Posted on 08/30/2003 9:01:36 AM PDT by TheDon
'Stand And Deliver' Teacher Signs Up With Arnold
LOS ANGELES -- The teacher made famous by the movie "Stand and Deliver" has signed up with Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial-recall election campaign as an educational adviser.
One the same day that the state's AFL-CIO union agreed to endorse Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's "No on Recall, Yes on Bustamante" strategy, Schwarzenegger campaign picked up one of its own.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Jaime Escalante, the East Los Angeles calculus teacher whose ability to turn poor teenagers into top students inspired the movie, has agreed to advise Schwarzenegger on education issues.
There is, however, one drawback to Escalante's participation. He must travel to Los Angeles from his native Bolivia, where he now lives.
"I'm going to come up and help him out," Escalante, 72, told the paper.
The retired teacher added that he expects his contacts in the Hispanic community to benefit Schwarzenegger's campaign for governor.
Over the years he has supported other Republican candidates. Escalante, who taught at East Los Angeles' Garfield High School for 17 years, began encouraging his students to take advanced placement exams in calculus soon after taking over the math program n the late 1970s.
When nearly two dozen of them racked up high scores in 1982, officials suspected cheating and made 14 of the students retake the test. All of them passed.
Escalante said he planned to meet with Schwarzenegger in California on Sept. 8. The actor's campaign said the retired teacher will be part of a team of education advisers.
The two met while working on a PBS program on math in 1991, and Escalante said he was still grateful for Schwarzenegger's help.
"Somehow I had to pay him back for what he did for me," Escalante said.
Meanwhile, across the political aisle, Gov. Gray Davis and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante are inching closer together despite their icy relationship. Given the circumstances of the recall, Democrats have little choice now but to have Davis and Bustamante link arms, said Walter Stone, chairman of the political science department at the University of California, Davis.
"The Democrats would have been taking a big chance by not having this candidate-in-waiting option," he said. "Davis' plan, to tie Democrats to the steering wheel in a game of chicken, would have been very high-risk."
The California State Labor Federation AFL-CIO, an association of more than 1,300 local unions representing some 2.1 million workers in manufacturing, construction and other industries, voted Tuesday to endorse Bustamante for governor in case Davis is ousted in the Oct. 7 recall election.
The endorsement of the lieutenant governor's "No on recall, yes on Bustamante" campaign, was a significant strategic shift for the union, which led opposition to the recall and urged other Democrats to stay off the ballot. But labor leaders said embracing the strategy was the best way to help the Democratic governor survive -- not an indication they feared he would lose.
But any move to unite the estranged bedfellows carries a risk that Bustamante will be too closely associated with Davis and the problems he's been blamed for causing. The two share the same political base and are seeking funds from the same sources. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, leading in the polls among Republicans, has already tagged Bustamante as Davis without the hair.
Bustamante welcomed the endorsement, which follows similar support from the state's teacher union, California's Democratic congressional delegation and state Senate Democrats.
Copyright 2003 by NBCSandiego.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Was thinking the same thing. If he gets whacked, El Bustamante's gonna be under some "series" investigation.
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