Yesterday, we announced a campaign to pass S. 482, the Senate electronic filing bill. There are two tacks to this campaign: one involves calling your senators and seeking support for the bill and opposition to a potential poison pill amendment, the other involves "tweeting" to the 17 senators on Twitter to try and secure their support for the bill or thank them for cosponsoring. After one day, we have already received positive responses from both Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Claire McCaskill. Both stated their support for the bill over Twitter:

clairecmc: I've supported electronic filing of campaign reports for a long time. It's embarrassing that we are not required to file electronically.#482

Barbara_Boxer: Thanks to all who tweeted me about e-filing of campaign finance reports. I was a cosponsor of S. 482 before and will do so again.

In less than 24 hours, 2 out of 15 of the senators on Twitter who had not cosponsored are now cosponsors. (UPDATE: Sen. McCaskill has not yet officially cosponsored the bill and simply stated her support, Sen. Boxer officially cosponsored the bill yesterday. We hope that McCaskill turns her support into being an actual cosponsor soon.) In terms of grassroots outreach that is an amazing turn around. (See also, Clay's post at Sunlight Labs.) In both the Boxer and McCaskill responses we can see that Twitter is a great way to communicate with constituents. Thanks to everyone who helped "tweet" these senators.

We still your help in making telephone calls to Senate offices. So far, 67 calls have been made. We need to keep the pressure on to make sure that this bill finally passes. Go to the Pass 482 site and follow the instructions to call your senators. It's very easy.

Update: Please send your thanks to @Barbara_Boxer and @clairecmc (Sen. Claire McCaskill) for agreeing to cosponsor S. 482.

The legend of lobbying in Washington, DC states that President Ulysses Grant would take a jaunt over to the Willard Hotel to smoke cigars and enjoy a glass of brandy. Waiting in the hotel’s lobby for the President would be agents of all the big industries and causes seeking an audience. Today, you don’t need to come to Washington or wait for politicians to leave their security bubbles to get a word in edge wise, all you need is to connect with them on Twitter and keep the lobbying to 140 characters or less. In our quest to pass S. 482, a bill to require senators to file their campaign finance reports electronically, we are taking our lobbying, with your help, to Twitter.

Here’s the scoop: There are currently seventeen senators on Twitter. For the most part these senators have not yet signed on as cosponsors to S. 482. In fact, only two of the seventeen are already cosponsors. We need your help to petition over Twitter the fifteen who have not cosponsored and ask them to support the bill by signing on as a cosponsor. Each one of these senators will need a tweet sent to them (example: @jimdemint) with a message asking them to cosponsor. Feel free to make up your own message: Example: @jimdemint Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! The senators to contact with this message are (with example message for posting): Barbara Boxer, D-CA: @Barbara_Boxer Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Susan Collins, R-ME: @senatorcollins Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! John Cornyn, R-TX: @JohnCornyn Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Jim DeMint, R-SC: @jimdemint Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! John Ensign, R-NV: @johnensign Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Chuck Grassley, R-IA: @chuckgrassley Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Jim Inhofe, R-OK: @jiminhofe Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Mel Martinez, R-FL: @melmartinez Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Claire McCaskill, D-MO: @clairecmc Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Robert Menendez, D-NJ: @senatormenendez Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH: @JeanneShaheen Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Mark Udall, D-CO: @markudall Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Tom Udall, D-NM: @tomudall Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Mark Warner, D-VA: @MarkWarner Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! Roger Wicker, R-MS: @rogerwicker Need your support for Senate e-filing of campaign finance reports. Please cosponsor S. 482! The two senators who are already supporting the bill need a different message. For these senators we want to know where they stand on the potential Roberts amendment, which has been proposed as a way to block passage of the bill. We want to know if these senators will oppose the Roberts amendment. Here’s an example statement: Example: @SenChrisDodd Thanks for supporting S. 482! To ensure passage I need you to oppose the proposed Roberts amendment. Thank you again. The senators receiving this message are (Twitter name in parentheses): Chris Dodd, D-CT: @SenChrisDodd Thanks for supporting S. 482! To ensure passage I need you to oppose the proposed Roberts amendment. Thank you again. John McCain, R-AZ: @SenJohnMcCain Thanks for supporting S. 482! To ensure passage I need you to oppose the proposed Roberts amendment. Thank you again. The more tweets to senators the better, so get your friends to tweet too, or have them re-tweet you. To learn more about S. 482, check out the Pass 482 site.