Faithful citizenship: Speaker shares tips for lobbying elected officials |
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Written by LAURIE STEVENS BERTKE, Chronicle Writer
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Friday, 05 June 2009 01:00 |
TOLEDO—When it comes to influencing legislators, ìit’s all about relationship building,î according to Jim Tobin of the Catholic Conference of Ohio.
"It’s really about them getting to know you and trust you and ... respect you," Mr. Tobin said during a workshop he led at the Catholic Center in Toledo May 9.
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Jim Tobin, associate director of the Catholic Conference of Ohio,
offers advice for effective communication of Catholic social teaching
to elected officials at the Catholic Center May 9. (Chronicle photo by
Laurie Stevens Bertke) |
Mr. Tobin speaks from 30 years of experience working in the legislative arena. As the director of Social Concerns for the Catholic Conference of Ohio, which represents the Ohio bishops in public matters affecting the church and the general welfare of citizens in Ohio, his duties include communicating with government officials about a variety of social justice issues.
In May he visited the Diocese of Toledo to lead three workshops on effective communication of Catholic social teaching to elected officials. Held in Norwalk, Toledo and Ottawa, the workshops were sponsored by Catholic Charities in follow-up to Faithful Citizenship presentations offered prior to the election last fall.
At the workshop in Toledo, Mr. Tobin encouraged participants to develop relationships with their elected officials through visits and correspondence.
Personal letters delivered by regular mail are still good, said Mr. Tobin, but communication by e-mail is now also considered to be effective and timely, especially at the federal level where security screenings can delay delivery of a traditional letter by two weeks or more.
Letters of thanks should always be personal letters, Mr. Tobin added.
Questioned about the effectiveness of postcard and letter campaigns, Mr. Tobin admitted that can be difficult to gauge.
"Effectiveness is hard to say, and it’s hard to say when we’ve really hit somebody, because it’s not our job to change a legislator’s mind," he said, pointing upward. "Somebody else is in charge."
Postcards and petitions rarely change the opinion of a legislator, said Mr. Tobin, but they can provide the official with cover for their position when they vote on a bill.
The massive postcard campaign the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops launched earlier this year in opposition to the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) and other measures promoting abortion was effective "in the sense that we did sort of a pre-emptive strike," he said.
The campaign may not have directly changed the minds of any legislators, but Mr. Tobin suggested it made them rethink introducing FOCA this year.
He contended we also write letters and participate in postcard campaigns "because of what it does for us."
Taking such action forces a person to decide what he or she truly believes, and "the more you say it and write it down, the more you’re able to tell somebody else in that kind of format what it is you believe," explained Mr. Tobin.
"We really do it because our faith calls us, whether it’s effective or not," he added. "We weren’t called to be successful. We’re called to be faithful. That’s helped all of us who have done this forever."
Factors that affect legislative decisions include the personal philosophy of the elected official, the political party leadership, influential persons, voter perceptions and compromise, he said.
"We need to know that by and large, personal philosophy is big," said Mr. Tobin.
There are issues people do not agree on, and "the trick is, how do we disagree without being disagreeable?" he said.
He noted the church has many "entry roads" to dialogue. If legislators have been good friends to life issues related to protecting the unborn, one can thank them for their support and then stretch them to reconsider other issues where they stand in opposition to Catholic social teaching.
Sometimes one must take officials where they are to "see and understand how we can get to where we want to go," said Mr. Tobin. "And it’s a long process."
Another approach is to go to the political party leadership for help with getting the votes needed to pass a bill, he said.
Influential people also play a role in legislative decisions. Mr. Tobin explained the influential person is someone the legislator knows as an individual, as a representative of an organization or as an advocate of an issue.
"We want to become an influential person," said Mr. Tobin.
Voter perceptions contribute to legislative decisions, as well, and he said Catholics have the power to shape those perceptions through letters, phone calls and letters to the editor in the newspaper.
"In the end, I think most of what we do comes down to education of hearts and minds," said Mr. Tobin.
The Ohio bishops are particularly calling for action now on legislation relating to embryonic stem cell research and the state budget bill.
More information and updates are available at the Catholic Conference of Ohio Web site, www.ohiocathconf.org, which also includes contact information for legislators and a guide for communicating with elected officials.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 July 2009 09:45 |
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