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HOW TO WRITE A POLITICAL LETTER By Michael Ross, Consumer Advocate
INTRODUCTION: For the last couple of years, I have traveled the country speaking to groups, industry leaders, talent and consumers, and 9 times out of 10 I’m asked “what’s the modern day advocate’s most effective tool”? When I ask people to guess, some say it’s “time”, while others guess “votes, ideas, or money”. With a sly smile I reply “In this day and age of short attention spans, intense philosophical competition, a shortage of time, the Internet, an information glut and term limits, - it’s 'snail mail' - better known as the letter”. What makes the letter even more important is that for what ever reason, most people don't know how to write an educated, informative, action oriented letter, let alone a letter to an elected official - and that's sad, downright sad. As a result, we have written this handbook in an effort to specifically tackle that problem. Hopefully, in just a few spare minutes, I'll walk you through the process of how to write an effective, hard hitting letter that will not only work for elected officials and business, but just as importantly, will get a response. SPECIFICS: If prepared properly, writing a letter is the Advocates most effective tool, and as such, must be undertaken in a very structured and organized way. The reason why letters need to be structured a certain way is simple. If properly organized, it not only enhances your image and your arguments/positions, but most importantly - it saves TIME and elected officials love that! Yes, that's right, TIME. You see, most legislators never see your letter, rather it's staff’s responsibility to deal with each and every constituent problem - no matter if it's large or small. As a result, staff reads and filters out the salient information and forwards the most important information to their boss, while depositing useless material in the “round file”. Therefore, you need to not only be succinct, but you need to use the right structure and buzz words right off the bat in order to reach the right staff member and thus stay a part of the game. SALUTATIONS: First, any letter you send should be professionally written and presented. In order to do that, we need to start at the top and work our way down. Assuming you have stationary or letterhead, let's start with addressing letters correctly. A letter to a legislator is addressed as follows: 1) By professional title and name: Dear “Senator, Congressperson, or Assemblyperson” Smith 2) Addressed to the following location: “State Capitol, City, State, Zip Code” 3) Place proper postage and your return address on both the letter AND the envelope. After the salutation make sure that you succinctly state the exact reason why you are writing, directly under the
initial salutation. Additionally, it should be centered on the page and look something like the following: Re: Bill number _____. - OPPOSE By addressing the letter in this fashion, it will automatically flow in a timely manner to the correct staff person. To ensure best results, I'd like to suggest that you take the bull by the proverbial horns and go one step further and call the office before you send the letter. This not only lets you find out whom to direct the letter to, but more importantly, puts them on notice that a letter from you, to their boss, is on its way and that you expect an answer. THE BODY: When you write your letter, make sure that you adhere to the following principles: • State your position in the very first paragraph and if at all possible, make this the very first sentence. In general, this paragraph is perfect one sentence long, which means that the ideas are short and direct. Actually, the best opening sentence is “I am writing today in support/opposition to _____, or I'm writing today about." • State your reasons for your position in short, bullet oriented points, not paragraphs. To ensure that your argument gets across, make sure that you follow a logical thinking and presentation pattern; • Provide at least one short example of your position for each major argument; • Provide a strong and effective conclusion that “closes your sales pitch." If at all possible, this should be a summarization of information that leaves the reader with a philosophical twist in thinking; • Sign the letter using your full name and official title. Make sure you include your address and phone number so you can be contacted about your position; • Include a way for the legislator to contact you via mail, phone and if at all possible, fax or Email; • State at the bottom of the letter if you have sent copies to other individuals, and do it using the CC format; • Innuendos are acceptable and at times urged, but I must stress do not use profanity, insults or questionable language of any type. Finally, in an effort to make sparks fly from your letters, make sure you: • Provide copies of the letter/document to all legislators who are on that policy committee AND policy committee staff; • If at all possible, provide a history of previous legislative actions regarding this issue (that makes you a historian); • Release copies of the report or material to the press. Following up After the letter is sent, don't be shy, staff usually handles a blizzard of paperwork so if they don't call you, make a follow-up call on a Thursday or Friday afternoon (it’s slow then and staff has more time). If the letter is sent by mail, wait 7 or 8 business days from the day you send it. If it’s faxed, you should wait 2 or 3 days. The last tip I have to leave you with, has to do with getting a response to your letter. Most of the letters written to
Legislators are designed to be responded to (and good legislators do respond), but aren't for a variety of reasons. Therefore, if you want or expect a response, let them know it by saying “ As a voting constituent, I look forward to your immediate response” in the very last paragraph (or as a P. S. at the end of the letter). AN EXAMPLE: The example of an effective letter can be found on the next page. It was received from an adult business in Florida regarding a problem that they had with a piece of legislation that was introduced in the California State Legislature. As you can see, the letter not only walks the reader through how his business is affected, but more importantly, outlines philosophical reasons as to why the author believes the bill is unconstitutional in short, sweet answers. From a political stand point, how well does letter writing work? Well, in January of 1998, we led the charge to defeat 4 bills, and used over 8,000 consumer letters to defeat them. With overwhelming opposition to the bills, legislators were scared to vote for the bills, especially in an election year that saw us package the letters up by district and present them to each member. This clearly showed how deep the support for our position was and to tell you the truth, legislators got the message. CONCLUSION: I want to leave you with a quote from a speaker that we had during a recent seminar I held. "When a consumer complains to a store, the store uses a scale of probably 1 letter per 12 individual customers. In the political world, it’s 1 letter per 787 people”. Now do you see the power and importance of a well written letter? EXERCISES 1) Find an issue you care strongly about and compose a letter of both support and opposition to it. 2) Find a Bill that's been introduced and write a letter of support or opposition to that Bill. (It's best to be a constituent and use your legislator's "Bill load"). 3) 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) After you select an issue and a Bill make sure you write the following letters: Letter of opposition Letter of support Letter suggesting amendment Letter requesting a meeting Letter requesting information