The National Education Association (NEA) has revamped its political department and is planning the most ambitious election efforts in its history.

The nation’s largest teachers’ union, with 3.2 million members, is looking to the 2008 races with a more ambitious scope.

“We plan to be very aggressive,” said Reg Weaver, the NEA’s president.

The group is targeting between 25 and 40 House races and nine Senate races, and will not always be supporting Democratic candidates. More than a third of the group’s members are Republicans, and Weaver said it will sometimes be supporting GOP candidates this fall.  

“I made it very clear that we cannot afford to be in the pocket of one party anymore,” Weaver said.

The NEA, which calls itself the nation’s largest professional employee organization, has always been a power politically. That’s reflected in its daily contact with the Democratic presidential contenders, who both want the group’s endorsement. But its efforts had sometimes been simplistic, and Weaver said the group is working to strengthen its political impact to ensure a greater role in the 2008 elections.

In an interview with The Hill, Weaver said the teachers’ union felt like it needed to revamp its political wing to get more involved than it had been in the past. The first step was bringing in Karen White to head the group’s new Campaigns and Elections division, he said.

White, the longtime political director for EMILY’s List, an influential group that raises funds for female candidates, brought a new level of sophistication to the NEA’s political efforts, Weaver said.

Before her arrival, he said, the NEA was unaware that its previous efforts were not as aggressive or as developed as those of other groups.

“We’ve kind of overhauled our operation here,” Weaver said. “A lot of times you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know what you’re not getting until someone points it out to you.”