Education groups from around the state are throwing their weight behind legislative candidates for this year’s election and the state’s largest teachers’ group is joining in the chorus flexing its legislative muscles in 2016.
The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, has handed out a variety of endorsements during the 2016 campaign season, giving thumbs up to candidates like U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, who’s running for U.S. Senate. He's vying for the Democratic nomination against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson in the primary election.
The union boasts over 140,000 members statewide, while the National Education Association has nearly 3 million members across the country. Those numbers mean significant voting power come time for election season, and an endorsement from the FEA can sometimes give candidates the push they need to knock out their competition.
Murphy realized the power of the teachers when he was endorsed in April.
"Today's endorsement of 140,000 members is so important," Murphy said the day of the announcement. "This means there's going to be boots on the ground."
According to FEA spokesperson Mark Pudlow, the FEA has a group which determines which candidates get their seal of approval for that election cycle.
“Each election cycle FEA has a committee of leaders, staffers and members from throughout the state that gathers to consider candidates of all stripes,” Pudlow told Sunshine State News. “For federal election – president, U.S. Senate and U.S. House – we will offer recommendations to our national affiliates – the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers – and they will offer the formal recommendations.”
Pudlow said the same group making recommendations on a national level also makes the same recommendations on the local level for statewide races for governor, Cabinet, state Senate, state House, amendments as well as judicial retentions.
“[The group] will consider questionnaires from candidates, experience with candidates, past and current positions and recommendations from our local unions to come up with the FEA recommendations,” he said. “The group meets in advance of the primaries and again in advance of the general election.”
What exactly determines who will be one of the lucky candidates endorsed by the FEA?
Pudlow said an endorsement from the union depends on a few things. First, candidates have to be defenders of the group’s main cause -- which is, of course, public education.
“Support is predicated upon a belief in our public education system first, in those who serve our children, in the belief that these voices need much more representation from elected officials and that their collective action as set forth in law should not be threatened or denigrated. This is true nationally, statewide and locally,” he explained.
But a bleeding heart for public education isn’t going to get just anybody an endorsement from the FEA. The group wants to see real contenders fighting for its mission -- and it wants to make sure whichever candidate it gives the go-ahead to is going to actually go places.
“It is not just positions but electability that matters because dollars are scarce and we are not the big spenders,” Pudlow said. “Our strength is in our members.”
Party affiliation doesn't seem to have much pull when it comes to endorsements, but the group seems to lean towards Democrats versus Republicans for endorsements, since Democrats often tend to support positions similar to the FEA's, like opposing the statewide voucher program, which remains popular with conservatives.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
