18 | JULY 23 • 2020 

F

ive years ago, Steve 
Katzman knew change 
was needed. 
Katzman, who’
s been involved 
with Jewish organizations in 
Metro Detroit such as JARC, 
Kadima, JFS and Friendship 
Circle for many years now, was 
trying to put together a coali-
tion to bring all those entities 
together. 
The reason for seeking the 
coalition was significant fund-
ing cuts coming down from 
Lansing, reallocating funding 
for those organizations to other 
counties. 
“I got involved with those 
organizations, and the answer 
from most of them with regards 
to the funding cuts was to 
do letter-writing campaigns,
” 
Katzman said. 
Katzman got together with 
Alan Gelfand, who had done 
fundraising for the Jewish 
Federation for years, and got 
involved in those letter-writing 
campaigns, but quickly real-
ized it was an archaic process. 
Individuals had to figure out 
who their elected officials were, 
type up written letters in their 
own words, get addresses to all 
their elected officials and then 
mail it to them all separately. 
Katzman knew there needed 
to be an easier, more convenient 
way to go about contacting 
one’
s elected officials. It was at 
that moment when he started 
researching and crafting what 
that vision might look like. 
“What kept resonating was 
getting politics down to a one-
to-one level, making sure that 
you have a voice and letting 
your voice be heard, so that 
it’
s not going into a dark hole,
” 
Katzman said.
That vision turned into 
Contact My Politician, which 
became a passion project for 
Katzman, who didn’
t have the 
ability to dedicate full-time 

attention to it due to his other 
business endeavors such as 
Camelot Venture Group and 
Smile Direct Club. The website 
slowly became a reality over 
the last five years, until it finally 
opened for business in June. 
Contact My Politician allows 
users to simply type in their 
street address, which immedi-
ately brings up all their elected 
officials. The users can then 
send a written or video message 
to one or many of those offi-
cials, with any comments, ques-
tions or concerns they may have 
about pressing political topics. 
The politician is notified 
through the platform of any 
messages from their constitu-
ents, and they’
re able to respond 
through the platform in both 
written and video form, as well. 
There’
s also a portion of the 
website geared toward nonprof-
its, which allows the nonprofit 
to write a form letter in support 
of a specific position or initia-
tive. The website provides those 

nonprofits with a dedicated link 
for that campaign, which they 
can then send out to their sup-
porters.
The supporters for the non-
profit can then contact their 
local politicians through the 
website to support the specific 
position or initiative, with an 
option to personalize the form 
letter. 
When users create a profile 
on the website, they’
re asked 
a list of questions, including 
if they’
re registered to vote, as 
well as if they voted in the most 
recent presidential, primary 
and midterm elections. The site 
also asks what issues are most 
important to the user, with 
drop-down options includ-
ing everything from civil and 
LGBTQ rights to drug and gun 
control policies, to economy 
and healthcare.
Contact My Politician is 
looking to build awareness and 
a base by targeting traditionally 
non-online media that have an 

online presence, such as local 
television stations, radio stations 
and magazines, and by allowing 
them to integrate this function-
ality into their platform.
“We’
re working on interfacing 
this, being able to allow a Fox 
2 Detroit or Detroit News to 
integrate this functionality into 
their website, so when they’
re 
reporting on a political story, 
they can encourage their audi-
ence to come to their website 
and let their voice be heard,
” 
Katzman said.
While the obvious incentive 
is there for the constituent, 
Katzman also stressed that 
there’
s significant value in the 
website for politicians as well. 
“We’
ve already had a couple 
politicians who have asked 
for access to mailing lists or if 
we can facilitate a town hall 
meeting with people who are 
engaged in our website that 
reside in their district.
” 
While the main focus of the 
site is about strengthening the 
communication between con-
stituents and their politicians, 
Katzman agrees Contact My 
Politician could also help to 
combat voter suppression; with 
how unnecessarily arduous the 
process of contacting an elected 
official previously was, so much 
so that it may have prevent-
ed individuals from getting 
involved in the political process 
in the first place. Katzman 
also agrees that the site could 
provide voter education, for 
November and beyond.
“What we’
re seeing is a high 
percentage of users that didn’
t 
vote in the most recent election,
” 
Katzman said. “But now you 
can tell they’
re very concerned 
and engaged, more than likely 
because we’
re giving them a 
platform to make them feel that 
they have a say in the process, 
and they’
re more than likely to 
now come out and vote.
” 

Let Your
Voice
Be Heard

New website easily connects
voters to their elected offi
 cials.

DANNY SCHWARTZ
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Jews in the D

Steve 
Katzman

