Ashley Terry

Field Period

Summary Paper Summer 2014

Congressman Chris Gibson’s Delhi District Office

This summer was quite an eye opening experience when it comes to what really goes on

backstage for a congressman. I may have been more naive than most about the what exactly

went on once you were elected into office or even all the work that goes into a campaign. After

my Field Period this summer I have a much better understanding.

At the start of this Field Period my knowledge of what a congressman did extended to

arguing in a large room about possible laws and other political agendas. Now I know that they

also have offices in the districts they represent that help the constituents that they serve. Almost

any problem that has to do with the district specifically can at least be attempted to be solved by

calling your local congressional office. Each office has at least one constituent representative

that, in my experience, more than happy to help you out. There job is to make the congressman

look good the best way they know how, by helping people.

Congressman Gibson represents the 19th congressional district, a fairly large area, in

New York state. It was originally the 20th district but the lines moved after his first term in

office. He has seven offices, six being within his district and one in Washington DC. I worked

in the office closest to me in Delhi, NY. In that office is one Constituent Representative named

Paula Brown. This is the smallest of his district offices, but opens and closes the most cases.

Paula takes cases not only from the county we reside in, but some of the surrounding counties

cases as well. She grew up in the area and is very proud to work for Congressman Gibson. I

found working for her very pleasant yet challenging. She is a great people person and always

respectful, but will always defend the congressman. I found that she is quite good at her job and

everyone who knows her tells me how great she is. The congressman loves that she is like that

because he knows it is what the people want and need.

In the office we would receive phone calls, letters and emails varying from problems they

are having to complaints about the congressman to thanking or complimenting the congressman.

We would take all of them and log them into a computer program called Fireside. If the person

was having a problem then we would make a case and do what we could to fix it. Paula did

more of the fixing while I just observed, I did more of logging the information. The office

receives a variety of cases. Anything from education to immigration to healthcare. The most

often though is Veterans Affairs. Congressman Gibson was in the service for about 24 years and

appeals to many veterans in the area and with all the nonsense that has been going on with the

VA, we received many calls. When receiving a case the office is required to send a privacy

release form (PARF), before anything can be done. This form requires some personal

information such as; birth date and social security number as well as the problem they are having

and any additional information they think would be helpful, there more the merrier. Once the

PARF is received, via email or snail mail, all that information is uploaded into Fireside and a

folder is made for the office.

Any calls that involved complaining or complimenting were simply logged into Fireside

for Congressman Gibson to look at them. I did notice that anytime there was a complaint Paula

would do her best to defend the congressman and possibly show a flaw in their logic for the

complaint. When I took complaints I could really only listen and write it down. We got a lot of

calls that had to deal with the current legislation going through congress at the time or something

that President Obama was doing. It was reassuring to see that people do care about what is going

on in the government and are doing what they can to have their voices be heard.

Each day I had a set of specific tasks I was to complete along with whatever else Paula

asked of me. I was to look through all the local papers to see if there was any upcoming events

that would attract a lot of constituents. When I found one I would have to put it in a shared

calendar in order for the congressman to see it and try to stop by in his travels. I also had to look

for any articles that had the congressman’s name or picture and send it to his media advisor.

Each day the media advisor would send everyone working for the congressman a list of the

articles dealing with the congressman as well as state and federal issues to keep us up to date on

any important information. It also helped us to see what the competition was doing because the

article would always mention that he was running against Chris Gibson. It is an election year for

representatives this year so there was a lot more extra excitement and drama in the office than

normal. I also had to file any paperwork that Paula left for me. When Paula was out for the day

I had to man the phones and login contact information as well as my other jobs. When

answering the phone or when a constituent came in the office I had to write down as much

information as possible; name, town they are from, phone number. This helps when Paula gets

back to the office and needs to follow up. The most important thing I was told was to never give

out the congressman's personal information or his calendar of events. If someone needed to

know the congressman was coming they would have been informed some other way. I was also

told to never give out phone numbers from Fireside or contact information from the contacts

Paula uses to help her constituents. Those numbers are for the offices use only and are not

public.

Some days I did some different things like making photo collages of the congressman to

hang in the office, update the intern computers, or fix the filing cabinet. There were also a

couple days I went campaigning with Paula and Congressman Gibson. I went to a Rotary Club

meeting where the congressman was giving a speech and honored there and a Memorial Day

summer campaign kick-off where a bunch of veterans came and listened to the congressman. I

handed out signs and bumper stickers while there. Another campaign event I went to was a local

farmers market/fair and sat at a booth with Paula where we promoted the congressman and gave

out pamphlets, lawn signs and bumper stickers. Congressman Gibson was throwing the first

pitch at a minor league baseball game and could not attend.

Overall I would say this was an excellent Field Period. I learned so much about what is

involved in a congressman’s job, what a constituent representative was, and the process of

campaigning. It really opened my eyes to the way things are ran and dealt with on a daily basis

for a congressman. Even though I only met him once, from the work I did in the office, I was

proud to be helping Congressman Gibson and glad I got such an awesome opportunity.