Successful Citizen Advocacy is a Trade

Getting elected is a lawmaker’s primary concern. They need us to be elected and reelected. We need our lawmakers to achieve our legislative and regulatory agenda. Successful citizen legislative advocacy is possible when the reciprocal nature of this relationship is fully understood.

The following DO’S and DONT’S are an important part of this relationship.

DO:

1. Remember that time is precious. All letters, phone calls, office visits, etc. to your lawmaker should be “short and sweet.” Get to your point soon and focus on your issue.

2. Include the Bill number and/or name of the legislation or regulation in all communication.

3. Explain in simple and straightforward terms the logic supporting your position. The most effective logic often involves jobs, cost, and how many people it will effect.

4. Remember that the lawmaker’s staff is as important to you as the lawmaker. Staffs are often the ones who prepare the issue summary, including a vote recommendation, for the lawmaker.

5. Take advantage of “strength in numbers.” This is true for letters, faxes, email, phone calls, office visits, financial support, etc. The volume of communication received is very important.

6. Remember that the more responsibility and involvement you assume, the more vigorous the commitment and support you can expect from your lawmaker. Know your issue.

7. Include your name, address and phone number (home and office) on all communication. This allows your lawmaker and staff to contact you for appropriate follow-up and it also reminds the lawmaker that you are the constituent.

8. Follow-up with letters, calls, etc. make a commitment to your cause.

9. Remind your lawmaker how many people (read votes) in your organization share your position.

10. Always have a “position paper” that clearly states your position and logic. This is also called a “leave behind” for office visits. Other effective” leave behinds” are buttons, hats, bumper stickers, etc. to make your visit more memorable to the lawmaker.

11. Include your lawmaker on your organization’s mailing list for newsletters, magazines, etc.

12. Be patient. Sometimes neither you nor the lawmaker will know the outcome for months.

13. Be a good winner and a good loser. Don’t burn bridges. Your adversary on one issue may be your ally on the next issue.

14. Invite your lawmaker and staff to your place of business or other appropriate location(s) that will put a human face on the issue you’re discussing.

15. Understand that you and your lawmaker sometimes will have to compromise. Assess what you can realistically achieve now and work on the rest later.

16. Ask lawmakers to state their position. If it agrees with yours, ask what you can do to strengthen that support. If it differs with yours, ask what information or show of public support is necessary to change that position. If they’ve not decided, ask what you can supply to help with making the decision making.

17. Support your PAC so it can support lawmakers who support you. Even your best friend can’t help you if he/she is not in the office.

18. Use the news media (letter to the editor, guest editorials, news stories, etc.) to help create public support for your positions. Lawmakers are constantly looking to see what “the people want” on issues.

19. Write a thank you note to the lawmaker no matter that the outcome (remember item #13) of your issue.

20. Invest 30 minutes to contact (by letter, phone, email, office visit, etc.) an elected official six times a year. This will make you more active than 99.9% of all citizens and therefore 99.9% more legislatively successful. After each contact, cross out a 30 below and move this brochure to another month on your calendar.

30 30 30 30 30 30

21. REMEMBER YOU AND YOUR LAWMAKER NEED EACH OTHER.

DON’T:

1. Confuse the issues. Two or three issues are about as much as you should cover in one latter, call, visit, etc.

2. Use form letters. Form letters are not taken seriously and interpreted as the action of a single person rather than as broad support.

3. Underestimate the weight given to letters, emails, phone calls, office visits, etc. Many legislative offices multiply each communication by 50 (i.e. 200 letters are counted as 10,000) to estimate public opinion. Expect for high profile/emotional issues, like abortion, or gun control, 50 letters are considered an avalanche of constituent involvement.

4. Use jargon. You’re not speaking to your colleagues in the office, you lawmaker may have little or no knowledge or your issue or this jargon.

5. Contact a lawmaker and then drop the issue. Persistence pays off.

6. Say you’re contacting your lawmaker because your organization told you to do so. Lawmakers respond to people (voters) not organizations.

7. Make PAC contributions at the same time you are asking for legislative/regulatory support.

8. Ignore opportunities to visit with your lawmaker at home. They may be “King of the Hill” at the Capitol, but they’re “just folks” at home.

9. Ever lie. Anything less than full honesty will erode your lawmaker’s ability to commit to you and your issue. If there are some rough spots, acknowledge them early and work on avoidance strategy together with your lawmaker.

10. EVER FORGET YOU AND YOUR LAWMAKER NEED EACH OTHER.

Patrick B. Haggerty
9915 Hillridge Drive
Kensington, MD 20895-3230
301-942-1996
FAX 301-942-9740
Email pat@patrickhaggerty.com
www.patrickhaggerty.com

This material may only be copied, reproduced, sold or otherwise distributed with the express written permission of Patrick B. Haggerty.