Lenkey, driven by a desire for change, canvassed and made telephone calls to prospective voters, urging their support for gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter—the former Denver district attorney endorsed by Lenkey’s union, the Colorado Federation of Public Employees, as well as by AFT Colorado.

Ritter won the election with 56 percent of the vote to his Republican opponent Rep. Bob Beauprez’s 41 percent.

But in many respects, it was a personal victory for Lenkey too.

Before this election cycle, Lenkey’s involvement in the political process was pretty much limited to the impersonal tasks of posting yard signs and voting. She is not affiliated with a political party. Rather, she prefers to “go with who I think is the best candidate.” In this election, Lenkey was voting on the economy, the war, workers’ rights and quality public services.

“It was good to be part of a cause,” says Lenkey. “It was nice to be with a whole bunch of people from different organizations working together for a common goal.”

For Lenkey, the election was about change—ending the status quo.

‘Every little bit of effort helps’
“I’m just a little fish in a sea, but every little bit of effort helps,” says Lenkey about her campaign efforts.

But the fact is, it was the troops on the ground composed of folks like Lenkey and other AFT Public Employees members who made the difference. According to the AFL-CIO, union households accounted for roughly one out of four voters—voters determined to elect legislators who would represent a new direction in addressing the needs of working families and the middle class.

The November 2006 elections may have changed the leadership in Congress and state houses across the country, but they also resuscitated national dialogue about policy priorities.

Ideological shifts in Congress, state legislatures
After four years under anti-union GOP Gov. Robert Ehrlich, AFT-Maryland is looking forward to working with its new governor—Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley. AFT members throughout Maryland did their part to support O’Malley, participating in neighborhood canvassing activities, phone banking and staffing informational tables across communities.

Montana’s MEA-MFT continued to build on its member mobilization from the November 2005 elections, which resulted in victory for the union’s endorsed gubernatorial candidate, Brian Schweitzer.

“They were willing to get out there and do things they hadn’t done before in support of a candidate,” says Terry Minow, MEA-MFT’s political director. “I couldn’t be prouder of our members and the hard work that they did—and it paid off in spades.”

Minow says “hundreds and hundreds of members were involved” in campaign activities that ranged from phone banking to leafleting to rallying. “They did everything that needed to be done to win the election.”

MEA-MFT registered victories on all fronts: Jon Tester was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns; voters approved an initiative to raise the state’s minimum wage; and three harmful ballot initiatives were defeated, including one that would limit state revenues. (See related story on this page.)

“MEA-MFT members get it,” says Minow. “They know politics determines funding for the vital services they provide, their pay and retirement.”

They also knew that Sen. Burns had a 0 percent voting record on issues that matter to MEA-MFT members, Minow notes. In comparison, senator-elect Tester “supports unions because they support the middle class,” she says.

In Montana Legislature news, AFT Public Employees program and policy council member Jill Cohenour won her re-election bid to the state House; and in a post-election development, MEA-MFT member Sen. Sam Kitzenberg switched political party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, giving Democrats control of the state Senate. Sen. Kitzenberg told a reporter that he never left the Republican Party, rather “the party left me.”

“In New York, we made our contribution to changing Congress,” says New York State Public Employees Federation vice president Joe Fox. Among those changes was the election of Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who unseated Republican Rep. John Sweeney. Other PEF-endorsed congressional victories were registered when Democrat John Hall upset incumbent Rep. Sue Kelly; and Democrat Mike Arcuri won his bid for an open seat, formerly held by Republican Rep. Sherwood Boehlert.

From voter registration drives to phone banking to labor walks, AFT members across Pennsylvania were active in helping elect new members to the U.S. House of Representatives and in ousting Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, who was soundly beaten by AFT Pennsylvania’s endorsed candidate, state treasurer Bob Casey.

“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.

Members in Wisconsin helped elect a Legislature that values working families, recognizes the importance of investing in public services, and supports unions and collective bargaining.

“We had more than 1,000 members volunteer over the election cycle,” says AFT-Wisconsin’s government relations representative Scott Spector. “More than 100 members volunteered over the last four days, many of whom took time off from work on Election Day.”

The union registered its greatest gains in the state Senate, where seven of the eight union-backed candidates won, giving control of the Senate to Democrats—and the Senate majority leadership post to Judy Robson, a former technical college instructor and AFT-Wisconsin member.

You made the difference in the election outcome
AFT activism was on display across the country behind AFT-backed candidates: from Kansas, where voters re-elected Democrat Kathleen Sebelius governor, to Ohio, where Rep. Ted Strickland got the nod for the state’s highest office; and from New Jersey, where Democrat Bob Menendez was elected to the U.S. Senate, to Missouri, where Democrat Claire McCaskill upset one-term incumbent James Talent.

How do you effectuate change in a political landscape that is leaving large portions of society behind? AFT members showed how: You pay attention to the issues. You get involved. You stand up and be counted.