ISSUES AND POLICY
Stay informed and share your opinion Another useful “something” reg-
ular folks can do is to keep up with issues that are facing the elected leaders. Pay attention to the news report-
ed by TSCRA, or other associations or credible news sources you trust. When you see a bill making its way through the state legislature, Gattis says, “Pick up the phone and call your representative.” That leader will take the call because he or she “re-
members having coffee with you, and remembers the 2 letters you sent,” he says. Quickly explain why you are calling, ask the rep-
resentative’s opinion on the bill and respectfully offer your opinion. “That carries more weight because they are there to represent their local people,” Gattis says. Bock says the opinions of people back home were
vital to his decision-making process. “The thing that I found most effective was if there were any bills that had agricultural component I would send them to ranchers in my district and ask for their comments.” If the elected offi cial is not seeking input from the
constituents, offer input to them. “Ask your elected leader or their staff to please send you those bills and let them know you’d like to have a committee of people interested in agriculture” to provide input, Bock suggests. He also stresses the importance of providing useful
information and not just vague opinion. “You have to have facts and fi gures to back you up,” he says. Gattis says, “Every day I was on that fl oor of the
Texas House, I called somebody in my district with whom I had a relationship, to ask them about a bill that was up that day. Reaching out to constituents had the double benefi t of furthering the relationships that would help him stay in offi ce, Gattis says, and kept him informed so he could do the job of representing the district.
Be their on-call expert, even if you voted for the other candidate “Everyone is an expert in something,” Gattis says. “I
will repeat that. Everyone is an expert in something.” Let your representative know about your fi eld of inter- est, or your area of knowledge. Be his or her resource in that area of expertise. No elected offi cial gets 100 percent of the vote. Can those who voted for the other guy “do something?”
152 The Cattleman October 2016
Gattis says yes, they absolutely can provide useful
infl uence. While he won most of his races by a sig- nifi cant majority, there were those who opposed him. “But I still represented them.” He says he and his opposition voters chose to respect-
fully disagree on partisan issues, but “on those day-to- day issues that really affect how we live, work and go about our daily lives, most of us are usually together on those. What I as a representative was looking for was how an issue affected my people in my district. I would absolutely listen to them,” and came to rely on the informed opposition for a different perspective on an issue, Gattis explains.
Recruit or run for offi ce Keep your eye out for community members who
would serve the public well and recruit them to run for offi ce. “When you help get somebody elected, when you knock on doors or make phone calls for them, or help put up signs, or put a sign up on your property for them, you develop your relationship with that elected leader,” Gattis says. If you feel the need to “do something” more, “and
you’re left at the end of your rope, you tried to get to know your current representative, you realize they aren’t any good and nobody was willing to run, then you need to look in the mirror and decide whether or not it’s you who should run for offi ce,” he challenges. “It is about the relationship, pure and simple,” Gattis
says. “It doesn’t take that much effort to get to know elected leaders. It really doesn’t. Therefore, it doesn’t take that much effort to infl uence them.” Bock says, “There are pretty smart people in public
offi ce. We ought to have the fortitude and the enthu- siasm to make sure that the people who are elected know what ranching is about and how they can be of benefi t to the people in the industry. The way you do that is to try to become a close friend and confi dant” to the elected leader.
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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