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COMMUNIQUÉ A PUBLICATION OF THE IOWA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION – OCT/NOV 2014 – Vol. 52, No. 2 IN THIS ISSUE: OPINION What goes on outside the classroom matters; that includes elections IN MEMORIAM A teacher, outdoorsman and union organizer. NOMINATIONS National Education Association State Delegate positions are open 3 6 16 Set it... Set it... and forget it! and forget it! E-DUES AVAILABLE NOW! E-DUES AVAILABLE NOW! Bruce Braley can't help but smile when he stops by West High School in Waterloo for a visit. "I'll walk through the halls with Carolyn - and you know how busy it can be in a high school like West - and it's 'Hi Mrs. Braley' or 'Hello Mrs. Braley,'" he says. "I see the way the kids' respect her and I know how much she cares for them." Carolyn Braley is a social sciences teacher and Iowa State Education Association member at West. Her husband, Bruce, is a congressman from Waterloo looking to become the junior U.S. senator from Iowa. Their children – Lisa, David, and Paul – are all West grads. If Braley wins, he'll pick up the mantel of U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, who will retire in January after nearly 40 years in Congress. Harkin is one of the last of the so- called Midwestern "prairie populists." It's shorthand for someone who champions the causes of family State Sen. Jack Hatch sits in the back seat of a mid-2000 model SUV and flips through a small stack of papers beside campaign aide John Hedgecoth who lobs questions at his boss. The SUV, being driven by another aide, is traveling south on Iowa 163 toward Pella where Hatch will field questions from the Iowa Business Council at their meeting at Pella Corporation headquarters. The council is a group of business executives from some of the state's best-known and wealthiest companies. It's not the kind of crowd that Hatch, a longtime Democratic state senator from Des Moines who rails against corporate tax breaks, can expect to find a lot of support from. Friends? Possibly. Allies? No. "You think John Forsyth will be there? I hope he is," Hatch says to Hedgecoth, referring to the CEO of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Wellmark is the state's largest insurer. Hatch has publicly criticized the company for refusing to participate in The answer was self-evident. Or at least it should have been. Iowa Public Television moderator James Lynch asked candidate Paul Pate if the people who were paid for no-show jobs in the Secretary of State's office should have to pay the state back. Pate, hemmed and hawed for an excruciating 50 seconds without answering the question. Brad Anderson's response? "Yes," he said. "This is a simple, no-brainer to me." The Iowa State Education Association Political Action Committee never recommended a candidate for Secretary of State until this year. Anderson earned the recommendation because of his support for breaking down barriers that prevent people from participating in our democracy and his common-sense approach to Teaching runs in the Braley family Hatch hoping for an upset A voice for all Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 6 U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley visits with Iowa State Education Association President Tammy Wawro in Washington, D.C. The Iowa State Education Association Political Action Committee recommended Braley in the U.S. Senate race to replace retiring senator Tom Harkin because of Braley's strong support for public education, public school students and education professionals. "My views on public education were formed, really, by two women; my mother, Marcia, who has been an ISEA member since 1948 and taught in Brooklyn, Iowa, and my wife, Carolyn, who's an ISEA member and teaches at West High School in Waterloo," – U.S. Representative Bruce Braley Jack Hatch speaks with a customer at Jaarsma Bakery in downton Pella, Iowa during a late-September campaign stop. Hatch stopped at the bakery, bought some pastries for his staff and chatted with customers after meeting with members of the Iowa Business Council at the Pella Corporation headquarters. FOLLOW US ON: