Entering 2006, the goal
was to take back Congress and stop the Bush agenda for the remaining
two years of his presidency. Most political pundits, pollsters,
and TV talking heads were crunching the same numbers and coming
to the same conclusion: it was possible for the Democrats to win
enough seats in the House to take control, but it would be close
and the Senate was virtually out of the question. The challenge
was how to put more races in play. MoveOn.org Political Action
decided to target what were thought to be relatively “safe”
Republican seats with a volunteer-driven visibility blitz that
would generate an outpouring of negative media coverage.
To pull this off, MoveOn joined forces with Grassroots
Campaign staff and the result was the “Caught Red Handed”
campaign—a series of people-powered exposés that
educated voters about the campaign contributions and voting records
of once-unbeatable House Republicans. This campaign help put more
safe seats into play, which then led to the get out the vote campaign
in the fall.
