A few more tips from a former Congressional staffer (me):
Online petitions frequently get thrown out, ignored and unopened, not because the member doesn’t care but because CREDO or MoveOn will send a whole carton of fat little envelopes indiscriminately, and there’s simply not a way to validate all of those signatures as real individual people invested in a cause, let alone as constituents.
Snail mail gets noticed—but bear in mind that mail to congressional offices has to go through security screenings (thanks, anthrax scares), which add about two weeks onto delivery time. And that’s before you factor in the time it takes for staffers and interns to sort, read, catalog, and respond to the hundreds and hundreds of pieces of mail they receive. So, by all means, follow up on your letters—and you should!—but don’t take it personally or as a bad sign if it takes a while for your letter to be received and read and reacted to.
Calls absolutely help, and it’s totally fine to follow a script! The main point you want to get across is the short version of how you feel about an issue (sometimes offices will literally just keep a yes/no tally!), that you’re engaged with the discourse, and that you’re an actual constituent. Outside of leadership, most representatives are focused on representing their state or district, so if you don’t live/vote there, it’s often not worth calling to opine because they’re not your representative.
When you call, whatever you have to say, say it nicely and like a sane person! This should go without saying, but…well, unfortunately, as you probably already know, people. The person answering the phone is almost definitely a college intern or recently graduated staff assistant who’s getting paid in pocket change—someone who has feelings and good intentions but zero real say in how their member votes. They’re there to take your calls and help relay how you feel, so help them help you, and don’t be the one caller who sends them home crying. (Seriously, everyone who has done those jobs has had at least one of those. It’s awful, and it stays with you for years.)
Make sure you call the front office! I spent most of my time in the Senate covering the press line, and we frequently got constituent-services calls that then had to be relayed cross-country. It’s not faster to call the wrong number. We also frequently got calls from constituents with a blog or cable-access TV show who were members of the “media” but not the press; their messages frequently got lost in the shuffle because they really should’ve talked to the front office but refused to, and the press office isn’t equipped to deal with non-press stuff.
Likewise, talking to individual legislative staffers can be helpful if you’re establishing yourself as an advocate or a lobbyist on an issue. But if you’re just trying to have your opinion logged, or to ask about a member’s views on an issue, call the front desk. Legislative staffers work on behalf of the member; they’re not generally authorized to develop public policy on the fly or to speak on the record. Be heard! Call the right people!
When in doubt, call or visit your local district office and (nicely) ask. It’s the staff’s job to engage with constituents and to represent their interests as accurately as possible! They work for you!
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