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Section 11. Developing and Maintaining Ongoing Relationships with Legislators and their Aides

  • Why are relationships with Legislators and aides important?

  • Who are legislators and their aides?

  • Whom do you need to develop a relationship with?

  • What exactly do we mean by developing a relationship?

  • How do you meet legislators and their aides?

  • How do you establish and maintain relationships?

Let's look at a couple of situations.

The state legislature is discussing the annual budget. You want an increase in spending for drug treatment programs. You call an aide to a legislator you've worked with who's familiar with the issue. She agrees to talk to her boss; the legislator, in turn, agrees to sponsor an increase, and goes off to call in some favors and twist a few arms. When the budget is announced, the increase is in it.
A major source of funding for your job training program has just been redirected to another area, even though your program is highly effective at training people and finding them jobs which, according to your follow-up studies, they still hold a year later. You call your state representative and state senator, both of whom have visited your program and know you well. The next day, you and they are sitting in the office of the head of the state agency in charge of the funds in question, and he -- looking nervously at the legislative firepower arrayed before him -- is saying he'll find the money to continue your funding.
These are, in fact, actual situations. In both cases, the advocates were successful because they already had good relationships with aides or legislators who knew and trusted them. It's important and useful, no matter what your goals are, to develop and maintain good relationships with legislators and their staffs. For effective legislative advocacy, it's absolutely vital. This section will give you some information about legislators and aides, and will discuss some ways to develop those relationships and keep them fresh over time.
This section deals specifically with federal and state legislators. All of it, however, is equally relevant to members of the executive branch and their staffs and to policymakers at the local level.
Although members of the executive branch (the president and cabinet departments at the federal level, the governor and cabinet departments at the state level, and the mayor or town manager and municipal departments in cities and towns) and local officials - city councils, county commissioners - may not be called legislators, some may have the power to enact laws and regulations, and all have the power of persuasion. Many local officials and bodies - mayors, local elected and appointed boards and agencies, county governing bodies, etc. - have the power to allocate funds, and therefore may be very important to your organization and your issue. These officials and bodies vary from state to state, and even from community to community, and we're not going to generalize about or try to describe them here. (In much of the Northeast, for instance, county government is all but nonexistent; in states in many other parts of the country, it is extremely powerful.)
The guidelines and suggestions for forming and maintaining relationships with federal and state legislators and their aides discussed in this chapter can - and should - be used on the local level. Where the methods of contacting or establishing and maintaining relationships with local officials are different from those suggested for state and federal legislators, we'll include them as well. If you're an advocate - and if you care about an issue or are involved in a grass roots or community-based organization, you are an advocate, like it or not - the more and better relationships you can develop with decision makers at all levels, the more effective you'll be.
More information about legislators and aides, as well as other policy makers, and about how the real work of Congress and state legislatures gets done, can be found in General Rules for Organizing for Legislative Advocacy.

Why are relationships with legislators and aides important?

All politics, almost no matter how you define the term, comes down in the end to personal relationships. That's what Tip O'Neill meant when he said "All politics is local;" that's what the proverbial smoke-filled room is about; that's one of the reasons that lobbyists take legislators out to dinner and play golf with them; and that's why so many matters of policy are decided by only a small number of people.
In the long run, all of us listen particularly to those we know, like, and trust. We may try to keep open minds, but when we hear conflicting arguments, both of which make sense, we're more likely to agree with the one presented by someone with whom we have a good relationship.
Relationships, at the most fundamental level, provide access to decision makers. If they know you, know whom and what you represent, and respect you, they'll listen to what you have to say. They'll pay more attention when they hear from you than when they hear from someone they don't know.
Furthermore, a relationship is a process that develops its own history over time. If you've done favors for someone else, she's more likely to do favors for you, and vice versa. As your relationship with a legislator or aide progresses, it accumulates a weight of favors done and support tendered in both directions, and makes continued mutual favors and support more and more possible and probable.
Human beings are social animals: relationships are important to us, and are one of the main ways we negotiate our lives. The importance for community activists and social change agents of understanding and developing relationships cannot be overstated. It's the foundation of all such work at every political level, as we'll see throughout this section.

Who are legislators and their aides?

In general, there are two levels of legislators in the U.S.: federal, i.e. members of Congress; and state. Most of us know something about Congress from that high school Civics class we now wish we had paid more attention to. State legislatures are harder to generalize about, since they vary, sometimes greatly, from state to state. Let's quickly review who's who in the federal and state legislative branches of government.



The U.S. Congress, like almost all state legislatures, is bicameral, i.e. having two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate.


House of Representatives.

Representatives are elected from Congressional districts that vary somewhat in size from state to state, but are generally of 550,000 to 600,000 people. They serve two-year terms.
Each state must have at least one Congressman. Currently, Wyoming, at a population of about 458,000 is the only state that would lack a Congressman if it had to meet a population standard. There are a few other one-seat states, including Alaska and North and South Dakota.



There are two Senators from each state, regardless of its size. Senators serve six-year terms.
Representatives, coming from smaller districts, often view government in relatively narrow terms: What effect will it have on my district (and my chances of reelection)? Senators are expected to take a broader perspective, looking to the good of the whole state and of the country. (It is no accident that Senatorial terms are longer than those of Presidents. Senators are expected to transcend politics and administrations, and take the long view.)


Congressional and legislative staffs.

Each Senator and Congressman has a staff of aides who do much of the research and other work necessary to legislation. These staffers may substitute for the legislator at meetings, talk to interested parties, research policy issues, and suggest and draft legislation. They often know more about the issues than the legislators do, and may have a great deal of influence over what gets adopted as policy, what bills are proposed, how bills are worded, and how much money is appropriated for specific areas of the budget.
The Congressional Quarterly publishes a Congressional Staff Directory (see Resources) three times a year. Most states either publish similar state legislative staff directories, or have widely-available directories published by advocacy organizations.
Just how much influence staffers have depends upon the individual legislators. Some trust their staff people entirely, follow their suggestions, and ask them to draft legislation which the legislators will then sign. Others use their staffs only as sources of information, and make all their own decisions about policy or legislation without staff advice.
It is important to understand that an individual legislator at either the state or federal level doesn't - and can't - know very much about most of what she votes on. An annual state budget is hundreds, or even thousands, of pages long, with each page containing perhaps 20 or 30 individual line items. The federal budget is even longer. Because there is too much for any one person to be familiar with, legislators often pick a small number of issues that interest them or are important to their constituents, and become knowledgeable about them. Often, colleagues will defer to their judgment on those issues in which they are known to have expertise. If the legislator relies heavily on staff, however, it may well be the staff person who becomes the expert on, or even picks, the issues the legislator will tackle. So it's not only legislators, but their staff people as well, who need to be approached by advocates.
The size of a federal legislator's staff depends upon her position: committee chairs and floor leaders (whips, majority and minority leaders, etc.) are allotted more funds for staff. Even a first-year Congressman, however, employs a staff of several people, some of whom work in his home district, and others in Washington. Usually one or more travels with the Congressman, and all will probably do some traveling between the Congressman's district and his Washington office.
Generally, a Congressman or Senator appoints a chief of staff or chief aide who oversees the staff and functions as a political and policy advisor. The more powerful the legislator, the more important this chief staff person is, both in Washington and as a contact for advocates. This person is often politically experienced, generally at least in his 30's, and usually well paid. He may have been in his position for several years, and expect to stay there for the foreseeable future.
By contrast, junior staff -- the low people on the totem pole -- tend to be either interns or fresh out of college, to be underpaid, and to turn over quickly, often leaving after a year or two. Particular people on the staff have particular policy responsibilities, with one overseeing education and health issues, for instance, another foreign policy or economics. Knowing whom in the office to contact -- i.e. which person is likely to know something about your issue -- can often make advocacy much easier.
Most staffers work for a relatively short time and then go back to school or into the private sector. People who remain in Congressional staff positions, however, if they're competent, eventually get promoted to senior staff positions, or hired as senior staff by other legislators. They may stay in senior staff
positions, go on to work for government agencies or in the administration, or even run for office themselves. They are the real Washington insiders, since they remain through administration after administration, and often outlast their Congressional bosses.


State legislatures

As explained above, it's difficult to generalize about state legislatures, since they vary so greatly from state to state. Called by various names (California's, for instance is the State Assembly; in Massachusetts it's the Great and General Court of the Commonwealth) and taking various forms, most state legislatures nonetheless do have some features in common.
Except for that of Nebraska, all state legislatures, like Congress, are bicameral. They have a house and a senate, and like their federal counterparts, representatives and senators represent different constituencies. Representatives' districts are smaller (the difference in size generally ranges from about two-to-one to four-to -one), and representatives' terms are often shorter than senators' (typically, two years as opposed to four).
Many states, particularly the more populous ones, have full-time legislators for whom their political service is their job. Many others, however, have part-time legislatures that meet only a few months a year, or only one or two days a week. Legislators in these states are often paid very little (in Arizona, for instance, the salary is $15,000 a year, plus expenses), while some full-time legislators are paid quite well. In some states (Vermont is one), legislators don't even have offices, and pay their own travel expenses back and forth to the capital. Most part-time legislators have full-time jobs elsewhere, a circumstance which may complicate their political, as well as their personal, lives.


State legislative staffs.

Many full-time legislators have staff budgets, though their staffs are usually small (one to three people, perhaps not all full-time). If there is more than one aide, one may staff a district office, while the rest work at the state capital. In states which are geographically compact, there may be little difference, since the state capital may be no more than an hour or two from anywhere else in the state. In large states where driving to the capital may take a full day, the location of a staff member's main workplace matters much more.
Particularly in states where the legislature is part-time-- and where there is a tradition of citizen legislators, as opposed to state politicians -- legislators may have no staff people at all, and simply do their own research and homework.
Legislative aides vary tremendously in age, experience, and influence. In some states, many legislators start out as aides to others, learn the political system and make important contacts in that way, and then run for office themselves. In others, aides are little more than interns, and so underpaid that few stay for any length of time.
As in many organizations, much of the work in Congress and state legislatures is actually done in committees, rather than in the full legislative body. Most of these committees have their own staffs, members of which sometimes set policy for the committees, and can be very powerful in their own right. Getting to know these committee staffers can be an important advocacy tool.

Whom do you need to develop a relationship with?

The short answer to this question is everyone you can, but that isn't necessarily the best answer. Certainly, the more legislators and staff people you know, the better; but you probably don't have an unlimited amount of time to network. You have to make some choices, and those choices depend upon what level of advocacy you're concerned with, and what kind of support you'd like from legislators and aides. Here are some guidelines for deciding whom you'd like to meet and get to know.
The absolute first step here is to make sure that everyone involved in your advocacy effort knows who her own state and federal legislators are, and - if they're not the same - who the legislators are who represent the beneficiaries of your organization or initiative.
Who needs you? You have a better chance of developing a relationship with someone who sees it as a possibility for mutual benefit, rather than a chance for you to exploit her. In legislative terms, that means:
  • Your own federal or state legislators. Any politician worth his salt knows that he's never talking to just one voter. He knows you have friends, relatives, and colleagues who are likely to hear whether you think he's God's gift to democracy or the political equivalent of the Swamp Thing. For that reason alone, the people who actually represent you are going to be willing to talk to you. If you can also show them how support of your issue or the work you do will benefit their districts, they'll want to be on your side, because what's good for the district is good for their reelection.

This may sound cynical, but even the politicians who are most sincere and most concerned with the fates of the human beings they represent think constantly about reelection. Representatives, particularly, because their terms are only two years, are always concerned about the next election, and start running as soon as they're elected. If you can offer them something that will help keep them in office, they'll be willing to offer something in return. If their support would be forthcoming anyway, all the better -- that's a reason you want them reelected.

  • Legislators who represent many of your participants or beneficiaries, even if they don't represent you personally.
  • Legislators to whom your issue is crucial. Someone who's run on a platform of protecting the environment needs to pay attention to that goal. If you're a community land trust, or an environmental coalition, then you're an important ally, and a source of useful information. You're also a potential source of pressure in support of legislation.
  • Legislators or aides with a personal passion for your issue. Someone who's lost a relative as a result of the lack of affordable health care is likely to be very interested in community health and universal health care, for instance, and to want to work with you to expand or institute programs in those areas.
  • Aides, particularly committee staff, who need the information you have at your fingertips. If you've established yourself as a reliable source, you can make these people's jobs infinitely easier by saving them hours of research.
Whom do you need? Who are the key legislators and aides whom you have to know, if you're going to be an effective advocate? They're the people in positions that are crucial to your issue, and some of them are the same people who need you:
  • Chairs or vice-chairs or members of key committees, and/or their aides. If your organization is oriented toward education reform, it's important to know people on the education committee. If you do job training for welfare recipients, you might want contacts on both the Commerce and Labor and Human Services committees.
  • Individual legislators and staffs and chairs of committees or that are important to any issue. The Speaker of the House, the Senate President, the chair of the Ways and Means Committee or the Rules Committee.
The Ways and Means Committee (there's one in the House and one in the Senate) makes up the chamber's annual budget recommendations, and ultimately decides how much money gets allotted for what in the federal or state budget. If you want money for your issue, someone has to talk to the Ways and Means Committee. The chief staff person of Ways and Means may have as much influence as the chair in making up the annual budget, and deciding how much funding goes to specific areas of the budget.
The Rules Committee, which oversees how the legislative body runs, has to pass on every single bill before it gets to the floor to be voted on. The Rules Committee can be tremendously powerful, because it has the ability to hold anything up for as long as it sees fit. It can kill a bill, at least for the year, by holding it up until the end of the legislative session, after which it has to be refiled. Often, bills die in the Rules Committee not for opposition to them, but for lack of vigorous support.
  • Aides of your legislative champions or of legislators who are particularly powerful, particularly those aides with responsibility for your issue. Some legislators have staked out strong positions on particular issues and are known as experts on them by other legislators. Others, especially in the U.S. Senate, are powerful enough that their sponsorship of any issue is worth a great deal, whether they are seen as knowledgeable or not. These people are not always easily reached, but their aides usually can be. Furthermore, the aides may have as much to do with setting policy in your area as the legislators do.
On the local level, figuring out who needs your support, or whose support you need, is at least partially a function of knowing your community and local area. Officials who are themselves from a district where a number of your organization's beneficiaries live, or who have experienced circumstances in their lives similar to those of your target population, may have a vested interest in working with you. Others may have a master plan for the community or the area that includes your issue. For still others, it may be a simple matter of votes, or even of pressure from a family member or close friend. It's up to you to find out who's who, to understand local politics and the local political system.
Another difference on the local level is that many, or perhaps most, local officials have no aides. They may have subordinates, but these folks usually have specific jobs, rather than simply being part of the official's staff, to be deployed as he sees fit. Thus, it's often the official himself that you want to get to know. (But not necessarily... Again, that depends on the particular community and how the system works.)
Because local systems are so different, there's a vast range of people who might be allies and friends. Those in the abbreviated list below - except for the obvious ones like mayors or county commissioners - might be town, city, county, or regional officials, depending on the system in your area.
  • Mayors
  • Town managers
  • Selectmen
  • Town or city councilors
  • County commissioners
  • Boards of Health members
  • Conservation Commission members
  • Planning Board members
  • School Committee members
  • Town, city, county, or regional planners
  • Finance Board members
  • County administrators
  • Precinct representatives

What exactly do we mean by developing a relationship?

When you hear the word "relationship," it probably raises images of either the therapist's couch or arguments over communication and taking your partner for granted. There are, however, all kinds of relationships. The word, as used here, refers to a working arrangement that will foster pleasant and effective two-way communication between you and a legislator and her staff. The relationship doesn't have to be highly personal, or a friendship -- although it may develop in those directions, depending on the personalities involved -- but it needs to be one of mutual trust and respect, and to be based on mutual interest in a particular set of issues and on mutual benefit.
There are a number of goals you should be aiming for in establishing a relationship. In many cases, all or most of them may be out of your reach, but they're ideals to strive for.
  • The legislator's staff people -- and the legislator herself -- should recognize your name (in the ideal, with pleasure), and be willing to take or return your calls promptly.
  • If you want to speak to the legislator in person, you'll have the opportunity.
State legislators, if they know you fairly well, will often pick up the phone or call you back if you ask to speak to them. Congresspersons seldom will, unless they know you extremely well or perceive you as wielding a great deal of power. Their aides, however, can often arrange meetings or calls with them. For a U.S. Senator, the best you can probably do is to speak to the aide in charge of your issue.
  • You should be the first person the legislator's office thinks of to call when she needs information about your issue.
  • The legislator should be willing to support your issue when you need it, and quickly. That may mean trying to override a veto, pushing a vote, trying to get a bill passed at the last minute, etc. (By the same token, you should realize when that's politically impossible for her, and be willing to take no for an answer on that basis.)
  • The legislator or her staff people should call you to alert you to crisis points, situations where you need to mobilize your constituency, impending problems or opportunities, etc. 
The degree of responsiveness called for in points 4 and 5 implies either that the issue is one close to the legislator's heart, or that she has enough of a relationship with you (and understands your clout and constituency well enough) that she'll act on your request. If, of the several legislators with whom you try to establish relationships, you can find one who'll act in these ways, you've more than done your job as an advocate.
  • The legislator should be willing to visit your organization or community, or support you in other ways - speaking at an organizational function, explaining the legislative process to participants, etc.
Especially if you present this as an opportunity to meet constituents (new voters, particularly), legislators are likely to jump at the chance. They may send aides instead of coming themselves, but you may also be surprised at how often a legislator will agree to attend these kinds of events.
  • You should be willing to help the legislator and her staff when they need it.
    • Act as a resource, information finder, etc.
    • Get behind their pet projects (where they're in agreement with your principles), and encourage your colleagues to do the same.
    • Say good things about them wherever you go.
    • Invite them to community or professional functions where they can meet people.
    • Give them awards.
    • Thank them publicly for their help.
    • Mention them in the media.
    • Contribute money to them and/or work on their reelection campaigns.
  • You should have enough of a personal relationship with at least one person in the office -- ideally the legislator herself -- that you can chat for a few minutes about family, music or movies, sports, politics, etc. You don't have to be close friends, but it's good to have at least some personal connection.

How do you meet legislators and their aides?

Okay, you're convinced -- you need to make contact with at least your state legislators and their aides, and perhaps with your Congresspersons and U.S. Senators as well. How do you arrange that first meeting?
The best option is a face to face meeting, but that may not always be possible. A phone conversation may have to do for the initial contact. In some cases, this may actually be preferable, because it will give the legislator or aide some context for when you do meet in person. There are a number of ways to arrange a meeting:
Make a formal appointment, either in the district or at the state capital. Most legislators are willing to see constituents or advocates when they have the time. (Everyone wants to see his legislator at budget time. That's why it's a good idea to get to know her when there's no particular crunch, so she'll be available when there is.) There is a pecking order, however.
  • You almost never get to see a U.S. Senator (at least a powerful one, or one from a large state), unless you have an in (which may come through meetings with an aide), or unless you officially represent a large or powerful constituency. You can easily get an appointment with an aide, however, and that's often just as effective. In general, Senate aides are the people in the office most concerned with policy, and they can often influence the Senator on issues.
  • You can often get to see a Congressman, especially in the district. Congressmen are usually more attentive to constituents because they have to run every two years, and their districts, in most states, are much smaller than the whole-state constituencies of the Senators.
You can always get a meeting with a Congressman's aides in the district. Their primary job is constituent service, so they're all too happy to talk to voters. This is a good chance to educate an aide on your issue, and to set yourself up for a meeting with the Congressman.
  • You can usually get to see a state senator, but not necessarily for a long meeting, and it may take at least one meeting with an aide to set it up. You have a better chance for more time as part of a group that represents your issue.
  • You can almost always meet with a state representative. In most states, legislative districts contain fewer than 50,000 people, so every voter is important. Representatives usually have regular office hours in the district, although sometimes they're so swamped there that it's easier to see them at the state capital.
In rural districts or small towns, you may be able to catch the representative when he picks up his mail at the post office on Saturday morning, or when he holds court at the local coffee shop on Friday (in many states, Friday is traditionally a day spent in the district), or at a community event. It's even likely that his home phone is in the book, if you have trouble getting hold of him in another way. (If you use these avenues, however - particularly his home phone - make sure not to abuse the privilege. If you annoy him by invading his privacy, your chances of establishing a relationship will diminish.)
Another factor here is that, in such districts, you're much more likely to have some personal connection with a state representative -- to know a relative, a neighbor, a colleague, someone he went to school with. That kind of contact makes a meeting much easier to arrange.
  • You can always get a meeting with an aide to a state senator or state representative, either in the district or at the State House. We've already discussed how aides may actually be the key people in policy decisions. If you don't know the particular person you want, ask to meet with whoever handles your issue. How helpful a meeting with an aide is will depend on both the competence of the particular aide and the degree to which the legislator relies on her for information and advice.
  • Know what you want to talk about. It should be clear, concise, and focused on your issue. If you have printed material, it should be short and to the point -- a fact sheet.
  • Identify the issue clearly. Don't overload the legislator or aide with information; keep it simple enough that she'll understand and remember most of what you tell her.

If you're asking for the legislator's help, be as specific as you can. If there's an immediate concern, highlight it. ("Those of us in the field are concerned about House bill 2374, which would limit the number of people we could serve.") Explain why it's a concern, how it would affect constituents and the district, and what action needs to be taken. ("Would it be possible for you to approach the leadership and the sponsors, explain the unintended consequences of this bill, and ask them to table it?")

  • Identify yourself with the issue, and establish your credentials as a spokesperson. ("I've been the director of a community health program for 11 years, and I'm on the Board of the state professional organization, where I chair the public outreach committee.") If you can identify yourself as the spokesperson for, or a member of, a group or coalition, it gives you more credibility.
  • Remember that you have knowledge that legislators and their aides don't have, because you spend all your time on this issue. If they know anything about it at all, it's probably secondhand; it may be conventional wisdom, which often has little to do with reality. Take advantage of the fact that you represent reality for them.
Don't, however make the mistake of underestimating someone because you haven't asked. A legislator or aide may have personal experience of your issue that you don't know about, or may have dealt with it in the past. Don't assume ignorance -- you may offend someone unnecessarily.

Invite legislators or aides to visit your organization or town. Arrange for them to meet with participants, or with members of your coalition. If you're concerned with the town as a whole -- supporting residents' initiative to improve neighborhoods, preserving green space, increasing opportunities for youth -- take them on a tour. If you use an invitation as a way to make contact with a legislator or his aide, remember to:

Give him a reason to come. 
  • Ask him to speak at an event, or to present something: certificates, diplomas, awards.
  • Give the legislator an award for something good he's done, or for spearheading a bill that helped the issue or the community.
  • Ask him to explain the legislative process to participants, or to a meeting of practitioners.
  • Invite him to see something specific -- an exhibit, or a community problem.
  • Invite him to talk with a focus group (of teen parents, welfare recipients, environmental activists, etc.).
  • Get the media there. (Please see Chapter 6, Section 4: Arranging News and Feature Stories, and Section 8: Arranging a Press Conference.)
Give him a reason to come back. 
  • Thank him for his visit and his contribution, both at the time and later, by letter. Legislators use such thank-you letters to demonstrate their good work in the district.
  • Invite him back to follow up on something specific. ("We're planning a community day to clean up this lot on Saturday the 14th of next month. We'd love to have you join us, and see the coalition in action.")
  • Invite him back to continue discussions with participants.
  • Invite him back to preside or speak at a particular event or occasion.
Give him a reason to remember you. 
  • Give him something to take away -- an award (see above), a journal of participants ' writings, a photo, a fact sheet, a report or position paper, etc.
  • Provide an unusual experience for him (a walk along the route of a proposed rail trail, a tour of a housing project, a simulated welfare registration).
  • Have people affected by your issue on hand to tell their own stories.

Bring participants or a community group to meet with the legislator for the first time. The meeting shouldn't be intimidating or threatening -- merely a group of citizens visiting their legislator, either with a specific request, or simply to discuss issues of concern. Legislators find it hard to turn down meetings with sizeable groups of constituents.

Start with a phone conversation. State legislators will usually be free to talk on the phone -- many answer their own phones, at least some of the time. Federal legislators generally are unlikely to talk to you unless they know you already, but you can have a phone conversation with a staff person, and start the contact that way.

Testify at a Congressional or state legislative hearing or public comment session. You'll probably have to wait at the hearing for several hours to do this, but it may be worth it for the recognition it will bring. The more often you do it, the more recognizable you become.

Hold a state legislative briefing on your issue. You may need at least one legislator to sponsor this (a good idea in any case, since legislators are more likely to respond to their colleagues than to outside sources). Often legislators send aides to these briefings, which is fine. Make sure to have a sign-up sheet at the door, and to try to either talk to or get back to everyone who attends.

Another event may also be appropriate here, depending upon the issue and the circumstances. The advantage of a legislative briefing is that you can legitimately invite all legislators, and, if scheduled carefully, it can draw a number of legislators and aides. A champion, or even a legislative caucus, for the issue may emerge from such a session.

Get an introduction from a mutual acquaintance. It can be helpful, as in any relationship, if you're recommended as a reasonable and knowledgeable person by someone the legislator or aide knows.

Attend events where legislators and aides are likely to be present, and take the opportunity to introduce yourself. In Washington, that may mean getting on someone's "list." In a state legislative district, it usually has more to do with keeping track of community events or finding someone who knows the person you're hoping to meet.

All of the above methods go for meeting local officials as well. In smaller communities, you're likely to have a direct connection to almost all officials through friends, family, or business associates. In addition, officials in smaller communities are much more receptive to being called at home than a state legislator is likely to be.
If you have a personal connection, and it's someone you know reasonably well, it might be a good idea for that person to be present at a first meeting. An official might be more comfortable - and therefore more receptive - if she's meeting with someone she knows. There's also the unspoken sponsorship that goes with being accompanied by someone who's already accepted as a friend.

How do you establish and maintain relationships?

One meeting doesn't make a relationship. As with any other relationship, you have to make an effort to get to know the other person, and develop mutual respect and understanding. How can you do that?
  • Keep contact after the initial meeting. Tell the legislator or aide that you'll keep her informed about whatever you've discussed, and then do it. Call, write, or e-mail regularly with updates and new information.

Try to talk to the same person each time -- the legislator if you can, with an aide if that's who met with you the first time or if the legislator is unavailable. (You don't have to talk to the legislator every time, even if you met with her initially. For most conversations, an aide might be fine. Save the legislator for when you really need her.)

If possible, meet face to face periodically, as well as by phone. Your contact should be often enough that folks remember who you are, and seldom enough that they don't say, "Oh, no -- not him again," whenever you call.

  • Attend fundraisers and other events honoring the legislator. This means being political and putting out your own money on your own time. If you're serious about being a player, this is the game. You may not like it, but it's where the action is. If the legislator knows your face from these events, she'll be more open to being approached for help (after all, you're a supporter.)
If the legislator is someone you enthusiastically support, you may even find yourself on a list of sponsors for such an event. The legislator will remember you if your name is on the masthead of a fundraising letter. You know you've arrived when you run into her out of context -- on the street or in the halls of the state capital -- and she greets you by name.
  • Have real conversations. Don't just say your piece and hang up. Be genuinely interested in what the other person has to say, in the peculiarities of her job, etc. Discuss issues in general when appropriate, not just your immediate interest. Often, the legislator or aide may be pressed for time, or simply too busy to have a conversation, and it's important to pick up on that situation and respect it. But there will also be times when they will be free to talk, and that's when you can develop an actual personal relationship.
It's nice if you can develop a real friendship, but you can't make that happen. It either will or it won't, depending upon who you both are as people, and upon how much contact you have. But it's a good idea to establish, over time, who you are, and what your outlook and priorities are. The goal is mutual respect. If you can go the next step and become friends, that's fine... but it's not necessary for a good working relationship.
  • Ask legislators' and aides' advice -- and follow it when you can. If you're planning a legislative campaign, enlist the legislator to help you design it. If you're approaching other legislators or if you have strategy questions about addressing an issue, ask for pointers on how to do it effectively. If you're trying to get funding or a funding increase in the state or federal budget, ask for input about how much would be appropriate or possible.
  • Establish yourself as an absolutely reliable source of information. Be accurate, be quick, and never exaggerate or misstate anything to make your argument stronger. If you don't know something, say so, promise to find it out, and then do. You've reached your goal when legislators and aides start calling you for information and advice.
  • Thank legislators for their help, publicly and privately, formally and informally, at every opportunity. Write letters from your organization or coalition, put it in the paper, announce it at public meetings. Take every chance you get to make them look good.
  • Respect a legislator's or aide's limitations and priorities. If you're not sure how something will affect her, ask before you make a decision about it. Don't do anything that will put her in an awkward position or a bad light, especially as a result of something she's done as a favor to you. That would be unethical, and it could terminally damage the relationship. She might work with you again, but she'd never trust you.
You need to be absolutely honest about the consequences of actions and policies -- yours and theirs. If you can't support her on a given issue, it's far better for the legislator to know she can always trust you to tell the truth, rather than to be unpleasantly surprised because you were unable to give her bad news. If she knows she can believe you when you disagree, she'll also assume that what you tell her is true, rather than self-serving.
  • Don't abuse the relationship. Don't ask for help unless you really need it. Don't be an annoyance: keep your contacts to a reasonable and businesslike level. Never demand -- ask if help is possible. And be understanding if the answer is no.

In Summary

Establishing relationships with federal and state legislators -- U.S. Senators and Congressmen, state senators and representatives -- and local officials can make your advocacy effort a great deal easier. If legislators answer or return your phone calls, trust your information, and are willing to go out on a limb for you, you're much more apt to reach your goals, whether they center on funding or legislation.
At the same time, developing relationships doesn't happen without effort. You have to understand who the key legislators and aides are, make initial contact with them, and then follow up over time. Maintaining regular contact, getting personal when you can, establishing yourself as both trustworthy and a reliable source of information, and respecting legislators' and aides' limitations and priorities will all help to win and keep their support.

Online Resources

The Christian Coalition. A guide to Congress: complete contact information, thumbnail biographies, photos, find-your-Representative-by-zip-code, and more.

Congressional Staff Directory. See Print resources, below.

U.S. House Leadership Web Services -- web links to House Leadership.

Government Resources. The Library of Congress legislative branch resource page. Everything you'll ever need to know and more: e-mails, committees, ins and outs of Congressional operations, and links to a myriad of other important sites. An excellent site.

University of Michigan Library. Another terrific site, including links to information for the federal and all 50 state governments -- laws, courts, executive branches, and everything else.

State and Local Government on the Net. A resource for all 50 state legislatures. Information for each state on each legislator, each legislative committee, texts of bills and budgets, etc. The site also includes the other branches of government, pending and passed legislation, and other information, depending on the state. A huge resource, especially for groups working in more than one state

THOMAS (The Library of Congress). The absolutely indispensable website for advocates. Named for Thomas Jefferson, this Library of Congress site has the actual texts of all federal bills, budgets, pending and passed legislation (all this from 1993 on), as well as that currently or recently under discussion, and access to everything else.

Project Vote Smart. Voting records of Congress and state legislators, among other political information.

Congressional Email Directory. Congressional e-mail addresses.

Communication Tools for Advocacy from the National Association for Gifted Children provides information on different ways to communicate with policy makers.

Writing Your Elected Official is a guide provided by the Children’s Defense Fund, and it provides information on effectively communicating with elected officials.

10 things: How to better connect with your legislators, from the Vancouver Business Journal, offers seven state legislators discussing what local business owners can and should do to ensure that their voices are heard.

Print Resources

Berkowitz, Bill, and Tom Wolff. The Spirit of the Coalition. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association, 2000.

Congressional Quarterly, Congressional Staff Directory. Congressional Quarterly Press, Washington, DC. Updated three times yearly.

Fitch, B. (2010). Citizen’s Handbook to Influencing Elected Officials: Citizen Advocacy in State Legislatures and Congress: A Guide for Citizen Lobbyists and Grassroots. The Capitol Net, Inc. This book offers practical guidance for reaching elected officials with a variety of different communication strategies.
