NEA GOP NEWS BRIEF

Regional Conferences – National Success

Over the past three months, NEA has held a series of Regional Leadership Conferences across the country, culminating with the ESP Conference in Baltimore in early March. At each conference, NEA Government Relations staff either spoke at or made materials available for NEA Republicans during special meetings of the Republican Educators Caucus or in other venues. At the Midwest Regional Conference in Minneapolis, and the Pacific Regional Conference in Boise, Republicans and non-Republicans alike heard from senior Republican political consultants Matt Keelen of the Keelen Group and Bob Carpenter of American Viewpoint. They discussed the political landscape in Washington, D.C., and ways Republican NEA members can be proactive about becoming involved in the political process.

One result of these meetings has been impressive growth in the number of NEA members who will be receiving this newsletter, an expression of interest in our activities to reach Republican members and help them become involved in the Republican Party.

If this is your first issue, welcome! Please spread the word!

Reminder – "How to Become Involved in the Republican Party" Available on CD or by Email

NEA has published a manual to encourage greater involvement by NEA members in the Republican Party, "How to Become Involved in the Republican Party." The manual was distributed at NEA's first Republican Leaders Conference as well as at the Regional Leadership Conferences over the past three months. Each manual is specific to state laws and party rules, and includes resources regarding the political process in each state at each level from county and district chair to state party chair. This is great background information to help NEA Republican members navigate the political organizations in their states.

If you would like a copy of this manual, please email Erin Duncan at NEA Government Relations at eduncan@nea.org or call Erin at (202) 822-7394.

GOP National Convention – Join the Fun in the Twin Cities!

Where is the hottest place to be over Labor Day weekend? If you're one of the nearly 45,000 people planning to descend on Minneapolis-St. Paul – not to mention the eyes of the world's media – the answer is the Republican National Convention!

While the Republican primaries conclude and Sen. John McCain solidifies his likely nomination to the presidency on the Republican ticket, Republican National Convention planners are gearing up for what promises to be a fascinating, fun, and historic occasion in the Twin Cities. The convention will officially start on Labor Day, Monday, September 1, and last until Thursday, September 4, 2008. The convention itself will take place in the beautiful Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul, with other events related to the convention taking place at other locations throughout the Twin Cities.

Who will be at the convention?

The numbers are impressive: 2,000 delegates, 2,000 alternates, 15,000 members of the media from all over the world, and 25,000 observers and volunteers. We hope to see many NEA members there, too. If you are running for or have been elected a delegate to the Republican National Convention, please let us know by contacting Erin Duncan at eduncan@nea.org. NEA offers a travel and lodging stipend for member delegates and alternates. Information about the stipend can be found at www.nea.org/lac/conventionstipends.html. We have a number of special events planned for our delegates and friends and want to be in contact with you prior to the convention.

Regular updates about the convention can be found at www.gopconvention.com.

Not a delegate, but want to get involved?

Also important to the success of the convention will be the use of motivated and energetic volunteers. According to convention organizers, volunteers will be needed to help with logistics, transportation, and other key aspects of hosting such a major event. To learn more about volunteer opportunities at the Republican National Convention go to: http://msp2008.com/volunteer.php.

Save the Date for NEA Republican Leaders Conference II
NEA is in the process of planning the NEA Republican Leaders Conference II for August 27-30, 2008, the days immediately preceding the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The NEA conference will take place at the Millennium Hotel, located on Nicollet Mall in the heart of Minneapolis. Building on the success of the first NEA Republican Leaders Conference in August 2007, we hope to enhance NEA Republican outreach efforts by providing advanced training to selected Republican NEA members.

NEA will pay for travel, hotel, and meals for up to four Republican NEA members for each state. These participants will be nominated by their state presidents.

The NEA Republican Leaders Conference II will feature two days of panel presentations and workshops for Republican members. We expect panels to include Republican NEA members active in the Republican party at all levels, as well as other party activists and political consultants. Topics will include online activism, grassroots organizing, volunteer strategy, press relations, communications, and messaging. We expect many Republican local, state, and national officeholders and party officials to be in the Twin Cities the week before the Republican National Convention and we expect to draw upon their expertise as well.

The goal of the conference will be to help NEA attendees conduct effective Republican outreach in their states, including preparing them to organize fellow NEA Republican members. Following the conference, we will ask attendees to help recruit NEA Republican members from their states to become party activists, run for office, or take other leadership roles.

We are looking forward to seeing you at a wonderful NEA Republican Leaders Conference II in Minneapolis!

Florida, Florida, Florida!
Florida has always been a pivotal state in politics – from Tim Russert's whiteboard analysis during the 2000 presidential election to the current controversy regarding Florida's delegates. The state's diversity and importance makes the efforts of its Republican educators all the more critical to advancing the public school agenda. After the first NEA Republican Leaders Conference, Sandra Ross and Linda Francis, two participants from Florida, went home loaded with ideas and energy to get involved in Florida politics and advance public education's agenda within the Republican Party.

The work began almost immediately. Linda Francis filled out an application to become a precinct committeewoman. After a lively debate within her county's Republican Executive Committee, Linda was elected to the Marion County, Fla. Republican Executive Committee. Since then, Linda has been asked to join the statewide African American Republican Leadership Council; she is also working on becoming a delegate to the Republican National Convention. In addition, she is involved in minority outreach and recruitment in Marion County. She is also working on forming a Republican Educator's Club that will be affiliated with the Marion County Republican Executive Committee. Linda says that she believes the club has great potential — more than 600 of the nearly 1,800 teachers in the greater Ocala area self-identify as Republicans.

Sandra Ross has also been very active in her work to raise the profile of Republican educators in Florida. She has become a precinct committee woman for the Orange County Republican Executive Committee and is in the process of starting a Republican Educator's Club through the County Executive Committee. Sandra was interviewed on television and identified as an NEA member during a debate among Republican candidates for president. In addition, she has been asked to serve on the Education Advisory Council for U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney and is helping Republican candidates for the state legislature to build their education platforms. Sandra says, "I am currently trying to meet with as many candidates for office as I can so that I can help make a connection with them now, in hopes that when they get in their desired position, we have a friend in office." Sandra applied to become an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention and is awaiting that decision.

Both Linda and Sandra represent the focus, hard work, and leadership that NEA's first group of Republican Leaders has demonstrated over the past year. We'll highlight the activities of other NEA Republican Leaders in future issues of this newsletter.

Bipartisan Efforts Produce Pro- Public Education Results in Wisconsin Working in a bipartisan fashion is an important quality for many of NEA's affiliates. This month, we highlight one affiliate that has taken bipartisan advocacy in a highly productive direction. To facilitate conversation with its congressional delegation, the NEA-Wisconsin Education Association Council (NEA-WEAC) created Federal Advocacy Teams. One such team, working in the 6th Congressional District of Wisconsin with U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, has successfully worked to open the lines of communication between the member of Congress and NEA-WEAC.

Made up of NEA-WEAC members from the Congressman's district, the Federal Advocacy Team meets with the congressman on a quarterly basis. NEA-WEAC began the relationship by meeting with the congressman's staff in Wisconsin, explaining how the Federal Advocacy Team would work to support and educate Congressman Petri on education issues that are important to NEA-WEAC's members. "It's about building the relationship with the congressman," says Bob Fullmer, a Federal Advocacy Team member. "We've been doing it about three years, and Congressman Petri has been very tenacious on some of our issues. [In some cases] He's stepped up when no one else would."

In addition to meeting regularly to share issues and insights, stressing NEA's political agenda as it impacts public schools in the 6th Congressional District, the Federal Advocacy Team helps organize school visits for the congressman. Congressman Petri has done two major school visits as well as one large listening session with teachers, administrators, state officials, and NEA representatives testifying. He has also had his staff organize other school visits with NEA-WEAC's encouragement. Each school visit is staffed by a NEA-WEAC photographer and journalist. After each visit, NEA-WEAC creates a mailer to publicize the congressman's visit and sends it to all 11,000 members of NEA-WEAC in the congressman's district. "These school visits allow him to see programs and problems schools may be having," Bob says. In some cases, the school visits have resulted in legislation.

Putting together the Federal Advocacy Team has allowed NEA-WEAC to activate its rank-and-file members who have participated in local politics, but who were perhaps not in local leadership. To do so, NEA-WEAC conducted a database check of its members and picked out about 20 people who looked moderately active politically. From that list, approximately seven or eight people committed to being involved. These people were put through a training program on lobbying and did homework to become well-informed on federal education issues. The Federal Advocacy Team coordinates directly with NEA Government Relations. In addition, team members were encouraged to meet with local administrators to continue to build understanding of federal education issues. Members of the team report to the UniServ on local meetings and keep them informed about advocacy efforts.

While the bulk of the Federal Advocacy Team's activities are in the congressional district, team members have been sent to Washington to meet with the congressman and share NEA-WEAC's position when a crucial vote is looming. "We always get in to see the congressman," states Fullmer, "because he knows our members from the visits in the district."

Meeting on a regular basis with the Federal Advocacy Team has been a terrific way to open two-way bipartisan communication. It has helped Congressman Petri to see first-hand how federal programs are operating in his congressional district and it has helped members of NEA-WEAC get to know a member of Congress on a first-name basis.

"The message of the Federal Advocacy Team is that if you step up for education, we will step up for you," says Fullmer.

How Candidate Recommendations Are Decided
Every two years, the NEA's PAC, the Fund for Children and Public Education (the Fund), recommends (endorses) about 300 candidates for Congress. Ideally, decisions about which candidates to support not only reward past support of public education, but also encourage successful candidates to support public education more frequently in the future. Candidate recommendations are a critically important lobbying tool for Association activists.

The process by which congressional candidate recommendations are decided is relatively simple: state affiliate leaders and activists initially evaluate candidates and their education views, then decide which candidates should be recommended. NEA's fund — governed by a 68-member council comprised primarily of the 50 state affiliate presidents or their designees — ratifies those decisions before deciding the level or type of support to offer each candidate.

State affiliate decisions about candidate recommendations usually reflect at least two considerations: the candidate's views and votes on key education and employee issues, and the candidate's overall relationship with the Association.

To help members assess a candidate's views, the Fund Council approves every two years a written Congressional Candidate Questionnaire, which asks candidates to express agreement or disagreement on about 20 federal issues. In recent years the questionnaire has focused on core education and employee issues in order to open our recommendation process to Republican candidates.

NEA Government Relations also prepares annually a Legislative Report Card which grades each member of Congress' education record based on their votes, bill co-sponsorships, committee work, behind-the-scenes advocacy, and their accessibility to educators both in Washington and back home.

For many Republican candidates, having a strong relationship with Association leaders and members can make a difference. Republican activists play an important role in this – they help build connections key to congressional lobbying efforts.

By developing stronger working ties to interested Republican candidates, you can persuade them to share our views on key issues, help them build relationships with NEA members and key Association leaders, and help steer them through a recommendation process that pro-public education Republicans otherwise might choose to avoid. This work is particularly important in Republican districts and states, and in instances where competitive two-party elections occur.

For more information on NEA's candidate recommendation procedures, contact your state affiliate's Government Relations Department or chief NEA lobbyist Randall Moody at rmoody@nea.org.

Kansas Traditional Republican Majority: Creating a Pro-Public Education Majority One Step at a Time "A vote is a vote" says Ryan Wright, executive director of Kansas' Traditional Republican Majority (KTRM), summarizing how pro-public education Republicans in Kansas have successfully worked to create a pro-public education majority within the majority in Kansas state government.

Created in 2005, KTRM, a state affiliate of the NEA-supported Republican Mainstreet Partnership, has facilitated the formation of a strong centrist Republican majority within the majority, based on the traditional Republican values of strong public education, limited government, and lower taxes. One of the first goals of the organization was to work with its partners to change the composition of the Kansas State Board of Education, which infamously voted to mandate teaching creationism as an alternative to evolution in Kansas public schools.

Working with partners like the Kansas NEA, as well as with the business community and other leadership organizations, KTRM helped identify and support candidates who would promote a more balanced education position. The result was a successful change in the State Board of Education.

KTRM worked first to identify its potential legislative partners by looking at voting records and connecting with incumbent members of the Kansas legislature, encouraging them to work together on issues of shared interest. "Our legislators do fantastic work," Ryan says. "Our role is to make sure they have the information they need to make their decision about what would be best for their districts."

"Kansas is truly a three-party system," Ryan explains. "The Republicans hold 30 seats in the 40-seat Kansas Senate. Of those, approximately 16 are members who identify with our values." Together with others who share these values, these core members have tremendous influence in the outcome of the legislative process. "If we have a litmus test at all," Ryan adds, "it's being pro-public education. We are unwilling to waver on that point.

"In an overwhelmingly Republican state like Kansas, KTRM strives to identify state races where a pro-public education candidate has the potential to win. In addition, KTRM works to help its incumbent members protect their seats against attacks from the far right. Last year, KTRM raised approximately $315,000 total, and was able to increase its membership in the Kansas Statehouse by five members. "We take a realistic, practical approach," Ryan says. "People still want to be governed by Republican Party principles. A handful of very passionate people can keep moving the pro-public education ball down the court. No one wants a failing school in their backyard."

Ryan sees organizations like KTRM as being key to helping the Republican Party move toward the future. "In the last election cycle, conservatives liked to brag that the reason Republicans lost was that conservatives didn't turn out and that Congress had lost sight of conservative principles. This is a myth. The exit polls in 2006 show that Republicans did turn out.

Republicans are not winning because we are not appealing to a broad audience," Ryan says. He believes that groups like KTRM offer a model for working within the Republican party and providing independents, moderates, and nonaffiliated voters a reason to vote Republican. "We have to engage younger votes," he says. "Education is an issue that's very important to them."

To learn more about Kansas Traditional Republican Majority, go to http://www.ktrm.org/.