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June 17, 2024NJEA President Sean Spiller Announces His Run For Governor
Today Sean Spiller, president of the New Jersey Teachers Union and outgoing mayor of Montclair, announced that he was running to replace Gov. Phil Murphy.
“Today, I say to all of New Jersey, we can do better. This is our chance, for all of us,” Spiller said. “It’s not just millionaires and Wall Street that should have a voice. It’s the rest of us. That’s why as mayor I passed rent control that helped hard-working families have a better quality of life. It’s why as Governor I will guarantee those same hard-working families can afford to live and work in a New Jersey they love. By investing in public education, helping small businesses grow, and ensuring an economy works for regular people, we can create an environment that is not just economically successful, but one that makes life better for the people who make New Jersey work in the first place.”
Matt Friedman of Politico noted this week that NJEA leaders were preparing to interview gubernatorial candidates for its endorsement much earlier in the election cycle than usual. By already scheduling other hopefuls—currently Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, and former Senate President Steve Sweeney—NJEA clears the way to make an early endorsement for Spiller. (Baraka, Fulop, and Sweeney all declined interview invitations, having been given only one week’s notice.)
Earlier this week NJ Education Report reported that NJEA Secretary-Treasurer Petal Robertson has been visiting school districts and speaking to NJEA members about “pension justice,” the proper financing of the retirement benefits system called the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund. On Monday she spoke at Montclair High School where she is the president of the local teachers union and, according to one teacher, used the occasion to “drum up support from teachers and staff, for Spiller for governor.” State law and school policy prohibits campaigning on public property
NJEA members are already funding Spiller’s campaign through NJEA’s Super PAC called Garden State Forward, which has contributed $2 million to Spiller’s own Super PAC, Protecting Our Democracy.
Spiller also has a video announcement:
9 Comments
Yeah, we can do better all right, by applying more NJEA crookery! Is there any way to stop this nonsense? Mike Lilley, please, please set up more Sunlight Policy articles, and let’s crush this opportunist charlatan!
The wearing of masks are a red flag. We know that six feet, social distancing and masks had no scientific backing, per Dr. Fauci. NJ schools were closed unnecessarily too long per the NJ independent Covid report and children as young as two masked up to protect them from a tiny aerosol virus, that a cloth or paper mask had little to no protection per Dr. Osterholm , were facts known in the early spring of 2020. An open window and proper ventilation was a simple solution. We need a Governor that displays good judgement and common sense and maybe a bit fearless and willing to buck mantras, movements and mandates. We have a group of students that many prominent legislators fearfully admit will never catch up from the devastating learning loss caused by school closures. A life sentence. Who owned this?? Was the NJEA and it’s President part of that life altering decision??? Just a thought.
I wonder how the George Norcross indictment might impact the election now, at least from the Dem side of it. It’s been assumed that Norcross would back Spiller (and get all others to do the same). Steven Fulop is evidently on the opposite end of the same party and is celebrating an end to all that’s related to Norcross.
Anyway, of the two (Spiller and Fulop), the same shenanigans would probably prevail. The corruption and incompetence, cited in SEM’s response, will likely go on and on and on, even if through other avenues. For one thing, the NJEA isn’t going away. It’s really quite frustrating.
The NJEA just endorsed Sean Spiller. for New Jersey Governor. He was the only candidate interviewed by the endorsement panel.????
Norcross was also endorsed by the NJEA.
Spiller is running as the spokesman for the middle class little guy. Yet, allegations are swirling of the NJEA founding a nonprofit called “ Protecting Democracy” and funding it by using its members unions dues, without their knowledge or consent, for Spiller’s political war chest. A lot of money.
Really interesting and incisive point!
Thank you for the update and clarification, SEM. It’s such a dismal, rotten-to-the-core predicament.
One of the important things to remember about the Norcross scandal is that it’s nonprofit-based. So much in NJ is, and the same players are always involved, no matter where one looks. Norcoss is linked to the NJEA, which uses NJCTL as a shady, nonprofit source. Philadelphia Plus/Camden Plus (NJCTL offshoots, which were run by NJCTL’s Bob Goodman) were nonprofit agencies that offered non-accredited programs to those who wished to be principals, all for a buck, until the NJDOE squashed them for their substandard practices. There are other nonprofits of this sort, all stemming from the Norcross mob, all working out of the Camden area. If Spiller is associated with any of the aforementioned (and he is), watch out! He’s going to be tough to tackle, considering the mass amounts of funneled money behind him.
This is just gross. No wonder the word on the streets is that New Jersey is the most corrupt state in the nation.
“Protecting Our Democracy” is a great name for a super PAC that has all the earmarks of underhanded theft of union dues for political purposes. It may be how business is done, but it does not mean it is right or just. Sean Spiller aka Captain America, the defender of democracy has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. A cookie jar filled with about 8 million dollars of hard working, middle class, teachers’ union dues. His reply, “I can do this all day.”
It appears that Mr. Spiller is more in line with the Red Skull than Captain America. Democracy isn’t being protected; it’s being trampled on. What’s happening is not in any way ethical. It’s bad to the core, administered by bad people supporting a bad man.