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Introduction

Congratulations! You set your sights on serving in the finest institution in the world: the state legislature. And here you are. You conducted a successful campaign, won the election and now have the honor-and the responsibility-of serving the people of your district and your state. You got here because you care about issues, have ideas for solving problems and communicated them well to the voters who sent you here.

Communication is the key to your continued success after the election-not only with your legislative colleagues, staff, lobbyists and people in and around the capitol, but especially with your constituents. It's as important as the bills you introduce and the votes you cast. Connecting to the public after the election is critical for serving your constituents, your re-election, building support for your legislative agenda and, yes, to representative democracy itself.

It's important because Americans value the ideals of representative democracy, but they don't much like how it works. They see the legislative process as slow, contentious and unresponsive. It's no surprise that they are cynical and distrustful. The statistics tell the story. Forty-one percent of Americans believe state lawmakers wouldn't pay much, if any, attention to them if they contacted their legislator. Two-thirds of people between the ages of 18 and 24 feel that their generation's voice is important, but no one is listening. Americans say their elected officials don't communicate with them. They grow more cynical when they reach out to them and either receive unresponsive form letters or don't receive replies at all.

But you can change that, and we can help. We have developed this resource kit for newly elected lawmakers to help you promote representative democracy and connect to your constituents. This package provides the messages that will help you talk about representative democracy and begin to dispel cynicism about our valued legislative process. It includes message points, videos and other materials to use in presentations to civic groups and in school and college classrooms.

Our goal is to give you easy-to-use materials in a variety of formats to:

• Explain representative democracy to adults and children.
• Improve citizens' understanding and support of our nation's democratic institutions.
• Strengthen the democratic process and encourage citizens to play an active role in their government.
• Dispel public cynicism and distrust.
• Offer you help in connecting with the public and news media.