Bernie Supporter Fabricates Chicago Teacher Endorsement

[MariaThinks]

There is a top of the rec list diary touting Bernie receiving the endorsement of Chicago Teachers yesterday. From what I can determine, this is at best a deception and most likely a very dirty political trick. In Chicago, an organization called CORE, the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators formed as a group within the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) to wrest power from the then Union leaders. They succeeded and placed Karen Lewis as the head of the union. The CTU has not made an independent endorsement in the Democratic Primary, but is part of the AFT which endorsed Clinton last fall

Since the objective of gaining control of the CTU was accomplished some years ago, CORE has evolved into a sleepy advocacy organization for CTU and CPU policies. Anyone is allowed to join. On Feb 22 they held a regular monthly meeting. Some 80 people showed up. At the end of the meeting apparently some Sanders supporters demanded a vote on political endorsement in the primary. One of those present filed a story at an online newspaper announcing a vote had been held and the majority voted to endorse Bernie Sanders. The organization does not report this on its website or twitter feed.

At best this appears to be an effort by a handful of Bernie Supporters to manipulate a legitimate organization into making an improper endorsement. At worst, the “vote” was out of order or never happened and this is an outright fraud. No nonprofit organization would ever make such an endorsement without polling its members or scheduling the vote in advance, in the course of ordinary business at a monthly meeting,

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/23/1489982/-Bernie-Supporter-Fabricates-Chicago-Teacher-Endorsement

[merrily]

1. One Bernie supporter of millions faked something online about 80 people? zomg

And, somewhere between the headline of the story and paragraph 3, it got to be not one supporter, but "at best, a handful of Bernie supporters?"

I wonder what it was at worst? Bernie forced someone to lie at knife point?

Well, thank heaven the lid got blown off this before Super Tuesday. Whew! Close call.

[riversedge]

3. More bad optics for Bernie fans that is for sure.

[merrily]

5. In an honest world, it would be bad optics for one person, but I get some people don't live in an

honest world and don't even want to. See also, Reply 4.

[farleftlib]

7. Awww this was flagged for review

too bad! Nurses' union anyone? That, at least was the truth.

[Human101948]

2. Sounds like what the Hillary group does every day on DU...

Great minds think alike!

[TM99]

4. Pushing an artful smear diary from DailyKos now?

This diary is flagged for review because of the lies and distortion.

The CORE website links directly to the article that states Sanders was endorsed.

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=6143§ion=Article

The most you Clintonites can claim is that it was only 80 members instead of the full 3000 that voted. But that will look pretty hypocritical and disingenuous given the CBC Pac endorsement and so many other top down union endorsements that Clinton has received.

Are you sure you want to go there?

My advise is to delete this post given the diary is under review for inaccuracies.

Will you? I highly doubt it.

[merrily]

6. Geez. That non-story was not even worth lying about.

[TM99]

8. Well some get paid to do this shit.

I guess some one thinks it might be effective? Who knows.

Good to be back!

[merrily]

9. BTW, I just clicked on the link and went to Kos for the first time in a while.

Looks as though someone has been busy. All along, Kos was full of very pro-Bernie diaries, with the odd whine here and there from a Hillary supporter. Now, not so much.

Nice to see you here!

[NurseJackie]

10. "It's always something!"

[Wilms]

14. You said it!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1321477



It's ez to get whiplash!

[Eko]

11. Well,

this seems a bit like a non story, besides what does a supporter have to do with what Sanders does? I see this type of stuff on both sides and its seems nit-picky.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Hold it

here you go

CORE votes to endorse Bernie Sanders... Caucus leading the Chicago Teachers Union rejects earlier Clinton 'endorsement' by the American Federation of Teachers leadership...

George N. Schmidt - February 22, 2016

After a heated debate, the Caucus Of Rank-and-file Educators (CORE) of the Chicago Teachers Union voted at its February 22, 2016 regular meeting to endorse the candidacy of Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the March 15, 2015 Democratic Party primary in Illinois. The vote was overwhelming in support of Sanders (this reporter is a member of CORE and was present and voting at the meeting).

The endorsement came at the end of a lengthy meeting which also considered issues ranging from the ongoing contract negotiations to the threat by Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Forrest Claypool to institute a seven percent pay cut against CTU members in late March by rescinding the so-called "pension pickup."

The endorsement vote came in part in response to the fact that for more than six months, the Chicago Teachers Union (and hence all CORE members) had been forced to support the Clinton candidacy. The Executive Council of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) had endorsed the Clinton candidacy after a controversial "push poll," which AFT President Randi Weingarten tried to characterize as a "survey" of the union's members, hence justifying the early Clinton endorsement.

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=6143§ion=Article

That does not look fabricated at all to me... what it looks like is an intramural fight though.

[liberal_at_heart]

13. good try. going on ignore.