Finding the courage to call my representative, but I have some questions. Since you have experience on this subject, I thought I'd come to you.
1. Reps have different numbers for different offices, right? Mine has an office number in Washington DC and one in my county. Which one should I call?
2. Should I keep my script super short? I have several sections/reasons for calling. But I doubt that they'll listen to several long reasons all at once. Should I instead call multiple times, with each call having just ONE of my reasons?
3. Will they ask questions? I'm not very good at debating politics on the spot. I'm better at writing down my thoughts first :<
4. I want to call many times. How do I do this without just spamming them? I want to get them to listen of course, but I don't think spamming will make them listen.
First, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to reach out to your representatives. I promise I'm not trying to come across as condescending or patronizing, but I know for me it's always nice to hear this when I take on something new: I'm proud of you
Now, onto the questions! I'll go ahead and number my answers so they line up more easily with the questions!
Yes, most US Senators and House Representatives have two phone numbers. Using the DC number to leave input on legislation is the way I have always seen it done, so that is probably your best bet
That is more up to personal preference, honestly. I don't typically call during business hours so I am rarely speaking to a person and I am usually limited by the time limit on a voicemail. I do know of people who call during business hours that do it both ways, though. Some people prefer it to be a one and done. You'll get the same person, you only have to give your name and such once, and most offices (so long as you are respectful) will let you stay on the line for a long time. The people manning the phones at these offices are either interns, or paid workers, so it is their job to take calls and tally up constituent input on legislation. The few times I have called during business hours with long lists of topics the person on the other line handled it the way the occasional single-topic calls I have made were handled. They might confirm the legislation you're calling on or ask for clarification about whatever the matter is, but usually they just listen and mark stuff down. If you want to get it all out of the way with one call there isn't any reason you can't. Alternatively, if you want to make it more bothersome for the desk staff and don't mind the effort of giving your name and zipcode each time, you can call repeatedly. This will usually take up more time and leave their phones ringing more. That is actually a valid strategy for keeping offices in more conservative areas from hearing as many opinions from their GOP constituents. That's also true if you leave a lot of voicemails
In my experience, most of the time the people working the phones at these offices are not interested in debating you or poking holes in any logic you present. Their job is to get your name, any info they need to confirm you are a constituent of the person they work for, and get the opinion you're leaving tallied or marked down. It would be incredibly unlikely for someone to debate politics. However, one thing I have noticed is that some offices have a tendency to use malicious incompetence. I've only experienced this with one of my reps, my US House Representative, but consistently the people working the phones at her DC office will try to argue with me that they can't mark something down when I call. Their reasoning is always that the Representative can't do anything about that matter, but it is always in relation to things that are well within her job description. I've learned to handle that by calmly and firmly asking that they pass it along anyways. I'm not sure how likely that is to be an issue for other people, for all I know she's the only one who trains her staff to do that, but if it becomes a problem you encounter you can focus on contacting that specific office outside of business hours so you are just leaving voicemails and not having to argue with anyone
My only real rule for how often to call or not call is that I'll only contact their office on a specific issue at most once a week, unless something drastic changes in regards to that topic. They'll only mark your opinion down once on a set piece of legislation, but part of the benefit of calling legislators is keeping their phone lines busy. So, even if I've already contacted on an issue, I'll call on the same script again the next week, and repeat as long as it is relevant. Since I like to call outside of business hours I usually bunch all of my calls onto one day, Saturday, and I call offices back to back to back. Sometimes I will leave one office 15 voicemails (all different topics) on a single Saturday. This doesn't really lessen your chance of having your input tallied. The more important thing to worry about is how sustainable it is for you to keep up with those calls. If you find that it's a struggle to keep up with the number of calls you set out for yourself in a day, try bumping the number down or changing the way you're doing them. This is all about longterm, consistent effort. Not a lot of effort all at once. If it works best for you to call an office once a week with a list of input and demands and to spend twenty minutes on the phone rattling those off, don't worry about spamming. It won't change the way that your input is recorded. On the other hand, if it works best for you to call ten times in a day, then do that. This is one of the few times where, so long as you are civil, it doesn't matter if you're doing something in a way that works out well for the person working the phone
Hopefully I managed to answer your questions well enough! If you have more questions you're always more than free to jump back in my ask box! Same goes for anyone else who might have questions!
