Blatant Hypocrisy from Attorney General Platkin and NJEA President Spiller: What’s the Status of the AG’s Criminal Investigation of Spiller?
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March 21, 2025More signs that NJEA President/gubernatorial candidate Sean Spiller has turned his union into one, big “Spiller for Governor” Super PAC, with teachers being forced to foot the bill. And here we thought the NJEA was an “education association.” All in an effort to back a compromised candidate under ongoing criminal investigation who cannot raise any money on his own. It’s a scandal in plain sight.
Below is the cover of the March NJEA Review, the NJEA’s monthly magazine for teachers. It’s basically a full-page “Spiller for Governor” ad. Inside we find another three pro-Spiller entries: 1) Spiller’s “President’s Message,” which is all about his run; 2) a full-page picture of Spiller at the NJEA convention with a group of NJEA members in purple “Spiller for Governor 2025” tee-shirts; and 3) a five-page interview with Spiller, entitled “SEAN SPILLER for GOVERNOR.”
That makes two months in a row of NJEA Reviews with four pro-Spiller entries, but “Spiller for Governor” content has been in every NJEA Review for the last seven months, with multiple entries for the past six months. And now he’s on the cover. This is essentially free advertising for Spiller’s campaign to the 175,000+ membership of the NJEA.
NJEA Review costs the NJEA about $1.6 million per year to publish and distribute, or about $160,000 for each of the 10 issues. That makes for over $1 million of NJEA Reviews with copious pro-Spiller content. We would think that would qualify as some sort of forced, in-kind contribution from teachers to Spiller. We wonder if ELEC will get involved. How unethical for NJEA leadership to engineer this.
Then we had a friendly teacher reach out to us on our Facebook page to share a card she received at a meeting on school property. She stated that NJEA reps held meetings in her district (and a neighboring one) and passed out the card below, which has a checklist for pro-Spiller electioneering. She also informed us that at some schools the reps are posting which teachers have not returned their cards. More coercing teachers to back Spiller.
This is not the first time NJEA reps have used meetings on school property to electioneer for Spiller. We had reports of such activity in Montclair. State law prohibits campaigning on public property, and that includes schools, but we’ve already learned that New Jersey laws are flexible when it comes to powerful political insiders and Gov. Murphy’s pals — like Spiller.
ALL of this is paid for by New Jersey teachers’ regular, annual dues. NJEA Review is published every month using those dues. The card was produced by NJEA as well, which means it was funded by dues. And then there’s the pro-Spiller Super PAC, Working New Jersey, that has been inundating the state with pro-Spiller mailers and ads. Working New Jersey has been funded by $17.25 million of the $22.25 million in teachers’ dues already spent backing Spiller’s candidacy.
All of this in an effort to back a compromised candidate under ongoing criminal investigation for misusing state health benefits who cannot raise any money on his own. It’s a scandal in plain sight.