Letters to the Editor
Writing letters to the editor in our local papers is an important way we can support our DFL representatives as they work for our issues at the State Legislature. Our Communications Committee is growing our Rapid Responder Team, a group of volunteers who will write letters when needed. If you're interested in participating, please contact Deb.
Letter Writing Tips
The shorter the better. Letters to the editor range from approximately 50 to 250 words. Newspapers usually don't accept letters longer than 300 words. The shorter your letter, the more likely it will be published in your newspaper and the more likely it will be read by a larger number of people from start to finish.
Focus. Immediately state your purpose in your letter and follow your argument through to its natural conclusion. Don't worry about answering all possible counter-arguments — focus on your main point. You can always write another letter on other related issues.
Make your letter relevant to your community. Describe how our community, state and/or nation's future and current concerns will profoundly alter the quality of your community's daily life.
Continue the discussion. When possible, write your letter as a response to an article already printed on the same subject in your newspaper. If you can't refer to an article, refer to something familiar to people in your community — local coverage of a national story in the news or on the radio, a personal story known to the community, etc.
Make it personal. Tell people why you're writing and why you're committed to this issue, candidate or elected official.
Use your own voice. Don't worry about writing an extremely formal and polished letter. You are writing for your neighbors, friends, co-workers and community members, so you should use language familiar and comfortable to you.
Use humor and be clever. If you can relate your point in a funny way, it's more enjoyable for people to read. And, they're more likely to remember what you've written and why.
Finally, have fun with your letter!
Letter Writing Tools
When you're writing letters to the editor, you may need some additional help with information from how to submit a letter to the editor (most can be done via e-mail) to getting additional information on a subject.
Our Local Papers:
Click on the links below to e-mail your letter to the given publication. Deadlines are listed next to the publication.
Karla Wennerstrom, Editor, Eden Prairie News — noon on Monday before publication date (Thursday)
Joe Kieser, Editor, Minnetonka Sun-Sailor — 5:00 pm Thursday before the Thursday publication date
Lyn Jerde, Community Editor, Eden Prairie Sun-Current — 5:00 pm Thursday before the Thursday publication date
Jason King, Editor, Lakeshore Weekly News — 5:00 pm Thursday before the Tuesday publication date
Here are some helpful links:
http://congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/ — this website will show you newspapers in your area. Don’t assume the StarTribune and Pioneer Press are the only papers to get into. Go for your local weekly papers. These papers are where the Republican spin machine goes to get it’s most outrageous untruths into the general population. We can stop that from happening by getting our voices heard in these publications.
http://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us/ — not certain what political district you live in? This website will let you find out. That will allow you to find out what state races could use your writing efforts.
http://www.leg.state.mn.us/ — this is the website for our state house and senate. You can find out who your representative is, what bills they introduced, the language of those bills (their title doesn’t always reflect what they truly contain), and how a candidate voted on a specific piece of legislation.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/ — want to do more than just write letters to the editor? You can write your house representative online with this site.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm — this site will allow you to reach your senators.
http://www.factcheck.org/ — the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania maintains this site.
http://www.fair.org/index.php — FAIR is a media watch group that has been monitoring the media for bias and censorship since 1986.