With all the recent politics about possibly going to war, I’ve written my Congressional representatives letting them know my opinion.
And I’ve gotten ZIP back from them.
Even in the past, I’ve written and not heard back from them.
Do our representatives ever read the mail from their constituents? Does it really affect the way they’ll vote on issues?
Depends on the representative. I have one representative who sends me seemingly well-researched and personalized answers to what I write him, and seems to take time out of his day to give me a genuine answer to my question.
I have another that seems to have several ‘template responses’ which he sends to anyone who writes him about a specific subject, not actually answering the question, just giving them general political BS about his stance on whatever issue it was.
And I have some that don’t even bother to reply.
I’d imagine the more local they become, the less mail they get, and the more attention to what they do have. But it depends on the general ‘quality’ of the politician in general, I guess.
If you’re mailing letters to your Congressman/woman, chances are they never read them. They have interns and office staff to take care of that kind of stuff (in addition to filling flag requests, providing tickets to White House tours, etc.). I’ve had numerous friends intern on the Hill, and that took up the bulk of their day, reading through endless piles of mail. So any “personalized” replies are most likely written by these helpers (if it’s a Senator, then it’s a guarantee). Signature machines are widely used to sign these letters.
But the office staff does let the Representative or Senator know what the general feeling is coming from their constituents, and will pass along particularly poignant or interesting letters – which the politician might then respond to themselves. Which is why I think it does little to just mail along a form letter (which many lobbying groups suggest), since you’ll just get one back from your Congressman.
At more local levels of government, the likelihood of them reading it personally increases greatly.
I’ve also heard (no cite, alas) that email tends to be ignored and/or discounted when the interns are gauging the sentiment of the constituency, probably because it’s easy to generate a seemingly large volume of messages, when, in fact, it’s just one tiny group of disgruntled folks doing all the complaining. YMMV.
My bona-fides: Ex-Political Publisher here.
Every single piece of mail is opened and read but NEVER by the sacred representative. If the mail is from an important contributor it will be forwarded to the Chief of Staff and then to the Rep.
But…
Every piece is cataloged for it’s stand and particular issues so the CoS and the Rep can have a feel for their constituents leanings. And that’s WAY important to the Reps long-term behavior.
So it does some good. But there’s a LOT of signal out there.
Uh, isn’t Congress simply throwing out any and all postal mail addressed to them because of the Anthrax scare of earlier this year? I was told e-mail or fax was the only way to communicate with your Congressperson, indefinitely. Mine gives me back form letters, BTW.
I don’t think it really helps as far as influencing your representative. But I know it helps me personally - I don’t feel so powerless. I feel like at least I’ve done something to let my representatives know I feel about the possibility of war. Aside from voting and participating in legal demonstrations, I don’t know how else to make your voice heard. I also write to newspapers but, so far, my letters have never been printed.
“Uh, isn’t Congress simply throwing out any and all postal mail addressed to them because of the Anthrax scare of earlier this year?”
No. They’re irradiating it first, so it’s somewhat delayed by the additional processing, but Congress IS receiving and opening postal mail.
I can tell you that it first of all hinges upon the individual member of Congress. Some really do take the time to read incoming letters; some sign the response letters personally, thereby glancing over the incoming letters in the process; and some literally never see a piece of mail in their entire tenure.
Regardless of how involved the member is with the mail process, realize that your response is going to come from a staffer. The staffer will be knowledgeable about the issue, and may even have to talk to the member to make sure he/she is accurately representing the member’s views. But at the end of the day, it still comes from a staffer. More likely than not, your concerns can be matched up against a standard form letter response that was written years ago and perhaps updated for current use.
Realize also that each congressional office receives an absolutely overwhelming amount of mail. Even my member, about as low-key and inconsequential as a member of Congress can be, still received thousands of letters a week. A high profile member in a leadership position will get even more mail. Look at it this way: Each office receives mail at least three times a day. More if the volume calls for extra deliveries. As such, your letter is one small scrap in a mountain of paper.
So what can you do to make your views stand out?
WRITE AN INTELLIGENT, COGENT, ORIGINAL LETTER
Of that mountain of mail I referenced, here is its approximate breakdown:
Spam (50%):
you know those pre-printed postcards you find in your favorite issue magazines and are urged to mail in? We got more of those than you’d believe. After the first one is received, a stock response is written and everyone who sends in the same postcard gets the same response back. Granted, the amount of spam received gets logged as for or against the topic at hand, but don’t think your spam is getting personal attention.
Special interests (45%):
For every single bill anywhere in the legislative machine (and there’s an awfully lot of it), there’s a company, organization, or association that wants to let us know how they feel about it. For the most part, we don’t care. I mean, you pretty much know how the NRA feels about any given gun bill, and unless the company is based in our district, well, it’s hard to care about a company’s concerns from six states away.
Original letters from someone outside our district, spammed to every member of Congress (3%):
It all revolves around whether you’re a constituent. Yeah, I know it seems that since they are US reps/senators they should represent everyone in America. In truth, they care about only a very, very small slice of America – those that can vote for them. If you’re not a constituent, it’s almost a sure thing that your letter will be circular-filed. Every time we got an open letter from a non-constituent written to every member of congress, we simply trashed it. We didn’t even bother to forward it to the correct member’s office, as they surely got a copy of their own.
Original letter written by a crazy in our district (2%):
To this day, I cannot understand how someone can be sane enough to put pencil to paper and write out their thoughts, and figure out how to address, seal, and stamp and envelope – yet still be crazy enough to write about the things they wrote about. I kept a folder full of some of my favorites. From the lady who was abducted by aliens/CIA operatives (it never was really clear which) and had her hair replaced with microtransmitters, to the guy who was being attacked by iridescent bubbles launched from the fake moon every time he stepped outside, the world is full of crazies who insist on writing their member of Congress. Needless to say, we don’t write back. I mean, what would we say?
Original, cogent, well-written letter from a constituent who gets to the point with minimum of spelling/grammatical errors (>1%):
These are the rare finds in a congressional office. Even given the overwhelming amount of mail each member receives, write one of these and you will be sure to stand out. If your letter is original enough – i.e., touching on a subject not yet brought up before – a staffer will actually have to research the issue and write you back an original letter. Such research may even involve speaking with the member to make sure the views represented are the member’s actual ones. Write these kind of letter often enough, and your name will become recognized as the guy/girl who might well be the only sane, intelligent constituent among the district’s more than half million.
Neglected to mention above that after having written your intelligent, original letter, sending it electronically is almost certainly the best way to go.
Postal mail is still being irradiated, which, in addition to delaying mail up to a month or so, also does some really screwy things to the letter itself. Depending upon the type of ink/toner, paper, and envelope you use, your letter might be all but melted by the time it reaches the rep’s office.
While some offices may have placed less emphasis on electronic mail in the past, that’s less of an issue in our post-anthrax attack world. This site allows you to write your rep in such a manner that s/he knows it’s coming from an actual consistuent and isn’t just spam.
About 6 years ago I contacted both my local Alderman and my State Assembly Representative. I wanted warning lights/bells put up at a railroad crossing (there is none there, not even a stop sign or anything). The crossing is at the bottom of a hill, and it’s somewhat difficult to slow down when approaching it. Someone is going to smacked by a train.
The railroad refused to even discuss it with me.
The 2 Pols agreed with me that there should be RR warning lights, and promised it would happen.
5 months later…nothing!
So when I recontacted my representatives, I was told by one “The railroad convinced me that warning lights are not needed at that crossing”.
The other one refused to answer my calls/letters.
A while later, as this was festering in my mind, I decided to go to the elections board and take a look at both pols campaign contributions (open records state, this is).
Sure as shit! Both had received contributions from employees of the railroad, and right after the time I had spoken to them.:mad:
Both those guys are Democrats, so it’s not like I really should have expected anything out of them.
<Runs away>
When Rudy Boschwitz was still in office (mid-80s?) my parents purchased a semi-load of alfalfa from Canada. For one reason or another the truck was held up at customs any my parents called his office. The truck was in our yard within 24 hours. They never heard from the senator.
Don’t think lack of an answer is the same as no thought or action.