NJ Globe Details Sean Spiller’s Political Career but Curiously Omits Facts About His Serious Legal Troubles

New Jersey Globe reporter Joey Fox published a long and detailed summary of NJEA President/former-Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller’s political career as part of a series on the 2025 gubernatorial candidates, but Fox left several important facts out of the story — including facts about Spiller’s serious legal troubles that surely would be of interest to New Jersey voters.  We wonder why.  

So Sunlight will try to set the story straight.  Here are three glaring omissions by Fox:

I. THE MONTCLAIR WHISTLEBLOWER LAWSUIT

As he had to, Fox mentioned the whistleblower lawsuit filed against the town and Spiller, highlighting claims of retaliation against the plaintiff for “calling out improper benefits in town government.” But that is not a fair characterization of the whistleblower lawsuit and leaves out several important facts, all of which reflect negatively on Spiller and all of which have been covered extensively by the excellent Montclair Local.  

Per the Local, here are the facts:

• The lawsuit explicitly named Spiller and accused him of illegally obtaining state health benefits.
• Three Wildwood officials were indicted for the same offense.
• The Attorney General’s office subpoenaed town employment records (including Spiller’s) as part of a criminal investigation.
• During a deposition for the lawsuit, Spiller pleaded his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination over 400 times.
• To this day, Spiller remains under “ongoing” state criminal investigation.

Surely New Jersey voters would want to know these facts before they make their choice in the May primary election.  Why did Fox leave these important facts out when the Local‘s reporting is available on-line for all to see?

II. THE MONTCLAIR REFERENDUM AND SPILLER’S ROLE IN SCHOOL CLOSURES

Fox states that a November 2021 town referendum that stripped Spiller of the mayoral power to appoint the school board was due to “campaign-season concerns about a conflict of interest on the Board of Education.”  But this is only part of the story and ignores a major impetus for the referendum: Spiller’s role in keeping Montclair schools closed during the pandemic, which infuriated Montclair parents.  Spiller publicly sided with the Montclair Education Association (MEA) as it boycotted the superintendent’s January 2021 re-opening plan and allowed Montclair schools to remain closed far longer than most New Jersey districts.  The district actually sued the MEA as a result.  That’s why the campaign for the referendum was launched in March 2021.

Given the substantial learning loss suffered by New Jersey students from extended school closures, we believe New Jersey voters would want to know about Spiller’s conflicted role and Montclair’s reaction to it.

III. SPILLER DID NOT RUN FOR RE-ELECTION BECAUSE HE WOULD HAVE LOST

Fox essentially attributes Spiller’s decision not to run for re-election to his gubernatorial ambitions, but this is a very benign take.  As indicated above, Spiller was severely rebuked by Montclair citizens when they passed the referendum in November 2021 by a margin of 70% to 30%.  The writing was on the wall for a second Spiller term.  In April 2022, the NJEA secretly contributed $1 million to Spiller’s Super PAC Protecting Our Democracy, which was officially launched in October 19, 2022 as a platform for Spiller’s gubernatorial run.  That was two days after the whistleblower lawsuit was filed on October 17, 2022.

Per the Local, former-Montclair mayor and councilman Bob Russo summed it up: “I would never endorse Sean Spiller because of his poor record as Montclair mayor.”  This was consistent with what our contacts in Montclair told us at the time:  Spiller would have lost badly had he run for re-election.

All of this factual information was readily available to Fox either from the Local or Sunlight, yet it went unreported.  Notably, Fox cited Sunlight’s research extensively, but for some reason, he never deigned to speak with us about Spiller.  We wonder why.