Influencing Policy Decisions: Impact of Legislator Attitudes and Demographics on Public Relations Practice

This study sought to identify strategies to improve public relations efforts to influence policy by discovering U.S. legislators‘ attitudes toward healthcare policy and the impact of legislator characteristics on such attitudes. Analysis of results from an Internet/mail survey indicated statistically significant differences among respondents‘ attitudes based on gender, ethnicity, and political party affiliation (ANOVA). Such differences, however, did not skew in expected directions based on popular wisdom and previous studies. While Hispanic, Native American and mixed-ethnicity legislators were more likely than non-Hispanic white legislators to agree that healthcare issues such as access and affordability should be state priorities, not left to the private sector, female legislators were more likely than their male counterparts to downplay the importance of such issues and to indicate they should not be the state‘s responsibility. Democratic Party legislators were more likely than Republican legislators both to see healthcare as an important priority and to relegate it to the the private sector. These attitudes and differences may be used to inform public relations practice with regard to influencing legislators‘ policymaking decisions, although future research should focus on the impact of intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, and party affiliation in mitigating effects of legislator characteristics on issue attitudes.


H1:
Legislators will differ with regard to attitudes about healthcare policy priorities based on their gender.
H2: Legislators will differ with regard to attitudes about healthcare policy priorities based on their ethnicity.
H3: Legislators will differ with regard to attitudes about healthcare policy priorities based on their political party affiliations.
H4: Legislators will differ with regard to attitudes about New Mexico citizens' access to healthcare based on their gender.
H5: Legislators will differ with regard to attitudes about New Mexico citizens' access to healthcare based on their ethnicity.
H6: Legislators will differ with regard to attitudes about New Mexico citizens' access to healthcare based on their political party affiliation.
H7: Legislators will differ with regard to attitudes about healthcare affordability in New Mexico based on their gender.
H8: Legislators will differ with regard to attitudes about healthcare affordability in New Mexico based on their ethnicity.
H9: Legislators will differ with regard to attitudes about healthcare affordability in New Mexico based on their political party affiliation.

Study design, population of interest, and sample
This study combined an Internet survey with a follow-up mail survey (Dillman's fiveiteration method, 2000). The survey instrument included several author-designed scales measuring legislator attitudes toward healthcare issue priorities; better access to healthcare; and better healthcare affordability. Additionally, the survey instrument included authordesigned scales measuring legislator mass media use, as well as scales replicating studies in other states (Kral, 2003;Riffe, 1988Riffe, , 1990; these results have been reported elsewhere (J.M.
Because the NM legislature has 112 members (70, House of Representatives; 42, Senate), a census of legislators in the last session was conducted. A census limits generalizability to other NM legislative sessions and to other state legislatures, but produces a comprehensive picture of legislator characteristics, healthcare-policy information sourcing, media use and attitudes toward media and toward healthcare policy itself.

Data collection/analysis and response rate
Because of limited response to the Internet survey after five contacts, legislators not completing online surveys were mailed a copy. Legislators still not responding were telephoned and asked to complete the survey online. Despite multiple methods used to boost response rates, 41 percent (46/112) of legislators responded (27, House, 38.6 percent; 19, Senate, 45.2 percent), exceeding mean response rates expected for recent online surveys (Grava-Gubins & Scott, 2008;Sheehan, 2001).
All survey data were combined for statistical analysis in SPSS. Identifiers were removed before analysis.

Theoretical Underpinnings and Previous Inquiries into PR Influence on Public Policy
PIOs'/PRPs' strategies and tactics targeting publics about specific issues are grounded in theoretical constructs including situational and excellence theories of public relations, as well as agenda setting, framing and priming. Legislators' source choices informing healthcare policy decisions, on the other hand, are explained by theoretical constructs including adaptive structuration, and their preferences for information delivery, while they may vary based on policy type, privilege constituents and colleagues rather than mass media. In addition, lawmakers have indicated their wish to receive research reports through face-to-face channels.
situational and excellence theories to more effectively transmit messages (Brownson et al., 2010;Grunig, 2006;Park & Rhee, 2010 both positive and negative attributes of a product or service, with the negative information included voluntarily‖ (Pratt, 2004, p. 16). Such even-handed messages have been shown to be especially effective for advocacy content directed to audiences holding negative attitudes toward an issue and thus maybe particularly applicable to PIO/PRP-legislator encounters (Pratt).
Besides delivery media selection, other barriers exist to successful relationship management and transmission of information to target audiences, including disparities in perceptions of issue salience and resulting agenda setting between PIOs/PRPs and journalists; disagreements on such professional values as issue newsworthiness; differences in organizational missions, structures and processes; and disparities in individual educational backgrounds and role perceptions (Avery & Kim, 2009;Avery, Lariscy & Sohn, 2009;Lariscy, Avery & Sohn, 2010;Len-Rios, Hinnant, Park, Cameron, Frisby, & Lee, 2009;Lowery, 2007;Reich, 2009;Sallot & Johnson, 2006a, 2006bShapiro, 2007;Shin & Cameron, 2005;Veil & Ojeda, 2010;White & Wingenbach, in press). Such disparities have produced disconnects between journalists and PIOs/PRPs, with negative impacts on building bridges between the two and on the resulting abilities of PIOs/PRPs to transfer information between institutional experts and relevant publics through journalists as intermediaries.

Legislators' information delivery preferences
Legislators' opinion-formation and information sourcing are determined more by constituents, expert colleagues, and fellow committee members than by media (Kral, 2003;Riffe, 1988Riffe, , 1990 Media as Information Sources, unpublished manuscript), perhaps because legislators question media accuracy and objectivity (Kral). While PIOs/PRPs provide information subsidies to media in an attempt to set public agendas (Hays & Glick, 1997) and frames, legislators set agenda and frame issues for each other and for themselves, publics and media itself (Fico, 1984;Kral). Legislators seek and receive information from many sources ( (Riffe, 1988(Riffe, , 1990White, Willis & Stohr;Yanovitzky, 2002 efforts to influence legislators' information-sourcing behaviors. PIOs' and PRPs' attempts to influence both journalists and legislators are hampered by PR's reputation (Holba, 2006), reflecting a supposed duality of communicative action between journalists, motivated by objectivity and professional ethics, and PRPs, serving corporate agenda at odds with the good of the commons (Habermas, 1989;Salter, 2005;White, in press;White & Wingenbach, in press). Adaptive structuration within professional organizational cultures reinforces this false dicotomy (Giddens, 1984;. from PIOs as possessing an advocacy bias and may avoid using such information for stories or policy decision-making (Salter, 2005). Such prejudice hampers efforts of PIOs/PRPs to  (Noar, 2006).
Members of organizations create definitions and roles to guide and restrict their actions (Giddens, 1984). Based beliefs developed through adaptive structuration within legislatures, legislators source information ways sanctioned by colleagues and perceive media efforts accordingly. Legislators' adaptive structuration processes produce unique environments, affecting their perceptions, beliefs and behaviors; such processes and their results are necessarily different from those of journalists, PIOs and PRPs (Lariscy, Avery & Sohn, 2010).

Impact of legislators' attitudes on policy decisions
The theories of reasoned action (TRA) and planned behavior (TRB) link beliefs/attitudes to rational action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980. TRA posits human beings as rational actors, led by societal norms and individual beliefs and attitudes to behavioral intentions, manifested in actual behaviors. TPB adds the concept of perceived behavioral control to TRA: ; of political opinions on policy goals (Nelson, 2004); and of ideal types (e.g., the -normal family‖) on policymaking (Gring-Pemble, 2001).

Implications of legislator characteristics in determining policy attitudes
New Mexico ranks fifth in size, but 36 th in population, and the state boasts minority-minority status (i.e., whites are outnumbered by other ethnic/racial groups). Its legislature ranks low in studies of professionalism, according to mathematical formulae including legislators' salary and benefits (New Mexico volunteer legislators receive no salary), time demands of legislative terms (60-90 days), and staff and resources (no staff) (Squire, 1992(Squire, , 2007 and, perhaps as a result, ranks high in correlation between newspapers' and legislators' agenda (Tan & Weaver, 2009 (Ratzan, 2009, p.99).
Political party affiliation continues to exert major influence in determining legislators' polity priorities and predicting voting patterns (Roberts & Smith, 2003;Wright & Schaffner, 2002).
Parties tend to be sincere in their articulation of distinctive ideologies, and this sincerity impacts individuals' voting patterns, with legislators casting votes paralleling their party's positions (Barrilleaux, Holbrook & Langer, 2002). Other scholars, however, have found that Legislator gender influences policy priorities and voting behaviors, with female legislators often focusing on issues of particular interest to women (family concerns, access to healthcare) (Poggione, 2004;Schwindt-Bayer, 2006;Taylor-Robinson & Heath, 2003). Other studies, however, have found that legislators' presentation of professional self does not vary by gender (Niven & Zilber, 2001) and that all legislators zealously represent the interests of their constituencies (Swers, 2001). Ethnic/racial identification exerts a similar influence on legislative priorities and voting (Pruehs, 2006  Respondents were almost evenly split on controversial solutions for addressing affordability, such as expanding publicly-funded programs and instituting a statewide single-payer insurance plan and more disagreed than agreed that employer-sponsored health plans are the best way to address affordability. The latter result is surprising given that the majority saw affordability as a private sector issue. Again, however, the clearest mandate on affordability that emerges is that solving this issue should not be a responsibility of state government.  *Percentages do not total 100% due to missing data.

Findings: Demographic data
Respondents were divided between Democrats (45 percent) and Republicans (35 percent), with 19 percent declining to indicate party affiliation, and ranged between 2 and 25 years legislative service, with mean service tenure of 11 years. All respondents were older than 31 years, with the majority (57 percent) clustering between 51 and 70 years old. Three respondents (7 percent) were more than 71 years old.  disagreement that healthcare should be left to the private sector. More research is needed to explore whether legislators perhaps favor a third source of healthcare responsibility, for example, charitable/non-profit organizations or individuals. Table 5 presents results of oneway ANOVA for these relationships. from other states and other nations, and (b) more likely than Republic respondents to disagree that providing better healthcare access is not the state's responsibility. Thus, for this limited dataset, nulls for H4, H5, and H6 may be rejected. Table 6 presents results of one-way ANOVA for these relationships. Respondents of Hispanic, Native American and mixed ethnicity were (a) more likely than non-Hispanic white respondents to agree that healthcare affordability for New Mexicans is best addressed by expanding public aid programs, requiring employers to supply health insurance, or instituting a statewide single payer insurance program and (b) less likely to agree that health affordability is not a state government function but should be left to the private sector. Respondents affiliated with the Democratic party compared to Republican respondents followed the same attitude patterns exhibited by respondents of Hispanic, Native American and mixed ethnicity. Thus, for this limited dataset, the nulls for H7, H8 and H9 may be rejected. Table 7 presents results of one-way ANOVA for these relationships. *p=.00, **p≤.01, ***p≤.05 These results support those of some other researchers who found that policy positions are influenced by legislators' racial/ethnic identifications (Pruehs, 2006); that women legislators may have different issue priorities than male legislators (Poggione, 2004: Schwindt-Bayer, 2006Taylor-Robinson & Heath, 2003); and that political party affiliations impact the issue attitudes of individual legislators (Barrilleaux, Holbrook, & Langer, 2002). Similarly, however, although results of this study point to differences between legislators depending on their gender, ethnic identity and party affiliation, the study did not address the impact of intersectionality of these three attributes, suggested by other researchers to be a stronger influence that any single attribute (Cammisal & Reingold, 2004;Simien, 2007).

Implications for PIOs/PRPs and for further research
Findings of this study underscore the necessity for PIOs/PRPs seeking to influence legislators to understand (a) target audiences' initial attitudes toward issues underlying policy decisions and (b) the influence of audience demographics on those attitudes.
Both situational and excellence theories stress relationship building and maintenance through symmetrical communication strategies and tactics (Kim & Grunig, 2011). Studies of legislators' information-delivery preferences suggest that in order to build strong relationships with such target audiences, PIOs/PRPs should rely less on mass media news subsidies and more on personal contacts and interactive delivery of dynamic messages designed to affect policy decisions (Sha, 2006).
PIOs/PRPs who apply situational theory can more effectively customize message strategies and tactics to fit legislators' demographic characteristics and message and delivery preferences, as well as identify and amplify real-time audience stages relevant to individual legislators (Werder, 2006). PIOs/PRPs who use excellence theory as a guide for interactions