You
Can Help: How
to work with your elected officials
Szabo Addresses Rail Advocates;
Outlines 10-point program for successful political action
CHICAGO (Jan. 24)—How do we get elected officials to
invest more money in freight and passenger rail improvements?
“Tell them what you want and why you want it,”
said UTU Illinois Legislative Director Joseph C. Szabo at
the winter meeting of the Midwest High Speed Rail Coalition
(MHSRC). “Write a letter—and keep it short.”
Some 40 members of the MHSRC attended Szabo’s briefing
at DePaul University’s Chaddick Center in downtown Chicago.
MHSRC Rick Harnish said Szabo was invited to speak because
the not-for-profit advocacy group needs to tap Szabo’s
20 years of experience in political activism in order to further
its agenda: securing fast, frequent passenger-train service
between Chicago and all major cities across the 9-state Midwest
area.
“That agenda is similar to our union’s,”
Szabo said. “All I really did was open up UTU’s
book of lobbying tips and share them with the passenger-train
activists.”
Szabo said he urged the rail group to use a simple, ten-point
program when reaching out to decisionmakers to win support
for the union’s legislative agenda.
Tip No. 1, Szabo said, is simply
to write a letter.
“Elected Officials and their staffs read letters,”
he said. “More important, they log the number of letters
that come in. The more letters they receive on a subject,
the more important they believe that subject is.”
Because they clock volume of letters rather than volume of
words, Tip No. 2 is: Keep letters
short.
“Ten one-page letters are a lot more important than
on a ten-page letter,” Szabo said. “Don’t
try to write a policy document. Just send a simple one-pager.
Less than one page is even better.”
“That’s why tip No. 3 is: Confine
your letter to one aspect of the subject,”
Szabo said.
“That means if you’re asking a politician to
increase funding for passenger trains, don’t talk about
buying new rolling stock, buying new locomotives, running
additional frequencies and building more modern stations all
in one letter,” he said. “Pick one of those aspects
and stick with it.”
That policy pays additional dividends if you follow Tip
No. 4 and personalize your letter,
Szabo advised the group.
“Personal experience makes a constituent’s letter
far more powerful than abstract arguments or numbers,”
he said. “Explain how the issue affects you and your
family.”
Szabo said Tip No. 5 is distinguish
between Support Letters and Action Letters.
“Support Letters can be sent at any time,” he
said. “They are not urgent because they do not ask for
a commitment to any specific piece of legislation or to a
particular number of dollars in an appropriation. Instead,
they are more like the planting of seeds. You sow them to
be reaped in the future.”
Another key part of that seed sowing is Tip No. 6,
Szabo said: Amplify legislative outreach by using
the media.
“Write a short Letter to the Editor and send it to
your local newspaper,” he said. “Legislative staff
members monitor the media and take reader input very seriously.”
“Tip No. 7 is to use an Action
Letter to tell your legislator how you want him to vote.
It’s short, urgent and personalized, and it refers only
to the specific piece of legislation on the floor.”
Szabo said an example of a good Action Letter might be: “I
am writing to ask that you vote in favor of House Bill 228
when it comes up for a vote tomorrow. Funding for better passenger
trains is very important to me, my family and my community.
We would appreciate your support.”
Because of time constraints, Action Letters work best if
they are faxed, Szabo said. Legislative aides like to count
pieces of paper and are strong believers in the “cockroach
effect.”
“You know how when you see a cockroach you fear that
there are a thousand more back in the woodwork?” he
said. “Because elected officials get so few letters
from constituents, when they do, they believe for each letter
that gets written there are a thousand more voters who feel
the same way. Because they live and die by votes, they monitor
those letters carefully. Failure to understand what the voters
are thinking can cost a politician his job on Election Day.”
Because Action Letters work best on the eve of, or even on
the day of, a vote, Szabo recommended they be supplemented
with other forms of communication.
“Tip No. 8,” he said, “is
amplify letters with e-mails and phone calls.
You’re looking to create volume. Those communications,
too, should be short. If you make a phone call, just identify
yourself and say, ‘I’m calling to ask Congressman
Smith to vote “Yes” on House Bill 228 tomorrow.’”
But even the best outreach program needs more than letters,
faxes, e-mails and phone calls, Szabo said. So he advised
the activists to shed their shyness and seek out personal
encounters with legislators.
Tip No. 9 Szabo said, is build a
relationship with the legislator and his staff. Go
to political functions and get your face recognized. Legislators
thrive on personal contact, especially at election time. Get
known and build credibility.
“You don’t have to be a big-bucks donor to attend
a political fund-raiser,” Szabo reminded his audience.
“Most elected officials hold budget-priced barbecues
or chili suppers you can get into for $10 or $15,” he
said. “The primary purpose of these functions is to
enable the legislator to meet constituents. Buy a ticket and
go up and introduce yourself. Tell them you’re interested
in better rail service. Odds are they will introduce you to
a key staff person who specializes on your issue. Build the
relationship with that staff member.”
Szabo’s Tip No. 10 came directly from
the UTU-Illinois playbook.
“Build a Rapid Response Network,”
he advised. “Reach out to friends, relatives and people
you work with so that when a vote is needed on a piece of
legislation you can call or e-mail them and get each of them
to fax an Action Letter and make a phone call to their representatives.
“If you’ve done your work right, then over the
course of two or three months you’ve gone from one lone
activist to one person sitting at the center of a network
of a dozen or more people,” Szabo said.
“All you have to do is call them when the time comes
and ask them to send their own copy of an e-mail or letter
you’ve suggested. In less than an hour you’ve
created a movement.”
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