We wanted to follow up on Sunlight’s new report, which revealed that NJEA leadership — including NJEA President Spiller — contributed $3 million to Spiller’s personal Super PAC, Protecting Our Democracy in 2022.  Notably, this contribution was not reported to New Jersey’s campaign finance watchdog and thus was unknown to the public, including the teachers who paid for it.  These newly discovered contributions brought the NJEA’s total backing for Spiller to $5 million — ALL paid for by teachers’ highest in the nation dues, without their knowledge or consent.

Now we learn from Politico that there was actually another $3 million contributed to Protecting Our Democracy via the NJEA’s Super PAC, Garden State Forward.  That would bring the total NJEA contributions to $8 million — ALL paid for by teachers’ highest in the nation dues, without their knowledge or consent.

But as Sunlight has amply documented, NJEA leadership hides the existence of Garden State Forward from the very teachers who fund it.  Indeed, we just had the Haddonfield Education Association admit on our Facebook page that they were unaware that teachers’ regular dues were funding Garden State Forward.  So New Jersey teachers are unaware that their regular dues are being used for politics and, in particular, that they are being used to fund President Spiller’s personal political ambitions.  Spiller’s conflict of interest is massive, and his own members lose.

And, as we have amply documented, we question whether Spiller is the sort candidate teachers would want to support on the first place.  As NJEdReport pointed out, NJ Spotlight News described Spiller’s tenure in Montclair as “marked by controversy, and often chaos.” The town had to settle a whistleblower lawsuit naming Spiller for $1.25 million, and potential criminal liability for misusing state health benefits still hangs over Spiller’s head.  No wonder Spiller decided not to run for re-election. He would have lost badly.

Per NJEdReport, Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, said of Spiller’s candidacy for governor: “… there’s a perception that when it involves benefits or salary or compensation … that it’s self-dealing and that’s tough to get out from under.”  The bottom line is that Spiller is a flawed and controversial candidate.

Yet NJEA leadership — including Spiller — is forcing teachers to spend $8 million of their hard-earned dues to support the flawed and controversial candidate Spiller.  The $8 million conflict of interest aside, shouldn’t NJEA leadership be upfront with teachers about what they are doing with their dues?  It’s one thing to spend $8 million on Spiller, but it is another to hide that from the teachers who are paying for it.