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.