The Star-Ledger Steps Up with a Powerful Editorial on NJEA President/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller’s Deepening Legal Troubles

Once again, kudos to the Star-Ledger editorial board for their hard-hitting editorial regarding NJEA President/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller’s apparent retaliation against Sarah Avery, a Montclair citizen/activist who has been critical of Spiller.  Despite his legal troubles getting deeper and deeper, Spiller continues to use his members’ highest-in-the-nation dues to back his personal political ambitions.  The teachers don’t have a choice, but we wonder what they would think if they knew that the compromised and conflicted Spiller was spending their dues in this way.

Sunlight covered the subpoenaing of Ms. Avery in a recent blog, but the Star-Ledger adds its credibility and reputation for independence to the coverage of the story.  They do not pull any punches, calling Spiller’s apparent retaliation against Ms. Avery “outrageous behavior” and “an attack on her First Amendment rights.”

The editorial details Spiller’s continuing legal troubles, including his pleading the 5th in a whistleblower lawsuit accusing him of malfeasance and retaliation (!), as well as his serial conflicts of interest. It rightfully questions “his ethics and fitness to run for governor.”

The editorial notes the irony (we might call it “hypocrisy”) of what looks like Spiller’s very un-democratic retaliation against a private citizen when compared to the name and mission of his personal Super PAC, “Protecting Our Democracy.”  The compromised Spiller recently decided against running for re-election in Montclair, and Protecting Our Democracy is widely seen as a platform for Spiller’s post-Montclair political career.  It is funded by millions of teachers’ regular dues without their consent.  Spiller’s conflict of interest is manifest, once again.  

The Star-Ledger captures the situation well:  “Without evidence to the contrary, it sure looks like harassment of the mayor’s loudest critic.  How can he square that with his preachings on democracy?”

We’ll answer that: he can’t.  Once again, we wonder what New Jersey teachers would think about their highest-in-the-nation dues being used in such a way.