May 29, 2013 01:24 PM UTC

DCTA Announces Endorsements, With Notable Exception

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• by: Colorado Pols

Last week the Denver teachers union (DCTA: Denver Classroom Teachers Association) announced its first wave of endorsements for the 2013 campaign season. And as Ed News Colorado reports, there was one particularly notable exception:

The Denver teachers union isn’t wasting time getting ready for the November election, opting to announce three endorsements four months earlier than normal. Those endorsements are: Meg Schomp, Roger Kilgore and Michael Kiley.

The 3,000-member Denver Classroom Teachers Association Thursday announced three endorsements but conspicuously did not endorse anyone running for the southwest Denver seat now held by Andrea Merida. Merida has announced plans to run for re-election. DCTA endorsed Merida four years ago. But DCTA Fund Chairperson Michelle Miller said DCTA hasn’t had an opportunity to interview people who may run against Merida, such as union organizer Rosario De Baca. Miller said DCTA expected to make its final endorsement by the end of the school year.

Merida has been a polarizing figure on the School Board since she was first elected in 2009. She regularly engages in nasty back-and-forth discussions online with detractors, getting particularly angry when anyone questions whether or not she has paid back the staggering $12,000 she charged to her Denver Public Schools credit card in 2011. After initially pledging to pay back the charges, which included questionable charges for fast food and expensive electronics, Merida backed off that promise in favor of some weird explanation that by not using her credit card she was going to make it all equal, or something. 

It would certainly be no surprise if DCTA withheld another endorsement for Merida in hopes that another, less ethically-questionable candidate will emerge.