In the early months of 2006, the members of the Executive Council and I traveled all across America to talk to NALC members about our goals for the year. In addition to negotiating a new contract, we set a goal of doing everything we could to elect a pro-letter carrier Congress in the mid-term elections. I am thrilled to report that our electoral efforts have met with great success.

Thanks to the work of hundreds of NALC activists who volunteered their time and energy, dozens of NALC-supported candidates were elected across the country on Tuesday. The new Congress is certain to be more friendly to working people and their families. A more progressive Congress will make protecting our jobs, our pensions and our health benefits much easier in the years to come.

It is extremely pleasing to me that our efforts, joined with those of the rest of the American labor movement, have resulted in Democratic control of the House of Representatives and perhaps even the U.S. Senate. Democrats in general have been more supportive of working people and their unions. However, I am also pleased that so many Republican candidates supported by NALC also won their races, including Reps. Tom Davis, John McHugh and Chris Shays.

I want to thank all of our members who went to work during the elections to support candidates who support letter carriers. I want to especially recognize the 160 members who took leave to work full-time on the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2006 effort. These members spent months working on House and Senate races targeted by NALC. Although we won most of these races, I hope those who worked so hard on the handful of races where we came up short are not too disappointed. Win or lose, we stood up for our members and will live to fight another day. I hope all of you will make it a point to thank these 160 members when they return to work. Their efforts deserve praise because, by working to elect a progressive Congress, they helped protect the interests of letter carriers all across the country.

My only real disappointment in this year’s election was the loss of the Vote-by-Mail referendum in Arizona. We will try to learn from that experience and do better next time.

Many of the goals we set out in our new political field plan, backed by the resources raised by the "Gimme 5 for COLCPE" campaign, have been achieved. This proves that when letter carriers stick together and work toward common ends, nothing can stop us.

Tuesday was a great day for our union and for the country’s working people.

Thank all of you who helped make it happen.