Election 2005: You Made it Happen

AFT-backed candidates and positions rolled to victory in the marquee matchups that shaped the November 2005 elections. Observers are now sorting out the long-term implications of these results, but two things are certain: It wasn’t politics as usual and it didn’t happen by accident.

AFT activists played a critical role in helping to secure wall-to-wall victories in key gubernatorial contests and in a widely watched special election in California. From San Francisco to Norfolk, Va., union members rose to the challenge by walking the precincts, working the phone banks and adding their voices to rallies. Their efforts helped produce what could be a welcome new political tone for the nation.

No victory was harder-won than California’s, where members of the California Federation of Teachers joined other labor members and citizens across the state in turning back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s costly and unprovoked attack on public employee union members. Californians turned the "Kindergarten Cop" into the Kindergarten Flop by shooting down Schwarzenegger-backed propositions to weaken teacher tenure, bypass voter-approved school funding guarantees, and cripple the ability of members to participate in the political process through their unions.

The vote in California capped almost a year of political action by the CFT, working in cooperation with other labor unions. Members relentlessly dogged Schwarzenegger by staging spirited rallies outside dozens of the governor’s political fundraisers for high rollers. They swelled the ranks at Worker Action Day demonstrations across the state, building crowds not seen in California since the 1960s.

And they wore out shoe leather meeting with voters in their home communities, explaining how Schwarzenegger’s cynical efforts—to attack teachers, firefighters, nurses and peace officers in a wasteful and polarizing special election—were part of a larger national plan to attack workers in general and public employee union members in particular.

"Our members heard from us, agreed with us and turned out in incredible numbers," says CFT president Mary Bergan, who is also an AFT vice president. "It is definitely our intention to keep this structure in place and to build on it as we move into the governor’s race" in 2006.

AFT activism also helped make the difference in the Virginia governor’s race, where Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine defeated state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore despite a last-ditch stump speech for the GOP challenger by President Bush. That appearance actually may have backfired: The Democrat’s six-point margin of victory was an improvement over the lead he held going into Bush’s 11th-hour appeal.

Kaine ran a positive, issues-based campaign that pledged to build on the record of popular Democratic Gov. Mark Warner, who is prohibited by state law from seeking another term. "Virginians like the way that things have been going and they want to stay on the path of a strong economy, job growth and strong support for schools," notes Marian Flickinger, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers. "Tim Kaine also embraced labor as a partner in his effort to keep Virginia heading in the right direction."

The AFT local helped get that message to voters by turning out the largest number of volunteers of any union in the state. "We had phone banks every night and precinct walks every Saturday since September," Flickinger says.

The campaign also enjoyed a tremendous boost when large numbers of volunteers from the AFT’s national office, many of whom call Virginia home, helped get out the vote. "This election really shows that a coordinated labor response works," says Flickinger, who is also president of her AFL-CIO central labor council.

The most bruising contest took place in New Jersey, where Democrat Jon S. Corzine prevailed in his gubernatorial bid despite a barrage of attacks from GOP challenger Doug Forrester. Union members across the state participated in membership meetings and literature drops to highlight Corzine’s 100 percent AFT voting record as a U.S. senator. They helped deflect personal attacks against Corzine that were only intended to distract voters. The attacks didn’t work, and the Democrat came away with a double-digit victory.

"When it came to things like sensible property tax reduction, Jon Corzine was more issue-oriented and substantive than Forrester," says Nick Yovnello, president of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals/AFT.