Arizona Republicans using #RedforEd images in their campaigns draw protests

Dustin Gardiner
The Republic | azcentral.com
#RedForEd supporters gather at the state Capitol in Phoenix on May 3, 2018. The Arizona Legislature passed a state budget, including a teacher pay-raise plan.

Some teachers with the #RedForEd movement are demanding that Republican candidates for the Arizona Legislature stop using pictures of red-clad teachers on campaign ads without their permission.

Dozens of them took to social media over the past few days to protest a mailer from three GOP candidates that included a picture of teachers marching on the Capitol last spring.

That mailer was sent to voters in a Chandler battleground district by Republican state Senate candidate Rep. J.D. Mesnard, the House speaker who's running for Senate, and House candidates Rep. Jeff Weninger and Nora Ellen.

"We supported Arizona teachers!" the mailer states in large letters set amid of sea of #RedForEd protesters.

On the mailer, the candidates tout the GOP's 20x2020 teacher-raise plan, which was approved in May and aims to give 20 percent raises over three years. The piece blasts Democrats for opposing it.

Deirdre Cronin, a middle-school math teacher, was among the educators who took to Twitter to blast Mesnard over what she calls a "sneaky and misleading" ad.

"He rolled his eyes every time teachers spoke this summer at the Capitol," Cronin tweeted Tuesday night with a picture of the mailer. "He always seemed annoyed with our presence."

Cronin told The Arizona Republic that she was "appalled" to see the teachers' picture used in that way, adding "I just think it’s stooping to a low level."

Many teachers and Democrats criticized Mesnard over the mailer because they said Republican lawmakers didn't go far enough and failed to meet many of #RedForEd's demands — including that classroom funding be restored to 2008 levels.

They said the GOP only acted after teachers forced their hand during a six-day school walkout, when more than 50,000 people marched on the Capitol complex.

But Mesnard. R-Chandler, said the online brouhaha over his mailer is another example of how some people have tried to "own the #RedForEd movement" and use it for their political purposes.

He said despite his differences with some in #RedForEd, the mailer accurately reflects the fact that many teachers are thankful for their raises.

“The piece was about the fact that we support our teachers, and that remains the case," Mesnard told The Republic. "I believe that most of the folks out there feel like what we did was a good thing."

"I’ve had a lot of teachers tell me 'thank you.' Not everyone who marched on the Capitol feels the same way."

Weninger concurred, saying everything written on the mailer is "100 percent accurate." He said Republicans vowed in May that they would focus on the raises they approved in their campaigns.

Meanwhile, leaders of the teacher movement said the mailer is one of several examples of how lawmakers who didn't support their goals are now trying to portray themselves as allies ahead of the Nov. 6 election.

Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association, called GOP candidates' attempts to claim "street cred" with the teachers "so disingenuous it’s shameful."

“They’re smart to be worried because the enthusiasm we see at the doors… the voters are still with us," he said.

Another recent flap over a lawmaker using teachers' pictures involved state Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, who's switching chambers to run for the Arizona House in a northeast Phoenix district.

Debbie Arn, an elementary-school teacher, targeted Barto in a Twitter video after the lawmaker posted a photo of her posing with Arn and other teachers on her campaign website.

Arn said the teachers had met with Barto in her office during #RedForEd protests but left frustrated because she wouldn't agree to do anything to resolve their concerns.

"I thought that was really underhanded, false advertising," Arn said of the photo. "It made me so mad."

Barto called Arn after she contacted her campaign. The senator agreed to remove the picture. Barto told The Republic that she regularly posts photos of her constituent meetings in a slideshow on her website, but removed two that included teachers.

"When contacted about their objections, I removed them from the slideshow within a day," she wrote in an email.

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