I e-mailed my senator about Joe Biden's nominee for the ATF, David Chipman. Here is her response.

 As you may know I wrote a post about Biden's nominee for the head of the ATF, David Chipman, last month. I was, and remain, totally opposed to his nomination for obvious reasons, the most relevant being he supports a ban on AR-15 rifles, a move that would make me a felon. In the post I mentioned that I had contacted both my senators, Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin. I no longer have the original message I sent to both senators but it was identical in content. 

Yesterday I finally received a response from one of them, Senator Baldwin, which I will post below. I am no fan of Baldwin's politics (and I generally support Senator Johnson) but regardless of the politics I have emailed both senators several times now and Baldwin is MUCH better at sending me something back. I honestly don't think I have gotten anything back from Johnson. I'm no fan of Baldwin but I have to admit that she (or rather her staff) is so much better at responding than Johnson. Credit where credit is due. 

Generally speaking I like to write up a short post when I get a response to my e-mails to government officals. Some of my real life friends like to see what was sent back to me and others can learn about what it looks like when the government likes to respond to you. In the unlikely event that Senator Johnson responds as well I will post his response in a future post. 

Now for the letter itself. It's rather evasive on what she wants to do with David Chipman. She said that she takes her duty seriously and then pointed out she was not on the Senate Judiciary Committee and that Chipman had not made it out of the committee yet. She also said that she would keep my comments in mind if/when Chipman does make it out of committee. 

In short, she gave no information of whether or not she will vote for Chipman or not. I guess this makes sense since she both has the duty to respond to me but also probably realizes that I completely disagree with her on this issue. Rather than alienate me as a potential voter (it's a form letter yes, but I am guessing it gets sent to Democrats, Republicans AND independents), she kept it nice and vague. Politically this makes sense though it is such a politician's answer. 

So what was the point of me sending her an e-mail? I still think that it's important to speak out when you see something the government is doing that you don't like. Even a reliable Democrat like Baldwin could have her mind changed if she gets buried in e-mails and I like to do my part. Plus it makes me feel better about things to write it out. I'm still furious that Chipman even has a chance of being confirmed, let alone that he was nominated, but it does help to know that at least one of my senators knows I am not a fan of his.