If We Write, Will They Respond?

Ken Adams has emailed New Jersey’s Republican gubernatorial candidates a few questions he’d like answered. It will be interesting to see the response rate and actual answers he receives.

Awhile back we agreed to work on a project with PoliPundit that included emailing New Jersey’s federal office holders a list of questions. We emailed both New Jersey Senators and each Congressman, just one question – what is your position on Social Security? We received exactly 0 answers.

Undaunted, we decided to email all elected representatives in Trenton with a question specific to New Jersey or their district. We received two responses. One was a nice snail mail letter from Acting Governor Codey and the other was an email from Assemblyman Joe Pennacchio. Interestingly, Pennacchio does not represent any of the Enlighten New Jersey gang.

We have also emailed the top three Republican candidates for governor – Bret Schundler, Doug Forrester and John Murphy. Bret Schundler (or a member of his staff) was the only one to respond.

We emailed all elected officials and candidates using our real names, as opposed to the anonymous – Enlighten-NewJersey. Other than Acting Governor Codey (he was no longer running for office when he responded to our email), not one of our actual representatives bothered to acknowledge our emails - federal or state.

Assemblyman Joe Pennacchio, responded, but unfortunately does not represent any of the folks associated with this blog. Candidates for governor that should be at their most attentive – only Bret Schundler seemed to care enough to respond.

Needless to say, none of the unresponsive “public servants” or wannabes will get a campaign contribution or our vote - can you blame us?