These mainstream voters were joined by labor’s ground forces: Thousands upon thousands of AFT activists and volunteers from other unions engaged, energized and mobilized voters in 2006 like never before. Labor in general, and AFT “Count Me In” activists in particular, did their part and more to change the priorities and the agenda of the nation. They made telephone calls, walked the precincts, circulated literature and rallied communities behind candidates pledged to ending both the war in Iraq and the war on America’s working families.

The result is a Congress that is poised to chart a new course on issues ranging from healthcare and retirement security to raising the minimum wage.

“I’m a campaign grunt and proud of it,” says Arlene Schor, a member of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals and an adjunct professor at Kean University. Schor was one of thousands of AFT members across her state who worked tirelessly to get out the vote for Democrat Bob Menendez in the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey. These volunteers played a key role in helping to stop opponents’ blatant efforts to turn the vote based on Menendez’s surname and the issue of immigration. “Bob Menendez co-sponsored a bipartisan bill on border security. He has a track record of being an independent thinker, and we made sure people knew that,” Schor explains.

AFT activism also was on display in Ohio, always a bellwether state in national politics. From the gubernatorial race to the Senate battles to key House races, residents of the Buckeye State cast across-the-board votes for change and supported AFT-backed candidates. Leading the charge for change were AFT members like Kris Schwarzkopf, a paraprofessional in the Toledo public schools.

Ohio has lost more than 180,000 manufacturing jobs in recent years, and public school systems across the state have been reeling from several years of job cuts, Schwarzkopf points out. Voters this year seemed to connect the trends. They stood up to a GOP-dominated Congress that gave the green light to CAFTA and other unfair trade policies, and they voted out state leaders who had backed the sweeping creation of charter schools with no accountability. “There was real enthusiasm in this year’s election—it was building for months,” says Schwarzkopf, who notes that the voters she met on precinct walks and through phone banking seemed very attuned to the issues and the need for a new direction.

Certainly no contest loomed larger in the outcome of the 2006 election than Virginia’s U.S. Senate race. Cindy Huffman, a teacher at Norfolk’s Oceanair Elementary School was among the AFT members who worked hard to send Jim Webb to Capitol Hill, and she says the enthusiasm shown at an array of get-out-the-vote activities began two years ago, when organized labor was able to send Tim Kaine to the governor’s mansion. “The momentum from that campaign just carried over,” says Huffman. “It showed us that we could make a difference—that we weren’t at the mercy of the ‘old boy network’” in state politics.

Missouri, too, was a key battleground in 2006, and Claire McCaskill’s victory in the widely watched Senate race owed much to a mobilized base of labor volunteers. Among them was Andrea Flinders, a teacher in Kansas City who helped support McCaskill’s bid by reaching out to voters in neighborhoods and schools around her community. Teachers were impressed by McCaskill’s bold, informed stands on education—particularly her call for a No Child Left Behind Act that not only would be fully funded but also supported by policies and practices based on solid, informed research. “Claire McCaskill made it clear that she wanted to be a partner in real public school improvements,” Flinders says.

The education connection also was evident in Montana’s U.S. Senate race and the campaign waged by Democrat Jon Tester, a former public school music teacher. AFT member Noreen Burris, an elementary school counselor in Billings, says Tester made it clear to voters that he was a candidate who had his priorities straight. He asked children to join him on the stage at a stump speech, she says, and then told them: “I’m not going to Washington to improve my quality of life, I’m going to improve yours.” Restoring integrity to Capitol Hill was a big concern of voters this year. “Jon stayed on his message of integrity and honesty,” says Burris, who spent months helping run the office at the Democrat’s campaign headquarters.

From voter registration drives to phone banking to labor walks, AFT members across Pennsylvania were active in helping the Keystone State elect new members to the U.S. House of Representatives and in ousting Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. The incumbent was soundly beaten by state treasurer Bob Casey, who was endorsed by AFT Pennsylvania. “We had programs in every corner of the state—from Pittsburgh and New Castle in western Pennsylvania to Scranton and Philadelphia,” AFT Pennsylvania political director Dee Tancredi reports.

The state federation, she says, set up voter registration tables at college campuses and shopping malls in the Philadelphia area; it also joined the AFL-CIO in identifying union members, including a large retiree contingent, to work the polls on Election Day.

Decisive victory on key state ballot measures

Voters in Maine, Nebraska and Oregon chose good government over tax rebates, soundly rejecting so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) ballot initiatives to limit the size and scope of funding for public services and programs. And in Colorado, a misleading ballot measure that would have required every school district to spend at least 65 percent of its budget on “classroom instruction” was overwhelmingly defeated.

“Americans have once again sent the clear message that well-funded, high-quality public services are essential to the health, safety and prosperity of states and communities,” says AFT president Edward J. McElroy.

On a par with the Election Day defeat of TABOR: Its supporters failed to get the measure on the ballot in more than 20 states in 2006.

TABOR ballot initiatives seek to amend state constitutions to limit government spending and growth to a rigid formula (commonly the rate of inflation plus population growth) and require voter approval for tax and fee increases. Colorado is the only state with a TABOR amendment, which voters suspended in November 2005 because of its harmful effects on public services—most notably higher education and social/medical services for children, the elderly and the disabled.

Critics note that the inherent inflexibility of TABOR impedes the ability of policymakers to respond to public needs, including unforeseen events such as the war on terror or public health emergencies.

In Colorado, almost two-thirds of the voters rejected Amendment 39, which uses the same narrow and misleading definition of instruction as other “65 percent solution” proposals that have popped up around the country recently. “Colorado voters sent a clear message that the needs of students—not an arbitrary, one-size-fits-all mandate—should drive education-spending decisions,” McElroy says. “Voters recognized that Amendment 39 would have hurt kids, forcing deep cuts in school services—such as nursing, transportation, building maintenance, school security and nutrition programs—that are essential to students’ health, safety and academic success.”

The national union and AFT Colorado worked hard, as part of a coalition that included the NEA and the state’s school boards and administrators associations, to educate members and the broader public about the proposal’s dangers.

Key ballot measures became a rallying point for many Democratic candidates for state office—and voters signaled their approval. For the first time in 12 years, Democrats are in the majority among the nation’s governors. And Democrats took control of both legislative chambers in 23 states and improved their margins in many others, the Associated Press reports. “At the end of the day, the tide really just moved in one direction,” one analyst told AP.