My call yesterday to Ron Kind's office - Bankruptcy bill

[billkurtmeyer]

I called yesterday 4-15 my congressman local office (Ron KInd)in La Crosse - interesting how the person who answered the phone, his La Crosse coordinator when asked how he voted said, just a moment I will check. She came back and said, he voted no with a majority of Democrats. I then proceeded to give her an earful about what a terrible piece of legislation this was and nothing but a handout to the predatory banking and credit card industry and their money trough, who, I'm sure Kind is benefiting from. What is interesting is that this woman had to go check to see how he voted? I told her I thought this was poor management to not know on such an important piece of legislation. I then told her that In the past month I had called the same office as well as the Washington office twice (apiece). Every time I got someone on the phone who acted like a deer in headlights, and acted like they had no idea what the bankruptcy bill was and had to check with someone else. Every time I asked to speak to an informed person who could explain to me how and why Kind could possibly vote for such a piece of crap. Well guess what? Every time they took my name and contact information and said someone would get back to me - surprise no one ever did. When I informed this woman about this she told me that "well we have interns that answer the phone." My response was "wouldn't it make sense to have informed interns answering the phones? and shouldn't you get back to constituents when you say you will?

Help me as I am fairly new to Wisconsin and don't have a lot of experience with Kind or his background but beyond the money how could he vote for this crap? She did inform me that the DLC supported it, which I then told her that the DLC is now irrelevant and nothing but Republican light. Does anybody out there have similar experiences with Kind's office and their responses to concerns? I had a very similar experience with Kohl's office. In the end I told her that in all good consciousness I could not vote for Kind in the future given this vote and their response to my concerns, I won't vote for the Republican.

Beyond the money angle -- how could Democrats vote for this - help me to understand??

I urge everyone to call their Democratic congressman if they voted for this piece of crap! Give them an earful!

[FloridaPat]

1. It's important to YOU. These phone people probably aren't in

the bribe loop, so they don't know which side the congress person is bought to be on.

As for how any Democrat can vote for this, I have no idea. How could they vote for the Iraq invasion? How could they vote for the Medicade drug bonanza bill? How can they support anything Bush does?

[AllyCat]

2. Kind not my rep, but he follows a pattern

A pattern of not responding to constituents. I write, phone, or email Herb Kohl's office almost weekly. I have NEVER, in two years, had a response to any of my contacts whether I support or oppose his vote.

Feingold responds to EVERYTHING..it's his interns, but at least it's a response and usually, I agree with him.

Tammy Baldwin responds to my comments here in Madison.

Having just moved from Sensenbrenner's district in Wauwatosa, I have never had a response from him either.

I don't think most reps or senators respond to their constituents. They should go away. Really. Don't support Kind. What a jerk. He deserves to be gone for good.

Good for you to contact him and let them have it. Who gives a f*** how the stupid DLC voted? Staffer seemed to know an awful lot about that, huh?

[billkurtmeyer]

3. Thanks for the feedback!

[sybylla]

4. Kind is a DLCer

Kind can be very centrist on many issues though there is at least one he is very liberal on - reproductive rights. He is convinced his district leans centrist and rarely budges from that position.

The congressional districts in Wisconsin contain about 650,000 constituents. As one of Ron Kind's constituents, I don't ever expect to hear back from him. I can easily imagine that the number of contacts he gets from his constituents alone, totally discounting those outside the district, makes responding to everyone an expensive, staff heavy, time-consuming affair.

The fact that Feingold, with over 5 million constituents state-wide does a good job responding simply amazes me. But the senator has a lot more staff with several regional offices in the state.

Somehow our representatives have to balance spending money on offices (including staff, materials and time responding) or saving the taxpayer's money for what some might consider better uses.

If you're requesting a response, that may be a different animal, but how many people who contact Ron Kind don't expect a response? Every elected official draws the line at a different point on this issue.

Hate him, don't vote for him, whatever. But, imho, I don't think this is a big enough reason for me to walk away from a Democrat. Hell's bells, I'm just thrilled his centrist ass voted against that devil spawn bankruptcy bill. I'm beginning to think there might be a smidge of hope he'll turn progressive yet.

[sybylla]

5. Kind's staffer was incorrect - Kind voted for it!

Pardon my slowness as I'm sure this was the point of your original post. You state that she said Rep. Kind "voted no with a majority of Democrats." That is wrong. This thread lists Kind as a Yes voter with most of the rest of the DLCers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3485523

Here's the link to the roll call vote
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll108.xml

Please pardon my delay in questioning this aspect of your original post. I have been too busy to look into it until today. I remember being mortified hearing that Kind had voted for the Bankrupcy bill, but I lacked time to do the research and took the staffer's word on the subject, as you related it, as the truth.

I certainly think this calls for a good swift kick to the behind and I urge constituents and fellow WI Dems to contact his office and let them know how you feel about the undemocratic principles of his vote.