Internet, Social Media Helping Groups Boost Grassroots Lobbying

Doctors use latest tools to operate better in public policy arena

by Ari B. Adler
July 16, 2010

When the Michigan Legislature was considering levying a “provider tax” on physicians last year, legislators were inundated with thousands of letters and e-mails from doctors offering a second opinion.

Dr. Daniel Michael, a Royal Oak neurosurgeon and president of the Michigan State Medical Society, presses a policy point with Rep. Marc Corriveau.

The successful crusade to prevent passage of the tax was led by the Michigan State Medical Society, an association long known for its lobbying efforts in the Capitol. Over the past few years, however, MSMS and other organizations have been increasing their effectiveness even more by growing a network of activists who are reaching out to legislators online as well as when they are at home in their districts.

“Every physician is now in the habit of checking e-mail every day. MSMS sends out a weekly e-newsletter from me and, if there’s an actionable item, the links are included,” said Dr. Daniel Michael, a neurosurgeon in Royal Oak and president of MSMS.

“One of the benefits of the electronic age is it does make us more democratic. Prior to the electronic era, I wrote one letter — to the president of the United States. I never contacted state legislators or the governor. Now, I contact state representatives and our federal delegation on a regular basis.”

The Michigan Association of Counties recently hired Angela Minicuci as communications coordinator, a position expected to help boost the association’s online presence and member interaction. Members and others can now follow the association’s activities on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

A recent tweet on the MAC Twitter account noted, “Legislators have one more chance to do right by Michigan counties on binding arbitration bills!” and included a link to the association’s blog.

And Minicuci said an outreach to members brought 30 county commissioners from across the state to testify at a House committee hearing regarding state mandates.

“Typically, we send letters to the editors out to our commissioners and ask them to contact their legislators about important legislation. But for this, we were able to get a good showing at the hearing,” Minicuci said.

Getting your voice heard in Lansing now requires a more continuous, vigilant effort, according to Michael.

“With some of the issues challenging Michigan physicians today, most if not all of them are seeing they can’t afford a laissez-faire attitude,” he said. “The issues are driving physicians to have relationships with their local representatives to Lansing and also their congressional delegation in Washington.”

Member involvement used to mean bringing the members to the Capitol to meet with influential legislators. While bringing members to Lansing for a show of solidarity has its strengths, there’s no guarantee you’ll get a chance to deliver your message, said Colin Ford, director of state and federal government relations for MSMS.

“Scheduling Capitol Day is a crapshoot,” he said. “You pray some other issue doesn’t come up that has the legislators holed up dealing with an urgent issue. Sometimes your message is lost because something else is more important that day.”

But the Internet now provides 24-hour access for the public — especially organized interests — to contact their legislators and other elected officials, with Twitter and Facebook seen by some as the new field for grassroots activities.

Minicuci noted that the American Cancer Society does a good job keeping its supporters up to speed on important issues via e-mail blasts.

“At least once a month I get an e-mail from them alerting me of how I can help in the fight against cancer,” she said, noting that she’d recently received a survey from the group. “I’ve received sample or draft letters and e-mails to legislators as well as information about how to contact them and what to say.”

According to the Medical Society’s Ford, relationships are built differently in this era of term limits, and that’s being reflected in the way legislators and their constituents are interacting.

“It used to be that you earned the respect of legislators as they put lobbyists through their paces,” Ford said. “Now, there’s such a compressed window of time [in office], candidates are seeking out positions and seeking out people to be more knowledgeable on important issues.”

He noted that because of Michigan’s legislative term limits, there is more pressure than ever for legislators to get up to speed quickly on issues.

“When Terry Geiger was the Department of Community Health Appropriations Committee chair, he used to always joke about how the next person was going to be smarter than him on this issue because he (Geiger) previously sold tractors for a living,” Ford said. “As it turns out, the next person was a township supervisor (Mickey Mortimer), then we had a police officer (Gary Newel) and then a school administrator (Bruce Caswell).

“You have to learn on the fly, so a lot of these people are going to reach out to physicians and other experts to find out about the issues. People have different backgrounds; they’re going to need information from associations and constituents to know what’s important.”

Thousands of association members from across the state can tap into the power of the Internet to become better educated on legislative issues, to learn how to offer an opinion and, in many cases, send their opinion with just a few clicks of their computer mouse.

At MSMS’s advocacy website legislative contact information is available based on a doctor’s zip code. They can even be provided with talking points to include in their outreach, although Michael said the association encourages doctors to personalize their message.

The counties’ website offers registered members access to legislative information that includes the association’s weekly legislative update and copies of county resolutions regarding various legislation affecting county government.

Meanwhile, the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network provides state-themed information related to legislation and issues affecting the society’s latest initiatives at the state and federal level.

Dr. John Bizon, an otolaryngologist in Battle Creek, said providing issue updates and offering ways to act on those issues is an important role associations play for their members.

“It’s a good idea for the medical society to keep people involved at local levels. It’s really important to be aware of who your legislator is,” Bizon said. “If we’re going to be at all effective as a medical society, advocating for patients and doctors, we need to know the people who make the rules.”

Bizon was first encouraged to become more “politically aware” by his former business partner, Dr. Joe Schwarz, who has served as a state senator and U.S. congressman.

As chairman of the MSMS Legislative Policy Committee, Bizon has been working to share the importance of that insight with fellow members.

“I’ve been trying my best to make sure the doctors’ voices are heard,” Bizon said. “A lot of times the doctors don’t speak in unison. Varied opinions are good for patient care, but it makes advocacy a little more difficult.”

While people think of lobbying efforts for major issues, MSMS also makes a point of being available to members for personal crusades.

“We had a dermatologist who was very concerned about skin cancer, so she called MSMS,” Ford said. “This one woman, a 5-foot, 4-inch bundle of energy, started generating a lot of interest on regulating tanning beds. MSMS coached her on how to get her message across. Now there’s a law that requires parental consent for minors to use tanning beds.”

Ford said MSMS will continue its traditional advocacy on behalf of physicians but plans on expanding its grassroots efforts to individuals as well.

“You never know who the next legislative leader or the chair of an important committee is going to be. It’s best to have relationships with all the legislators,” he said. “I’d like to say that as a lobbyist, I’m right every time I say who the next House speaker or Senate majority leader is going to be, but one vote can make it go either way.”

Advocating for an issue and lobbying legislators can sometimes land an association like MSMS in the “special interest” category, but Ford said that’s an unfair misrepresentation.

“When you’re labeled as a special interest, that’s based on the motivations of the person who wants to cast you as that,” Ford said. “Physicians are generally recognized by the public as a profession that is highly respected. Physicians’ first concern, even on most legislation, is the well-being of patients. It’s hard to come out of an operating room or a patient room in a practice, flip a switch and be full of blatant self-interest.”

Regardless of the association or the issue, the ability to act is key, said Emily Gerkin Palsrok, managing director of Lambert Edwards & Associates’ public affairs division in Lansing. She cited MSMS when asked to name an association that seems to have it figured out.

“In general they have well-organized grassroots capabilities and can pull the trigger quickly,” Palsrok said.

With the term-limits revolving door now firmly established in the state Capitol, it’s likely many legislators won’t know who the lobbyist for a particular cause is, but they might just know their local professional.

“My sense is that if I know my local representative and senator and I go to the functions where we have meet-and-greets, then when I send an e-mail or call them on the phone, they’ll think, ‘Oh, sure, I remember that big bald-headed neurosurgeon,’” Michael said. “I won’t necessarily get my way, but I’ll at least get my say.”

Ari B. Adler is a professional communicator with experience as a newspaper reporter and editor as well as a government and corporate spokesperson. He is the communications administrator for Delta Dental of Michigan and an adjunct instructor at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan-Dearborn. You can follow him on Twitter at @aribadler.