Republican? Are You Kidding?

Our state teacher's union has put its support behind a Republican for state congress, interestingly enough. He is running for re-election. It was a narrow race two years ago, but I think that now with the teacher's union endorsement, he'll get re-elected by a wider margin.

I was surprised to find out about this endorsement of a Republican candidate by the union. I found out about it at the local fair I worked at a few weeks ago. Our school district union president was there. She said that she sat in on the interviews with both Republican and Democrat candidates, and the Republican was by far the better choice. She said he knew the issues, and had the answers. So, I hope the unions are right, because it is the first time in nearly 30 years that I have voted for a Republican candidate.

Anyway, yesterday morning my husband and I decided to go out for a late breakfast. Both girls had spent the night at camp-an overnighter-and so it was a quiet morning. We went into the little neighboring town that has a fabulous bakery/restaurant. As we walked in, Eric noticed that the Republican candidate for congress was there.

We were seated fairly close to his table. He was with some women who looked well-dressed, and a young photographer was there as well, taking pictures continually. I wondered if he'd soon make the rounds of the diners there and shmooz. I told Eric that if he came to our table, I was going to tell him that I voted for him in the Primaries, solely because he got our state union's support, and that I hoped he wouldn't let us down. I'm not shy.

Eventually the shmoozing began. He went over to one table of older ladies, and talked with them. He shook hands with an older guy who was dining alone. Then he turned, and I could see him zero in on Eric. He headed to our table.

"Hello, Congressman," Eric said. We all shook hands. Then I told him that we were both teachers, and that I had just cast my vote for him because of the endorsement from our state teacher's union, and that I hoped he wouldn't let us down! He sat down at our table, and talked with us for awhile. I told him that my biggest concern was class size. I told him how I've been teaching for 20 years, but that two years ago I had 33 students in my elementary class-the biggest class size ever. I said that certainly was not showing an improvement, but a decline.

Anyway, the whole time we were talking, the photographer, who was from the Times, was clicking away. Later he took our names and where we taught. It was actually kind of fun, but I was so afraid that today the picture would be in the Times with the caption "Local Teachers Vote Republican."

I hope the union knows what its doing.