A Conservative’s Guide to Contacting Elected Officials

Posted on March 30th, 2009

The first thing for conservatives to remember when contacting elected officials is that quality is as, if not more, important than volume. Quality here takes two forms, the reputation of the person making contact and the reliablity of the information given by that contact.

While a large number of form letters may catch the attention of a legislator, fewer, personal emails, letters, or phone calls can be even more effective. The first element of quality, the reputation of the person making contact, is sometimes consciously but most often subconsciously evaluated. The questions legislators ask themselves when considering the quality of the contact is:

• ●   Do I know this person? Does this person live in my district?
• ●   Is this person a registered voter? Do they regularly vote?
• ●   Does this person have professional expertise on the topic they have contacted me about?
• ●   Do they volunteer in the local community and therefore hold influence over others in the community?
• ●   Does this person regularly volunteer or contribute to political candidates?
• ●   Has this person been rude or disrespectful to me or my collegues in the past?
• ●   Does this person contact me every other day about an apocalyptic crisis?

The second element of quality is the reliablity of the information provided and the professionalism in which it is presented. Presenting information in an unbusinesslike/unprofessional manner will probably cause the legislator to ignore the information altogether. Providing poorly thought out or shaky information may cause the legislator to seek advice from other sources, possibly from an organization with very non-conservative positions.

Hit-and-run contacts with an elected official is not the most effective method for conservatives to accomplish their goals. After initial contact with an elected official has been accomplished, it is necessary to foster a business-like working relationship that extends beyond the particular issue that you originally contacted the official about.

The schedule of every elected official is quite full, so a well-defined set of talking points on the most important issues is paramount. This is true for emails contacts, letters, or face-to-face meetings. The cliche about “sound bites” became cliche for a reason. Unless you have fostered the relationship to a very high degree over a long period of time (approaching friendship), you can forget about “educating” the legislator on every historical detail and nuance of conservative policy. Don’t even bother.

Here are some ways to improve the effectiveness of your communications with elected officials:

1. If you wouldn’t write / color / format it in a business letter, then it is probably a bad idea for legislative correspondence. Keep a positive, friendly tone. Confrontational attitudes will only hurt your cause.
2. Include all of your contact information -your full name, address with zip code, email address, and phone number.
3. State both the bill name and the bill number and then your position on the issue in the first paragraph of a letter/email or at the beginning of the phone call. If you fail to use the bill name, then the legislator will probably have no idea which bill you are talking about, they have thousands to track and usually know and use the bill title. If you fail to use the number, then the legislator will not be able to easily look it up for further information.
4. Give three, absolutely no more than five, one sentence talking points on the issue. In emails, occasional links to very specific information (i.e. statistics, facts, quotes, names, historical summary of the issue) is fine but don’t depend on them to make the point because it probably won’t be viewed.
5. Either state how the issue affects you personally, or state your qualifications depending upon the subject matter. Most people are not subject matter experts, therefore an appeal to qualifications is not usually recommended. Your legislator wants to make decisions that are beneficial to or pleases their constituents, the personal story is probably the most impactful statement.
6. End by asking your elected official to take specific action. “Vote for HB????” or “Vote against SB???”
7. Stick with one issue per letter, email, or phone call. This allows the legislator to file and follow-up on your correspondence efficiently.
8. Draft, edit, and rewrite the letter, email, or talking points you want to make in a face-to-face meeting. Have a copy of the talking points to give to the legislator if you get to meet them face-to-face. Improper grammar, incorrect spelling, and poor style can hurt your chances of making an effective argument. Therefore, always ask one or two people you trust to review your letter for these points. Then come back an hour later and reread it yourself, rewrite it if necessary. Never submit a first draft. Ever. No exceptions. No kidding.

Filed under Uncategorized |

One Response to “A Conservative’s Guide to Contacting Elected Officials”

1. Steve Jones Says:
   March 31st, 2009 at 8:58 am

   Agreed. Very well written and full of information!