“Dark money” group New Direction New Jersey (NDNJ) is no longer quite so dark. Some nine months after promising to disclose its donors, NDNJ finally did last week. But only after the Sunlight Policy Center of New Jersey (SPCNJ), POLITICO and the Bergen Record dug up the major sources of its funding. And only after…Read More

InsiderNJ’s Jay Lassiter wrote a column this morning about the influence of special interests over New Jersey politicians.  Lassiter rightly questions who these pols are working for.  But he curiously failed to mention the most powerful special interest of all: the NJEA. John Bury of BuryPensions posted a piece that looks at how and where…Read More

InsiderNJ columnist Jay Lassiter rightly calls out the influence of special interests on New Jersey politicians.  He mentions New Direction New Jersey (NDNJ), the “dark money” group backing a millionaire’s tax.  He also mentions Speaker Coughlin’s law firm, Assemblywoman Lampitt and others sponsoring legislation for special interests , and Senator Lagana’s ties to the insurance…Read More

The North Jersey Record reported today that the NJEA funneled another $1 million to the dark money group New Direction New Jersey (NDNJ) – this time via its Super PAC Garden State Forward.  SPCNJ previously discovered that the NJEA had donated $2.5 million to NDNJ, so the NJEA has now pumped $3.5 million of its…Read More

Politico ran a story about how Assembly Speaker Coughlin took New Direction New Jersey (NDNJ) to task for attacking Democrats.  The article describes NDNJ as “a ‘dark money’ group Murphy does not control but which is run by his allies and promotes his agenda.” As SPCNJ uncovered, and as exposed in an earlier Politico story,…Read More

New Jersey Globe reports that Gov. Murphy has questioned whose side Senate President Sweeney is on when it comes to the various programs and taxes wants in the state budget. But whose side is the governor on? On the side of New Jersey’s most powerful special interest and the lavishly compensated one-percenters in its leadership….Read More

InsiderNJ reports on a New Direction New Jersey (NDNJ) email blast condemning the legislature’s budget as a “scam” that “screws working people” and benefits millionaires. That’s laughable.  Remember that NDNJ is a dark money group funded by the NJEA with $2.5 million of taxpayer dollars.  Remember that in 2016 the NJEA supported raising the gasoline…Read More

You do, taxpayers.  $129 million’s worth last year. Your property tax dollars pay for teacher salaries and the union’s dues are withheld from them, so your tax dollars flow through the district and the teachers directly to the NJEA.  Of this generous $129 million of funding, SPCNJ estimates that $65 million is spent on politics….Read More