As the race for governor in New Jersey heats up, so too does the scrutiny of outside spending. And one seeing a lot of attention is that of New Jersey Education Association President and Democratic candidate Sean Spiller.
His campaign has billed the one-time Montclair mayor as an underdog who represents working-class voters, but a $35 million war chest from an outside group has allowed Spiller to outpace each of his opponents in advertising wars — boosting his name recognition and, in turn, chances at winning. The catch is that pot of cash is funded by teacher membership dues to the powerful union that Spiller heads.
An investigation by NJ Advance Media reporters Brent Johnson and Riley Yates found the NJEA hasn’t been entirely transparent with teachers about how deep the union is digging into its pockets to back Spiller’s campaign.
“We’ve seen outside spending from other sources, but this is an unusual situation because you have the union president getting the money from the union,” said Brent Johnson, political reporter at NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. “We called several recently retired teachers and most of them were not aware that their money was being used in this way. One told me that if this is really happening, ‘I’m not very happy about it.’ One teacher went on the record and said that this is not how they expected their union dues to be spent.”
Editor’s note: Sean Spiller is a member of the NJ PBS Community Advisory Board.
