Jersey City Mayor Fulop: Sean Spiller Can Spend Millions to Run for Governor Because It’s “Other People’s Money” — But It’s All NJ Teachers’ Dues
October 11, 2024NJ Ranked 49th Out of 50 States for Financial Condition: A “F” for Every Year Under Gov. Murphy
October 22, 2024Continuing our perusal of the NJEA’s 2022 IRS Form 990, we looked at member donations to the NJEA’s traditional political action committee (PAC), NJEA PAC. Contributions to NJEA PAC are a good barometer for members’ enthusiasm for NJEA political spending because NJEA PAC is funded by a voluntary, separate dues stream that members must opt into, where members also choose what amount they want to give. As shown in the chart below, members’ voluntary contributions to NJEA PAC remained -22% below their 2008 peak, declining from $1,068,000 in 2008 to $833,000 in 2022.
The bottom line: when given the choice, modern NJEA members are less willing to fork over their money for NJEA political spending. This lack of enthusiasm for politics also manifests itself in the NJEA’s increased out-sourcing of GOTV to paid operations like New Jersey Working Families Alliance.
But teachers’ unwillingness of spend their money or time on politics has not deterred NJEA leadership from ramping up political spending regardless of how teachers’ feel about it. The voluntary nature of NJEA PAC stands in stark contrast with the NJEA’s Super PAC, Garden State Forward. Garden State Forward is funded by teachers’ regular dues without their knowledge and without their consent. Fed by the massive pool of regular dues, Garden State Forward has become the NJEA’s main vehicle for political spending since its creation in 2012. In 2022, NJEA leadership devoted $9 million to Garden State Forward versus the $833,000 contributed to NJEA PAC. As shown in the chart below, from 2012 to 2022, Garden State Forward spent $74 million on politics compared to NJEA PAC’s $9.7 million — about 7.5x.
As we have said many times, the modern NJEA has been turned into a political machine, and now a giant “Spiller for Governor” political machine. Not because teaches want that — in fact their dwindling contributions to NJEA PAC show they do not want that — but because it is what NJEA leadership (including Spiller) chooses to do with their highest-in-the-nation dues. That’s a scandal, which is made worse by the fact that NJEA leadership hides the existence of Garden State Forward and its support for Spiller from the very teachers whose dues fund it.
What a scam.