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Furious backpedaling

In case you doubted the influence of the teachers’ unions in the Democratic Party:

After a long day of campaigning recently for the state Assembly seat he seeks as the capstone to his political career, Democrat Frank Quintero sat down to a debate and, when asked if he supports school vouchers, gave what he later called a "halting, feeble yes."

The one-word response and his mention of vouchers later in the evening forced Quintero’s campaign for the 43rd Assembly District into damage control. He retracted the comment later that week, saying he opposed vouchers – government funding to help parents with private school tuition.

But opponents seized on his original statement to portray him either as a waffler or a danger to public education.

The weekend after the May 1 debate, California Teachers Association members stood outside Quintero’s campaign office to hold him accountable. A week later, the California branch of the National Organization for Women released a poll suggesting voters took exception to the voucher statement.

Both organizations had already endorsed Paul Krekorian, Quintero’s Democratic opponent in the June 6 primary. But the price Quintero paid for what he calls a slip of the tongue reveals the dangers of straying from the message in a campaign.

"Obviously in a Democratic primary, that’s not the thing to say, that you support school vouchers," said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based think tank.

Understatement of the year.  (Hat tip to A Constrained Vision.)