Contact Legislators Tips

As part of our grass roots initiatives, from time to time, we will be asking for our members to contact legislators on behalf of the OEIC on particular issues. In addition, our hope is that we will raise the political consciousness of our members and you very well may want to write a local, state, or federal, legislator on an un-related issue. To that end, we have provided some tips for successful communication with elected officials:

• Don’t be intimidated. They “work” for you. Look at it this way. Your input helps them do their job.
• Don’t worry about salutations.
• Addressing the letter/e-mail to “The Honorable … ” is always safe.
• You don’t need to choose between e-mail and writing a letter.
• Chances are, the aide or the person designated to receive e-mails and the one going through the mail on that particular day may not be the same person. That said, too much paper is overwhelming for anyone so please only send one copy per method.
• Don’t be afraid to call. If it’s important.
• Just as there are noise-canceling headphones, offices of elected officials have a tendency to learn to tune out “white noise.” While a phone call can be a very effective method of getting your point across and ensuring that you are heard, we recommend saving phone calls for officials with whom you have a “First Name” relationship and on critical issues.
• Write to YOUR legislator/elected official.
• One letter or specially-timed phone call from a constituent equals 10 or 20x that amount of communication from non-constituents. You should make it known early in your communication that you are a voter. That said, on critical issues where it is important that all legislators hear a particular message or receive particular facts/figures, it is acceptable to send a letter to all members of a committee or all members of a particular legislative body.
• Be respectful.
• Be Specific.
• Be succinct.
• Your letter/e-mail may or may not even get read. That’s the reality. It may just get filed in a particular issue folder. If it does get read, chances are the reader won’t be closely scrutinizing grammar and sentence structure. It will be a glance. Make your point early in the communication and often.
• Make it personal.
• Never make any correspondence sound like a cold, impersonal form letter. Write from your perspective and your experience.
• Whenever possible, reference a specific bill or a specific action.
• Be aware of the legislative schedule
• Send letter/e-mail to the statehouse or the district depending on where the legislator is likely to be.
• Don’t be intimidated.