Politico Confirms NJEA Spent $45+ Million of Teachers’ Regular Dues on Sean Spiller’s Vanity Run for Governor — Without Teachers’ Consent

Once again, Politico has stepped up with a hard-hitting, fact-based article on the NJEA’s questionable decision to spend $45+ million of teachers’ dues on NJEA President Sean Spiller’s vanity run for governor.  We wish the authors had been clearer that ALL of the $45+ million* came from teachers’ highest-in-the-nation dues and that NJEA leadership has tried to hide this truth from teachers, rather than leaving it to others to make these points. But the authors do present several facts and choice quotes that confirm Sunlight’s own reporting on the issue and they are damning.  We can only hope that this is the beginning of some sort of accountability for NJEA leadership’s (including the conflicted Spiller) profligate waste of teachers’ highest-in-the-nation dues– without their knowledge or consent.

Here are the key points:

• NJEA SPENT A RECORD AMOUNT BACKING SPILLER: NJEA leadership spent at least $48 million* in total on Spiller’s run. To put that into perspective: no group “has ever spent as much in state history to promote a single candidate.”  In other words, the $48 million was a record amount of spending — by far.
• FOR A VANITY RUN: Spiller’s run was indeed a “vanity” run: he was a “long shot” candidate who “struggled to raise his own funds,” failed to qualify for the debates, and finished fifth among the six candidates with only 10% of the vote. Tellingly, Spiller finished fifth in his hometown of Montclair with a mere 2.5% of the vote — the town where he was a “controversial” and unpopular mayor.  Also tellingly, “not even half of [NJEA members] voted for their union president.” [More accurately, if every one of his 87,367 votes were cast by NJEA members, it would only amount to 42% of membership, so it is highly likely that a substantially smaller number than 42% voted for him.]
• NJEA CREDIBILITY DAMAGED: The article quotes a former-high-level-NJEA official as noting that, given Spiller’s poor showing, the NJEA’s $48 million in spending “didn’t seem like a good investment.” Because of Spiller’s poor showing, “NJEA leadership’s credibility … has been diminished,” which could “impact its ability to advocate for teachers in Trenton.” So a lose-lose for teachers.
• ALL PAID FOR BY TEACHERS’ REGULAR DUES: The article quotes Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, who accurately described what happened: NJEA leadership (including Spiller) “just lit $40 million of [teachers’] dues money on fire … What an insult to hard-working educators.”
• WITHOUT TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT: President of the Asbury Park local teachers union John Napolitani, who presumably reflects the views of his membership: “I don’t even think the membership realized how much of their dollars were spent on this race, basically for a loss.” And again the former-high-level-NJEA official:”If you were to ask [teachers] ‘Is this how you want your monies used — for a sitting president to spend millions of dollars to run for governor — they would say no.  And how do I think they would say no? The numbers that did not vote for him on election day is proof.”
• TEACHERS ARE UNHAPPY WHEN THEY LEARN THE TRUTH: Democratic Senate Education Committee chair Vin Gopal called the spending “concerning” and mentioned that “a lot of the teachers in Monmouth [County] are … frustrated” seeing their dues spent in this way.  Asbury Park union president Napolitani (presumably reflecting his members’ views) was a bit sharper in his criticism: “I think it was a poorly calculated and piss-poor decision by the NJEA to blow that kind of money and the results prove that.”

It’s pretty clear the NJEA wants to sweep the whole episode under the rug and move on to what it might or might not do for (Democratic) candidates in the upcoming general election.  So we can probably expect most Democratic pols to keep their mouths shut. But the fact is that most teachers still do not know that millions of their regular dues have been wasted like this because NJEA leadership has tried very hard to hide the truth from them. We hope that the New Jersey press does not move on from the issue the way the NJEA would like.  The fact remains that NJEA leadership (including the conflicted Spiller) has a lot to answer for.  Will there be any accountability?

*The article says the NJEA spent $40 million on Working New Jersey and $8 million on Protecting Our Democracy, both pro-Spiller Super PACs.  Sunlight could only identify $5 million spent on Protecting Our Democracy, so our total would come to $45 million. In any event, it’s $45+ million.