other was to put my email on a mailing list and never follow up my question.
It’s funny 'cause when I was a little kid in the 70s, we’d get handwritten responses from our US State representatives and senators. And always got personalized letters from others. OK who knows who wrote them, but it’s sad the politicans have just completely given up even trying to contact you back
Ah, the fighting 4th. Most gerrymandered district in the country. Wouldn’t surprise me if, when everything gets redistricted, the district ends up including portions of Chicago and East St. Louis.
Sure is, and it’s because they are overwhelmed with mass mailing campaigns. Members of congress don’t have published email addresses anymore because they were so overwhelmed with the volume of mail, 99% of which was auto generated. They now use contact forms instead.
In terms of physical mail (letters, postcards, etc.), most get so much that it requires a staff decicated just to opening and cataloging it all. Thousands of pieces of mail a day.
Mr. Excellent’s advice is great, and it’s echoed at this website. Be succinct and direct in expressing what you want to say. Your rep is interested in your views on issues, but on average they represent 650,000 people, so your voice is just one of many. Don’t waste their time with the abstract or the esoteric or the philosophical. And don’t be insulted that they don’t have the time for a personal response.
And sorry to burst any bubbles, but I doubt you got many personalized responses in the 70s. They just made more of an effort to maintain the illusion. 
If all you care about is that your message be read and noticed, I would consider a letterbomb.
There are, however, certain disadvantages to that mode of communication which, depending on your political stance, may outweigh the advantages.
DISCLAIMER: The above post is SATIRE. Beware of Doug does NOT endorse sending explosives through the mails.
Letter, by US mail. Not that a few hundred emails can’t have a effect, mind you.
While a letter is better than an email, both will likely be ignored, or only read by a low-level intern. If you are just writing to express your opinion, as opposed to asking for help, you would be better off finding what ever lobbying group is supporting your issue, and urging them to visit/contact your congressman on your behalf with your story/contact info. Bottom line is most congresspeople will not directly hear your input unless you have an extraordinary story, or unique insight. If you can’t find someone to lobby on your behalf, you should call the office to ask for the legislative assistant who covers the issue. Once you have their name, you can contact them via phone and mail directly to state your case. In most cases, that person can sit down with the congressperson if need be, and they will likely have a lot of input in crafting the office’s official position.
Senator Feinstein’s office is well run. And you always get a good and true responce. E-mail her and yoou get a form responce from her staff right away saying thanks for the e-mail and that they will be following up, and they do.
On the other hand e-mail Boxer and all you get is a canned responce saying how glad she is that you contacted her. Trying to make it sound like she answered it herself, and that is all no follow up. Same responce to “I think you should leave office” as I think you know what you are doing">
E-mail / contact form to
NY Senators:
Chuck Shumer
Hillary Clinton (this was prior to 08)
From both, form response saying thank you for writing. No other response.
NY 23 Rep Bill Owens (more recently, different subject) no response at all.
Depends what you are asking about. If you are writing about something that the individual has a pretty established position on, say abortion, then no matter how you write it, you will probably get a form letter back. “Thanks for writing, as you may know, this is my position blah blah blah.”
If you are writing about an important current event (wall street reform) and they are still on the fence, write a handwritten letter, state your case clearly, tell them that the issue will affect your vote. You’ll still get a form letter. But at the end of the day, the staff might tell the boss that we receives tons of letters in opposition an we should consider that. If you can say something to the extent that you support X and Y in the present legislation but think that A and B really stink, I think that helps.
If it’s an issue that’s not on the radar screen, tell them what you want, why it’s a Federal issue, maybe even include something like “there are 500 people at my company in this district and we think this could be a problem because we could lose our jobs.” Sometimes you might get a call from a staffer to clarify what it is you are looking for or how concerned you are about it. You’ll probably get a more personalized letter. Mainly because they don’t have a form letter.
Handwritten is good. Clear and concise is good. Being able to say that legislation affects some number if their consituents is good.
If you rant, you’ll probably get jack. Writing on a non-federal issue doesn’t help. If you participate in a letter writing campaign using form letters, you’ll probably get a form letter in return.
You can also find people of a like mind and join a group effort. Unless you bribe them (which can be done legally through political donations and other means), the feedback from an individual is usually disregarded. A polite or positive response may mean nothing. Politicians generally pay attention to groups of people who can affect an election, or those who provide them money. I suppose there could be a principled, honest politician out there somewhere, but it seems unlikely based on my own experiences, and well known behavior of politicians.