Make Every Tuesday Call Pat Ryan Day
If you want to change things—whether in South Blooming Grove or nationally—here’s one thing you can do that will take less than five minutes each week: call Pat Ryan’s office.
Pictured Above: Congressman Pat Ryan refuses to support a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United (House Resolution 54). Of New York State’s 26 congressional representatives, 19 are Democrats. Of those 19 Democrats, 10 support House Resolution 54.
Congressman Ryan is not one of them.
A big part of the reason Ryan does not support this bill is that Congressman Ryan accepts large sums from MAGA-aligned billionaire front groups such as AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee).
Don’t let their name fool you: AIPAC has little to do with what’s best for Israel and more to do with keeping Republicans in power and pushing the Democratic Party further to the right.
As George Washington warned in his Farewell Address, Americans should be wary of allowing foreign countries to influence our government. As we approach America’s 250th birthday this July, we should recommit ourselves to preventing the wealthy, and any foreign country, from influencing our politicians, regardless of party.
There’s no shortage of local and national news to cover right now. But today, I want to direct your attention to something short and simple you can do once a week that will make a difference in your local community.
If you don’t live in Congressman Pat Ryan’s district, that’s okay—you can copy and paste the same process explained below and apply it to your congressional representatives.
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Step 0: If You Are Not Represented by Pat Ryan
If you are not represented by Congressman Pat Ryan, call the United States House of Representatives switchboard at (202) 224-3121. They can help you identify your representative and connect you directly to their office.
All of the steps below will be the same no matter who you’re calling.
Step 1: Identify Yourself as a Constituent
For this exercise, be sure you’re calling the correct representative — in my case, Pat Ryan of New York’s 18th District.
While it can be useful to contact politicians who don’t represent you, this particular action is most effective when done by actual constituents.
Congressman Ryan’s district is displayed below. You’ll see all of Orange County (it’s shaped like the head of a dog.) Within Orange County, over by Monroe, is the Village of South Blooming Grove. We talk a lot about South Blooming Grove here at the Monroe Gazette.
When the person in Congressman Pat Ryan’s office answers, identify yourself as a constituent and tell them where you live. (See the sample script below.) Make sure to include your zip code when you do. The zip code verifies that you’re a constituent in their system.
Step 2: Identify Your Position on a Specific Issue
Don’t do the Grandpa Simpson thing and rattle off every complaint you have about the congressman.
Be specific: name the single issue you’re calling about and state your position on it (for or against.)
Keep calls to one issue. Staffers are underpaid and overwhelmed, and you want them to document your call accurately.
Not every issue ties to a bill. If you’re calling about the alleged voter suppression and coercion in South Blooming Grove—conduct Pat Ryan should comment on, but hasn’t—there may be no specific legislation to cite. That’s fine, but without a bill your call is more likely to be lost in the system and may not be consistently tracked.
For this specific exercise, call Pat Ryan’s office every Tuesday about a specific bill: House Resolution 54.
The Citizens United decision has warped our national, state, and local politics.
For example, here in Southern Orange County: 2025 saw Democratic State Senator, James G. Skoufis, form an independent expenditure committee (New York’s version of a super PAC).
Mr. Skoufis, a man who ran to be chair of the Democratic National Committee, then spent over $20,000 supporting far-right MAGA bigot Brandon Calore for Woodbury mayor—an action made possible by Citizens United.
If you don’t want state senators, AIPAC, or others spending large sums on local elections, you have an interest in seeing House Resolution 54 passed.
Step 3: Request That The Staff Call You Back
Unless you’re Joel Stern (far left) or Isaac Ekstein (right, next to Pat Ryan)—both men are alleged to be at the center of a federal case involving voter suppression, voter fraud, and coercion in South Blooming Grove—you’re never going to get this close to Pat Ryan.
Stern and Ekstein have a friendly relationship with the congressman and significant access; Pat Ryan even has his own tag for Joel Stern’s United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove newsletter.
But that doesn’t mean his people can’t call you back.
When you call the congressman’s office, you should—and absolutely can—request that someone contact you back. Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t. Maybe they’ll send a generic form letter about how hard Congressman Ryan is working for you. It doesn’t matter. The point is to always ask for a reply and for them to clarify the congressman’s position on your issue.
When I asked Pat Ryan’s team for a response on House Resolution 54, I received a generic letter that didn’t even mention Citizens United. (See below.)
So, you bet your ass I’m going to keep calling them until I get an answer.
The point here is not the lack of response but your continued effort to request, and ultimately obtain, a reply.
Your elected officials work for you. It’s not the other way around.
Step 4: Call Every Week Around The Same Time
This is the most important part: it’s not enough to call Congressman Pat Ryan once on a Tuesday. You must call his office every Tuesday until you get an actual response from him or his staff on your issue.
This is where everyone messes up.
It’s not that you called—individually, our voices are easy to ignore. Unlike Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein, most of us don’t have wealthy friends like Avraham Ber Jakobowitz (sometimes spelled Avrom Bur Jacobowitz) to buy and keep a congressman’s attention.
Volume is what matters for us.
If, of 3,000 South Blooming Grove residents, 500 called Pat Ryan every week, things would change quickly about the voter suppression and election fraud. But we don’t do it. So nothing does.
Instead, Pat Ryan will call his friend Joel Stern, ask Stern about the illegal helipad at 58 Fort Worth, Stern will tell Ryan too bad, so sad, and then Ryan will shrug his shoulders and tell his constituents there’s nothing he can do for them.
(This by the way, is currently happening to Monroe resident, Mr. Javier Dam, who’s property connects to 58 Fort Worth.)
This tactic of calling at the same time every week applies to any issue. If you want a politician to respond, it takes many people calling about the same issue repeatedly, at the same time, and all asking for a response.
That’s the bad news.
The good news: everyone has five minutes on a Tuesday to call Pat Ryan’s office and ask, for example, why the congressman does not support a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United—and to urge him to publicly commit to co-sponsoring House Resolution 54.
You can use this tactic with any representative on any issue. Just follow the four steps explained here and share this post when you’re done.
Example Call Script
(Note that the items below in bold are just to show you the parts of the four steps mentioned above. Don’t take the bold to mean you should shout those parts. As funny as that would be, it would be counterproductive to our goal here.)
Hi. My name is _________________ and I am a resident of ______________. My zip code is ___________, which makes me a constituent of Pat Ryan. How are you?
Great. I’m calling to let the Congressman know I support House Resolution 54 Which is a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United. I am greatly concerned about corporations, billionaires, and other wealthy individuals controlling which candidates get nominated, and which candidates get elected.
Of the 19 New York Congressional Democrats, 10 of them support this bill. Congressman Ryan does not.
I am requesting that someone from the Congressman’s office call me back at _______________ to explain why Congressman Pat Ryan does not support overturning Citizens United.
I will continue to call every Tuesday until I have a satisfactory answer. Thank you for your time.