Archives for Drew McKissick

How to Develop a Message

message1When you’re trying to have an impact on pretty much anything in politics it usually involves a need to communicate a clear message – whether to a group of people, the media, or both. But in order to cut through the clutter of competing messages and communicate in a way that will make a difference, you need to do a little preparation.

Before You Begin…

Before you develop a message, you really need to be able to address the following points:

  • Know your Goal: “Why” are you saying something? What are you trying to accomplish?
  • Know your Target: “Who” are you going to say it to?
  • Know your Message: “What” are you going to say. Before you develop and refine your message, you need to make sure that you know the subject matter. Are you passionate about it?

When you know the answers to those questions, you’re ready to get started.

Create a Message Map

Creating a “message map” is a simple three-step way to build your overall message.

  1. Gather all the information that’s relevant to your issue (or campaign) and distill your concerns down into bullet points. This will help you think through the process and focus your arguments.
  2. Develop a short headline that describes the essence of your issue (or campaign). Try to make it short enough to be “Twitter friendly”.
  3. Add three or four supporting points, and then some extended points to each of those, (such as including some examples, statistics, stories or news items). A good rule of thumb is to say “three things about three things”…or less if you can!

The result is that all of your content after the main headline (or message) supports that message. The process helps you create an outline (or “map”) for your overall message and will help you further refine it as you go. It will also be a resource later if you need to develop a “theme” for your effort, or as you “package” your message for supporters, the media, print-material or even speeches.

Once you’ve got a good initial draft, then review and refine in in terms of the remaining points in this chapter.

Make it Resonate

Make sure that you describe “why” your message is important in a way that is compelling and relevant to people and fits their value system. People will support an idea (or candidate) that they think can make a difference – or someone who speaks to their values and cares about the things they care about. Remember, a shared concern plus your unique proposal (or qualities) can equal an emotional connection with the audience.

Describe the Key Benefits

Make sure that people understand the key benefits of your position (or the “qualifications” of a candidate). How will your ideas (or candidate) make a difference? What’s in it for them?

Define the Problem to Fit Your Solution

Make sure that you define the problem that your message addresses in such a way that people can easily see how it will be “solved” by the solution or outcome that you’re calling for (or by the unique qualifications of a candidate, if it’s an election situation).

Make it a Choice

A good message will force people to make a choice. It should be framed in such a way that they have only one acceptable choice – yours. Don’t give them an alternative.

Make it Personal

Abstract arguments are not as good as explaining how an issue really impacts people’s lives. Find a victim or a success story that people can relate to and humanize the issue. A victim is a “poster child” who illustrates the problems you want addressed, and a success story illustrates the good things that will happen if your position is successful.

Make it Actionable

Be sure that the message is “actionable” by defining what specific action you want people to take. What do they do after they’ve heard you? And make sure that they can see how the action that you ask them to take will help “fix” the problem.

Keep it Simple and Clear

Muddled messages don’t move people. Keep it simple, clear and to the point so people have absolutely no doubt what it’s about and why it’s important.

Short-Circuit the Opposition’s Arguments

If you understand what your opposition is saying, you will know how to communicate your own message in a way that counters their arguments and undermines their credibility.

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If you’re going to go to the trouble of speaking out for a policy or proposal that you believe in, (or even run a campaign), then you may as well go to the (slightly more) trouble of developing a relevant, clear and concise message that can help you be more successful.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

How to Write Great Letters to the Editor or Op-Ed Columns

Write great letters or columns and get your message out!

Ever get an itch to let people know what you think on an issue you care about? Ever thought about writing it down and sending it to a newspaper to be published? You can do this with “letters to the editor” (LTEs) and guest op-eds (or columns). It’s not difficult, and can be more influential that you think.

Letters to the editor are just short letters submitted to the editor of a publication and (sometimes) printed for everyone to see. Op-Eds are longer opinion pieces (or columns) that in most newspapers appear on the page opposite the editorial page; hence the term “op-eds”.

When most people think about letters to the editor or op-eds, they think about newspapers, but don’t forget that a many news organizations exist online as well, not to mention sites that are just dedicated to political and/or religious news and information from a certain point of view. Also don’t overlook smaller publications, such as local weekly papers and magazines.

The point is that it is a great (and cheap) way to get your message out to your target audience in a medium where you control exactly what is written, (just not whether it gets published). In addition, elected officials usually keep track of what’s being written as another way to keep up with what issues people in their community care about.

Good Op-Eds or Letters to the Editor can:
• Raise your (or your group’s) profile or credibility
• Increase public awareness of the issues you care about
• Mobilize public support for your cause

Submission Tips:

Generally, limit yourself to one subject and be brief. List your concerns and articulate the facts. Work to keep it simple so that it can be easily understood. Don’t base it on emotion. Keep it civil and don’t go on a rampage and vent your spleen. You won’t win any converts that way.

Check the Guidelines

Find the publication’s policies for letters or guest columns. Most newspapers prefer letters under 150 words, and op-ed pieces in the range of 600 to 800 words. Get a sense of what their editors will be looking for by becoming familiar with similar items that they print every day. Try to have an angle that the editor would appreciate, (make sure that it fits with the general focus of the publication).

Be Timely

Keep up with current events and look for opportunities to work a local news angle into what you’re writing. Timing is the key. The more relevant your topic is to current events, the better your chances of being published.

Stay Focused

Space is limited, so the fewer points you’re trying to make the better. If you can’t work your main point into one or two sentences, then you need to refine it. Identify a few points that support your argument and build around them. Be clear about your position. Don’t equivocate. Make an effort to anticipate and refute the arguments of your opposition.

Make Your Main Points First

Get to the point quickly and convince the reader that it’s worth their time to keep reading. Draw them in by making sure that the first paragraph catches their attention. When writing an op-ed, you state the conclusion first. Make your strongest point early, then use the rest of your space to support that point. You can provide some initial background information, but don’t let it overwhelm your article.

Explain Why the Reader Should Care

Put yourself in the place of the reader looking at your article. As you are writing, at the end of every few paragraphs, ask yourself: “so what?” Then answer the question. What will your suggestions accomplish? What should they mean to the reader? Offer specific recommendations. Look for great examples that illustrate your argument, or use personal anecdotes and humor to draw the reader in. Help educate them without being preachy.

Don’t Be Verbose

Use short sentences and paragraphs. Your writing should be crisp, clear, concise and to the point. You want to write in order to be read by the largest audience possible, not drown people in verbiage. Use active, rather than passive language.

Make the Ending Memorable

As mentioned, it’s important to have a strong opening paragraph, but it’s also important to close well. You want a short, strong closing paragraph that neatly, (and memorably) summarizes your argument, (maybe even cleverly restating that point you made in the opening paragraph). Restate your position and call people to action.

Provide Some “About” Information

Provide your standard contact information, as well as one or two sentences describing who you are, what you do, and any other information that you think the editor should be aware of. For example: “Joe Smith is an Anytown, USA based political activist with Concerned Citizens. He can be reached at xxxxxxx”. Make it easy for them to let everyone know who you are and what you’re about.

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Letters and op-eds are a great and inexpensive way of getting a message out and helping shape public opinion.

Any group that works to have an impact on one or more issues should make it a point to have a regular schedule of someone from the group (or a respected person with the same point of view) submitting letters and guest op-eds to the media outlets that reach your target audience.

So go ahead, let people know what you think!

How the Legislative Process Works

Legislative ProcessLegislating is a messy business. As Otto Von Bismarck once said, “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made”. But it’s a messy business because it involves people who represent lots of other people with different points of view. And this process has to accommodate them all.

There are a lot of moving parts (and people), and many steps along the way that an idea must take before it can become a law. The result is that it is more difficult to change things than it is to defend the status quo. But knowing how the process works will make you be better equipped to have an influence on the things you care about when the time comes.

Here’s a basic breakdown. Generally speaking, the legislative process begins with an idea or a concern, which might have been passed on to a lawmaker by someone in the general public, or initiated by the lawmaker themselves.

The Federal and State Level:

Committees: The vast majority of legislative work is done on committees. As soon as any measure is introduced by any lawmaker it is usually assigned to the appropriate committee that deals with that subject matter. Public hearings begin here, changes are made, and delays or even defeats are possible.

In most cases committees are where legislation dies, as most bills never make it out. If you have lawmakers friendly to your cause on the committee, they may be able to either help “kill” a bill you don’t like by keeping it bottled up in committee, or help get it passed out to the “full body”.

At this point in the process, members of the committee considering the bill you’re concerned about are your targets for grassroots lobbying pressure. Committee Chairman are even more valuable, as they can usually control which sub-committee (if any) the bill may be referred to and whether or not the issue is even heard by the whole committee, (such as deciding whether or when to schedule hearings on the issue, or an actual committee vote). They can also be critical in influencing how other committee members will vote.

As a grassroots activist, you can have an impact at this stage by personally contacting committee members and attending hearings on the proposal and speaking out to help shape public opinion.

The Legislative Calendar: Once favorably recommended by a committee, a bill is scheduled by legislative leaders (usually by a “Rules Committee”) for floor debate by the body. Your involvement at this point could include contacting the key decisions makers, such as the Speaker of the House, Senate President Pro Tempore, Rules Committee members or legislative aides involved in these decisions. Focus on the people controlling the legislation.

Debate and Floor Action: Once a bill passes out of committee it is usually put on a schedule for debate by the full chamber (such as a House or Senate). At this point, all members of the legislative chamber can have an influence on the final outcome by participating in debate, offering and voting on amendments, and then ultimately voting on the bill itself. (At the local level, passage by an entire council or board is usually the end of the process.)

Referral: In cases at the state and national level, where the legislature is divided into two bodies, (House and Senate), when one chamber passes a bill, it is then referred to the other chamber for consideration, where the process starts all over again. This presents you with either another challenge or an opportunity, depending on which side of the issue you’re on, (offense or defense).

Conference: Conference committees are usually comprised of two or three members from each legislative chamber, and are created when there are differences between the versions of a bill passed by both bodies. The purpose is to iron out these differences and submit back to both chambers a version that they think can pass. Because there are so few of them, conference committee members can have a tremendous impact on the final shape of a bill, meaning you can concentrate your lobbying activity on a very small group of lawmakers at this point.

Final Vote: Once the conference committee report is submitted, each chamber will then usually hold a final vote on a bill. If it passes both chambers with a simple majority it is then forwarded to the chief executive, (the President or a governor).

Executive Action: Usually the chief executive is required to take action by a certain time (either with a signature or a veto) or the bill automatically becomes law. Some states allow a “line-item veto,” which enables some provisions to be vetoed without killing the entire bill. If the bill is vetoed, the legislature has an opportunity to attempt to override the veto, (usually by a 2/3’s super-majority). This could make a huge difference to your strategy, depending on whether you’re on “defense” or “offence”. A strong expression of support or opposition at this point could help a chief executive decide whether to sign or veto a bill.

The State Level:

Although the state legislative process is very similar to the federal level, there are some differences. Generally, state legislatures have shorter legislative sessions than Congress, and state legislative officials have either very little or no staff. And the fact that these bodies are smaller and closer to home gives organized conservatives enhanced opportunities for activism and influence.

The Local Level:

While many of the same elements apply at the local level, there can be wide variances in the process in various cities, counties or school districts. The biggest difference from the federal and state level is that there is usually just one chamber to deal with, (a council or a board), rather than two. Of course that means few people to lobby…and officials who are elected from smaller districts and are more susceptible to organized local pressure.

To research how the process works in your area (or for your county or school board), contact your local council or board member and ask for information.

Conclusion

One of the most important things to understand about the legislative process is that it is designed to move slowly…and that’s a good thing! A slow, multi-step process helps prevent the passage of bad legislation. And considering how many bad laws we have on the books despite that fact, imagine how much worse it would be if things moved fast.

From a strategic standpoint, the key thing to remember is that a long process makes it far easier to play defense rather than offense. That means that it is easier to defend the status quo than it is to get something passed. In order for a bill to become law, it must “win” at virtually every step in the process, whereas those trying to “kill” the legislation often only have to win just once.

Knowing how the process works, understanding when, where and how (and on whom) to bring the heat is vital to having an influence on public policy at any level in our system. At each step there are different people who can advance or hinder your cause.

Invest the time in getting to know the players at each step along the way. It will pay dividends later.