Bill of Rights Defense Campaign

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State Resolutions Toolkit

Build Support for Passage

Get endorsements

Take a look at the list of allies you previously collected. Now, get busy asking those groups to endorse the work you’re doing to pass a resolution.

Call up the local reps of each of these groups, though, and ask if you can make a presentation at their next meeting.

Send them a fact sheet and endorsement form ahead of time.

Ask them if the group will vote that evening to endorse, or if they’ll vote at a later meeting.

Take literature with you and buttons. You are formally becoming allies with this group – you want them to begin to identify with your cause. You want people within that group to begin to help with your resolution.

Endorsing groups can help the campaign in various ways:

  1. They can send out email announcements of your events to their list-servs

  2. They can contribute cash or check to your statewide coalition

  3. They can give you the group’s endorsement, which you can then use to show the level of community and statewide support your resolution has.

  4. Impresses legislators when they see not only you standing in front of them, but realize the thousands of people represented by your endorsers who are also standing with you.

Get sponsors in House and Senate

In some cases, you may want to work the house and senate separately. That’s a strategy piece that depends on your particular situation, and how many citizen lobbyists you have available to you.

Do research on legislators.

The first part of your work at the legislature might be shopping the resolution around to see if you can find a Republican co-sponsor. Depending on how much time you have to work with, you might want to start with a strong resolution, with the willingness to drop back to a less intimidating resolution if you don’t immediately get some Republican support. If you can get a strong Republican supporter (someone with tenure, respect, and standing in the legislature), then you’re on your way.

ACLU and other ally groups who deal with legislation on a regular basis will typically have a lobbyist who is experienced in handling issues of civil liberties, and experienced in the ways of the legislature. If an ally group is willing to help by allowing their lobbyist to work with your grassroots, it can be immensely beneficial in many ways. A lobbyist can work with grassroots groups to target more libertarian minded Republicans, to make the effort truly bi-partisan.

Often groups will begin trying to get Republican support, knowing they can likely get Democratic support after winning Republican allies. Download Bridging the Gap handout.

Professional lobbyists will have contacts with other lobbyists who can be helpful, such as the National Rifle Association. The NRA can prod slow-moving Republicans to support your measure.

Find out which legislators are on which committees. If your memorial is sent to the Judiciary Committee, you want to know who heads the committee. The head of the committee may make your life easy by holding a hearing, or make your life hell by refusing to bring the memorial before the committee for a hearing. It’s good to know in advance which committee your memorial is likely to be heard by, and who’s the chairperson of that committee, so you can begin to convince that chair of the worthiness of your memorial.

Work with sponsors on a resolution

When the resolution has a hearing before its committee in either the House or Senate, it’s a great opportunity for filling the committee room with grassroots supporters from around the state. A good opportunity for a rally ahead of time.

How long to testify – strategies, such as only having 3 people testify to allowing people from around the state to testify.

This is a good time to bring forth the 6” thick pile of petitions you’ve collected. It makes an impressive stack as you give testimony to show that you have widespread support from throughout the state. And it is a document that will be filed. Though the petitions are unofficial (meaning they aren’t subject to any state-sanctioned collection method, which makes them truly impeachable), they will impress legislators.

It’s also a good time to bring forth your list of endorsing groups. It’s a good idea to let legislators know the memberships of each group. That way you are not actually standing up there alone, giving testimony. You have hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of people behind you, listed on your endorsement sheet.

Citizen lobbyists at the legislature – crucial to building a state resolution

Paul Edwards, who worked furiously to help pass the Montana resolution had this to say about the importance of citizen lobbyists:

  • “…there is just no substitute for working directly, face to face, with legislators. It was our constant and continual work with those people, day in and day out at the legislature that won for us. Pages and papers are all fine as subsidiary measures: straight talk and passion for the justice and validity of the cause are the means of victory. We are now trying to lever our pathetic Federal delegation into the action requested by our legislature. We will never let up.”
  • District Maps – find out which legislators are from which district, and pair that information with which grassroots supporters can cover those districts. Each state website has district maps available.
  • Lobby Day
  • Take good notes when you talk to your legislator – or at least write up some notes just after the meeting, so you can keep track of legislators’ opinions about civil liberties, gun laws,
  • Here’s some advice from a citizen lobbyist who successfully worked to pass a memorial in Oregon’s State Senate in 2003. These tips are not specific to Oregon, however, and may help with your campaign.

Build support for passage

Develop materials to present to legislators. Here are some examples:

 

Other Resources

State Legislature Web Sites for Research
Fundamentals of Building a State Resolution
Legislative Glossary