Oregon teachers union backs Novick, Brown

Salem- Question: What do you get when you throw together a bunch of candidates, approximately four hundred educators, hours of conversation and a pina colada machine?

Answer A: The Oregon Education Association's political action conference.
Answer B: Educators gone wild (for politics.)
Answer C: Nominations for every statewide race.
Answer D: All of the above.

The OEA-PIE convention this weekend bore testament to the true nature of grassroots campaigning. Delegates had direct access to candidates, both on the convention floor and at parties hosted by each candidate on Friday night. Candidates and educators roamed throughout the conference center and the hotel; the latter group peppering the former with questions and comments, which more often than not cut through the sound bites and spin.

Visitors at the Margaritas for Merkley hospitality suite surrounded the Speaker, Coronas and margaritas in hand, filling the suite to capacity and spilling out into the hallway, while the daiquiri machine was churning double time at Sen. Westlund's tiki themed party. There was a palpable excitement in the voices of two educators when they sang the praises of the "passionate" and "entertaining" Steve Novick while standing but five feet from the candidate in his hospitality suite. (Apparently, a number of the educators especially appreciated Novick's witticisms, specifically a line about impeaching Bush "if only out of fairness to Richard Nixon." Seems there were some history teachers in the crowd.)

Although all candidates in all races were invited, the Democrats were overwhelmingly the ones who showed up (John Frohnmayer, an Independent, was also present .) Sen. Gordon Smith, Rep. Greg Walden, Mike Erickson and Kevin Mannix were no shows, and no wonder, with an audience that cheered loudly at statements such as that of Rep. Blumenauer, when he asserted that "we need to make sure our purple state remains blue."

The educators caucus to determine who the union will endorse. It is a democratic process, where every delegate has a vote, in contrast to some other organizations, where a smaller board decides who to support. In such a format, each candidate's speech is heavily scrutinized, and has significant impact on the end vote.

Discussion on the convention floor ranged from No Child Left Behind to Head Start to immigration to the war in Iraq. Taxes made an appearance in the debate over the U.S. Senate endorsement, and the audience responded positively to Novick's proposal to tax those who earn over $100,000 and those who earn their living on the stock market.

Many of the educators had done their homework, presenting previous quotes and votes for candidates to explain.

The conference was capped off with the presidential candidate presentations; although neither Sens. Clinton nor Obama have made it to Oregon yet, Reps. Blumenauer and Hooley acted as surrogates. Obama squeaked out a victory over Clinton, with 46,047 to 33,095. There were 11,787 votes for no recommendation.

The union voted to endorse Steve Novick for U.S. Senate, Reps. Wu, Blumenhauer, DeFazio for the Congressional Districts where they are incumbents, as well as Sen. Schrader for the Fifth Congressional District. Sen. Westlund won support for the State Treasurer race, and John Kroger received the endorsement for the Attorney General's seat.

In a close vote that went into two rounds, the OEA voted to endorse Sen. Kate Brown for Secretary of State.

The union's endorsement of Novick-who won 58,322 votes, as opposed to Merkley's 19,013 and Frohnmayer's 12,541-received much of the endorsement attention.