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You are here: Home / In Re: Calls

In Re: Calls

by | 57 Comments

This post is in: ,

Following up Doug’s post, and Doug’s post, and David’s post, and…you get the idea…

Keep calling, and don’t restrict yourself to your senators’ DC offices.  Each and every senator has several in-state offices. They’re populated mostly by actual staffers, not interns.  Real people answer the phones — and if the one nearest you doesn’t pick up, you can call on down the line till you find someone at home.  They’re often less crazed and more ready to listen, even to opposing views.

My own experience:  my wife’s family has a place in the Bath-Boothbay stretch of the Maine coast, and several family members who live up around the Penobscot Bay area.  So I used that as the base from which I called Senator Collins’ Portland office, the one she lists as serving the county in which my in-laws hang.  I told the nice lady who answered that I was grateful to the senator for coming out in opposition to the bill, that I agreed with her that it was bad for Maine, and that I was calling both to thank her and to emphasize that cosmetic changes to the bill won’t alter its underlying effects, which will still be bad for Maine.  We talked about this for five or ten minutes and it was an actual conversation.

How much effect will it have? Not that much. She knew I was only partly attached to Maine, so that’s a discount right there.  But at least it lets that office and perhaps the senator know that we’re paying attention, and that we will continue to do so.  And the fact that this was a conversation, an actual accumulation of reasons to worry about the bill matters quite a bit, I think.

So the moral of the story:  you don’t have to bash down the front door to reach someone who can reach closer to power.  There are back doors, listed (with phone numbers) on every senators’ web page.

Use them.

Image:  Gerrit Beneker Telephone Operator (A Weaver of Public Thought), 1921.

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  1. 1.

    MomSense

    You for a person???? I’ve been calling and calling her offices and I never get a person.

    Thank you for calling.

  6. 6.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Love the painting, Tom! Have never seen it before now. Great find!

    **********

    “A gracious good day. Is this the party to whom I am speaking?” — Ernestine

  7. 7.

    Raven

    there was a rally in Athens last night and we also just had a woman announce she was going to run against the awful Jody Hice who followed the even awfuller Paul Braun.

  9. 9.

    Nelle

    I call both senators each day and have talked to staffers and interns. I like to call offices in redder parts of the state…they may have more time to chat.

  10. 10.

    Paul

    I called Richard Burr’s (NC) office this morning and got an answering machine to leave my “message regarding legislation”. Pathetic. I basically said that if he votes for whatever piece of junk Trumpcare ends up becoming, I will spend every effort to fight against his re-election, and I ain’t one of them poors, either!

  11. 11.

    Aleta

    Apology if this has been mentioned already. The NYT describes efforts by governors opposed to the bill that helped delay the vote. I think calls to our governors and state reps and candidates may have some influence going forward.
    Some sentences and names from the nyt article:

    The governor-led plot to block the Republican health care bill extends well beyond Mr. Kasich and Mr. Hickenlooper. Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada rejected the proposal; and helped sway Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, to oppose it. Mr. Heller’s unrestrained attack on the bill on Friday helped set off a chain of events that forced Republicans to delay a vote in the Senate.

    On Monday, a second bipartisan team of governors, Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, a Democrat, and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, a Republican, issued a joint letter asking the Senate to halt a vote. Mr. McAuliffe and Mr. Baker wrote explicitly in their capacity as chairman and vice chairman of the National Governors Association — a striking gesture given the nonpartisan organization’s reputation for caution in politically sensitive matters.

    There has been no visible effort among governors to lobby in support of the legislation, and most Republican governors have either remained silent or given equivocal statements on the bill.

    Joining Mr. Kasich and Mr. Sandoval, on the Republican side, was Mr. Baker of Massachusetts. On the Democratic side, Mr. Hickenlooper recruited Steve Bullock of Montana, John Bel Edwards of Louisiana and Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, Mr. Kasich’s neighbor to the east. Other governors on the Republican side have drifted in and out of the conversations, including Rick Snyder of Michigan and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas.

    The core group of seven has consistently spoken out against a precipitous repeal of the Affordable Care Act, lobbying members of Congress and issuing dire assessments of how their states could suffer. They have also gently reached out to colleagues who might be wary of signing a joint letter but who would be willing separately to express their own reservations.

    John Weaver, Mr. Kasich’s chief political adviser, said Mr. Kasich had spoken recently with other Republican governors, including Mr. Snyder, Doug Ducey of Arizona and Larry Hogan of Maryland, who have publicly criticized the Senate proposal. “He has worked it on the phone,” Mr. Weaver said of Mr. Kasich. “There are a number of Republican governors who he spoke to and didn’t want to sign the letter, but came out on our position.”

    The Democratic Governors Association is to begin running digital advertising and automated phone calls on Wednesday in several states, attacking Republican state leaders on the issue of health care. Democrats have demanded that Republican governors and candidates for governor take clear stances on the bill, including its rollback of Medicaid, and have pressed Republican candidates for governor to say if they would seek federal waivers that could loosen popular health care regulations at the state level.

    Governors who openly opposed the bill helped create an untenable situation for undecided senators, and critics of the legislation embraced Mr. Sandoval’s role in wooing Mr. Heller as a template to follow. Mr. Heller offered his denunciation of the Republican proposal at a joint news conference with Mr. Sandoval on Friday.

    Mr. Sandoval told other governors, at a conference in Montana over the weekend, that he had urged Mr. Heller to ignore potential backlash from the right and come out against the bill because “the people of Nevada will respect you and you will rise above that commotion,” according to Mr. Hickenlooper.

    Besides Mr. Heller, there are a number of Republican senators from states whose governors have been critical of the legislation, who have yet to take sides on the bill themselves, including Senator Rob Portman of Ohio and Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

    Mr. Hickenlooper said he was seeking a meeting with Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, a first-term Republican who is the chairman of his party’s campaign committee in the Senate.

  12. 12.

    Aleta

    @MomSense: Did you try the Bangor office? ((207) 945-0417). The Caribou one wasn’t accessible when I tried, but Bgr has had people answering.

  13. 13.

    MomSense

    @Aleta:

    Yes, I’ve called all the offices. I’ve been able to leave messages about onenout of every 7 calls.

  16. 16.

    debbie

    Yep. Rob Portman, the continuing face of courage:

    Sen. Rob Portman says he opposes GOP healthcare bill — after bill was yanked

    Coward.

    According to this article, Governor Kasich is urging his friends to start all over. As if Trump would stand for that.

  19. 19.

    eric

    @debbie: coward, yes. But it makes it harder for McConnell to bring the bill back because now he has to bribe that many more people to sound extra craven. He only has $200 billion ;)

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Aleta:

    If I ever get through to a real person rather than a voice mail for my Senators Isakson and Perdue, I intend to ask if either of them plans to hold a town hall in state during the Fourth of July holiday vacation week. (Excuse me very much, I meant Fourth of July District Work Session.)

    And yes, in case you’re wondering, GA Senator David Perdue is a cousin of former GA Governor, current Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue.

  23. 23.

    debbie

    How much effect will it have?

    I think actual conversations have a real effect. You’re now a person to that office, not just a name on a list. And more power to you if you can remain unfrustrated for the whole call. This is why I stick to emails.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I am missing Ernestine and Laugh-In so much right now!! (I’m so old, I saw every episode in first run!)

  33. 33.

    Aleta

    If I understand it, after the Senate redoes its version, the house has to vote on the changes. If so, if the Senator lines are busy, getting a head start on calls to our House members ?

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @debbie: I heard him on Pod Save Ameirca, I think it was. He struck me as someone who watches CNN and “The Shows” and then regurgitates what he heard, thinking it quite insightful. Lot of talk about the camaraderie of the House gym

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lamh36:

    The very best to Mazie Hirono. May she return to the Senate in greatly improved health and undiminished determination to fight for her fellow citizens.

    Thank you for sharing this, lamh. I didn’t know she had cancer.

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: In my town – decades ago when it was still Illinois Bell, someone had bumper stickers printed up with the bell logo and the standard blue color they used back then.

    We Don’t Care. We Don’t Have to.

    Then they broke into let themselves into the parking area of Ma Bell and placed one of those bumper stickers on every company vehicle that was parked in the lot.

    Very gratifying.

  45. 45.

    Kathleen

    @SiubhanDuinne: When I worked at Giant Telecom Company I performed Ernestine routines I wrote based on what was going on in the company at variety shows, sales meetings, and other management events. I had a blast.

    My favorite Ernestine line is when her elbow hits the console and she says, “Ooops! There goes Omaha!” (I was born in Omaha).

  53. 53.

    debbie

    @WaterGirl:

    I was wrong. Portman only takes emails, so I pasted it into an email. No response yet, but last time, it took a couple weeks to get a reply email.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    Tom
    I’ve thought about doing calls to other than my senators and telling them that I contribute to people in other states and will continue to do so. But I am selective about who I support. If that person votes against my issues or health I’m willing to support opposition that I think will not. Even if I can’t vote for them I can still donate money to them or to their opposition.
    It may not be much but it is something.

  55. 55.

    Kathleen

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes, they did! Back then most managers had a pretty good sense of humor.

    Corporate Headquarters in NJ did a series of videos featuring “Muldoon”, a fictitious VP of Marketing Strategy, which lampooned pretentious executive jargon. The videos were hysterical and very well done.

    Don’t know if any corporations would do that today.

  57. 57.

    normal liberal

    @Mnemosyne:
    We’ve been trying since the SOB took the oath of office and then pretty much asserted that the Illinois General Assembly should understand that he’s in charge and must be obeyed, because billionaire.
    I’m starting to believe that my state was cursed way back when, and that’s why we keep electing future felons as governor.

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