Amanda Fenner of Edgewood thought she was being pranked when called Monday with news she had just won a 2008 Toyota Prius, an electioneering gift from the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. “I thought it was somebody who was calling everyone and telling them they’d won a Prius,” she laughed. “I thought it was a hoax.”

On the other end of the phone line, it was Ed Yoon, Defenders’ New Mexico/Colorado campaign director, who called Fenner. If she didn’t answer, he would have picked someone else’s name out of the raffle basket, he told the crowd gathered for the giveaway.

As her phone rang, one of the jokers in the crowd shouted, “I want a recount — it’s a hanging chad!”

Then Fenner answered and the crowd let out a collective groan. She, however, wasn’t convinced Yoon was telling the truth. “You won!” cried Yoon. “We have witnesses!”

Defenders offered the Prius in July as part of its campaign to elect U.S. Rep. Tom Udall to New Mexico’s open U.S. Senate seat, and used the high-mileage hybrid electric to remind voters that his opponent, Hobbs Republican Steve Pearce, had a history of support for and from the oil industry.

The group worked the $25,000 vehicle into its campaign by decorating it with huge, removable decals that slammed Pearce and driving it around on campaign business. With the decals removed, it’s a deep chile red — perfect for any New Mexican.

The fuel-efficient Prius should save Fenner and her husband $1,400 a year in gas expenses, which is roughly the amount in campaign contributions Pearce has received from the oil industry every four days during his six years in the U.S. House, Yoon said in July.

Fenner, who is the manager of a horse farm and has an 18-month-old son, said she’s wanted a Prius for years. She and her husband, a musician, drive into Albuquerque three or four times a week, she said, which is a 40-mile round trip at a minimum. “We’re paying a fortune in gas,” she said.

She heard about the giveaway from her mother-in-law, who sent her an e-mail with a link to the Defenders’ Web site and a note that said, “You never know.”

Asked whom she voted for, Fenner laughed and said, “It wasn’t Steve Pearce, I can tell you that.”