In the spring of 2014 I interned for Democratic Representative Mike Schlossberg of the State House of Representatives. Working with him, I felt that he was very connected to the people in his district (District 132, serving the Lehigh County). He personally responded to every email that he received from his constituents regarding concerns they had about a variety of issues. He did a great job of balancing the dual roles that Congressmen must play; not only was he great at ensuring that his constituents were comfortable, but he is very involved in the law making process. He serves on Health, State Government, and Transportation committees. Representative Schlossberg's accomplishments on council include: legislation banning the use of hand-held cell-phones while driving in the city, additional improvements to the city's water and sewer facilities, increased funding for the city's critical Risk Management Fund, the creation of free training for small-business owners, and increased penalties for noise ordinance violators.
In relation to the charts we looked at in class, it appears that Representative Schlossberg has a good balance between his job and his personal life (although he claims that he wouldn’t mind having more- as I’m sure everyone would appreciate). He is a big user of social media and is constantly posting not only political messages (in terms that the general public can easily understand) but he also shows off his family and occasionally updates his followers on daily happenings in his life. This allows his people to not only see him as their political representative but as a regular person, just like them. Perhaps this is the reason that he has run unopposed and stayed popular representing Lehigh County for the past six years. Most recently he has posted about a ribbon cutting ceremony on Chew Street as well as his proposed ideas regarding Planned Parenthood. He stays connected to the public by not only frequently updating them on his ideas and his actions, but by immediately personally responding to some of the comments they leave on his Facebook page. His technological tactics make him, as a politician, more approachable and easy to relate to. This is beneficial in that it allows people to feel comfortable stating their opinions and becoming more active in the political world than they otherwise might be.
1 comment:
It is interesting to see that Schlossberg was able to respond personally to many of the emails sent to his office, but perhaps he does this as a way to connect with a younger generation that relies so heavily on technology. It's possible that the reason Schlossberg has garnered so much attention and support is because of how active he is on social media and how supportive he is of using technology. Some politicians may be losing ground to one's like Schlossberg for this very reason
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