Citizen's Handbook to Influencing Elected Officials: Citizen Advocacy in State Legislatures and Congress: A Guide for Citizen Lobbyists and Grassroots - Paperback

by Bradford Fitch (Author)

Practical guidance how to prepare for and meet with elected officials and staff, how to write effective letters and emails to elected officials, strategies for influencing legislators face-to-face, best practices for communicating with Congress and state legislatures, and how to write persuasive "letters to the editor". This book is one part research studies, one part interviews and focus groups, and one part experience. It uses available research on Congress and its decision making. Dozens of elected officials, including members of Congress, and their staff agreed to off-the-record interviews and discussed the factors that contribute to their decision-making process.

Author Biography

Bradford Fitch is the former CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation. He has spent 40 years in Washington as a journalist, congressional aide, consultant, college instructor, Internet entrepreneur, and writer/researcher. He is a leading trainer of citizen-advocates in the U.S., with more than 50,000 Americans participating in one of his programs. Fitch got his start in communications as a DJ for his local AM radio station in Upstate NY at the age of 16. He is a former radio and television reporter, and worked on Capitol Hill for 13 years as press secretary, legislative director, and chief of staff. From 2001-2005 he served as Deputy Director of CMF. He left CMF in 2006 to form a new company, Knowlegis, now a part of FiscalNote. He returned to CMF in 2010, where he served 14 as CEO. Fitch also is the author of Citizen's Handbook to Influencing Elected Officials and Media Relations Handbook for Agencies, Associations, Nonprofits and Congress. His work and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBC News, NPR, among others. He taught journalism and public communications at American University in Washington, D.C, where he served an adjunct Associate Professor of Communications.