[anon291]

The main problem here, in my opinion,is that we have artifically capped the number of congress critters at an absurdly low amount. We should have almost twice the number of representatives. You should basically be able to walk to your reps house assuming you live in a somewhat dense city or small town. You should know what church they go to. Where they go to the gym, etc. By limiting the supply of congress people we've given disproportionate weight to the richest in their district. If every neighborhood had a congressperson, there would be less of this, because they'd have to compete with votes for the (likely average) people who live there.

That being said, for me personally, I've had great luck calling my state congresspeople, because like what I said above, I do know where they live and their habits, because they're a known neighbor. Note, I completely disagree with her politics, but in terms of constituent services and getting things done, I can't criticize at all.