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Election Notebook: Teachers union insists it reached out to all candidates
| Friday, Oct 3 2008 2:22 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Oct 3 2008 2:53 PM
After re-checking addresses, the Kern High Teachers Association is insisting it sent interview invitations to all high school district trustee candidates before endorsing two of them.
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Three candidates for the Kern High School District board said this week they did not receive an invite.
The group endorsed Bob Hampton and Bill Perry. It said it only considered those two and Larry Bly because the others didn’t schedule an in-person interview.
Chuck Cournyea, Robert Frank and Chad Vegas said they did not receive an invitation. Charles Rodriguez did not respond to calls.
The group mailed an invitation to Vegas’ old address, which was the one registered with the Kern County Elections Division, said Jan Graves, political action chair for the association.
Vegas said all of his mail has been forwarded from his old address. Also, Vegas said the group has his e-mail and phone number. He said he is now registered at the correct address.
Graves said it is not the association’s responsibility to chase down candidates.
When it comes to Cournyea and Frank, Graves said she thinks maybe they didn’t know what the association was, so they discarded the invitation. She said in the future the association will use certified mail. After the group’s endorsements came out Wednesday, Cournyea said he has responded to every invitation he has received from any organization.