The Alabama Education Association (AEA) has become the de facto Alabama Democratic Party in recent years as the traditional party apparatus has all but collapsed. But realizing that the Republican primary is the only game in town in most legislative districts, the group spent $7 million in the months leading up to June’s primary, much of it in support of Republican candidates they had recruited to run.
On top of that, the AEA has taken out a total of $1.7 million in loans from Regions Bank to unleash another tsunami of negative advertising ahead of November’s general election.
It appears the group will spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million on the 2014 election cycle in the state of Alabama — a significant amount of money by any measure.
But to fully understand the magnitude of the AEA’s massive, but so far largely unsuccessful effort to unseat as many Republican incumbents as possible, some context is needed.
On Monday, Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a nationwide teachers’ union with more than 1 million members across the U.S., stated publicly that his organization would spend more on Democratic candidates during this election cycle than ever before.
That prompted several news organizations to look back at the group’s past political spending.
According to OpenSecrets.org, AFT spent about $8.2 million in the 2008 election cycle to elect President Obama and a host of other Democratic candidates around the country.
In other words, the AEA is spending more on a relatively small number of Alabama legislative races (and the governor’s race) than the national teachers’ union did on every single election in the entire United States of America in 2008.
Let that sink in for a second.
So far the AEA’s $7+ million in spending has gained them zero statewide races, zero state senate races and only a handful of state house races.
But the latest Regions loan has suddenly refilled the group’s coffers, making it the most well-funded PAC in the state once again.
Former AEA chief Paul Hubbert accused the current AEA leadership of ruining the organization’s standing in the state, being fiscally irresponsible and creating an unhealthy work environment for employees.
Those accusations combined with a series of high profile defeats in the Legislature and at the ballot box make the AEA’s big bet on 2014 races one that teachers around the state will be watching closely.
And Alabama Republicans should be watching closely as well. After all, the only way the AEA will be successful is if the GOP’s base stays home on election day Nov. 4 thinking their vote won’t really matter.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
