The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) election results were no surprise to those who follow teacher retirement politics.
The CTU leadership caucus CORE won the two teacher trustee slots, and they won two of the three slots for retired teacher trustee.
CORE Teacher Trustee Tammie Vinson, who replaced Tina Padilla on the Board last year, won her re-election with the most votes 2,368 or 47 percent. CORE’s Paula Barrajas won the second slot with 2,120 votes or 42 percent.
Members First Teacher Trustee and Investment Chair Phil Weiss lost his re-election bid with 1,950 votes, or 38 percent.
Negative advertising has always played a prominent role in elections and the pension election was no different. Weiss was not surprised he lost because he said the CTU leadership demonized him by tying him to Republicans and the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) via negative advertising on social media and flyers.
CORE also outspent Weiss by sending out two mailers to the teachers which he estimated cost $6,000 each. Weiss said he and some of his Members First colleagues distributed information in teachers' mailboxes in the schools.
“I feel devastated,” Weiss told Second City Teachers. “I was the whipping boy. It was a super good fit for me. But this took the wind out of me. I'm really hurt. I put my soul into that place.”
Weiss said his tenure marked stability for the Pension Fund with no controversies and earned a respectable 8.2 percent annual return during his three years while he served as the Investment Chair, a powerful position on the Fund. He also said every motion he put forward was passed by the CORE Trustees.
“I leave there with my head held high,” he said. “We'll see what comes next.”
Weiss had made a series of videos that he posted on FB, including one in which State Senator Lakesia Collins endorsed him, citing his work with minority money managers. Senator Collins had received a $57,000 donation from the CTU in August and a $55,622 donation from the CTU affiliatd United Working Families in 2022.
Weiss first upset CORE to get elected in 2020 on a protest vote when he made videos about how poorly the CTPF was funded at 47 percent. That funding level has stayed the same to this day.
The third teacher political caucus was REAL and their two candidates almost had similar vote totals for the 4th and 5th position. REAL Teacher Candidates Erika Meza earned 1,448 votes or 28.8 percent and Allison Eichorn earned 1,417 votes or 28.2 percent.
Meza currently chairs the CTU Tier 2 Committee that is focused on eradicating the discrepancy between Tier 1 Teachers hired before 2011 who can retire at age 60 with 20 years experience, while Tier 2 teachers hired after 2011 cannot retire until age 67 with 10 years experience.
Pension elections have traditionally resulted in poor turnout, and this election was no different. Only about 5,000 out of roughly 30,000 active members voted in the election, a mere 16 percent of the total electorate.
The only independent candidate to defeat the CORE ruling party was Retired Teacher Trustee Maria J. Rodriguez, who won second place with 5,563 votes or 70 percent. In first was long-time UPC turned CORE Retired Teacher Trustee Mary Sharon Reilly with 6,094 votes and 77 percent, and third place was CORE Retired Trustee Lois Nelson with 4,660 votes or 59 percent.
All three Retired Teacher Trustees were re-elected.
The challenger Jack Silver ran on the CORE ticket and earned 59 percent of the vote. He currently serves as the Chair of the CTU Pension and Insurance Committee and had earlier served as a Pension Trustee. He has the distinction of running on three different party platforms: UPC, PACT and CORE.
Retired Trustee Rodriguez was vastly outspent like Weiss in the election. However, her experience and familiarity with the pension voters put her out front. I knew she was a force when I asked a recently retired colleague who he voted for in the election. He told me Rodriguez because she visits the tables and greets people at the Retired Teachers Association of Chicago (RTAC) gatherings.
Twice as many retired teachers voted than regular teachers, 32.55 percent of those eligible. Retired teachers follow the CTPF more closely because their income is based on the pension.
The fight for pensions and funding will be a huge battle going forward. The state is following the corporate world in trying to gut teachers pensions after they passed the divisive Tier 2 legislation 12 years ago. Attempts to restore funding will focus on searching for more revenue and moving up the date to restore the funding levels.
This is my reply to a letter about the confusing numbers in the recent pension election, such as Mary Sharon Reilly who won the most votes with 77 percent total. But that was the total of about one-third of the retired teachers who voted. Yes, a big confusing when citing the numbers. But that is how any election goes, usually half the number of eligible voters vote.
These confusing numbers came from CTPF website -
https://ctpf.org/sites/files/2023-11/23-CTPF%20Teacher%20Final%20Report%20Certified.pdf
https://ctpf.org/sites/files/2023-11/23-CTPF%20Pensioner%20Final%20Report%20Certified.pdf