COURTESY OF CADY STANTON

Communicating with our elected representatives at both the state and federal level is an important part of our representative democracy.  To make this process easier and more effective, I’ve compiled some tips I’ve picked up over the years in my discussions and involvement with people and happenings inside the Beltway.  In no particular order of importance, here they are.

• A personal letter is more effective than “astroturf” by an order of magnitude.  If you’re not familiar with the term, “Astroturf” refers to letters that are written by interest groups who ask you to send the pre-written message.   It doesn’t take long for staffers to see the repetitious language, so if yours uses it, yours will be discounted.  And this is just like life; when you add a personal note to a greeting card, it has more meaning.  The same goes for constituent letters.

• The best means of delivery is the fax machine.  Because of the anthrax attacks in 2001, regular mail is quite slow.  Email isn’t a bad option, but your legislator’s mailbox could be full of the sorts of astroturf messages referenced above, meaning yours is harder to find.  Also regarding email, it’s a personal peeve of mine when the only option I have is to fill out a web form.  If that form doesn’t let me send a copy to myself, I don’t use it because I want a record of what I sent.

• Get to the point.  Your letter should open with what you want and on what subject.  Examples include:  “I urge you to vote yes on President Obama’s economic stimulus” or “I am opposed to Judge Sotomayor’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court.” 

• Your letter should not exceed one page.  You might think you have the most brilliant exposition of your point ever articulated, and maybe that’s true.  But legislators and their staff are busy people who, in addition to other duties, have any number of letters to read, especially when a particularly controversial subject is at hand.  The longer your letter is, the less likely it is to be read in its entirety.  (And, for those so inclined, before complaining about this, imagine you had hundreds, maybe thousands, of emails, faxes and letters coming in each day.   What would you read?) 

• The last point should be obvious, but must nevertheless be said:  Be respectful.  Although it seems that political rhetoric dominates, what a legislator’s constituents are thinking does matter.  Your letter will be taken more seriously if you set aside overblown rhetoric, labels and sarcasm.  Also remember that most of us aren’t half as clever as we think we are.  If you don’t believe me, peruse the comments of any random news or opinion article online.

I hope these tips are helpful.  Our communications with our elected officials, whether we voted for them or not, really do matter.  My goal here has been simply to help make them more effective.