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How To Contact Your Legislators

ElkHunter

ElkHunter

Life Member
The legislature has convened, there hasn’t been any bills introduced dealing with deer or hunting at this time. Just posting some information to make it easier to contact legislators when needed and the time will come you can count on that.

How to find your Senators and Representatives
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/FindLeg/
Just type in your address and zip

This link will show all House & Senate members
http://www3.legis.state.ia.us/ga/legislators.do?
Once you have opened this link, you can get to individual legislators email and ph# if listed.

Most legislation must go to and come out of committee; the people below are the first contacts we should make when necessary. If your Senator or Representative is on one of these committees it is very important you contact them. Nothing gets their attention like phone call or email from one of their constituents.


Senate Natural Resources & Environment
Committee Members
• Dennis H. Black (D, District 21), Chair
• Tom Hancock (D, District 16), Vice Chair
• E. Thurman Gaskill (R, District 6) ranking member
• Jerry Behn (R, District 24)
• Joe Bolkcom (D, District 39)
• [censored] L. Dearden (D, District 34)
• Rob Hogg (D, District 19)
• David Johnson (R, District 3)
• Steve Kettering (R, District 26)
• Mary Lundby (R, District 18)
• Larry Noble (R, District 35)
• Amanda Ragan (D, District 7)
• Brian Schoenjahn (D, District 12)
• Dr. Joe M. Seng (D, District 43)
• Frank Wood (D, District 42)


House Natural Resources
Committee Members
• Paul Bell (D, District 41), Chair
• [censored] Taylor (D, District 33), Vice Chair
• Henry Rayhons (R, District 11), Ranking Member
• Rich Arnold (R, District 72)
• McKinley Bailey (D, District 9)
• Clel Baudler (R, District 58)
• Mark Davitt (D, District 74)
• Dan Huseman (R, District 53)
• Steven Lukan (R, District 32)
• Jim Lykam (D, District 85)
• Dolores Mertz (D, District 8)
• Dan Rasmussen (R, District 23)
• Nathan Reichert (D, District 80)
• Paul Shomshor (D, District 100)
• Chuck Soderberg (R, District 3)
• Todd Taylor (D, District 34)
• Linda Upmeyer (R, District 12)
• Jim Van Engelenhoven (R, District 71)
• Andrew Wenthe (D, District 18)
• John Whitaker (D, District 90)
• Wes Whitead (D, District 1)
 
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How to find your Senators and Representatives
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/FindLeg/
Just type in your address and zip

This link will show all House & Senate members
http://www3.legis.state.ia.us/ga/legislators.do?
Once you have opened this link, you can get to individual legislators email and ph# if listed.

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Thanks for the links Randy!
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Soon it may time for a little less talk...and a lot more action!
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I composed an email and sent it off yesterday. I received a reply from one representative (I sent the email to four people as I own land in one district while residing in another). I thought that I would share a quote from the reply in the hope that it might stimulate others to send out emails.

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I have been inundated with reports from farmers and others around the state that we have too many deer.

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So do you share this view? If not, you had better start contacting people!
 
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I have been inundated with reports from farmers and others around the state that we have too many deer.

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So do you share this view? If not, you had better start contacting people!

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I'm curious...did the reply offer a anecdote for high deer numbers?

I ask that knowing that many areas DO NOT have a deer problem but just curious if they feel that raising NR quotas would help the supposed "problem"
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I am continualy amazed that both our legislators and IDNR cannot "connect the dots" and see that large scale transfer of land ownership and leasing of land to or because of NR's leads to a worsening of the "herd control" situation rather then correcting it.

Of course many areas of the state don't have this problem but they may very well pay the price for those that do...
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I also would add that some senarios concocted by legislators could be very detrimental to both Res and NR's here.
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Here is the body of the email. I left the name out.[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the note on deer hunting in our state.



I have been inundated with reports from farmers and others around the state that we have too many deer. I am sure that this will again be a topic of discussion this year. I share your concern that we need a balance between in-state and out of state license numbers. I also think we need more public hunting lands. This too is a touchy issue.



I will keep your concerns in mind as we discuss this topic. I know that some of my colleagues also share your concern about out of state licenses.



Thanks for taking time to write to me. Please feel free to contact me again on this or any other issue of interest.



Best regards,



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This too is a touchy issue.

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That's putting it mildly...
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Good example though of just being heard...otherwise they only hear from those that prefer no deer
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On another note...many of us have new legislators who are going to be hearing about these issues for the first time...better they hear from us first!
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On another note...many of us have new legislators who are going to be hearing about these issues for the first time...better they hear from us first!

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Very good point, some of the new ones have no idea of the whole deer issue.
Remember to be respectful and to the point they get a lot of mail.
Make it short & sweet.
 
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and to the point they get a lot of mail

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Not to be a pessimist but do you think they are the ones that are answering and reading each of these emails?
Would a petition with thousands of names on it be better? Just asking I know they are not answering all of these or reading even half.
 
I believe when the time comes we need to organize and contact our State Reps with first an email, secondly a phone call, and finally a hand written letter. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but just think about how much you enjoy spending time in the woods, tooling around in your garage preparing for the hunting season, time spent checking trail cams, scouting, hanging tree stands, planting food plots, clearing shooting lanes, practicing your bow or firearm, and now think about how much time it took for the landowner to post the NO HUNTING or better yet the LEASED HUNTING sign on that property you used to hunt... doesn't seem like much work at all in retrospect.

There is nothing wrong with a signed petition, but a huge flood of email, voice mail and a fat stack of letters piling up on desk upon desk sure does send a clear message.

I also strongly suggest that if you ever plan on being in Des Moines for any reason (hint: the Whitetail Classic in March), it wouldn't take much more effort to pay a visit to the Capitol in order to personally introduce yourself. Of course you would need to make sure they are in session, likely during the week... but isn't that what sick *cough, cough* days are for?
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The Iowa Professional Firefighters have a legislative day where our members from each local meet at the State Capital and organize for a day of lobby. We meet in the morning, set agenda and then each of us tracks down our own legislators with issues near and dear to the IPFF.
Just thinking it would be nice move to do something along this line in regard to outdoor issues.
Food for thought.
 
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and to the point they get a lot of mail

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Not to be a pessimist but do you think they are the ones that are answering and reading each of these emails?

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In my case I get direct answers from my Rep and in the past my Senator. We have a new Senator now so time will tell.

In either case they keep track of who's "yelling the loudest"...just do it politely and respectfully
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Here's a sample legislative letter and what I wrote although I would welcome comments on making it better or more to the point.

Note: you can copy the format of the letter and change to your own rep or Senator and alter the wording as needed. The quote does not allow for proper spacing so remember to "fix" that
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Save the format for future emails or letters...your gonna need it
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[ QUOTE ]
Jan. 13, 2007
The Honorable John Whitaker
Iowa State Capitol
Des Moines, IA 50319

RE: Harvest Report/Landowner Reg.

Dear Mr. Whitaker:

I am a registered voter in your district and I would like to voice my support for both the Harvest Reporting system and Landowner registration system. There have been rumors that these systems are somehow having a negative impact on our deer harvest.

As a landowner, I found registration to be a simple affair that helps ensure only qualifying landowners receive landowner deer tags.

As a hunter, I reported over a dozen deer from October thru January via Internet and cell phone. Reporting was easy and I feel the information provided to our INDR biologists will better enable them to manage Iowa’s deer herd.

Both programs are excellent and I feel they should be continued.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Name here
Adress............
Town......, IA .....
(...) ...-....
email addy........


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I almost always recieve a reply from John which has a big impact when I VOTE
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Over the years I've most of the legislators answer emails themself. This isn't DC
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they don't have much of a staff.
If you go though list of legislators and look at home towns they are from small towns just like a lot of us. By far the majority of them are trying to what is best for the state, but sometimes they are voting on issues that they really aren't up to speed on. That why we need those phone calls and emails to enlighten & educate. They just need a little push in the right direction.
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I had a conversation with a House member last year, and he admitted he didn't hunt or fish and knew very little about either.
His comment in confidence was " I'm not sure how I got on Natural Resource Comm."
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Just sent my emails off. Its hard to keep these message short and to the point when there are so many issues facing IA hunters (ie - HUSH, NR tags, habitat, etc.)

Keep the emails, calls and letters heading to the folks at the capitol.
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I've sent my annual round of emails as well.The problem is...in my 'district'..both the Senator and the Congressman are unfortunatley liberal Democrats.
I dont want to make this a poltical debate,but neither has been courteous enough of even a polite response in the last 2 years.
Any ideas of who else I can contact that my voice will be heard? I have in the past contacted different members of the appropriate commities but since I'm not a constituent of theres...they just give me a generic response.
I could make some phone calls but since they ignored my emails...I dont expect much cooperation there either.Maybe they recognize my name as a strong Republican supporter in the area.
Anyway...what would you guys do?Who can I contact in order to help things out?
Thanks.
 
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Not to be a pessimist but do you think they are the ones that are answering and reading each of these emails?

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I just recieved a personal reply from Rep. John Whitaker in regards to the issues with reporting etc.:

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I found the harvest reporting to be very
simple and the only complaints that I heard were about phone reporting.
Some folks had trouble with the voice recognizing system

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I also mentioned other "concerns" that we have been discussing here and that he has been working on
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John is a hunter himself and is very active on issues that concern all of us.

No matter if you get replies or not...just keep letting them know how you feel and what concerns you have....

otherwise....

we lose
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I did get a response from both of my legislators. One didnt have much to say other than "thanks for your concerns".

Here is what I recieved from Senator Tom Rielly:

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"Thanks for writing me. I always appreciate hearing from constituents.
I am not on the Natural Resources committee, but I have spoken to several Senators that are, and it is very unlikely there will be an increase in the non resident deer licenses. As far as the other issues you wrote me about I will voice your support to those senators on the NR committee about Harvest Reporting and Landowner Registration system.
Please feel free to contact me again about these issues or others.

Thanks,
Tom"

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Sounds like good news from him!
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Anybody else getting similar responses?

Keep pouring on those emails guys, they are listening.
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Keep pouring on those emails guys, they are listening.

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You bet they are! They may not answer and they may not want to hear what we have to say...but they are listening

John mentioned that he had put 4 does in the freezer already...that's my kind of politician!
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