It’s Friday. I’m thinking about the weekend but also about new products for which my company is developing a marketing campaign. The campaign will be based upon the web as we are able to obtain the biggest bang for our advertising dollars there.
This caused me to start thinking about Net Neutrality. I wanted to know where my congressman stands on the issue.
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So, as any American looking for information relative to a federal issue, I decided to call my reps office. The first call went to an answering machine as the office was closed. At 1:15 p.m. on a weekday it was closed. Never mind the fact that this is a secondary field office that was only opened because enough of his constituents complained that they were not getting access to this man due to a lack of staff and office locations. His is a large district of outer collar counties of Chicago.
I then called his main district office. I spoke with a very nice staff member. After asking her about the congressman’s standing on Net Neutrality (NN), she apologized for not knowing the answer. She then suggested that I call his DC office and gave me the number.
Now this is where it really gets interesting. Upon calling the DC office, I spoke with a staff member and posed my question about NN. Now keep in mind that I was very polite and professional each time that I asked for information. I told them who I was, where I lived, and what county within his district I was from. Upon hearing that I wanted information on my representative’s standing on NN, the staff member told me “We are not permitted to discuss the Congressman’s stand on issues.”
This floored me. The reason that it floored me was that I used to have Dennis Hastert as my congressman before I moved downstate nearly ten years ago. Whenever I called the former Speaker’s field office, I was always given proper and informative answers. His staff always knew his positions on issues and were willing to share them with me.
I am truly perplexed. I feel that I am not being fully represented by my current congressman. How can his constituents not have the right to know where he stands on issues? Isn’t this a congressman’s job, to represent the views of his constituents?
Has anyone had a similar experience with their congressional representative?
By the way, my representative is Adam Kinzinger of the Illinois 16th Congressional District.