Staff are critical. I represent a state of over nine
million people. I have six offices in Michigan as
well as the office here in Washington. We
have25 people here in Washington, all working
in a special area, whether it’s health care,
trade, agriculture… that person is the right
person to talk to if you want to find out what’s
happening or to make your case. That staff
person is very important. Often people think if
they don’t talk directly to me they aren’t really
getting their point across and they lose a
valuable relationship with the staff. Staff are the
ones following the issue day-to-day. Once you
have that partnership with staff, you can be
extremely effective.
