NEA's Presidential Recommendation Procedure

1. Last summer at the 2007 NEA Representative Assembly (RA), NEA President Reg Weaver invited all the announced candidates to take part in the Association's presidential candidate recommendation process by answering NEA's written questionnaire about public education and participating in a personal interview. Eight candidates completed this process and also spoke to 10,000 Association members at the July 2007 NEA Representative Assembly: Sen. Joe Biden; Sen. Hillary Clinton; Sen. Chris Dodd; former Sen. John Edwards; former Gov. Mike Huckabee; Congressman Dennis Kucinich; Sen. Barack Obama; and Governor Bill Richardson. Sen. John McCain did not participate in the process.

2. Last fall, President Weaver recommended a list of acceptable presidential candidates to the NEA Fund for Children & Public Education, NEA's political committee. To be considered "acceptable," a candidate must complete the NEA questionnaire on public education issues, be interviewed by the NEA president, and support a majority of NEA's positions on the questionnaire.

3. In mid-December 2007, the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education approved seven presidential candidates as "acceptable" to our Association based on their questionnaires, interviews, and support of our positions. The seven acceptable candidates were Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson. The NEA Fund determined that Mike Huckabee was not acceptable.

4. If the Democratic nominee is determined at the time of the RA, which is scheduled for July 1-6 in Washington, DC, the NEA may recommend a Presidential candidate for the general election. The decision will be made by a secret ballot vote by the RA delegates on such a recommendation sometime during the event. If the Democratic nomination is still up in the air by the time of the RA, the NEA Fund Council Guidelines provide for a general election recommendation to be made after the RA by mail ballot sent to the delegates. The Guidelines provide that the NEA Fund Council is authorized to conduct a mail vote by the RA delegates on a general election recommendation for President as late as two weeks after the last of the national party nominating conventions, and that the NEA Fund Council may make a recommendation to the delegates on how they should vote in a letter mailed at least three days prior to the date on which the official ballot is mailed.

5. The vote required to recommend a Presidential candidate for the general election is the same regardless of whether the recommendation is made at the RA or after the RA. A vote of 58 percent of all the delegates voting is required to make a recommendation if there are two choices on the ballot (e.g., "recommend candidate A" or "no recommendation") and a simple majority vote is needed if there are three choices on the ballot ("recommend candidate A," "recommend candidate B," or "no recommendation").  The ballot must list the name of the candidate(s) with a "yes" or "no" choice.

6. No NEA dues are spent on any activities for or contributions to presidential candidates. The money that is used for this purpose comes from individual member contributions collected separately from dues by the NEA Fund.