Parting Kiss: the NJEA Pays for Gov. Murphy’s Ad Campaign to Try to Persuade New Jersey of His “Incredible Legacy”

Well, well, well. Looks like we have a $500,000 parting kiss from the NJEA to their favorite governor, Phil Murphy — shrouded in opacity and non-disclosure, as always. New Jersey Globe reported that Murphy’s dark-money Super PAC Stronger Fairer Forward is “spending six figures to cement outgoing governor’s legacy.” In the ads, Murphy touts his “incredible legacy for the Garden State.” For the record, that brings the NJEA’s backing of Murphy to (at least) $22.8 million, according to a recent report. In return, the status quo Gov. Murphy has largely governed for the benefit of the NJEA and his other government union pals. And true to NJEA form, all of the $22.8 million was paid for by teachers’ highest-in-the-nation dues without their knowledge or consent.

Why must Murphy do this? Our first reaction is to ask why, if Murphy’s legacy is so “incredible,” he feels it’s necessary to tout it with with hundreds of thousands of dollars of NJEA-funded ads. If Murphy actually built an “incredible legacy” over his eight years in office, he wouldn’t have to “cement” it in his last two weeks, would he?

From the NJEA to Murphy’s dark-money Super PAC. But what is particularly revealing is that it’s almost certain that Murphy’s biggest political supporter, the NJEA, paid for the ad campaign via its Super PAC, Garden State Forward. True to form, Stronger Fairer Forward is a dark-money Super PAC (a 501(c)(4)) that is not required to — and does not — disclose its donors. So, as always with the NJEA, Sunlight had to dig out and put together the pieces. The screenshot below is an October 24, 2025 Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) Form R-1 filing by Garden State Forward. It captures an October 17, 2025 Garden State Forward contribution of $500,000 (six figures …) to Stronger Fairer Forward.

Sunlight checked the ELEC database and there is no record of any expenditures by Stronger Fairer Forward in the 2025 general election. So we know that Stronger Fairer Forward had something around $500,000 to spend and, lo and behold, a “six-figure” ad campaign appears on January 5, 2026. The NJEA has also been a repeat-donor to Stronger Fairer Forward, having contributed a total of $2.25 million. We believe it’s fair to conclude that this ad campaign was funded by the NJEA via Garden State Forward. Perhaps some intrepid reporter could ask the NJEA directly.

ALL paid for by teachers’ highest-in-the-nation dues. Every penny spent by Garden State Forward comes from teachers’ highest-in-the-nation annual dues without their knowledge or consent — because NJEA leadership has systematically hidden the truth from teachers.

Gov. Murphy largely governed for the NJEA’s benefit. NJEA President Steve Beatty summed up the reason for the NJEA’s warm embrace of Murphy: “There is no governor in the nation who has worked as closely and collaboratively with public employee unions than Gov. Murphy.”* Here’s a few (of many) examples:

• More government spending and more taxes. Government unions like the NJEA always and everywhere want more government spending. It’s their lifeblood. Murphy obliged by increasing spending from $35 billion to $59 billion, up an astounding 69% over eight years. And Murphy has obligingly hiked taxes to make New Jersey citizens and businesses pay for it.

• Pensions. At the NJEA’s behest, Murphy pumped $47 billion into the state’s pension system. Due to the complicity of prior NJEA leadership in the 1990s and 2000s, the teachers’ pension plan (TPAF) has been the most severely underfunded of all the plans. Despite Murphy’s $47 billion and the dedication of 77% of the state lottery proceeds to TPAF, TPAF is still severely underfunded — and that’s with half of all teachers in inadequate Tier 1 pensions and no COLAs for anyone. Murphy chose to make the full, required $7 billion-a-year payments, which would normally be a very good thing, but those $7 billion payments will have to continue for another 20 years to reach full funding. Murphy’s threw a massive amount of good money after bad and would have better served teachers and New Jersey citizens if he had used it to help restructure the broken pension system.

• Two-tiered justice system that benefits Murphy’s pal Sean Spiller. And then there’s Murphy’s “dear friend,” former-NJEA President/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller. Spiller was a top elected officer of the NJEA for every year of Murphy’s New Jersey political career . During that time, the NJEA spent (at least) $22.8 million backing Murphy. Spiller was the infamous beneficiary of Murphy’s two-tiered justice system: one for Murphy’s pals like Spiller and Brendan Gill, and one for everyone else. Spiller was credibly accused in a 2022 whistleblower lawsuit of misusing state health benefits, for which the attorney general’s office launched a criminal investigation. As a result, Spiller pleaded the 5th over 400 times. Murphy’s AG, Matt Platkin, sat on the Spiller investigation while indicting three Wildwood officials for the same thing. As a result, Spiller will suffer no consequences.

Murphy’s real legacy is a rotten status quo. As we have said many times, Murphy was a status quo governor: he was elected with the support of New Jersey’s powerful government unions — led by the NJEA — and has largely governed for their benefit. It’s no surprise that, after their eight-year love affair, there would be a $500,000 parting kiss aimed at persuading people that Murphy’s tenure actually benefited the citizens of the state. The sad reality is that Murphy is leaving the same, rotten political status quo and a state with numerous, unsolved, long-term problems. That’s Murphy’s real legacy.

*Beatty was NJEA Secretary Treasurer at the time. “NJEA endorses Phil Murphy in June 8 primary,” NJEA Review, June, 2021, p. 16.