New Congressman Gerry nickname = Gerry “Cut-And-Paste” Connolly.
Faith & Politics blogger Beloved Spear was falsely arrested at the Canadian border last year. In anticipating of an upcoming trip he wrote his representative in Congress seeking some intercession. Unfortunately, he was represented by Congressman Gerry. Here’s Gerry’s response:
Dear Rev. Williams,
Thank you for contacting me about _________. I appreciate your interest in this issue and your views are important to me.
As a Member of Congress, it is essential that I know my constituents’ thoughts and concerns so I can best represent their interests in Congress. I will continue to watch this issue closely going forward to determine if any Congressional action is necessary.
Once again, thank you for expressing your concern on this very important issue. I enjoyed hearing from you. For more information on my views on other issues, please feel free to visit my website at http://connolly.house.gov. I also encourage you to visit the website to sign up for my e-newsletter.
Sincerely,
Gerald Connolly
Member of Congress
Maybe he was waiting for Nancy Pelosi or Steny Hoyer to fill in the blank for him?
Pingback: BLACK VELVET BRUCE LI : Gerry Connolly Fails “Fill In The Blank” Test
As the constituent in question and the original source of this material, let me just note that Connolly’s staff have been amazingly responsive and helpful. Yeah, I put up something on my blog that stirred that response, but I know how easy it is to drop the ball on something like that. We know how this works. It was just a slip on the part of some hapless intern who probably got themselves yelled at.
Again, his folks 1) are paying close attention to blog chatter, which means they’re competent, and; 2) have been really impressively responsive after a small initial goof.
Whichever way you slice it, his staff have done right by me. Honestly, Davis would have done the same…he was an exceptionally good Congressman, but just on his way out when I attempted to contact him.
I received a similar response to my own issue from Connolly’s office. I wrote back and asked, “which issue are you responding to?”
They resent the same form letter with a template issue description filled in with no further info or communication.
While I can write this off as a basic tech or admin glitch, I am more concerned about the lack of interest taken to constituent communication. Connolly, and most elected leaders think it is sufficient to simply send a blanket form response without any address of the original issue. Typically, they just claim how much they’ve done on an issue and make it sound as if they agree with you regardless of what you have contacted them about, your position on that issue or request to be contacted by a staff member personally.