In the 2003-2004 election cycle, Defenders Action Fund got its electoral campaign feet wet by endorsing John Kerry for president, developing a unique swing voter project to promote his election in 10 swing states, and then producing one of the best results anywhere for such a project. In each state we identified a sizeable population of voters who were known conservationists, isolated out the significant share that were swing presidential election voters, and then implemented a highly persuasive phone/mail program emphasizing direct voter contact messaged around core conservation values. Post-election analysis showed that among this population our effort expanded John Kerry's margin over Bush by an amazing 16 percentage points. As our polling had predicted, while these voters knew little about the candidates' conservation records and positions to begin with, once they learned, they moved away from Bush and toward Kerry at a gallop.

In 2006, Defenders Action Fund dove into congressional campaigns and ran extensive direct voter contract programs in 25 House districts and played a significant role in winning control of the House for a pro-environment majority for the first time in 12 years.

But perhaps our greatest triumph in 2006 was our all-out effort to defeat the environment's biggest enemy in Congress: Rep. Richard Pombo, chairman of House Resources Committee, whom the political pundits said was unbeatable. We ran a fully integrated, independent campaign that used TV, radio, phone, mail and canvass projects to define Pombo for his own constituents. We recruited a coalition of like-minded groups to join our effort and seized control of the election. The strategy worked and we defeated Pombo (the only committee chairman to lose that year) and elected Jerry McNerney in what is regarded as the environmental community's greatest electoral triumph ever.

Now the Defenders Action Fund stands poised to build upon our success with an aggressive and expanded role in the 2008 federal elections.