I too got a response to my letter from Deborah Dawkins, although she is the only one who's replied so far.  She wrote once and then again, after reading my letter to the editor in the Sun Herald.  She indicated in both messages that the board is autonomous--that is, that to some extent the legislature's hands are tied--but she also said that she was going to ask some questions of the AG's office and elsewhere about things like e-mail monitoring, etc.  Most importantly, she encouraged me (and others) to keep writing letters and to come out publicly, as publicly as we can, with our distress and dismay about the pass to which we have come. 

SO--keep those letters going.  I think they WILL make a difference.  On another note: continue wearing those buttons and badges around town.  Whenever I have mine on, I get questions--and people get answers (longer ones, surely, than they had anticipated!).

Ellen Weinauer