The board of directors for the Alabama Education Association has purportedly approved $4 million to be taken from their reserve account to be dedicated to what they are calling “The Grand Plan for 2014.”
According to sources familiar with the AEA’s political operation, the $4 million is over and above what will be spent out of their A-VOTE PAC, the primary vehicle they use for political expenditures. The money will be used to fund a voter turnout program that will include voter identification and other grassroots efforts on behalf of AEA-backed candidates.
Sources say that the AEA will also be working with Barack Obama’s political operation, Organizing for Action (formerly known as Organizing for America), so AEA can utilize their field staff. OFA is a non-profit entity that was formed by Obama’s political advisors for the purpose of continuing to tap into the grassroots infrastructure built during his Presidential campaigns.
The president’s advisors hoped OFA would give them an unprecedented advocacy arm to help advance Obama’s second term agenda. Their efforts to this point have fallen flat.
OFA’s first major focus was on helping the President convince the Senate to expand background checks for gun sales. They failed. They have since moved on to climate change, and other issues that play to the liberal base.
To put it bluntly, OFA has little to no ability to move the needle in a conservative state like Alabama.
According to the Washington Post, “Many of [OFA’s] efforts have been centered in liberal strongholds and Democratic-leaning swing states, with little impact on more conservative areas.”
With almost all of the action being in Republican primaries in 2014, it will be interesting to watch how the AEA allocates its resources and utilizes OFA.
AEA recently fired their longtime PR manager, David Stout. Stout is well-known in political circles for penning the teachers’ union’s propaganda publication, The AEA Journal. Insiders say the publication will now be produced by Matrix, LLC, the state’s top Democrat political consulting firm.
(This post has been updated to read that AEA will “work with” rather than “hire” OFA)
What else is going on?
1. Bentley Signs Gun Bill into Law
2. Cap-and-Trade by Other Means
3. Leftwing Washington Post Writer finds Sessions-Bashing Friend in AL.com
4. Apple CEO (& Auburn Grad) Tim Cook Bashes U.S. Tax System
5. EXCLUSIVE: Shelby Discusses His Economic Development Vision for Alabama
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