One is to be a meeting place between our readers and elected officials. Here every day, the paths that elected leaders take are shaped by a dialog between officeholders and the citizens they serve. But conversation between officeholders and their constituents also takes place directly, in a variety of ways, from face to face discussions to e-mailed messages. Citizens who want their views reflected in public policy know they have to get in touch with elected decision makers and speak up. On these two facing pages today is a wealth of information we have compiled to help readers communicate directly with elected officials.
Communication is part of the social compact.
To represent their constituents well, officeholders need to know what citizens they represent are thinking. With varied ways and tools for getting in touch with elected officials, a natural question is what is the most effective. What better way to find out than to ask elected officials themselves. I recently put together a little questionnaire and, by e-mail, shot it off to a number of elected officials in the Twin Cities region. Genuine mass mailings are an effective way of hearing from a large number of like-minded folks.