By Charles A. Hall
22 October 2009
This is going to be a short little note but I want to just take a moment in expressing my disappointment in Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R) who represents Utah's Third Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. Why am I disappointed? Well, maybe it is too much to ask but I've never heard a single word back from Congressman Chaffetz since he won the Republican Nomination back in 2008 and has been in office since January 2009. Not one word!
Every issue (about five over the last nine months) I have written Senators Bob Benneth (R-UT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) on I have received a response from (e-mail or letter). Is it a standard letter? I don't know, I hope not, but I don't know. Nothing I've ever written Congressman Chaffetz on has every been returned with his stance and promise to do this or that.
I wrote former Congressman Chris Cannon on one issue and that was about an individual (I forget who it was and all I can remember is this person was a Republican) in the House wanting to reinstate the "Assault Weapons Ban Act of 1994." I wrote him expressing my disappoint in this Congressman and told him not to support it. I received a response back less than three weeks later. Again, I have never received anything back from Congressman Chaffetz and I'm very disappointed in him because of it.
Heck, I've even received things back from the White House and I don't even like the President! This was clearly a form letter, but it was something!
"I am here to serve the residents of the 3rdCongressional District, and so is my staff."
"If you’d like to contact me about a legislative issue, please e-mail me; or phone me at (202) 225-7751; or send me a letter by mail."
(http://chaffetz.house.gov/contact/index.shtml)
Yes, I've tried to contact you but you haven't returned my time as my elected representative.
Why am I bringing this up now to the general public and especially to those in Utah Congressional District 3? Because just yesterday ads started popping up here on Facebook about donations to Chaffetz Re-election Campaign for 2010. This has me thinking, "I want an open government, I want to be able to hear from representatives and know exactly what they are doing. Do I want to re-elect someone that isn't open to me?" Am I being unreasonable? It is unreasonable to want to get a response from my representatives? They aren't my leaders, they are my representatives. In the words of Ross Geller (played by David Schwimmer) in Friends, "IS IT?!" Or do I want to support another candidate that holds the same values and views that I do but who will be open to the people he/she serves?
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