A couple of weeks after donating $300,000 to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Parker Griffith, the Alabama Education Association (AEA) is doubling down with another $300,000 donation.
The organization’s increased financial backing for Griffith, which makes up almost all of his donations outside of the roughly $400,000 he personally loaned his campaign, is sure to raise eyebrows among teachers and longtime AEA supporters who have already expressed concerns that AEA chief Henry Mabry is a poor steward of their money.
The AEA has spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 million on the current election cycle, and taken out millions of dollars in loans from Regions Bank to prop up their organization.
And in spite of spending more on Alabama legislative races than the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a nationwide teachers’ union, spent to elect President Obama and Democrats all over the country during the 2008 election cycle, they have so far won zero statewide races, zero state senate races and only a handful of state house races.
AEA spokesperson Amy Marlowe told AL.com recently that the organization chose to back Griffith after Gov. Bentley did not follow through on his threat to veto any budget that did not include a pay raise for education employees.
“He made a statement he would veto any budget that did not include the raise,” she said. “Then he didn’t do that.”
Bentley pushed for a two percent pay raise, but Legislative leaders said it was not possible to do that and also cover the spike in education employees’ healthcare costs brought on by ObamaCare.
Even with Griffith’s recent influx of cash from the AEA, Gov. Bentley still holds a massive fundraising advantage. AEA’s latest donation takes the Griffith campaign over the $1 million mark, but Bentley has raised well over $6 million, and according to the latest campaign finance disclosures has over $3.25 million cash on hand.
Griffith and Bentley are set to square off in Alabama’s General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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