Educators seeking office UEA urges teachers to get political

For some, casting ballots in November is like going to a restaurant, opening the menu and finding nothing but liver on the list.

Liver lovers will eat well. But those with stomachs set on steak tartare, spaghetti or a sandwich are out of luck — or are they?

Not if they're the cooks.

"If you want a choice, you need to work in the kitchen," Utah Education Association President Pat Rusk said. "That's where the menus are made."

The UEA has been spreading that message to school communities and pro-education groups statewide since late last summer. It encouraged them to attend last week's political party mass meetings and get elected as delegates — basically, the chefs deciding November's election menu.

Some 2,500 teachers and other public school backers signed up to attend caucus meetings of both political parties, Rusk reports. So far, at least 100 have been elected as county delegates and more than 150 as state delegates

The numbers, reported via e-mail to the 19,000-member teachers union, rise daily and are believed to be much higher, Rusk said Wednesday.

"We believe, from our standpoint, from what we're trying to do, (the UEA's delegate effort) was a huge success," she said.

While the total number of "pro-education" state GOP delegates may never accurately be tallied, some candidates in hotly contested races who are meeting now with groups of the 3,500 state delegates say they are seeing more teachers than in recent years.

House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, is one of nine GOP gubernatorial candidates.

Stephens said at a recent delegate meeting in which more than 60 delegates showed up, around half were teachers or family members of teachers. While that certainly won't be the case in other groupings of Republican delegates, the numbers impressed Stephens. He added, however, that no single special interest group will dominate the Republican candidate nomination process.

The quality, interest and knowledge of all the delegates also impresses Stephens.

"The (teachers) weren't just interested in education. More than half the meeting (time) was taken up with questions of economic development," because the delegates realize that the best way to get more tax money for public and higher education is to grow Utah's economy and tax base, Stephens said.