NJEA Leadership Wants to Turn the NJEA into a Giant “Spiller for Governor” PAC

Sunlight gets a lot of comments on its Facebook page from retired teachers who bemoan that the NJEA used to be an association focused on education and the well-being of teachers but is more of a political organization now.  Current events have shown how right they are.  Below is the top of the NJEA’s current website — the part you see when you first visit the website.  That’s NJEA President Sean Spiller, who happens to be running for governor, surrounded by NJEA officers with beatific gazes as well as other NJEA members.  The picture makes clear what the NJEA’s focus is: electing Sean Spiller governor.

Behind the picture are many concrete actions.  NJEA leadership wants to mobilize the entire NJEA membership to help elect Spiller governor.  And leadership is pulling all the strings to make it happen:

• RIGGED NJEA ENDORSEMENT: Spiller announced is candidacy on June 14, 2024.  A mere four days later, on June 18, 2024, NJEA PAC endorsed Spiller.  The NJEA claims that all Democratic candidates were invited and only Spiller accepted, but Spiller was apparently the only candidate interviewed.  It very much looks like the endorsement process was predetermined: June of the year before the election year is the earliest NJEA PAC has ever endorsed a candidate.  Even Phil Murphy running for re-election in 2021 was endorsed in October, 2020.  Sure looks like the endorsement process was rigged for Spiller.
• BEATTY AND ROBERTSON PERSONALLY ENDORSE SPILLER: Just make clear to all NJEA members that the top elected leadership of the NJEA was behind the endorsement of Spiller, NJEA Vice President Steve Beatty and Secretary-Treasurer Petal Robertson gave their own personal endorsements of Spiller, which are part of NJEA PAC’s endorsement that is prominently displayed on the NJEA website.
• VISITING LOCALS BEFORE SPILLER’S ANNOUNCMENT: Remarkably, in June, before Spiller had even announced he was running, Secretary-Treasure Petal Robertson was out pushing Spiller’s candidacy to locals in Montclair and elsewhere.
• SIX AUGUST ZOOM CALLS: Friendly teachers informed us that there was an August 8  Zoom call “Spiller for Governor 8/8 Meeting,” which spoke of “an [sic] historic member-driven campaign to elect New Jersey’s first educator governor,” and included NJEA Executive Director Kevin Kelleher, Director of Government Relations Deb Cornavaca, and Government Relations Committee Chair Tina Dare. We were also sent an email announcing a Zoom call on August 28 with an “Invitation to the [sic] Spiller for Governor — featuring our candidate Sean Spiller.”  We learned that these were two of six “member organizing” Zoom calls in August on “how you can help Sean win!”

Spiller, Beatty, Robertson, Kelleher, Cornavaca, and Dare: that’s pretty much all of the top political leadership of the NJEA.  All pushing members to support Spiller’s run.  In effect, they want to make it one big political campaign: one, giant “Spiller for Governor” PAC, if you will.

And here we thought teachers were supposed to teach.  Turns out that’s just an old-fashioned idea.