NJ.com: NJEA Leadership Claims It Has No Responsibility to Ensure that $45 Million of Teachers’ Dues Were Well Spent

In a stunning admission, the NJEA claims that it has no responsibility to ensure that its members’ dues are well spent — even if it’s $40 million of dues. That’s the upshot of an excellent piece of reporting by Jelani Gibson for NJ.com, “N.J. teachers union financed a $45M political gamble — and it could change politics forever, new report says.” Drawing from Sunlight’s new report, Gibson describes the unprecedented nature of former-NJEA President Sean Spiller’s “unusual” run: Spiller raised no money for himself, so NJEA leadership appropriated $45 million of teachers’ dues to outsource Spiller’s campaign to dark-money SuperPACs Working New Jersey and Protecting Our Democracy. The article details how Working New Jersey then went on a highly questionable and opaque, $40 million spending spree. When Gibson confronted NJEA Director of Communications Steve Baker with these facts, Baker made the stunning claim that the NJEA has no responsibility for ensuring member dues are well spent. Which is to say that NJEA leadership essentially took teachers’ dues to write a $40 million blank check to Working New Jersey. No questions asked. As we noted last week, the post-Spiller Debacle NJEA leadership has changed its tone and optics by stressing “member voices,” “honesty,” and “transparency,” but it looks like tone and optics are the only changes. Like old leadership, new leadership chooses to ignore its fiduciary duty to ensure that members’ hard-earned dues are well spent. Nothing of substance has changed. Teachers deserve better.

NJ.com nails it: Spiller’s run was a profligate waste of dues. Jelani Gibson’s article for NJ.com nails it. He digs into the details of Sunlight’s new report about the non-disclosure and questionable spending surrounding former-NJEA President’s failed run for governor. Gibson clearly and accurately states that ALL of the record $45 million spent on Spiller came from New Jersey teachers highest-in-the-nation dues, a fact that NJEA leadership has still not admitted to members. He also notes that Spiller finished a distant fifth with 89,472 votes — a jaw-dropping $502 per vote!

Spiller’s unprecedented, highly unusual run. Gibson highlights the unprecedented nature of Spiller’s “unusual” run and the implications for New Jersey’s political system. Spiller was unable to raise his own money nor properly staff his own campaign, and instead relied on NJEA leadership (of which Spiller was part) to appropriate $45 million of dues for his own “piggy bank,” as Newark Mayor and candidate Ras Baraka said. Spiller effectively outsourced his campaign to SuperPAC Working New Jersey, which spent 99% of the money behind Spiller’s run. Gibson quotes Sunlight’s Mike Lilley:

So now a candidate in New Jersey doesn’t have to raise his own money, doesn’t have to run his own campaign, doesn’t have to have a paid staff, doesn’t have to qualify for the debate — they can just tap into this private entity … and basically outsource a personal campaign.

Highly questionable spending with no disclosure. Gibson correctly focuses on Working New Jersey’s highly questionable $10.1 million payment for voter outreach to AP Consulting, a tiny consulting firm with no apparent expertise in voter outreach. How AP Consulting spent the money is “unclear,” and there has been no disclosure about how its very expensive voter outreach effort was executed. By contrast, Mayor Baraka spent 1/10 of the money and got twice the votes.

NJEA: it was a $45 million blank check and we have no responsibility to ensure that the dues were well spent. But what is particularly revealing are the quotes Gibson gets from NJEA Director of Communications Steve Baker. Baker effectively throws Working New Jersey under the bus for the questionable campaign decisions:

With regard to Working New Jersey, NJEA did not direct its decisions about resource allocation or the hiring of any firms it used.

This is a stunning comment. Baker appears to be saying that not only will leadership covertly appropriate $45 million of dues, it will then distribute that money without any responsibility for how it is spent. It’s a blank check to a dark-money SuperPAC and NJEA leadership will make no effort to ensure that the funds are spent efficiently. Leadership’s fiduciary duty to members be damned. We doubt Baker would deign to communicate that reality to New Jersey teachers.

Leadership continues to deceive members. Indeed, rather than ensure that its members’ dues were well spent or even own up to the disastrous waste of $45 million of dues, current leadership mischaracterized the poor results and even expressed pride in Spiller’s run:

Spiller makes strong showing in Dem primary … We are incredibly proud of the campaign Sean ran over the last year …

It is a fact that, to this day, NJEA leadership has never admitted directly to teachers that it wasted $45 million of their highest-in-the-nation dues on Spiller’s disastrous run.

As we noted last week, the post-Spiller Debacle NJEA leadership has changed its tone and optics by stressing “members’ interests,” “honesty,” and “transparency,” but it looks like tone and optics are the only changes. Like old leadership, new leadership chooses to ignore its fiduciary duty to ensure that members’ hard-earned dues are well spent and then stonewalls any demands for answers or accountability. Nothing of substance has changed.

Teachers deserve better.