Eric Welch, who is running for school board in Williamson County’s District 10 as a Republican and was previously endorsed by the
Williamson County Democratic Party, insists that his pals at Williamson Strong are just a parent group with no union ties or affiliation with the “Strong Schools, Strong Communities” national “scheme,” as he describes it.
As we saw in Part 1, Eric has been a staunch defender of Williamson Strong, a group that is hardly conservative or aligned with conservative values.
Williamson Strong’s Jim Cheney supports Eric’s assessment, describing the organization he co-founded as a non-partisan, local group of parents. So it must be true, right? Nothing to see here.
As John Adams once famously observed, facts are stubborn things:
FACT 1: Williamson Strong co-founder Susan Drury was a Research and Strategic Campaign Director for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — one of the most left-wing organizations on the face of the earth—at the time Williamson Strong was formed.
FACT 2: Williamson Strong uses the national “Strong Schools, Strong Communities” slogan.
FACT 3: These nationwide Strong-themed groups share more than the slogan used by Williamson Strong. They also have similar objectives and messaging.
FACT 4: According to Media Trackers, in Ohio “Strong Schools, Strong Communities” is a school funding reform (translation: raise your taxes) group “created by labor unions….”
- Eric denies there’s any connection. It’s all a big lie. Just ask him. So, who are you going to believe — Eric Welch and Jim Cheney, or your own eyes?
But there’s more.
FACT 5: “Strong Schools, Strong Communities” is used by the Community Agenda of America’s Public School, an initiative started by the American Federation of Teachers (which is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO) together with 123 organizations.
FACT 6: These entities typically portray themselves locally as “grassroots,” but according to MediaTrackers that is “an incredibly misleading descriptor” for a group that was created and backed by labor unions in Ohio under the “Strong Schools, Strong Communities” banner. They’re in numerous places:
Notice how the Nebraska State Education Association (NSEA) and the Arizona Education Association added “Strong Economy” to “Strong Schools, Strong Communities.”
- Williamson Strong later added a slight variation —“and a vibrant economy”—to its description.
Williamson Strong: Strong Schools-Strong Communities
https://williamsonstrong.org/
“Williamson Strong is a non-partisan group of committed parents advocating for strong schools, strong communities, and a vibrant economy. Join us today.”
Why this change? Could it have anything to do with the National Education Association’s (NEA) discovery that the “Strong Schools, Strong Communities, Strong Economy” messaging tested well?
In an April 7, 2019, Tennessee Star article, journalist Laura Baigert wrote:
“Strong Schools is a Political Action Committee (PAC) that was started in 2014 and focused on the May primary elections for County Commission in Sumner County. The group, with Andy Spears as its executive director, favored additional allocations by the Sumner County Commission to Sumner County Schools.
“Williamson Strong, based in Williamson County, Tennessee, sprang up at around the same time also with a similar focus on elections.
“While ‘strong schools’ organizations present as developing organically out of a local need to support schools, particularly with a view toward additional funding, an internet search will reveal that the moniker is used in various places around the country, and using similar messaging.
“In 2014, Strong Schools supported candidates in Sumner County defeated many of the conservative candidates running for County Commission.
“Just a few months later, a 24 percent property tax increase was approved with all of the Strong Schools candidates voting in favor of it.”
“For the August 2018 general election, Sumner’s Strong Schools PAC once again endorsed County Commission candidates. The endorsements included candidates running as Democrats, Independents and Republicans, but none that identified as conservative.”
It’s never a good idea to deny the obvious, Eric.
Are we really supposed to believe:
- It’s just a stunning coincidence that Williamson Strong uses the same slogan and messaging as other union-backed “grassroots” organizations throughout the nation?
- It’s a coincidence that one of Williamson Strong’s co-founders was concurrently employed by the SEIU as a Campaign Director?
- It’s a coincidence that attorney J. Gerard Stranch IV, who represented Williamson Strong’s leaders when they were accused of violating Tennessee election law, was affiliated with the Lawyer’s Coordinating Committee of the AFL-CIO?
If Williamson Strong wants to be part of a national union-affiliated movement, that’s fine and dandy with me. But the leaders should be honest and transparent about who they are, their intentions and who’s behind them.
If they’re deceptive about something as basic as this, what else are they trying to hide?
Don Beehler
Guest Post
