Seth A. Richardson

srichardson@rgj.com

Nancy Lang has been trying to reach U.S. Sen. Dean Heller’s office for some time, but to no avail.

The 67-year-old from Gardnerville wanted to talk about some of the votes before the Senate – especially confirmation votes for some of President Donald Trump’s cabinet appointees and the precarious position of President Barack Obama’s health care plan in Congress.

Especially problematic at the moment for Lang is Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

“There’s two Republicans who have withdrawn support (from DeVos). If he would do it, it might sway the approval of her,” Lang said. “I was trying to get through to say please, please reconsider."

Lang, a Democrat, said she voted for Heller in the 2012 election and wanted to let him know how she felt about the issues, but only got busy signals and voicemails with full inboxes.

“I think he’s a pretty reasonable, approachable person,” she said. “That’s why I’ve been trying to touch base.”

Darin Bue, 57, of Reno and a Democrat, said he had the same problem Thursday morning when trying to make his feelings about DeVos known.

“I called this morning at 6:30 a.m. Got a busy signal. I tried yesterday and got a busy signal. The phones just seem to be down up there,” Bue said.

Bue and Lang’s problems aren’t isolated. The Reno Gazette-Journal talked to more than a dozen people – mostly Democrats – who said they were having trouble getting through to Heller – a Republican.

Heller himself addressed the large numbers of calls via a Thursday morning tweet.

"We are experiencing heavy call volumes in all our offices," Heller said. "Staff is answering as many as possible. Please continue calling to get through."

Another tweet rebuffed a claim first reported in The Nevada Independentthat a voicemail message that simply hung up on the person was authentic. Heller said the Senate sergeant-at-arms was investigating.

T

he main impetus reported by most people for the influx of calls were their strong disdain of DeVos – a private school advocate who's never attended public school and whose children do not attend public school. The idea of putting pressure on Heller regarding DeVos exploded after Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both said they would not support Trump’s nominee.



Heller announced his support for DeVos on Wednesday.

Since then, the lines have been backed up. Neal Patel, a spokesman for Heller, said the call volume was easily in the thousands for Thursday alone between the Reno, Las Vegas and Washington office.

Even those hoping to leave a voicemail after hours said they were mostly out of luck.

“We used to reach their voicemails after hours in the D.C. and Reno offices,” said Lisa Foley, a 60-year-old Democrat from Zephyr Cove. “Now those voicemails are full and when you do finally get through, you get put on hold.”

There’s been a concerted effort since Trump took office to squeeze Heller into breaking from the president. Heller is considered one of the most targetable senators in the 2018 election considering Nevada's heavily Democratic lean in 2016.

Multiple protests varying in size from a few people to more than 100 have appeared outside his Reno office in recent weeks asking him to oppose many of Trump’s cabinet nominees but has voted for every Trump cabinet nominee who has come up for a vote and announced support for DeVos and three other nominees.

However, Heller has broken with Republicans on several votes this year. He voted with Democrats on several amendments aimed at preserving some provisions of President Barack Obama’s health care plan during the opening days of the new Congress, though they all failed.

Some of those who contacted the Reno Gazette-Journal reported being active in politics for years while some, like Geoffrey Smith, 42, of Reno, have never voted before.

“Generally it’s not been an issue to get to Heller in (Washington) or Reno,” said Smith, who identified as nonpartisan and is working toward gaining citizenship by the 2018 election. “The last 24 hours have been impossible.”

Molly Lewis, a 34-year-old Democrat from Reno, said she was even hung up on once when calling the Las Vegas office.

“I said I wasn’t able to get through to the Reno office. I said I was calling about DeVos and then the line went dead,” she said.

She said it took another 40 tries to get through to the Washington office.

Patel said he could not comment on a possible hangup, but laid out the office policy for answering calls.

"We have a very strict policy in ensuring each call into our office is handled politely and professionally," Patel said. "We ask for the name, telephone number, address if they’re from the state and zip code. If they’re calling form the state, we thank them for calling us and say we will relay the message to the senator."

Though Lewis said she did not appreciate being hung up on, she thought the fact people were calling their representatives to the point the phone lines were jammed was a positive sign people were being engaged with their government.

The people the RGJ spoke with said they had no trouble getting through to Heller’s Democratic counterpart U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s office.

Cortez Masto, has voted for three of the six nominees currently confirmed. She’s expressed support or voted in committee for four more while announcing opposition to three, including DeVos.

“Yeah, we’re getting lots of calls,” said Rey Benitez, a spokesman for Cortez Masto. “We’re actually getting calls about Heller not answering his calls.”

This post has been updated.

Seth A. Richardson covers politics for the Reno Gazette-Journal. Like him on Facebook here or follow him on Twitter at @SethARichardson.