Keep those calls and letters coming

A few thoughts about how to make contacting congressional offices as effective as possible

Photo by Miryam León on Unsplash

Over the past few weeks, many of you have been busy calling members of Congress to express your views about Donald Trump’s disastrous cabinet nominees and other issues. That’s great. Keep up the good work. Calls, letters, and emails can have a positive effect.

I worked for three statewide elected officials for over twenty years, during which time I saw firsthand the power of public opinion via telephone. I answered my fair share of constituent calls. Anyone who says calls and letters don’t influence public policy has never worked in a congressional office.

They make a difference.

Do members of Congress study a tally of calls and letters about an issue before the roll call on every question and use it to decide how they will vote? I’m confident that rarely happens.

But do members of Congress generally have an idea about how public opinion is trending in their districts by feeding their constituent phone calls and letters into the equation? Many, if not most of them, absolutely do.

I served for four years as state director to U.S. Sen. John Breaux. In that job, I answered constituent calls to our Baton Rouge office almost daily. I heard about the calls coming into our office and other offices around the state.

When we received a hundred calls about an issue in one day, it got our attention. The offices often reported those calls to me and the Washington office. I can promise you that Sen. Breaux knew about them, and they influenced him.

Maybe he didn’t decide how to vote on every issue by looking at the phone call tallies, but I’m confident he made constituent calls and letters part of his decision, as any astute politician would.

Sometimes, the calls that had the most impact were on an issue to which we had not paid much attention. For example, if we suddenly received hundreds of calls over three or four days about the price of peanuts in Portugal, I can assure you that the Washington office got the word that we should examine peanut prices in that part of the world.

All this is to say that if you think you’re doing some good by calling your House and Senate members, you probably are.

But I think it’s also true that not all phone calls or letters to a member of Congress are equal. And I know you want your phone calls and letters to have the greatest impact.

And that’s the reason for this post: How can we ensure our phone calls are effective?

Below are a few thoughts about that, almost entirely from my experience receiving such calls. Please drop a comment at the end of this piece and share your experience calling congressional offices.

What do you think worked? What would you recommend callers avoid saying or doing?

These are my suggestions:

Don’t be rude, condescending, or aggressive. Shouting at some beleaguered staffer (usually a young person) doesn’t help your cause. It might even mean your opinion doesn’t get registered at all. So, be friendly and kind when you call to share your thoughts.

In letters or phone calls, you do not want to advertise that you dislike the member whose office you are calling. Don’t use words that suggest: “I know you don’t care about my opinion, but here it is.”

That’s an effective way to invite the staffer to devalue your opinion. You want the people recording your call to consider that they might be hearing from someone who has voted — or is willing to vote — for their boss. Don’t fib and say you’re a supporter if you’re not, but you’re not required to advertise how much you may loathe the staffer’s boss. That will not help your cause.

Here's what I’m talking about: Which of the following two messages do you think would have more impact?

a. “Well, your idiot boss is about to screw up again. Please tell that corrupt, sorry excuse for a senator that if he votes for RFK Jr., it will be an insult to his constituents. He’ll never get my vote!! In fact, I don’t know how you can work for someone like that!!”

b. “I know you’re getting many calls about RFK’s nomination, and I want to thank you for taking my call and listening. I know Sen. Cassidy hasn’t decided how to vote, so I want to let him know that I’m against RFK’s nomination, and I hope he’ll vote against him. I respect Sen. Cassidy’s commitment to public health and his willingness to speak out about vaccines. Can you please tell him to keep it up and that I hope his vote will be consistent with those views by opposing RFK?”

Giving the staffer a piece of your mind might make you feel better, but I doubt it will help much. You’ve told the staffer that you are not a supporter and will never vote for her boss. In other words, you’ve made it easy for that congressional aide to write you off as a crank.

The second message, however, might leave the staffer wondering if you are a supporter — or potential supporter — who believes in public health. I’m confident the second message will be recorded and carry more weight.

Don’t call ten times a week. Every office has a few constituents who call every day on some issue. The staff knows them immediately. Some are very polite. Others are rude. But because they call repeatedly, their opinions may not count much because the staffers begin to see them as eccentric, at best, and a crank, at worst.

Call offices once a week. Or consider calling the Baton Rouge office this week and the Shreveport office next week. And the DC office the week after that.

Or, one week, write a letter. Make phone calls the next week. Rinse and repeat.

If you are calling about an issue you care about, and an organization has given you a script, don’t repeat their words verbatim in your call or letter. Those massive phone and letter-writing campaigns can influence members of Congress, but you’ll have more impact with something you say or write in your own words. Spend five minutes putting the canned message into your vernacular, and it will be more effective.

Phone calls and letters count more than emails. They shouldn’t, but I think they do. And I think it’s because writing a letter takes more energy than sending an email, especially if it contains a message you’ve copied and pasted.

Phone calls may count for even more because you’re speaking with a live person who works for that member of Congress. If you handle the conversation well, you’ll have a better chance of registering your opinion.

Those are my suggestions for a productive phone call to a congressional office. What are yours?

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Another shameless book plug

Robert Mann presents a copy of his new book, You Are My Sunshine, to Dr. Henry Robertson, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Louisiana Christian University (Jimmie Davis’s alma mater) in Pineville.

Forgive me for another plug for my new book, You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis & the Biography of a Song, but I’m afraid you’ll have to suffer through a few more weeks of news about it.

I wanted to share my experience on Thursday when I spoke about the book to an assisted living community in Baton Rouge.

I was unprepared for how the music I played for them — several versions of "You Are My Sunshine" and other early country songs — would transport this audience back to their younger days.

Watching the lights come on in some eyes as I played the music was a magical, almost holy experience. I've taught myself enough of the ukelele to lead an audience in singing "Sunshine" at the end. That was fun. Everyone joined in. They knew all the words. They were joyous.

The whole thing was a great reminder about the role of music in memory. It brings to mind what Oscar Wilde said, "Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory."

It made me want to find other similar venues to discuss the book and play music from my story. I hope to speak at more nursing homes and assisted living facilities because it was a moving and rewarding experience.

By the way, I spoke about my book to the Alexandria Rotary Club last week. Alexandria Town Talk reporter Melinda Martinez wrote an excellent piece about it in Thursday’s newspaper. Here’s the link.

If you want a signed, personalized copy of the book for yourself or a friend or family member, you can buy it at RobertMannBooks.com. They might make a great Valentine’s Day gift for that special person in your life!

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