SusanM @ 77–While I can’t speak to your specific case (I’m a creature of the campaign and not on the Senate staff anymore), I can assure you that senate staffs in general keep running counts of constituent contacts in regard to their opinions on issues and votes. While that doesn’t always mean the member will act in accordance with the constituents who made the effort to call/write/email, offices are generally paying attention. (I’ll leave the debate about direct democracy for a later day.)

Tim,
Thank you for responding – I’ll just second what Mui pointed to in regards to a real sense of neglect that we feel in CT and make the point that there’s a real movement in the country as a whole to hold senators and reps to the fire about representation. That Mr. Dodd has someone monitoring these comments is a real step in the right direction and I think it might really help him in his campaign to find more ways to contact voters directly.

Thanks again,
Susan

I am very impressed with Senator Dodd’s willingness to engage constructively with American voters in this way.

SusanM @ 77–While I can’t speak to your specific case (I’m a creature of the campaign and not on the Senate staff anymore), I can assure you that senate staffs in general keep running counts of constituent contacts in regard to their opinions on issues and votes. While that doesn’t always mean the member will act in accordance with the constituents who made the effort to call/write/email, offices are generally paying attention. (I’ll leave the debate about direct democracy for a later day.)

But Tim, even as a creature of the campaign, I can assure you this is a key issue among folks in CT as I found out during the Lamont campaign. Too many people in CT are feeling neglected and it’s bound to manifest itself in support/or lack therof in Dodd’s campaign. I will point out that many people show a whole range of emotions as a direct result of their unsuccessful dealings with Lieberman’s staff. The mood in CT is very, very cynical and stale. Dodd will have to overcome that.

selise @ 75

i wouldn’t be surprised if all your email to joe went directly into the spam file. sigh. i did try to help you-all give the boot to that guy.

Like the ones that asked him ever so graciously, almost grovelling, to vote for the Alito filibuster, vote against the Iraq War, etc. etc.? It gives me a headache to think about it. Seriously, where’s the Tylenol in all this?

gotta laugh ‘cuz the last time i took tylenol for a head ache was wednesday after the primary. my head hurt so bad i didn’t want to drive home, so i showed up at lamont campaign hq (meriden) after the hotel’s check out time. the campaign folks very nicely gave me tylenol, water and sat me down at the front desk to answer the phone. stayed all day… pleasant memories.

What I’d really like to know is on an issue by issue basis, how many people contact Mr. Dodd (and our other reps) on each side of a position. Tim, if you’re still lurking here – this is a big issue to me. I called Mr. Dodd’s office on an issue last year, was told that the majority of constituents calling agreed with me and then I watched him vote exactly in opposition to that point of view on C-span. Same happened with Lieberman and that’s what got me so involved with Lamont.

Representative democracy should really stand for something in this country.

i wouldn’t be surprised if all your email to joe went directly into the spam file. sigh. i did try to help you-all give the boot to that guy.

Like the ones that asked him ever so graciously, almost grovelling, to vote for the Alito filibuster, vote against the Iraq War, etc. etc.? It gives me a headache to think about it. Seriously, where’s the Tylenol in all this?