Make no mistake, that in the office of a reputable member of Congress, your info is “heard”, regardless of whether or not you are a campaign contributor.
BUT that info is likely filtered through a young staffer or aid who is left to pass their own judgments on whether or not your info is important enough to be passed up the food chain in the office.
Every letter, phone call and email is read tallied and categorized.
On any issue, two things catch a Congressperson’s attention: volume of voters and money.
Without money you need a massive volume of voters to influence a Representative or Senator. i.e. X number of voters want their member of Congress to vote a certain way, can swing the Congressperson’s opinion as that can translate to reelection or not…..
Without volume of voters you need money. Large campaign contributions can influence a Congressperson’s vote a certain way….because money translates into a bigger and potentially more effective reelection campaign.
If you don’t have volume or money (or both) in DC, you are screwed.