David Goodman of Represent New Jersey penned an op-ed in NJSpotlight saying his group opposes Americans for Prosperity’s seeking an injunction against the new disclosure law aimed at exposing “dark money” funding of political operations.  There are good arguments on both sides of the issue, but in the main, SPCNJ believes that there is too much dark money in New Jersey politics and that it’s better for New Jersey citizens to know where it’s being spent and who is spending it.

An excellent case-in-point is the NJEA’s secret $3.5 million (at least) funding for New Direction New Jersey (NDNJ), the dark money group run by former Murphy campaign operatives that pushes both Murphy’s and the NJEA’s agenda.  SPCNJ had to dig deep to expose the NJEA’s secret funding, and that funding revealed a substantial conflict of interest for the governor.  Whose interests is the governor looking after: the NJEA’s or the citizens who elected him?  New Jersey citizens should know of the NJEA’s secret funding and the governor’s blatant conflict of interest.

But Mr. Goodman sees the sources of dark money only as the Kochs and greedy American corporations.  The fact is that by far the biggest political spender in New Jersey is the NJEA.  It seems likely from what we already know that the NJEA is the biggest dark-money spender, too.  But the NJEA is a public sector union, not a private business.

So if Mr. Goodman is going to attack the sources of dark money, why the blind spot for the NJEA?

Read the NJSpotlight op-ed here.