September 13th Straw Poll Results a Secret as CEA Prepares to Announce Endorsement for Governor.

The Connecticut Education Association conducted a straw poll of the nearly 400 teachers who attended a September 13th forum of three candidates for governor. The results remain a mystery to the participants. Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s 2012 assault on public teachers is a fresh wound among the rank and file. That may have reflected in the straw poll in the organization that remains an important Democratic interest group.

The CEA endorsement is not made by the general membership. It’s determined by a small group of union leaders thought to be more sympathetic to Malloy than the 43,000 front line teachers who, according to Malloy, only had to show up for work to obtain job tenure. A Malloy endorsement will risk creating a wide breach between union leaders and the wider membership who know that a second Malloy term would present the famously vengeful governor another opportunity to punish and insult public school teachers.