On Sunday afternoon, members of the United Federation of Teachers will join the former controller for a "Blessing of Educators" service at a Methodist church in Brooklyn as the union ramps up its GOTV efforts on his behalf.
"Our members are ready for a change in City Hall. They always come out to vote, and this year they are more determined than ever," said UFT President Michael Mulgrew.
"We know Bill Thompson is the change we need and we are working hard to make it happen."
The UFT has done more than pray Thompson will win:
By the time Tuesday rolls around, the UFT says, on top of completing 10,000 doorknocks and unloading 250,000 palm cards in the campaign's final week, the union will have made more than 380,000 phone calls -- 250,000 robos and 140,000 live dials by retirees -- to contact every member of the union at least twice.
Chapter leaders have been asked to go to every teacher in their schools and gauge the level of support for Thompson. to engage those who are wavering or unsure of who they are supporting, and to try to gin up as many votes as they can for Thompson.
Mulgrew and the UFT leadership put their credibility on the line when Mulgrew spent all spring bragging about how the next mayor had to go through 52 Broadway in order to win City Hall.
With every public poll showing de Blasio leading the race and Thompson trailing in either second or third place, so far Mulgrew's braggadocio has not come to pass.
Who knows, maybe Thompson will outperform all the public polls and surprise everybody, including the de Blasio campaign, on Tuesday.
There will be another Quinnipiac poll out Monday.
I am going to assume we will get final Marist and Siena polls out before Tuesday too.
We can get a sense from all three of those polls if de Blasio's support is tailing off or if either Quinn or Thompson have picked up some momentum going into the final weekend.
I suppose Mulgrew praying with Thompson can't hurt at this juncture of the race.
Still, the headline's got to sting - UFT Praying For Thompson Victory.
Not where they envisioned this race was going to be when they announced the Thompson endorsement last June.
Most people in my school are not voting for Thompson and are uninterested in what Mulgrew and his minions say...or how this makes him look. We are so annoyed about his support of the new Advance system and his lack of support for the rank and file that nobody trusts anything that Mulgrew says or advocates or that Thompson will make it better for teachers.....I am voting for DeBlasio...or maybe John Liu.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, even some of the new teachers in my school were incredulous that Mulgrew supports this new evaluation system and even let it come to be. One new teacher said, "I can't believe that our union is not on our side."
Good to hear that new teachers are seeing through the union b.s. and the Advance b.s.
DeleteThe Blessing of Educators event was one of a handful of outreach events that Black congressional leaders did this weekend at churches throughout the boroughs. The idea that the UFT is "praying" for Thompson to win is reaching really reaching...UFT didn't even plan this event, they just let their Brooklyn members know it was happening.
ReplyDeleteAppearances are everything in politics. The UFT should have known how this would be played in the press.
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