THE ART OF CITIZEN
LOBBYING
Committee
Membership and the Politics of Lobbying
Copyright
2001 © Roger N. Meyer
All Rights Reserved
The contact lists for legislators provided on this web site
identify only those committee memberships or responsibilities
likely to be of direct impact on educational and disability
policy issues, programs, and budgets. Note that where a member
has posted information about having an advanced degree, it
is indicated. Don't let the absence of an advanced degree
fool you. Some legislators are extraordinary movers and shakers
without extra letters behind their names. Many have long histories
of legislative service and are familiar with the unwritten
rules of being a successful legislator. Members with shorter
legislative track records rely upon that experience.
Constituents
wishing to discuss particular legislation or budget issues
are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the legislator's
background and interests, some of which is posted in their
individual legislative web sites. Even if your legislator
is assigned to a committee that has nothing to do with your
interests, he or she still votes on ALL issues coming before
their chamber. If the legislator is interested in roads, or
water districts or business concerns having apparently little
to do with your burning concerns, be prepared to meet them
knowing something about THEIR interests. Before you do anything
else, check the "biography" link to the legislators
official legislative web site. Follow that up with a review
of their "news" materials and anything else posted
on their site. Pay special attention to ALL of the committees
on which the legislator serves and ALL of the bills that legislator
has sponsored. Some of that information is found on the official
web site. Other information may be available from campaign
literature or knowledgeable community activists. Of most importance
when speaking or petitioning a legislator is your knowing
that the legislator is a political animal with certain driving
passions. An effective citizen lobbyist knows personal information
about the legislator they are engaging. In a word, if you
wish to lobby as a citizen, do your homework. The more personal
the approach and the better the understanding of the legislator's
political and personal interests, the greater the likelihood
of having yourself and your issues remembered.
HOW TO SHOP FOR AN ADOPTEE LEGISLATOR
For those readers interested in citizen lobbying, it's one
thing to say, "Adopt a legislator"; quite another
to go about the business of doing it. If you are lucky enough
to have a sympathetic legislator who knows you and can carry
your issues, you don't need to adopt that legislator, but
you do need to touch bases. Personal referrals to another
legislator -- your adoptee -- come from your legislator, or
if you are very lucky and skilled in this process, from one
staffer to another while the legislature is in session.
Rule
No. 1. Start easy.
You
know who your legislators are for your district. By consulting
the basic URL for the Oregon State Legislature,
http://www.leg.state.or.us/
you
can visit their official web site. Select either "Senate"
or "House" and select the alphabetic listing of
members. Once you arrive at that page, you will see a long
official list of members prepared by the principal administrators
to each chamber. Find your legislator, and click under "committees"
and you will see their full range of committee membership.
Verify their membership by either Emailing or calling their
office. During an interim period, check in with the interim
phone numbers and at the addresses provided in the contact
list.
This
is a more accurate way of keeping track than by checking the
lists of committee members posted by the clerk of the House
or the Secretary of the Senate. Sometimes those changes are
posted to their lists a little later than when members are
actually appointed or removed by their chambers' leaders.
Rule
No. 2. Know what you are doing. Get to know your own district
delegates first.
If
your legislator is not familiar with your issues, stop and
go no further. Even before you meet your legislator, hook
up with his/her staff person. You shouldn't adopt another
legislator unless you have developed a personal relationship
with the staffer, followed by a personal relationship with
your own representative and senator. If you were to approach
a legislator not from your district, the first question s/he
would ask is whether you have discussed your concerns with
your own district delegates. If you make this approach when
the legislature is in session, the other person expects you
to have first contacted your own delegate's staff and then
your delegate from that same chamber in person.
While
the legislature is in session, your first best contact will
be the staff person. That person is likely to know the legislator's
schedule better than the legislator him/herself. That's their
job. During the interim, some delegates are lucky to have
someone to act as a staff person. Many do not have a full-time
staff person. When you call a legislator's local office, you
may be lucky enough to reach them directly; otherwise, you
may be speaking to their part-time staff assistant. If the
legislator has a staff person, always start your work directly
with that person. If you are going to make mistakes, it's
a lot easier to "practice" on a staff person than
with the legislator.
Rule
No. 3. Prepare Yourself; Keep Things Simple.
When
the legislature is in session, if this is your first contact
with a legislator, start with the staff person. Even if it
is to be your fifteenth contact, and unless you have a standing
arrangment that you've made with the legislator to allow you
to contact them directly, always contact your delegate through
his/her staff.
Do
not use the kitchen sink approach. You will lose focus. Your
contact person doesn't have time for a life story. Before
you prepare anything in writing, rehearse a thirty second
opening speech out loud. Use plain English with no acronyms.
If you can't do that, stop. Get a grip on yourself and rehearse
until you can introduce yourself and your prime issue in thirty
seconds' worth of words. At most, your issue should have two
or three high points. If you have more, you aren't focused.
You will "blow it.
Simple.
Simple. Simple. Boil your issues down to key words and key
phrases. It's your job to make sure everyone in your lobbying
effort is on the same page. If you are presenting a "cause
issue," make sure everyone lobbying for the cause uses
the same catchwords and phrases. Words in the ear and words
on paper must mesh. (See below about putting things in writing.)
The worst thing to happen in discussions between sympathetic
legislators is for them to be of one mind but using different
phrases among themselves and in discussing your issue with
other legislators who aren't "in the know." In the
ideal world, you want them all to be using your words and
phrases.
Expect
the first meeting to be short. In session or out, legislators
are busy people. This same fact is true of the staff person.
Be respectful of their time. Once they get to know you, they
will set the terms for demands on their time. Be mindful of
their body language and non-verbal cues. If you sense discomfort
from these cues or their own words, you've already lost the
game. They may have started to think of you as a person who
doesn't get to the point, or worse yet, wastes their time
because you don't have your act together and don't know how
to value yours. This is a hard first impression to reverse.
Don't give them the chance to have a bad first impression.
It will cost you. It may cost your cause.
Listen
actively. Listen. Listen. Listen. Think of your first face-to-face
meeting as an exchange. Remember the rules of reciprocal conversation.
Practice your presentation before other critical listeners.
Even as you speak, ask yourself whether you are open to observing
and hearing what the other person has said and is about to
do or say. Ask your "coaches" for honest feedback.
If you really want it, they'll give it to you. This same rule
holds true for the real event. The person you are speaking
with is giving you feedback all the time. Learn to be aware
of it. Do not speak from a position of authority or knowing
it all. You probably do, but acting as though you do before
a perfect stranger will get you in deep trouble. Above all
other considerations, remember that you are an invited guest.
Even though you are there to inform, you are also there to
learn. Remember that the person you speak with is an authority
as well -- they are an authority on the political process.
You are the student. A meaningful first visit is characterized
by a parting where both parties have learned more about one
another. This is the "personal" of politics. If
you want to learn more about how the system operates and how
your legislator "works" in all ways, don't let pushing
your message get in the way of being open to correction and
even learning more about your own topic.
Be
in control. This applies to your personal demeanor, what you
say, your priorities, and your agenda. This means your whole
"first impression package" -- what you wear, the
tone of your voice and your choice of words. This means no
whining, no histrionics and no theatrics. Leave your "demonstrator"
outside. That person doesn't belong in a legislative chamber
or in a legislator's private office whether in-session or
during the interim. If you are used to wearing both hats --
that of a cause advocate as well as a cause "activist"
-- make sure you are in the right place, psychologically as
well as physically, for each activity. You must compartmentalize
yourself in this one instance. If you can't do that now, get
some training so you can. If you don't believe that training
works, consider the training sessions conducted by cause advocates
before and during major historical national civil rights movement
actions. If you lose control of any one of these factors,
it will be hard to later repair the damage.
Rule
4. Your Written Words -- All of Them -- Leave a Lasting Impression.
For
the First Meeting. Writing is an art form. Once you have made
an appointment, precede your visit with written material.
Restrict your written materials to two or three pages at most.
The first paragraph of your material should be your introduction.
Keep it short. If your material is the same as that handed
to other legislators by other cause advocates, make sure your
introductory paragraph is personal. If you don't appear to
be an interesting, involved person, your cause, no matter
how righteous, may appear boring as well. While every constituent
has a "right" to access legislators, those who make
a lasting impression do it well.
Send
simple, focused material about one issue at a time. It should
follow the outline of your presentation in person. Unless
the staff person or the legislator tells you otherwise, if
you have more than one major concern, arrange separate meetings
for those issues. If your written material comes across with
different issues or a "different message," your
first in-person visit will leave a confusing impression. As
a result, the staffer or the legislator may not look forward
to the next meeting with you.
Tough
Language. If you wish to discuss current legislation or business
of the legislator's committee(s), your written material should
reference any bills or resolutions by number and date. The
same is true for any statutes, regulations, written policies
and directives. Make no assumptions about what your legislator
knows. If there are acronyms in the title of the materials,
accurately write out their full word referents. If you expect
your material to end up in the hands of those who do not know
what your legislator knows, help him/her out by keeping your
material readable. The legislator does not have time to convert
arcane language. You must do that. If you can't do that, master
the art of using simple words to accomplish the same purpose
as obscure language. It's OK not to know all the details,
but know the outline of your materials. If you are asked for
further details during your meeting, have the name and contact
information of someone who does know the details ready. Chances
are, that person may be prepared to give testimony and make
committee appearances. However, don't "drop their names"
without having first received their permission to do so. No
one likes surprises.
For
the first and subsequent meetings, do not reproduce referenced
material unless the staff person cannot easily obtain it.
Even so, bring that material with you to the meeting. Do not
send it ahead of time unless this is a follow-up meeting and
you know the person is prepared to receive it because you
have asked them.
The
one word that describes a staff person and a legislator while
the session is open is "overworked." Do not add
to their workload by providing material they cannot process
unless it is their job to do so. Only by getting to know the
staff person and the legislator will you know what their job
is.
Written
Materials Through "Your" Pipeline. For the first
meeting, you may be tempted to bring a lot of written materials.
Don't. There is time for that later once the staff person
or legislator gets to know you as a reliable person and a
good resource person. The materials you bring on your visit
should be "your" materials. Do not bring official
documents that are commonly available to the staff person
or legislator. There is an entire support system built into
the legislature for that. If there are hard to obtain materials
critical to your presentation, it's OK to bring them. Don't
be surprised if the person you first speak with declines to
accept voluminous material. Remember "overworked."
Strategy.
What you bring with you should be every bit as succinct as
your introductory package you sent ahead. It may go into detail
further, but if you are a cause advocate, make sure every
citizen lobbyist from your cause uses the same materials.
If your "cause" hasn't gotten together to create
uniform written materials for presentation at this point of
the lobbying process, those who are leading should re-think
their strategy for the current session of the legislature.
"Re-thinking" may involve a gathering of the eagles
and clarification of your purpose. It may involve moving the
timetable for certain goals further back. If none of these
issues have been addressed to date, as an individual citizen
lobbyist you have every right to ask your colleagues where
and who is your personal back up.
If
you don't have a clear answer to this question, stop.
Rule
5. Seeing the Connection: The Personal is the Political.
The
whole purpose of your citizen lobbying effort has just changed.
Assuming your colleagues are not ready for a unified push,
your mission may simply be to get to know your legislator
better, and to introduce your issues. Assuring them that other
citizens share your concerns is good kitchen-table politics.
They will appreciate that you know the difference between
this level of politicking and hardball, and that you don't
expect that much from them. After all, this is how many of
them started in the political game.
If
you approach your dilemma with humility, you may find a sympathetic
staff person or legislator willing to part the waves for you
and introduce you to your objective, your "adoptee."
You may not be able to get this next meeting until the legislative
session is over and the other legislator is free of the hurry-burry
of the session. This is perfectly fine. Maybe you can visit
them "without the papers". The introduction may
be more personal than you expect. That may be because being
visited by someone who doesn't have a demand to place on them
may be a personal relief for a colleague tired of dealing
with power brokers and professional lobbyists. There may be
family members touched by your same issues. Here is where
the personal stories of legislators, their private passions
may come into play. This may be where the real bonds of an
informal relationship may start. There may be personal sharing
of resources.
It's
also possible that you will be able to meet the people the
legislator has left at home as his or her support system.
If your issues "click" with the legislator's family
or community connections, you may find yourself developing
a personal relationship with people you didn't expect to meet,
but who are nevertheless pivotal in the life of this busy
adoptee.
There
is nothing underhanded about this. The trick for you, the
erstwhile citizen lobbyist, is to keep your eyes on the prize
but to recognize the fine details of forming partnerships.
This, too, is grassroots politics.
The
Formal Referral to an Adoptee. Whether you have made it to
first base with your district legislators as a part of an
orchestrated citizen lobbying effort or as a personal crusade
with future political implications, you can be referred on
to a legislator who isn't in your district. The referral may
come from your delegate's staff after they've gotten to know
you. The staff person may know of a newfound or ongoing relationship
between his/her boss and another legislator.
The
dynamic for a successful referral is always the same: There
must be a personal connection between the two legislators.
It may have little or nothing to do with your issues. In fact,
that's often the case. They may share the same legislative
or personal interests. They may have traded favors and votes
to get legislative attention to an individual or common piece
of work through a committee or adopted by their chamber. They
may have friends, donors, or acquaintances in common. They
may have family ties. They may have connections that no one
knows about, but that are meaningful and that exist outside
of their roles as legislators.
One
thing that makes the referral work: The legislator has developed
a sense of trust in you, and is willing to "hand you
on" to someone you don't know. That legislator trusts
that the connections/he enjoys with that stranger you won't
be threatened by you. The connection may even be augmented
in ways you don't understand. For you, these background issues
aren't important, at least not right away. Because of your
having made a personal connection with your legislator, s/he
has opened himself up to a hope all three of you may share.
The
Hand Off. As you follow up on the referral, it is important
that you observe each of the rules outlined above. Just because
the referral is a personal act doesn't lessen its political
character. If you remember just what has led to the referral,
you will do fine. An additional point of etiquette is important
to note. You have just been done a favor. Don't forget to
acknowledge it with a written thank you.
Once
you make the connection with your adoptee, your legislator
may or may not be interested in knowing how things are going
with you and your new friend. In your parting moments with
your legislator, ask. This is not considered a rude question
at all. The answer will provide you with one more bit of inside
information that has just become a part of your relationship
with both politicians. The answer is something you can take
to your personal bank. It can be added to your other assets,
some of which are personal, others of which are purely political,
and most of which are mixed in character.
One
final point of etiquette. It goes to the title of Rule No.
5. Once you start on this road of connections, the personal
has become the political. How you share the information you
gain, whether it is by dropping names or revealing material
expected to be shared in confidence establishes your credibility
as a political actor. Use this information wisely.
You
have just become a politician.
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