In a recent profile of New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Sean Spiller, Joey Fox of the NJ Globe says it is “foolish” to try to distinguish NJEA, the state’s powerful teachers union, from its current leader: After all, NJEA’s highest priority is electing the union’s own president as governor. That priority, backed by $35 million in teacher union dues, is on full display in the latest issue of “New Jersey Education Association Review,” the monthly magazine received by 200,000 NJEA members. The issue has 14 photos of Spiller in the first 21 pages and he graces the front cover with the subheading, “Sean Spiller For Governor: This Is Our Chance.” 

(The magazine is newly password-protected but NJ Ed Report was able to receive access.)

In other words, the union is betting big on Spiller. While this has worked well in the past – NJEA has demonstrated its prowess again and again in NJ political races — there is, in the increasingly purple hue of Blue Jersey, a bit of blowback against what some regard as progressive excess. (For more on this, read or listen to Ezra Klein’s new interview with Democratic pollster David Shor, who says President Trump won last year because the Republican Party has successfully wooed immigrants, Hispanics, and young men; 90% of voters say the cost of living is more important to them than LGBTQ and race issues; and there is a trend of “racial depolarization” where the Democratic Party, which used to be a “coalition between liberals, moderates, and conservatives,” has become a Party for highly-educated liberal people and lost the working class. On education in particular, Shor says Democrats barely have an edge in what used to be a lopsided advantage.)

And then there is the disparity between grassroots support indicated through typical community fundraising and non-PAC assets. According to filings released in January by the Election Law Enforcement Commission, Spiller has raised the least money among all other candidates for governor — nine Republicans and six Democrats. At the top is  Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who has raised $3.2 million, closely followed by Republican Jack Ciattatelli at $ 2.9 million. Spiller has raised only $182,884.

And yet the total amount of money raised by all candidates is $15.6 million, less than half of what Spiller has available through NJEA’s dark money PAC called Working New Jersey. And that doesn’t include the $8 million NJEA gave to Spiller’s personal Super PAC, Protecting Our Democracy.

NJ Spotlight  says Spiller’s cash advantage is due to “NJEA’s aggressive leveraging of campaign cash and alliances with dark-money political groups,” specifically Working New Jersey, a dark money group that doesn’t have to disclose donors. This leads Craig Holman, a Capitol Hill lobbyist on ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance rules for the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen, to advise ELEC to “to closely monitor the Spiller campaign.” 

What is Holman’s concern? He told NJ Monitor,

“Spiller and the NJEA appear to be skirting state campaign finance laws by claiming they are acting independently of each other. Both Working New Jersey and the Spiller campaign committee are closely connected through NJEA, all the while the Spiller campaign seems to rely primarily on expenditures from Working for New Jersey to finance the campaign. This stretches credulity to believe the two entities are operating independently, without consultation and without any mutual discussions even through a third party.”

At a recent gubernatorial debate, another contender, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, called out the gap between Spiller’s own fundraising and his cash on hand:

“You can’t not raise your own money and then have a $35 million piggy bank … and don’t believe it will have an impact on these elections, have an impact on your decisions. That’s just not true,” Baraka said. “Ultimately, we need to make sure we’re raising money from the same people we’re going to get our votes from. Why? Because we can’t get our votes from one side of the community and our money from another side of the community, and expect our policies to match.”

But if Baraka is wrong — and Spiller’s “piggy bank” of teacher dues will have an impact on the 2025 gubernatorial election— then Spiller and NJEA are in the catbird seat.

[photo credit] Flickr: NJEA