Senator Fred Smith- are you listening?

The big picture is that Senator Smith does tons for this community that people just don't know about. I think he is a good man and he looks at you in the eye when you shake his hand. I think he is a man of great character and just because he isn't that timely at responding to your correspondence will not change my opinion. I am hoping he or his staff gets back to you as soon as possible. My experiences with him and his family have been very pleasant. I see them almost every Sunday at church, not that it matters. I just don't see a need to get overly upset on this issue. I am certainly happy with the way he has handled things in office so far. Go look at his record. It speaks for itself. I am not trying to be a troll and I am sorry if it is viewed that way.

 

I am certain he is a good man and I am sure that Fred and I would agree on a lot. Does not excuse not responding to constituents of his elected office. Fred Smith will not be Governor of North Carolina and if he gets the nomination then the Democrats will occupy the office again.

 

His campaign does SPAM. Some time ago I started getting emails from him out of the blue. They were using Lyris listserv software to handle a lot of this. Where he got my email from, I have no idea. When I asked to be removed from the list, they just moved my name to a new list / listserv. Again, I asked to be removed and I got a third email from another list. It would always say, "You have chosen to receive emails from this listserv" when I had absolutely no connection to it. I had to contact Lyris help desk to report abuse and it finally stopped. It may have just been incompetence withing the campaign on how to manage their contacts, but it seems to me they were trying to leverage as many emails as possible to get their word out.

And, Pirate...the campaign never returned a single email request stop the SPAM. I never heard a word from them.

It makes me wonder how they got me email in the first place. I know someone who works for the campaign and I wonder if they didn't just take an "Outlook dump" of all their staff's contact list. If so, this would really honk me off because I do not care for this person.

Needless to say, it doesn't give me the warm fuzzies.

 

I really have a problem with threads of this type. Clearly, this is meant to hurt a politcal candidate and not to find any constructive solution to your issues. I think it's sad when an open forum like ours becomes a platform for political partisanship. But since you want to go there...

I always vote independent so I can vote for who I consider to be the best candidate -- regardless of politics or party affiliations, and I have never seen a more qualified candidate than Fred Smith.

I recieve his emails too and at the bottom of every one I've gotten, there is a link to unsubscribe from the list. Why do you feel you have to bother him or his staff for personal assistance to an issue you can take care of for yourself? (So typical of the democrats and why I will not join their party).

You also say that Fred's office is not good about getting back to constituents. That is just simply not true! I contacted his office about an issue and was treated like the most important person in the world. In fact, I was amazed how politely I was treated and how genuinely concerned he and his staff were about my issue.

I work for a retail business trhat uses email to communicate. They are always sent from a "dummy box" so that returns do not clog up the system. I suspect nobody has seen your email.

I never used any of the contact information you listed to reach them though. The email address listed on his website is:

fsmith@senatorfredsmith.com

I suggest you try at the address they ask you to use, and see what kind of response you get. I just wonder if you'll be honest enough to post it here if it's good. (I doubt it).

I wonder just what kind of response you'd get if you called Beverly Perdue and asked her to take you off her list...think you'd get a personal call back??? Or what about Bob Orr (WHO?) or Bill Graham? Chances are little Willie is off doing his trial lawyer thing, and suing some hard working business owner to raise more money to run his ridiculous commercials "claiming" HE stopped the gas tax...WAHT A LAUGH!!!! Is THIS REALLY the kind of person you want in the governor's office?

Give me a break!!! Stop spreading your lies about Fred Smith. He IS going to be our next governor...and North Carolina will be lucky to have his vision and business experience working for us.

 

Wonder what happened to his first wife...hrm....

 

Senator Smith's Staff makes contact

Senator Smith had someone on his staff get in touch with me personally to determine why my emails were not responded to. I will update with any progress.

 

Fred Smith never responded to any e-mail that myself or the girls in my club sent to him.

Mr. Langdon responded immediately and even followed up by phone.

Mr. Daughtrey also never responded to any of our e-mails.

 

Everybody is due their own opinion

again since you did not read....registered republican

opinion, any republican is fighting an uphill battle for the governor's office

learn reading comprehension and practice it before launching accusations

based on your experience. several have voiced different results.

if you are in retail. Do not answer your customer's and your problem will be solved like this situation

again reading comprehension. I used his contact information from the NC legislative site. Personally for this communication I do not care what his personal website is.

who brought up anybody else? Just my opinion, but I do not like any of the candidates so far. Excuse for me for trying to become educated about Senator Smith's position on an issue and trying to make sure my state Senator understands my stance.

I am sure Senator Smith would not tell people NC would be lucky to have him. I am sure he would be humble enough to want to serve NC, right?

 

You could have already had him cook you bacon and eggs for breakfast with all the time you've spent on here and emails.

If I want to get a client in my business I talk them on the phone at least. Screw using email. I don't sit around like a douch and wait for emails. I find a way to track down the answer as quickly as possible if it's something I need.

 

It may just be a coincidence, but I wonder of the new posters have any relationship with Fred or his campaign.

I support an honest debate over the facts.

For a newbie poster to use such an accusatory tone to those of us who are posting about our inability to get the man himself to communicate with us, seems to suggest that either someone has a rather thin skin and wanted to retaliate, or that the campaign has these shills and junior chipmunks to try to squelch any dissent without the campaigns' havign to take some official stance.

What a lofty perch some must have to believe that because they see Fred and know him, that I'd automatically join their position. They misjudged, as I vote based on MY experience with a candidate, not theirs.

 

Call Fred

I just can't picture Fred Smith personally sitting down at a computer and answering e-mail. I suggest you call him. He has always responded to telephone calls.

 

And I can't fathom the idea that answering one phone call is a more effective way of communicating than an email. Certainly, email provides evidence of communication, whereas a phone conversation that is unrecorded might possibly be remembered with drastically differing recollections.

And, if the listserv SPAM mailing that Fred's campaign performs is any indication, then someone there sees the value in using this modern communications tool, albeit poorly, and should sit Fred down and show him the marvelous capability of a computer.

Why are people so overprotective of Fred? If he can't handle being called out for a legitimatge concern by his own constituents, how in the world does anyone, especially Fred, expect to survive in a less genteel environment over which he could exercise less control.

So, just so I understand this, allow me to recap. Either my concerns with my elected representative is such a small concern that I'm wasting Fred's time over such a little thing, when he could be doing more things for more people to ensure his election, or...I'm a nasty schoolyard bully picking on poor Fred, and you're lecturing me that I shouldn't do that, that I should be grateful that Fred is there, and that he understnads things that I could not possibly fathom...or that he is so behind the times in comprehending technology that he can not possibly be the person who should be leading this state towards a high tech, better paying environment?

Which is it? Or is there a combination?

Before you jump down my throat about it, remember, I am exercising a Constitutional right that I have shed my own blood to protect.

BTW...in a representative government, those who would lead, must have the consent of the governed, deriving their ujut powers from those whom they seek to represent.

 

Let's keep it simple

1) I used email to communicate as I expect a state senator and someone running for Governor to have someone to respond to constituents email. I should not have to call, but expect an answer within a week.

2) I received two emails about his campaign for governor. It indicates that email is an acceptable form of communication.

3) Within 4.5 hours of posting this thread I had a private message from one of Senator Smith's staff. Supposedly Mr. Smith is not happy that people feel this way.

Senator Smith has launched his campaign for Governor. My thoughts were that he would highlight Family Values and Illegal Immigration. It appears that he wants to highlight some other issues such as restraining the budget, increasing accountability and efficiency in the state government, and education reform. Those things got my attention as being more realistic. I will wait and see how his leadership resolves the communication issue. It is the fair thing to do and just maybe the Republicans have a chance without nominating Senator Berger.

 

We can never say enough thanks for your efforts to defend our liberties!

Now is the time for Senator Smith's leadership skills to address the communication problem. They were not aware of the problem until today so now they are on the clock.

 

Very few elected officials or candidates handle their own mail, e-mail and telephone calls. Most have staff to read the mail and take telephone messages; give the candidate or the official a summary of calls, letters and e-mails in favor or opposed to particular issues; and to pass on those that require a response from the candidate or official. Staff should be trained to know the difference.

The excuse that Fred Smith may not be computer literate, or doesn't have time to handle all these things himself, just doesn't hold water. He has plenty of money in his campaign fund to hire staff, if he doesn't have enough dedicated volunteers to take care of it.

I do not expect a candidate or elected official to answer his own telephone or e-mail, or to be immediately available if I call. I expect to leave a message with a staff member, and if it's something that requires a conversation, I expect him or her to call back within a reasonable time.

 

The bottom line is Fred Smith is a good man. He has always made a point to wave when he passes by, he has great family values, and he is trust worthy. Attacking his character is not fair nor reasonable because the sense of urgency does not match yours. So far the people who have attacked Mr.Smith has done so in away that displays character issues on themselves. Immediate gratification has spoiled many of you. Including myself. The bottom line for me is if he runs. He has my vote. I like him. I like his values. I like that he has a conviction to stand up for the people in his area. That makes me think he will do what IS best for North Carolina. I absolutely love my state. I was born here and consider it a treasure. Out of all of you who have attacked Mr.Smith, which ones are from North Carolina?

 

Who's attacking Fred Smith's character? A communication problem is a character flaw in your mind? I don't think anybody else on this thread said that, and the OP said he has now heard from Sen. Smith's office and will advise us of the result. That's not an attack, it's a resolution to a problem.

 

Blowing things out of proportion IS a character flaw, always wanting to rise to the occasion and jump on the band wagon to attack IS a character flaw. I am not an ingrate so you "Explaing what was posted prior" was not needed. I can read just like you. I can comprehend just like you. So just chill out.:mrgreen:

 

Wow! Tried 5 emails with no response. Nobody is blowing it out of porportion. Posted the message and got the desired results within 4.5 hours. Now I wait for them to answer the call about communication problems.

Waiting a week for a response and then posting this thread I thought showed great restraint. Again I received two emails from Jonathan Hill in reference to the campaign leading support for email as a valid medium.

Does this even deserve a response? If they are citizens of Senator Smith's district then it matters, whether they moved here last week or their family has been here for 150 years.

 

Just want to let you all know, I received an e-mail reply from Sen. Smith's staff today. Deleting personal information, it says:

That answer satisfies me for the time being. I do not know whether the Senator agrees or disagrees with my position on the bill I wrote about, but I believe my input will be tallied along with everyone else who contacted him, and that's all I can really ask.