Tennessee lawmakers stay connected with constituents

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee lawmakers use different means to stay connected with constituents in the digital age.

The Commercial Appeal (https://bit.ly/1Or1m01) reports U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis uses emails and tweets, and he carries a government-issued BlackBerry, an iPad and a personal iPhone.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. of Knoxville mostly stays away from newer technology when it comes to communicating. Duncan says he prefers phone conservations to cyberspace communications. He doesn’t use email or text and aides tweet on his behalf.

“I’m from the old school, I guess,” he said.

Cohen has become the norm in Congress, where most members have both official and private email accounts and carry more than one mobile device.

That includes some Tennesseans, though others carry one mobile device and use it to access both official and private emails, which is allowed.

Cohen’s spokesman says he has two email accounts and most of his work-related correspondence goes through the official account. The congressman sends any work-related correspondence he gets on his private email to a staffer who sends it to his government account.

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker of Chattanooga keeps an official email account for work-related emails, his office said.

“He also has a private account for non-official communication,” Corker’s spokeswoman said. “To comply with Senate ethics requirements, he carries one device that is not paid for by taxpayers.”

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Maryville uses a device paid for by his campaign, “with which he regularly communicates with constituents and others through his official Senate and personal email accounts,” said his spokesman, Jim Jeffries.

“This is a common setup in Congress,” Jeffries said.

U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher of Frog Jump has one iPhone but uses separate servers for his official and personal email accounts, said his spokeswoman Logan Ramsey.

She said sometimes the congressman uses his personal account for business, though, because “folks contact Congressman Fincher by any means possible.”

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Information from: The Commercial Appeal, https://www.commercialappeal.com