American Federation of Teachers Endorses Clinton

by: Chris Bowers

Wed Oct 03, 2007 at 15:28:07 PM EDT

Ex-Sen. John Edwards was late for Winnacunnet elementary school this morning and he didn't even get a hall pass. Cosmic justice: on the day that Edwards was set to speak to the National Education Associations"School to White House" team here, the American Federation of Teachers voted to endorse Sen. HIllary Clinton, a fact that will almost certainly appear in every newspaper account of the first half of the day.

(A union source says the vote for Hillary was "overwhelming" -- even though Illinois and New Mexico are well represented on the AFT's board. Now -- since the largest AFT affiliate is New York City's United Federation of Teachers, the fact of the endorsement is not too surprising.)

The AFT has played a very large role in both my life, and the life of my family. When I started my Ph.D. program at Temple University in 2000, I became heavily involved in the effort to unionize graduate employees. That effort, spanning over several years, was backed by the AFT, and eventually resulted in a new AFT local for Temple graduate employees. A couple of years later, when I was looking to change my life from academia to politics, my first job was as a union organizer for the Illinois Federation of Teachers in the Chicago Area. Growing up, many of my aunts were teachers and members of the AFT. My mother still is a member. When she was only 23 years old, she was fired from her job as a middle school English teacher for being pregnant with my older brother and when my parents were looking to buy a house--not exactly the best time to lose a job. It was the AFT, of which she was a local, state and national member, that allowed her to sue the school district. Everything turned out OK, and after that point it became illegal to fire public employees in Monroe County, New York (Rochester and suburbs) simply because they were pregnant. And, to top it all off, I am actually wearing one of my three AFT tee-shirts today.

So, yeah, this endorsement means a lot to me. The AFT has played a major, positive role in my life from before I was born. In fact, I can't think of any other political organization that has played such a positive role. Few things anger me more than right-wing attacks on teacher's unions, because it is hard for me to imagine a group of people who are harder working and more dedicated to making a positive difference in people's lives while simultaneously passing up major monetary and career opportunities that their extensive educations would otherwise grant them. I know AFT people, both the teachers and the organizers. They are friends, family and colleagues. They are smart, extremely hard working, and also very progressive. I trust the decisions they make. If they decide to endorse Hillary Clinton, that means a lot to me, just as it meant a lot to me when they endorsed Barack Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate primary before pretty much any other unions did so. The AFT endorsement of Hillary Clinton improves my image of Hillary Clinton, just as my parents endorsement of Clinton has done so in the past. I still don't think I will vote for her in the primaries, but it is yet another reason why I am definitely not anti-Clinton.

I am wondering, out of curiosity, what endorsements really matter to other people here.  Is there an organization, public figure, or personal relation whose endorsement would make a big impact in your view of the campaign? Beyond the horserace, beyond policy positions, and beyond even actual campaigning, sometimes there is something very personal that drives politics for many people. This is one of those things for me, and I am interested to see what some of these things are for others.