Monday, March 24, 2008
Lawmakers are listening

Voters contacted OC congress members about immigration, healthcare and the economy.

By MORGAN COOK
'The Orange County Register

WASHINGTON – For those Orange County residents who have taken the time to write or call their member of Congress, the issues they care the most about have been the same for almost a year – health care and immigration.

Believe it or not, lawmakers say, they listen to the people they represent – especially when they take the time to write or call. Not only that, they take notes.

Comments from constituents are painstakingly categorized and saved by young congressional staffers who then present their bosses with a weekly report that lawmakers say helps guide - but not necessarily determine – where they will stand on a particular issue.

"I know a lot of people think (we) don't care and (their message) doesn't matter," Rep. John Campbell, R-Irvine, said. "We read those things. We pay attention to those things. They are not disregarded and they do matter."

The Register asked Orange County's six House members to share their accounting of what constituents have been telling them over the past nine months. Education, the environment and energy were among the other things lawmakers heard about most after heath care and immigration.

Concerns related to health care appeared on all but one of the lists for the weeks the Register collected, while immigration came up on about three quarters of them. Of the six local members, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, was contacted about immigration least often. She's also the one member who supports a plan to legalize undocumented immigrants.

Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, got the fewest messages. Campbell got the most.

These tallies are by no means scientific polls, especially because special interest groups organize letter writing campaigns from time to time. But lawmakers say the correspondence is an important part of keeping in touch with the people back home who employ them.

Based on nationwide data, people seem to worry slightly less about the issues that Orange County residents wrote to their lawmakers about. Health care and immigration still rank in the top five matters that Americans care about while the economy and Iraq are way out front as national problems.

Like a vote, each letter, call, fax or e-mail that finds its way into an Orange County representative's office can impact everything from the quality of a child's education to how much estates are taxed when people die.

"One of the real issues here is the estate tax," Sanchez said. "There are positives and negatives to eliminating the estate tax. Sometimes it's so equal about which way I should vote."

Estate tax legislation used to come before the House a couple times a year, she said, and she has voted different ways on it. "People say, 'How come you voted yes last time and you voted no this time?'" Sanchez said. "And I say, 'Well, somebody got to me and they had a pretty good idea.'"

Calls and letters aren't the only way to reach a Congress member. When they're at home, people stop them on the street.

Both Campbell and Sanchez said they are happy to stop and talk to people when they are in their districts.

"If you don't want to do that, you shouldn't have this job," Campbell said.

How people reach out to their representative varies. Calvert's office gets e-mail most often, said his press secretary, Rebecca Rudman.

Sanchez said much of her contact with constituents is face-to-face. She said she holds "community office hours" about one Saturday morning a month. She sets up a table at different grocery stores around her district and meets with people who come to see her.

Campbell said even though there are times when even 300 letters might not change his mind on an issue, at the end of the day they do matter.

"I think a congressman would disregard them at his peril," he said.

www.ocregister.com