SDEA Endorses Billion. (Isn't that like an Argus Endorsement?)
From a Billion for Governor campaign press release:
I hear it time and again that while many local rank and file teachers are Republicans and proudly vote that way, local education associations and SDEA on a state level remain utterly politicized and dominated by Democrats.
I've heard more than one tale from Republican legislators and legislative candidates who have been called in to interview with local education boards, and the attitude they have is "why bother?" At times it seems that the only way that a Republican can get an SDEA endorsement is if they're unchallenged. And that's still an iffy proposition.
It's not that they don't care about education, many of them care intimately. But when you've run more than once, and everytime the association blindly supports the democrat, you tend to become a little jaded about the process.
In the 2004 election, the SDEA PAC, EPIC supported 9 Republicans and 41 Democrats. Of the Republicans, three were unopposed, and you could argue the rest were lopsided in GOP favor.
Tom Hennies was the only Republican to earn a donation of $500 and Alice McCoy (running against Gary Loudner, so it was a shoe-in) got $200. The rest got $100 donations, while 19 of the Democrats got over the "$100 base" PAC donation.
SDEA a Democrats only club? It's possible that it's not. But when the rubber hits the road, and the support is balanced 72% to democrats and 18% for Republicans, I'd say it's not probable. (note - that's just on the people supported - not the cash.)
South Dakota Educators Political Involvement Committee (SD-EPIC), affiliated with the South Dakota Education Association (SDEA), has endorsed Dr. Jack Billion in the June 6th Democratic primary for governor.How is an SDEA endorsement like an Argus Leader Endorsement? Republicans just don't get them. But, maybe that's an over simplification. Maybe what I should say is that "As a Republican, you're more likely to be endorsed by the Argus Leader, than you are by the SDEA."
The endorsement reads, in part:
"It is my pleasure to inform you that the SD-EPIC Steering Committee, upon recommendation of the EPIC interview committee, is recommending your candidacy for Governor of South Dakota in the 2006 primary election," according to the letter from Donna DeKraai, SD-EPIC president and Robert Whitehead, SDEA executive director. "We have many challenges ahead of us as we work to ensure that schools can afford to have quality public schools for all students. We believe you are committed to our goal of providing a quality public education for every child in South Dakota regardless of where they live."
I hear it time and again that while many local rank and file teachers are Republicans and proudly vote that way, local education associations and SDEA on a state level remain utterly politicized and dominated by Democrats.
I've heard more than one tale from Republican legislators and legislative candidates who have been called in to interview with local education boards, and the attitude they have is "why bother?" At times it seems that the only way that a Republican can get an SDEA endorsement is if they're unchallenged. And that's still an iffy proposition.
It's not that they don't care about education, many of them care intimately. But when you've run more than once, and everytime the association blindly supports the democrat, you tend to become a little jaded about the process.
In the 2004 election, the SDEA PAC, EPIC supported 9 Republicans and 41 Democrats. Of the Republicans, three were unopposed, and you could argue the rest were lopsided in GOP favor.
Tom Hennies was the only Republican to earn a donation of $500 and Alice McCoy (running against Gary Loudner, so it was a shoe-in) got $200. The rest got $100 donations, while 19 of the Democrats got over the "$100 base" PAC donation.
SDEA a Democrats only club? It's possible that it's not. But when the rubber hits the road, and the support is balanced 72% to democrats and 18% for Republicans, I'd say it's not probable. (note - that's just on the people supported - not the cash.)
Comments
To PP, didn't George Mickelson get the SDEA endorsement in his Governor campaigns? He worked hard to get the title "education governor," and his mantra and his plan, which he claimed had been working, the more we do for economic development the move we can do for education, and the more we can do for education, the more we can do for economic development. Mickelson, who had served as the attorney for the Brookings School Board, called it the cycle of progress.
I think the SDEA endorsements were critically important to his narrow victory over Lars Herseth in 1986. Relating it to the more dubious Argus endorsement as a kiss of death sounds more like sour grapes.
Give it a rest on the "unions drive jobs oversees" crapola. God forbid employees have any sort of equality when negotiating their working conditions. Jeebus. Get a clue.
NEA and SDEA were professional organizations until they became collective bargaining organizations. They held the professional workshops and annual teachers' inservice seminars. Bill Janklow in conjunction with SDEA president Diane (I think that's how her name is spelled) Miller put an end to that. Collective bargaining became the main task of SDEA because state policy and law manipulated it into that role. That manipulation allows the sisters of perpetual resentment to dismiss it as a labor union.
If one looks at what the single-party rule has made of public education, one must ask why any professionally qualified teacher would work in South Dakota. The answer is nearly always family connections.
Republicans generally do not get endorsed by SDEA committees because they don't like public education, they dismiss teachers as low-level bonded servants, they meet any request for finanical support with the reply that it doesn't do any good to simply throw money at education, and for other reasons see Sibby.