Something new the Constitutional Alliance may do – Badges of Honor or Dishonor

In our day to day activities at the Constitutional Alliance we have the need to contact state lawmakers throughout the country.  We DO NOT endorse candidates.  What we are considering doing is creating a new section on our web-site that we will be awarding Badges of Honor and Badges of Dishonor.  These badges will NOT be dependent on what political party a lawmaker belongs to or how a lawmaker votes on any issue.  The metric used to determine if a state lawmaker earns one of the two badges is how well a lawmaker works with their constituents who are experiencing difficulties dealing with the bureaucratic maze.  

The Constitutional Alliance is an organization that does not hide our religious beliefs.  Many of the people who work with the Constitutional Alliance are Christians.  We also work with Jewish people and others who recognize that we have a responsibility to the most vulnerable among us, who through no fault of their own, are having difficulty getting the help they need from state lawmakers or the staff of state lawmakers.  Many people who contact the Constitutional Alliance do not know who their state lawmakers are in the districts the people live in or how to get in contact with their state lawmakers.

Most people never contact their state lawmakers until there is an immediate need to do so.  Examples of when people may need help include but are not limited to, obtaining identification documents, needing assistance because of health issues they are experiencing, needing letters from their state lawmakers to “open doors” with other government officials both inside the home state of the constituent and outside the home state of the constituent, needing to know what state agency or department to contact to resolve an issue and so forth.  

The Constitutional Alliance does what it can to help these people who need help in dealing with or contacting their state lawmakers.  If we encounter a state lawmaker or a member of a state lawmaker's staff that is overtly uncooperative, we will “dig” further into what others have experienced in dealing with the same state lawmaker.  We will not award a Badge of Honor or Badge of Dishonor based solely on our experience in dealing with a state lawmaker.  What we will do, is ask state organizations and groups whether they have had favorable or unfavorable experiences in dealing with the same state lawmaker we are attempting to work with at the time.  

I want to reiterate we are not going to be awarding Badges based on the political party a lawmaker belongs to or how a lawmaker votes on any piece of legislation.  What we are looking at is how accessible and cooperative is the state lawmaker and/or their staff.  We fully appreciate that not in every case will we get the response we would hope to get from a state lawmaker or their staff.  What we do expect is that either the Constitutional Alliance or the constituent themselves will have direct access to the state lawmaker or the state lawmaker's staff and get answers that will “help move the ball” forward if at all possible.  

There may be times when we or the constituent contacts a lawmaker who is not the lawmaker that represents the constituent.  The lawmaker in question might be a committee chairperson.  If the issue the constituent is confronted with falls into the domain of a specific committee, we will reach out to that chairperson.  An example would be if a person is dealing with state agency/department/commission that a committee has oversight over we or the constituent may contact that committee chairperson.  

If a person would like to nominate a state lawmaker for a Badge of Honor or Dishonor the person may do so by contacting the Constitutional Alliance using the “contact” button on our homepage.  This effort or awarding of a “Badge” will not be retroactive to any point prior to June, 2014.  The experience that either the Constitutional Alliance or the constituent had or has, must have taken place from 1 June 2014 going forward.  

Thank you,

Gene Gorton – President of the Constitutional Alliance