Ohio Education Association (OEA) President Patricia Frost-Brooks was presented the Democrat of the Year Award at the Ohio Democratic Party’s state dinner on July 28. This official recognition of Frost-Brooks from the Ohio Democratic Party proves the depth of OEA’s partisanship even more clearly than the union’s far-left social media activity and campaigning for President Obama.

Patricia Frost-Brooks crosses the OEA picket line, guarded from her employees by a security detail - Sep. 2010

“The Democrat of the Year Award is presented to a member of our State Party who best embodied our ideals as Democrats,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern, who was recorded at a September 2010 union event referring to critics of President Obama’s health care law as “f***ers” – an outburst the Ohio Democratic Party used as a fundraising opportunity.

According to the OEA Mission Statement, “OEA’s political efforts have always been driven by members, for members and students, and for the improvement of public education.” Regarding the union’s political action committee, the OEA website adds, “OEA’s Fund for Children and Public Education is issue-driven, not candidate-driven, or party-driven.”

On April 28, 2012, Frost-Brooks was named a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She also serves as a member of the Ohio Democratic Party Executive Committee, and has been a vocal advocate of Obama’s health care law even after 2.2 million Ohioans voted in November 2011 to block the law’s mandates.

Based on the 2011 OEA annual report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, 39 percent of the $148,211 OEA paid Frost-Brooks in the fiscal year was for “Political Activities and Lobbying.” Of her remaining compensation, 34 percent was for “Administration,” 24 percent for “General Overhead,” and 3 percent for “Representational Activities.”

By naming OEA President Frost-Brooks “Democrat of the Year,” the Ohio Democratic Party formalized the farce of OEA’s claim to speak for the interests of all teachers. With over 120,000 members in public schools across Ohio, OEA provides enormous amounts of funding as well as a powerful network for distributing the Ohio Democratic Party’s talking points.

Even as OEA fought with its employees in a contract dispute ultimately resulting in a strike, the union gave more than $1.6 million to Ohio Democrats during the 2010 election cycle.

After the November 2010 Republican landslide, OEA was the chief donor to union front We Are Ohio. We Are Ohio energized the state’s political left by spending more than $40 million in union contributions to demonize public employee union reform and anyone daring to support it.

OEA sent another $700,000 to the Ohio Democratic Party during the 2011 election cycle and is currently the largest donor to Voters First Ohio, the union campaign to tilt Ohio’s electoral map-making process away from elected Republicans.

Frost-Brooks and OEA’s other officers spend large sums of their union salaries supporting left-wing politicians. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Frost-Brooks contributed $1,725 to the Ohio Democratic Party in 2008.

OEA Vice President William Leibensperger has donated $1,750 to the Ohio Democratic Party since 2009, and sent the Democratic National Committee $1,000 in 2001. OEA Secretary-Treasurer James Timlin has given $1,850 to the Ohio Democratic Party since 2008.

OEA Executive Director Larry Wicks has donated $1,050 to the Ohio Democratic Party since 2009. Wicks contributed $500 to Obama for America in 2008, $500 to left-wing U.S. Senate candidate Lee Fisher in 2010, and has donated $500 to far-left U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown in 2012.

Additionally, each of the current OEA officers has donated thousands of dollars to the National Education Association’s PAC, which has long been a key donor to the Democratic Party.