Writing to Legislators

by Sue Null, who has had letters, op-eds, and articles published in the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Voice, the Texas Triangle, and the Wall Street Journal.

Do’s When Writing to Your Legislator:

• Do mention House and Senate bills specifically by number (HR ## or S #) and describe it by a popular title.

• Do restrict yourself to one topic per letter. Write separate letters for each issue.

• Do use bold text or SOLID CAPITALS or highlight with a marker pen to make clear at a glance what you favor or oppose. (You would be amazed at how often the constituent’s position on an issue is unclear, and if you are logged as a supporter of an issue when you really oppose it, you will have inadvertently done more harm than good!)

• Do mention your party affiliation (if writing to a legislator of the same party), and ask him/her to SUPPORT or OPPOSE an issue. (If you don’t have the same party affiliation as the legislator, simply identify yourself as a concerned voter from his/her district.)

• Do focus on your own senators and representatives.

• Do be friendly, courteous, and respectful, whether you generally agree with the congressperson’s politics and party or not.

• Do give your reasons for taking a stand. Show how the proposed legislation would affect not just a specific group, but also the community as a whole.

• Do use larger fonts and comfortable margins. If the legislator or the aide has to squint to read your letter, it may not be read at all. Handwrite, if your handwriting is clear.

• Do keep your letter to one page. Less is more.

• Do ask for a response.

• Do remember to thank your legislators if you believe they have done the right thing.

Don’ts When Writing to Your Legislator:

• Don’t copy another person’s letter word for word. Your individual expression is very important. (If your legislator thinks that you have merely signed a form letter, it won’t get much attention.) You can use others’ ideas, but put them in your own words. add a little of your own invention, if you can.

• Don’t lecture. The goal is to persuade, not annoy.

• Don’t be angry, threatening, or disrespectful. Legislators pay a lot more attention to people they think are likely to support them in the next election than people they believe voted for their opponent.

Thanks to Jeffrey L. Dorrell for these suggestions.

**Note: Mail to a congressperson’s office in Washington is considerably delayed due to the anthrax scare a few years ago. You should (1) send your letter to a local office which can them forward it without delay and/or (2) FAX it, or (3) send it by e-mail to the congressperson’s website. Don’t hesitate to get out the cell phone to make your point on an important vote; call the local and the Austin/Washington offices.

I often call legislators who are not my own reps and sometimes am not asked where I am from. Our opponents will feel morally impelled to call and write; we must not give up and let them overrun us.

Locating Your State/National Legislators:

    If you don’t know who your representative or senator is in Washington, DC, try http://www.vote-smart.org  to find contact information. (Service provided by Project Vote Smart)

    If you don’t know who your representative or senator is in the Texas State Legislature, try http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm

    For information on office addresses for your congress members, visit http://www.house.gov  or http://www.senate.gov  and click on the quick links to find addresses and contact information.

Senator John Cornyn can be reached at http://cornyn.senate.gov

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is at http://www.senate.gov/~hutchison

Addressing your letter:

The Honorable _________________

U. S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable __________________

U. S. Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Helpful Tips about Writing Letters to the Editor

• Make the letter as brief as possible, because the shorter it is, the more papers will print the letter. Write short paragraphs; newspaper columns are narrow. Don’t ramble; no more than 100 words are preferable, perhaps 200 words maximum. It helps to set a letter aside for an hour and come back to it and reread it fresh as though you were a new reader. can the letter be misunderstood in any way? Is your point clear? Could you eliminate a few more words and still have as good (or better) an argument? Could you choose a more powerful word than what you used?

• Refer in the opening of your letter to a specific letter/article (e.g., "I would like to respond to John Smith’s November 2 letter "Religious Right Not to Blame for Matthew’s Death") because it helps the chances for publication. You may choose to quote a line or two upon which to base your letter.

• Personalize your letter: Identifying yourself as someone with a personal state in the issue gives one immediate validity. How does this issue affect you, your family, and the community? If you have specific credentials on a top, mention them. Writing as a member of a state or local organization may give your letter more weight, but don’t act as the official spokesperson of that organization without prior approval.

• Stay calm when writing your letters. don’t name call or let your emotions lead you to write a letter that sounds shrill. The most effective letters are calm and reasoned. You can express a strong opinion with strong vocabulary, but do it in a calm, logical, reasoned way.

• Remember this if you are responding to a mean, nasty, idiotic, bigot who just makes you fume: The point of your response is not really to convince or attack this person who made you mad. he’s just a means to educate the general public. You want to connect with the thousands of readers who, buy the time your letter appears days later, will really have forgotten the tome of the first letter anyway. You may be angry with the entire content of an article/letter, but focus your response on just a few points.

• Your chances for publication improve if your letter has a punchy opening or closing, a bit of humor, or something memorable about it.

• Your chances for publication also improve greatly if your letter is on a topic that is currently hot in the news. If your issue is making news everywhere, a letter on it will more likely be printed than when it’s not in the news.

• Include your name, address and phone number. Do not send form letters written by others. Send your letter by e-mail immediately in response to another letter, article, issue; don’t delay.

• Don’t despair if your letter isn’t printed. The very presence of your letter may encourage the editor to publish someone else’s letter on the same topic. Some newspapers require a waiting period (Chronicle: 90 days) before printing a second letter from the same writer. Encourage others to write.

Summary:

1. Keep it short and concise.

2. Don’t ramble—sharpen your point.

3. Stay calm and reasoned; don’t lose your cool no matter what.

4. Send letters on topics that are "hot" in the news.

5. Always include name, address, and telephone number.

6. Avoid canned form letters.

P.S.: You may wish to write only to the editor or opinion piece writer regarding specific points of an article or editorial without your letter betting published. Or you may wish to simply express a quick approval or disapproval of an article/letter to the newspaper’s ombudsman. In the case of the Houston Chronicle, James Campbell receives letters to readerrep@chron.com and tallies responses daily for his managing editor. If you hope for publication, send your comments to viewpoints@chron.com.

Smaller publications, like free neighborhood newspapers, university newspapers, and other freebies like the various gay publications, are less picky and much more likely to publish whatever is submitted (often without editing).

Look for opportunities to respond when you are reading (and then write immediately). I responded to the Chronicle’s "Cultural Coach" with comments and after pushing her for four months, ended up with three columns, much to the surprise of both of us!

More newspapers today will print letters from out of state although the focus will be on local writers. You might try writing one basic letter that is suitable for various publications with minor changes or a more personalized opening.

Most newspapers strive for balanced opinions on controversial issues. The Chronicle Viewpoints Editor told me that sometimes she received only negative angry letters on some topics and that nobody wrote a positive response. So get of your duffs and start writing!

Thanks to HRC (The Human Rights Campaign), http://www.hrc.org/template.cfm?section=TakeAction&template=/search/searchdisplay.cfm , Wendy Wartes, and others for their suggestions.