Teachers' Pet Party
Haar, Myron Lieberman and Charlene K.
Teachers' Pet Party by Myron Lieberman and Charlene K. Haar If you like charades, you'll LOVE the National Education Association's 1996 convention in Washington. From July 2-5, the 9,000-plus...
...This is about as close to "bipartisanship" as the NEA gets...
...Obviously, NEA coordination with DNC and Clinton White House initiatives is substantial...
...Needless to say, the endorsement is not in doubt...
...The NEA is now, legally and practically, a trade union, and as such, it should not be entitled to a tax exemption on its property in the District of Columbia...
...It contributed $1,000 to his primary race...
...if it doesn't, NEA's "bipartisanship" will be harder than ever to assert with a straight face...
...As matters stand, the only way the NEA can maintain the fiction of bipartisanship is to contribute to Republican organizations...
...Of course, the NEA did not mention the fact that none of the other organizations had become a trade union since it was chartered...
...In 39 contests for U.S...
...In the past, NEA-PAC always managed to endorse a few Republicans, especially in marginal districts, to perpetuate the fiction...
...This year, however, it is experiencing unprecedented difficulty in identifying Republicans to endorse...
...As a result, state Republican organizations may be astonished to be offered more NEA-PAC funds than in the past, though still a small proportion of total NEA contributions...
...On both occasions, the Republican defectors had been endorsed by the California Teachers Association (the state affiliate of the NEA), which also supported them in the recall elections following their effort to preserve Democratic control of the speakership...
...Just how difficult may be judged from the fact that NEA-PAC will probably contribute more "soft money" to Republican state committees than in the past...
...From July 2-5, the 9,000-plus delegates will supposedly deliberate on what candidates, if any, the NEA will support in the 1996 elections...
...Representatives generally voted along party lines: 201 Republicans and 9 Democrats for the NEA to pay up, 184 Democrats and 29 Republicans for the status-quo taxpayer subsidy...
...So far in the 1996 elections, NEA-PAC has endorsed 185 candidates for Congress-all Democrats...
...Those who refer to the Republican party as "the stupid party" have a better case than they know...
...Recent developments underscore the critical importance of the NEA's search for Republicans in marginal districts...
...It should also be noted that Debra S. DeLee, chief executive officer of the 1996 Democratic convention, was director of government relations at the NEA before being employed as executive director of the DNC...
...In every congressional district in America, NEA UniServ officers direct national and state political activities...
...On two occasions, then-speaker Willie Brown found a Republican member of the Assembly to deviate from a straight party vote to elect a Democratic speaker...
...Even Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, was willing to cooperate with "right wing" forces to eliminate the NEA's exemption, as long as his role was invisible...
...the NEA had contributed to Specter campaigns in the past...
...This process is made easier since the NEA and NEA-PAC staff now participate in all political and senior-staff meetings held by the Democratic party...
...While the money is readily traced through Federal Election Commission reports, the NEA's real impact comes from mobilizing its members to "volunteer" in campaigns...
...Myron Lieberman is senior research scholar, Social Philosophy & Policy Center, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio...
...A handful of NEA-endorsed Republicans saved the exemption...
...Charlene K. Haar is president of the Education Policy Institute...
...The exemption was included in the NEA's charter, which was accepted in 1907...
...meanwhile it gave $5,000 to Lynn Yeakel in the Democratic primary and another $5,000 in the general election against Specter...
...Since it was established in 1972, NEA-PAC has never endorsed a Republican for president...
...Although many offices at NEA headquarters display Clinton campaign memorabilia, the NEA's internal polls indicate that almost 40 percent of its 2.2 million members identify themselves as Republicans...
...NEA-PAC is working closely with the DNC to slot delegates to the Democratic convention...
...While the Republicans and the media focused their attention on a cosmetic District of Columbia voucher plan that would have changed nothing, the most powerful Democratic machine in the United States managed to avoid paying taxes on its buildings another year, at a time when the District of Columbia is in desperate financial condition...
...Another example was the November 1, 1995, vote in the House of Representatives over whether to terminate the NEA's tax exemption...
...It has also agreed informally to focus its efforts on the Clinton campaign/Democratic National Committee list of 27 target states...
...It might well have considered Arlen Specter, had Specter stayed in the presidential race...
...The exemption is worth about $1.7 million annually to the NEA...
...This is only one of the reasons the NEA goes to great lengths to characterize itself as bipartisan...
...The savings, which are roughly equal to NEA dues from 16,500 members, will be used against Republican candidates...
...But with the retirement or defeat of numerous "moderates," NEA-PAC is having so much trouble finding Republicans to endorse that it is considering whether to lower the 80 percent standard...
...Inasmuch as NEA-PAC plans to raise $6.5 million in cash, and its cash contributions will undoubtedly be dwarfed by its usual avalanche of in-kind contributions, no one should underestimate the NEA's commitment to the Clinton campaign...
...NEA-PAC endorsement guidelines call for endorsing incumbents who vote the NEA way at least 80 percent of the time...
...The NEA's political action committee endorsed Bill Clinton through the primaries, but only the NEA's Representative Assembly can endorse a presidential candidate in the general election...
...The NEA's defense was that Congress was taking "punitive" action by lifting its exemption but not the exemption of the other organizations chartered by Congress...
...By now, most people have heard about the struggle in late 1995 in the California Assembly over the speakership...
...The motion to lift the exemption lost by three votes, 210-213...
...Considering that California is entitled to 422 delegates out of 4,321, it is plain that the NEA will play a prominent role in anointing Clinton for a second term...
...Senate seats in 1992, Specter was the only Republican candidate to be endorsed by NEA-PAC...
...in the same period, six state Republican organizations shared less than $75,000...
...the expectation is that the NEA will send more delegates to the Democratic convention than any other interest group or state...
...From 1988 to 1994, 48 state Democratic party organizations received more than $2.3 million from NEA-PAC...
...Organizations chartered by Congress include the American National Red Cross, the American Legion, AMVETS, American War Mothers, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Disabled American Veterans...
...In addition, NEA staff are dispatched to targeted states to assist with phone banks, door-to-door canvassing, absentee vote programs, media development and coordination, and polling and consulting to benefit NEA-endorsed candidates...
...Soft money goes to party organizations rather than candidate organizations and is used for slate mailers, get-out-the-vote drives, and other party-building activities...
Vol. 1 • June 1996 • No. 40
