[at-l] Wingfoot & Saddleback

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

It's pretty much accepted among people who deal with influencing agencies and public officials that
the best contact is a personal visit. Then comes personal letters, followed in  order by e-mails
in the senders own words, form e-mails and finally form post cards. Obviously, messages from constituents
and supporters have more impact than messages from non constituents. But every message has some
impact with most responsible congress people and Senators, despite the cynics.

Wingfoot made it easy to send personal emails and urged email senders to follow up with personal
letters. Everyone I know who are familiar with such matters praised Wingfoot's method of creating
personal messages from Saddleback supporters.

The campaign obviously alerted both Department of Interior officials and Congress people that this
was an issue that people cared about.  The effort failed largely for two reasons. Officials worried
rightly as it turned out, that to allow the final decision to spin over to a new administration
would doom the protection effort. So all the political forces did not have time to come into play.

Not enough effort was made to address the details of the law in the comments that
went to the Department of the Interior. Agencies routinely dismiss letters that don't address the
precise issues that the law allows the agencies to consider.

I don't have the documents in front of me, but if I remember rightly the Department of the Interior
said it considered only several hundred of the 5,000 messages it received since only those addressed
issues that the law requires to be considered. Emotional letters work on Congress people. They have
only tangential impact on bureaucrats.