Any way for a "regular Joe" to write a politician...

[ben_who]

Yes, but I have my doubts about a Congresscritter actually reading an email.

I've written Senator Susan Collins a couple of times. I usually get back a standard boilerplate "working for the people of Maine" position letter. Most of my letters-to-the-editor do get published, though I don't write so many as I used to.

I'm a little curious as to your intentions. I'm not sure how you force anyone to respond to a letter, really. I don't think there's a way to guarantee that, if for no other reason than members of Congress receive LEGENDARY amounts of mail, and more than you could possibly believe comes from total cranks out to expose the conspiracy of the lizard people and the Bilderbergs.

In addition, I'm assuming that the response you're seeking is one that's going to satisfy you. Judging from your remarks in this thread, I have my doubts that that's going to happen. You'd have to be receptive to a trenchant argument from your political opposition and accept it without deflection. If your goal is just to put your elected official on the spot and give him the abba-dabbas to make yourself feel better or smarter, save your postage. He'll just send you a standard boilerplate position letter.

[mjr]

I'm a little curious as to your intentions. I'm not sure how you force anyone to respond to a letter, really.

I really don't want to force. I just don't want to get a "boilerplate" letter.

In addition, I'm assuming that the response you're seeking is one that's going to satisfy you. Judging from your remarks in this thread, I have my doubts that that's going to happen.

A non-boilerplate response would be satisfactory, even if I disagreed with their position. And I likely will.

Basically, a response other than a boilerplate.

[Greenday]

In the past two weeks, I've received personal emails from two politicians from my state. One of the state senators and my local assemblyman. Biggest issue today in NJ is a 23 cent gas tax increase (And if your first response is "You pay less than $2 a gallon, you should be happy it's still that cheap!", you should probably just get slapped for being ignorant of NJ's cost of living). NJ is one of the most expensive states to live in. We get taxed on everything for stupid amounts. Basically our fund for roadworks is bankrupt (Because a huge portion of it was spent on non-roadwork related projects and we pay 10 times the national average per mile of roadwork.) so this is their solution, more taxes. Not stop hiring friend's companies for ridiculous amounts for unfinished projects.

My local assemblyman voted Yes on it the first time. I wrote him and discussed how absurd it is that he is willing to pass the buck onto the middle class without trying to first fix the issues that caused the problem in the first place. I get a email back from him saying he's listening to the numerous constituents who've emailed him and considering their opinions. Then when it came up for a second vote (which included a small tax break for the rich), he voted No and emailed me again to let me know he did so. He cited specific things from my original email in it so it felt super personal.

I wrote a senator who voted the same way as my assemblyman the first time, then he voted No the second time. Bill was passed anyway. He then wrote me an email to tell me he was starting a petition to repeal it and asked for my signature. He plans on bringing this up for a vote until the vote finally sways to repeal the tax hike.

Oddly enough, I've had decent results writing my politicians.

[mjr]

Greenday:

Those were state-level reps, correct? And honestly, I don't blame you about the gas tax increase thing. I've heard about how expensive it is there.

Anyhow, did you write them a "Snail Mail" letter, or did you email them your letter to get the response?

[TheHuckster]

I had a similar experience with Greenday a long time ago. Back then net-neutrality was a big issue, and I wanted to give my congressman my 2 cents. I got back a letter that might have been a form letter (it's hard to say) but it was very specific to the topic at hand.

Unfortunately, the letter was very vague as to what the congressman's intentions were. It was basically that he was weighing the options and didn't come to a conclusion yet.