I am particularly proud of the former and current members of the AFT who were elected to office, including Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Cory Mason of the Wisconsin Assembly. Harry Mitchell of Arizona, Dave Loebsack of Iowa, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Dean Heller of Nevada and Mike Arcuri of New York were all elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and add to the growing AFT “caucus” there.

The AFT deployed nearly 500 volunteer members, retirees and staff to assist affiliates and the AFL-CIO in member education and get-out-the-vote efforts. The AFL-CIO reports that more than 205,000 union volunteers participated in this year’s unprecedented election effort, making 30 million phone calls, knocking on 8.25 million doors and reaching 14 million workers at their work sites or in their neighborhoods. The labor program also focused on turning out millions of infrequent voters in battleground states.

And it worked. The AFT supports candidates based on the issues, not party affiliation, and large numbers of AFT-endorsed candidates won their races. Democrats secured control of both houses of the U.S. Congress. In the states, Democrats held their 14 governorships and won gubernatorial elections in six additional states. State chambers (either house, senate or both) shifted from the Republican to the Democratic column in seven states.

The AFT, often working in coalitions, secured a clean sweep of defeats for treacherous ballot initiatives, such as TABOR (the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights) in Maine, Nebraska and Oregon and the
65 percent mandate (a gimmick to limit spending on public education) in Colorado, as well as victories for initiatives to raise the minimum wage in six states.

All of this must be done within the constraint of a federal budget ravaged by years of reckless tax cuts for the wealthy and the expense of the war in Iraq. The astronomical federal deficit, run up by the party that once prided itself on fiscal restraint, has hampered investment in national priorities like education, healthcare and programs that help working families.

The outgoing Republican-controlled Congress this year alone cut $10.5 billion from Medicaid, which provides coverage to poor children, elderly and disabled individuals. The Congress slashed $12.7 billion from student loan programs and leveled the largest cut in the 26-year history of the U.S. Department of Education. Even President Bush’s signature domestic program, the No Child Left Behind Act, has been underfunded by $55.7 billion since the law’s passage.

The new congressional leadership has pledged to take dramatic steps in the first 100 hours of the new Congress. The new leaders plan to raise the federal minimum wage, cut in half the interest rates on student loans, and allow the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare recipients—all with a commitment not to increase the federal deficit.

For AFT members, our next steps must be to make sure the candidates we worked so hard to elect remember the working men and women—and their families—whom they now represent. Our ACE (Activists for Congressional Education) program, which resulted in numerous successful meetings between AFT activists and their senators and representatives even before this shift in power, must reach a new level of activity and effectiveness. And through the AFT’s Count Me In initiative to build a stronger union through greater member activism, we hope that AFT members like you will get involved. (Visit www.aft.org/CountMeIn.)

We look forward to working with elected officials in Congress and state houses (Republicans and Democrats alike) to enact laws that strengthen public education and other essential public services; expand access to high-quality, affordable healthcare; protect the right to union representation; and safeguard the economic security of working and retired Americans. Thanks to you, we have a great opportunity ahead of us.