Comments

1
I remember in 2002 when Republican Sonny Perdue was endorsed by the state teachers union(s) over Democratic candidate Roy Barnes. The very first thing Perdue did in office was to freeze all education salaries. I laughed my ass off! Teachers thinking the GOP was going to help them. I can see the same thing happening here.
2
The PSE has obviously decided that it does not want to stand with families. Sad
3
Well, it's not like a Republican would run for governor on a platform of not messing with unions and then go full union-buster after getting elected, right? They are known for being honest and up front with their policy positions and fiercely loyal to their constituents, right?

I'm sure McKenna is being just as straight about unions as he has been regarding his positions on repealing Obamacare.
4
These people are stupid. McKenna's going to screw them.
5
@4 I hope he won't get the chance. Something tells me this has to do with charter schools.
6
Inslee is doing himself no favors by running a 'stay the course' campaign. Then again...

When Scott Walker was running he said pretty much the same thing about unions McKenna is saying now.

Just saying.
7
the union is corrupt.
8
It's sad that these teachers are so dumb.
9
@8, I'm pretty smart, but if I were in a group of me we'd be useless.
10
People are stupid. I'm expecting a McKenna win in November. Scared shitless about it but definatly expecting it.
11
For the commenters above who may be confused about this, these aren't teachers, they're the non-certified (or "classified") school employees (like crossing guards, and presumably office personel).

I don't think Walker ran on a platform of leaving the public sector unions alone, but he did infamously tell some of his patrons that he was going to take a divide and conquer approach to the unions. I suspect something like that is going on here: promise the PSE union something they want for their endorsement, and hope to use their support against the teachers unions in coming battles.

I doubt McKenna would have the leverage to bust the public sector unions here if he wanted to, but he and the GOP members in the legislature can certainly do their best to weaken them.
12
The Establishment is panicking.
13
We take him at his word. . .

What a bunch of stupid fucks.
14
If unions can't even manage solidarity with each other, I fear that they are becoming politically irrelevant.
15
They're like lobsters that boil their own water.
16
Sounds like they are hedging their bets in case McKenna wins.

Smart plan...
17
These idiots vote based on idiotic platitudes instead of reality.

The conservatives go to the police stations and fire stations and talk about flags and patriots and "red-blooded 'mericans!" and laugh at lattes and liberals and elitists and the police and firefighters gobble it up.

Then the conservatives get voted in, fuck over the police and firefighters, and blame it on liberals who had nothing to do with it... and the police and firefighters buy that shit too.

Retards, all of them.
18
McKenna is masterful at these political games. PSE is being used. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
19
It's a nationwide campaign by the Republicans to bust unions. If they're successful, they've cut off a majority Democratic contributor, and they can rule the US like the PRI did in Mexico for 75 years. Union leadership that cannot spot that should be thrown out by its members.

@9, nailed it.
20
Clearly PSE has lost their fucking minds. Republicans are becoming more belligerently anti-union every year. McKenna will gut them when their back is turned.
21
"Every labor union... is free to make its own decisions in this and any other race."

"Shut up, mom and dad! I can do what I WANT!"
22
" they can rule the US like the PRI did in Mexico for 75 year"

The PRI were socialists.
23
@22, one party rule loser. The point wasn't that the policies are in agreement.
24
17: Not necessarily. As noted, this is a divide and conquer "stragegery", so Walker specifically exempted police and fire from his moves. When Ohio tried to include public safety in their union rollbacks, it was slapped back hard.

PSE told you what this is all about in their denial: the recent fight over health care benefits.
25
What did Democrats think would happen? You walk back the workers first ideology of the unions and turn them into a fundraising mechanism for what has been a concessionist rush to centrism and now you're acting shocked that a Republican can woo them better than the Democrats? Oh, c'mon.

All the skimming and living off the fat of workers that union bosses did up until the 1970s ended up still being far less damaging than New Democrats, Clinton and Dems like Gregoire et. al.. The political stake of unions today is basically to rubber stamp big projects and initiatives that are backed by the corporate funders of the party.

As far as McKenna goes, he can win in a landslide however he chooses. Late summer endorsement of R-74 after the GOP is stuck with him? Advocating single payer in the state as an option against the ACA? Who knows. Either way Inslee is on the ropes and that's almost 100% because McKenna is not the far right wing ogre the Dems were banking on to take focus off their generally moderate positions.
26
As a life-time Democrat, I can only say, good luck with that one, kids. I guess they missed the outcome of the recent Wisconsin election. I guess they missed the Romney statement that we don't need more police or teachers (and if you don't need more teachers, you certainly don't need more education support staff).

27
Cue McKenna saying teachers and unions are the backbone of Washington's economy.
28
I am a Democrat and will vote for Inslee and yes McKenna is conservative, but he is not a right winger like Walker. Even if he was he has a legislature that is controlled by the Democrats and not the GOP, so he can't do much to bust unions.
29
The PSE aren't the teachers. They're basically every body else in the schools BUT the teachers. I went to your basic, run-of-the-mill WA public HS. From what I recall, the secretaries, TAs, and principals were all dyed in the wool Republicans. I remember they were all skipping around like they'd won the lottery the day after Carter lost the election. The main office secretaries sponsored the local evangelical pastor to talk to our Biology class about questioning evolution. If those people are your typical PSE union member, this comes as no surprise.
30
Let us be clear here... this is another failing of the Democrats. They've consistently failed to fight for a left-wing agenda. They've failed to make unions and other workers a priority and instead have worked hand in hand with the Republicans to impose austerity on the working class which includes destroying unions.

Obviously, this is a stupid move for any union. The Republicans are do everything in their power to destroy unions and to harm workers. We've seen this in places like Wisconsin and North Carolina to name a few. But they have accurately assessed that the Democrats are not going to be significantly better on this issue, again see Wisconsin. So, like voters often do when disenfranchised with the Democrats they look elsewhere and sadly they don't see a party that actually represents the working class so they vote right-wing. This doesn't demonstrate a right-wing tendency just a lack of real choice.
31
I continue to be completely agog at the historically fucking incompetent campaign Jay Inslee is waging. With all the Democrats in this state, you'd think we could get one that could run a campaign worth two shits.
32
"McKenna 2012: You've Been Robbed!"
33
For legal, political, and historical reasons, it's a lot easier for conservatives to draw labor unions into a game of Prisoner's Dilemma against other unions and against the working class generally in the US than it is in Europe. (I remember discovering a while back that congressman Raúl Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was one of some 70-odd members of Congress who wrote to the FCC demanding that it stop trying to impose net neutrality requirements on cell phone carriers. As far as I can figure out, AT&T cut a deal with its union, and then the union turned around and explained the realities of campaign financing to Grijalva. If memory serves, they were a major contributor.) Sixty-four years after Taft-Hartley put the first nail in their coffin, American union members are only just beginning to figure out that "every union for itself" makes them all losers in the long run.
34
All the Republican governors want to bust all unions. They also want to take away a woman's right to choose. I'm amazed that all these voters act like our Republicans won't do these things. They will. It's all they know and they are coming for your pension and later your social security.
35
@34 given that the Dems have been doing such a rockin job round these parts, how can you be surprised that PSE is looking for a change a pace.

36
@35
Dems in government are cowards. There I said it. Happy? Question is do you see politics as the means by which to improve society or simply a team you're on? I know the Dems are pussies, but they want to help all of the people - not just the rich. All the Republicans want is your money. All of it, and they want to tilt the scales so that you don't have a chance of ever escaping the lower classes. They worship money and greed consumes their souls. I'll never be on that side no matter how weak the Dems get.
37
A case of Stockholm syndrome, which never works out well.
38
And yet other factions of SEIU union support Inslee and the WEA (teachers) union supports Inslee. Good strategy for McKenna...pit union against union, soak up their members funds, then screw them over. Why aren't these people asking for details? Like straight out - are you talking funding for charter and private schools or not? then hold him to his answer. As an SEIU member and a paraeducator, I would scream bloody murder if my union dollars went to any Relublican, given the political winds happening right now. I agree, these people are slitting their own throats!
39
The PSE did me no good when I was a member. it is hard to figure a worse move for them, but as has been said, they are overwhelmingly made up of conservative folks. There is a lot of resentment towards the teachers' union, since we generally do all of the work that teachers complain about, and get paid a fraction of their (lets be honest) pretty good wages.
40
Recall, everyone, that Walker left the conservative-leaning public employee unions that backed him alone.

@39:
since we generally do all of the work that teachers complain about, and get paid a fraction of their (lets be honest) pretty good wages ...

So, you pay for continuing education during your time off? Continuing education that is a requirement for you to keep your job? You pull all-nighters grading papers and writing tests and lectures? I assume you also mean you're paying off all of those student loans you accrued getting the education, without which you would not be qualified for your job? Is that what you mean?

Salaries paid for jobs that require more than a bachelor's degree will usually seem amazing to folks without a bachelor's degree (or a trade). Doesn't mean those wages are particularly high for the educational level. And teachers will usually lose a head-to-head against just about any trade person. (cue argument that trades actually do something valuable)
I know some really stupid people who make very good livings doing not very much not very well, but they're not teachers, so no upwelling of resentment.

Not a teacher, btw.

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