Teachers union not endorsing in governor’s race

Published 4:29 pm Friday, September 30, 2011

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Breaking with tradition, one of Louisianaâ s top two teacher unions wonâ t endorse a candidate for governor before the Oct. 22 election.

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers has endorsed Democrats for the stateâ s top office for years and has clashed repeatedly with Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is running for a second term.

But Democrats failed to field any high-profile contenders for governor this time. LFT President Steve Monaghan said that two Democrats are very similar and the group wonâ t choose one over the other.

Monaghan says â Niki Birdâ Papazoglakis, of Baton Rouge, and Tara Hollis, of Haynesville, are â very philosophically in tune with us.â Neither has raised much money to mount a significant challenge. Two other Democrats also are in the race.