Capitol View: March 6, 2010 Archive

Teacher's union declines to back a gov candidate (again)

Posted at 5:20 PM on March 6, 2010 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

Education Minnesota's PAC Board took no action on a possible endorsement for governor. The PAC Board met behind closed doors again today and Education Minnesota spokesman Lonnie Hartley says he received a "nothing to report" from his boss.

When asked to clarify if that meant there was "no endorsement made" or the union wasn't dislosing that an endorsement decision was made, Hartley said he couldn't say. He added it's fair to say "the meeting ended with no word one way or the other what happened."

A campaign manager for one of the gubernatorial campaigns said, however, that the union decided to wait on the decision.

Several factors could be at play for the delay:

1) The union is waiting for the large DFL field to shake out.
2) The union doesn't want to get involved yet since it could make an already political Legislature even more political.
3) The union could be waiting to see how hard the candidates will work on Education Minnesota's agenda for the rest of the session.
4) The union is split.

I'm checking to see if the PAC Board will meet again before the DFL State Party convention in April.

Discuss..