Posted on 10/21/2002 10:49:37 AM PDT by xsysmgr
One week after Al Gore conceded Florida's hotly contested 2000 election and George W. Bush became president, the Democrat-controlled teachers' union in the state began to take its revenge on the Republican party.
On December 20, 2000, the Florida Education Association signed a new mortgage on its Tallahassee headquarters. Two years later, the $1.7 million in equity the FEA sucked out of its South Adams Street building is being used to pummel President Bush's brother, Jeb, as he attempts to become Florida's first Republican governor to win reelection. Since January, the FEA has spent $1.5 million supporting Democrat Bill McBride against Jeb, and the two candidates are now tied in polls.
Confronted with their annual reports to the U.S. Department of Labor listing a $1,002,954 mortgage in 2000, and a $2,723,085 mortgage the next year, FEA President Maureen Dinnen doesn't deny leveraging her union's headquarters for a single political candidate. "We were authorized to extend as many funds as needed because our people are so upset about the situation in Florida," she insists. Dinnen claims in May 2001 the FEA's delegate assembly gave her "not exactly a blank check," but the authority to do whatever was necessary to defeat the younger Bush — who supports vouchers and standardized testing for Florida students.
But Dinnen and her cohorts didn't wait to see whether the Democratic nominee would be any more sympathetic to their demands than Jeb Bush before offering up their teachers' building. Public records from Leon Country, Florida show that the FEA took out a new mortgage with Capital City Bank six months before the delegate assembly allegedly ordered its "hit" on Jeb, and 13 months before it endorsed Bill McBride over former attorney general Janet Reno and two other Democrats in the primary.
Asked about this telling timeline, Dinnen responds: "I'm not comfortable talking about that. Whatever we did to secure those funds, I know it was legal and we have nothing to be ashamed of. As far as giving you exact dates, I'm not comfortable doing that. I'm not a financial person."
Try pleading a phobia of numbers with Florida's math teachers — whose union dues probably paid for the South Adams Street building that Dinnen and the FEA's leadership leveraged in their campaign to destroy Jeb Bush.
The FEA says the money its companion organization, Quality Public Education Corp (QPEC), has poured into television commercials for McBride is largely from teachers' union dues. It may be that the cashed-out equity from the FEA's headquarters didn't go straight into the McBride effort, but it just happened to free up $1.5 million in union dues for politicking. (Class, can you spell "fungible"?)
If McBride wins — thanks in part to the FEA gambling the teachers' building — its members won't have to deal with Jeb Bush holding them accountable for student performance anymore. They'd better hope that payoff is worth the hike in union dues to pay off the extra interest on a mortgage $1.7 million higher than it was before their leadership sought revenge against the Bushes in December, 2000.
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— Bernadette Malone is a columnist for the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader and an editor at Regnery Publishing in Washington, D.C.
The last I heard about it was the day that the Florida Republican Party took the issue to court, and have not heard a word about it since. Either there is nothing happening with the challenge, or the press is burying the story. I have no idea what the current status is and I have been wondering about this too.
FEA members ought to be outraged that their dues are being spent for such a partisan political agenda, which may result in electing a governor (God forbid) who will reverse all the progress Jeb has made in improving Florida's educational system.
If you have a minute, freep this poll, Gannett Jeb-smear.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/770284/posts?page=1 According to today's Washington Post, McBride recently appeared on the radio program of former Miami-Dade NAACP chair Rev. Victor Curry. On the air, just before McBride's interview began, Curry verbally assaulted the Governor and his family, at one point saying that the Bush family and the bin Laden family were business "partners" - seeking to profit from war." "Curry could be heard on monitors around the small building saying that he would support "a dog" rather than Jeb Bush. As for President Bush, he "should be impeached for treason" - the Post reported. Curry went on to say of the Bush family, "These people are on a neo-Nazi, right-wing mission against the American people." He concluded calling the Bush administration a "Godless, wicked regime." And what was Bill McBride's response to all of this? Instead of condemning the remarks, McBride instead praised Curry. According to the Post, "Minutes later, McBride's gentle drawl came over the radio, assuring Curry that, as governor, "One of the people I'm going to listen to is you."
MTP@NBC.com
Would be nice if they lose their house of ill repute.
5.56mm
This just goes to show that the unions are ALREADY conceding that President Bush will win in a landslide in 2004 - because they are mortgaging their future and spending all of their money now. They won't have that money to spend in two years. This represents either complete capitulation or else terribly short-sighted thinking/planning on their part...
Wouldn't they be surprised? McBride and the FEA collaborated on campaign ads illegally. Pawlenty (sp?) was blasted on the front page of the Pa. papers for doing something less egregious...he cooperated w/ the GOP for an ad, not a tax-free special interest group.
Still waiting for the Florida papers to hold McBride and the FEA accountable...
Ah, the Fifth Column. Don't hold your breath.
5.56mm
The unmitigated gall of the teachers union to mortgage their members union dues is un............believable.
I am now also pissed. I like Jeb Bush and will vote for him, but never felt inclined to be involvled.
Now I will become active in his campaign
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