I’m not a very difficult man to make happy. It’s really quite simple in most cases, especially if you’re one of my representatives. All you have to do is either pick up the phone when I call or reply to any e-mail or letter I send with something along the line of content.
So here’s the fiasco. I wanted to let my representatives know that I would like them to vote yes on the Thune amendment that would allow national reciprocity for carry permits. Of course being time was very constrained I was unable to use the old snail mail system. In it’s place I sent an e-mail first. To send her an e-mail you need to use a form on her website as she doesn’t publish her e-mail anywhere (although I did get it eventually from the reply that was sent). Of course I didn’t get a response e-mail that night, I figured this was expected since I believed they would need staff there to send the reply.
I then called her office in D.C. At that late of an hour nobody was there to pick up so I left a message with my name, city, phone number, and what position I wanted her to take on the Thune amendment.
Yesterday around noon I also called her office, this time the local one. Again I was greeted with a machine saying nobody was there to pick up. This I found really odd being it was the middle of the day and their office is open until 17:00. Once again I left a message expecting some kind of return call.
Well I never received a return call and nobody is picking up the bloody phone. I did however receive an e-mail which read as the following…
Dear Christopher:
Thank you for taking the time again to contact me about guns. I realize the importance of this issue, and I appreciate hearing from you.
To keep track of what I am doing both in Washington and in Minnesota, please visit my website at http://www.klobuchar.senate.gov. You may also like to track legislation through the Library of Congress legislative information website at http://thomas.loc.gov.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. One of the most important parts of my job is listening to what the people of Minnesota have to say to me. I am here in our nation’s capital to do the public’s business and to serve the people of our state. I hope you will contact me again about matters of concern to you.
Sincerely,
Amy Klobuchar
United States Senator
Wow. Just wow. This is the ultimate form letter of form letters. It had to be generated automatically as there is no content in it that would imply it was a response to what I sent. No where does it state her position for or against, well, anything. I don’t ask for much but a response to the message I sent would be nice. A simple yes or no answer to by request with some reasoning is all I’m looking for. I just want to know some human looked at what I sent and at least let my senator know where I stand.
I’m very disappointed with her office and her. She should be stomping on her staff for not responding to her constituents. Every other one of my representatives has no issue at all responding to my communications. Usually these responses aren’t even form letters or e-mails but actual thought out responses.
Since I was only able to find contact information for our new senator, Franken, I’m giving his office a couple days to give me the courtesy of a reply.