In this series we provide tips on how you as a voter can successfully lobby your lawmakers at the Arkansas Legislature.
You want your lawmakers be successful. Think that sounds weird? Successful lawmakers represent their constituents accurately, cast good votes, pass good laws, and defeat bad laws.
Lobbying is not about you going toe-to-toe with your elected officials (although it may feel that way at times); lobbying is about you helping your elected officials be successful at governing our state. Rather than making them do what’s right, help them do what’s right. Your job is to give them the whole story on issues—after all, how does a lawmaker know that limiting the number of tons of sand a dump truck can carry down the highway will affect small businesses in Arkansas unless the business owners speak up? It may sound weird, but issues like that come up every time the Legislature convenes, and lawmakers that don’t get the whole story on the effects of a bill cast uneducated votes. And a decent lawmaker can get booted out of office because of one or two uneducated votes like that.
Help your lawmakers be successful at their job, and we’ll all be better off for it.
