I wrote a "letter" to my US Representative...

[Lott's Bandana]

...on December 13, 2011.

The "letter" was actually a webmail generated from his website.

To date, I have not received any response, other than an auto-reply saying he would respond shortly.

Today I sent a follow-up "wtf?" webmail.


We'll see what happens and how long it takes, if anything does.

[Viking Kitten]

Who is it? My guy is Lankford, and he is pretty good about responding.

[Lott's Bandana]

Tom Cole - 4th District

I gave him a pass over the holidays, but a staffer should have responded by now, m'thinks.

[badger]

Why public officials are ignoring your correspondence
By badger

Things that are funded by public funds are subject to open records requests.

Things that are easy to send are sent by many.

Things that can be ignored will be ignored.

These three reasons are the reasons why your emails, letters, phone calls and other requests for correspondence are likely being seemingly ignored by your elected officials or other public representatives.

Some are dedicated to public correspondence and don't make exceptions to emails, letters or phone calls, Others, for those top three reasons, will either ignore you or just have too much to respond to.

If you truly wish to contact a public official, make an effort to meet them in person. This is not as difficult as it seems. Elected officials will not just come back to mingle with constituents when it's election season, but often schedule public appearances as parades, town hall meetings, or other events where they can meet the greatest number of potential voters.

If it does seem difficult to meet in person, then perhaps you need to rethink how important your correspondence is and if there are alternative contacts you should try first.

[Lott's Bandana]

I have written my Congresspersons 3 times in my adult life.

The first two times, I received thoughtful responses...in fact, the first time changed my life in a positive way, due to Congressional "pressure".

This current letter is...."I have a question and would like to know how I can help." It requires very little from Rep Cole, other than a piece of information. Something I cannot obtain from sources other than our government.

If I was a Rep and someone followed-up...I'd get on it, especially with Facebook's capability to spread some negative (factual) information in the District.

[Wishboned]

I sent Senator Coburn an email once asking why he voted the way he did on a particular bill.

About 3 weeks later I got a very detailed email describing his reasons. It didn't have the feel of a form letter, it read like he, or one of his assistants, actually sat down and wrote it.

I was pleased with the response.

[Lott's Bandana]

I sent Senator Coburn an email once asking why he voted the way he did on a particular bill.

About 3 weeks later I got a very detailed email describing his reasons. It didn't have the feel of a form letter, it read like he, or one of his assistants, actually sat down and wrote it.

I was pleased with the response.


Either you had posted a similar story earlier, WB...or someone else had the same experience. Thanks.

I'm hoping to get a similar type response.

[Wishboned]

I think I have told that story before.