The NJEA’s funding of Sean Spiller’s campaign was wrong. We need accountability | Opinion

By: Rosemary Becchi
October 2, 2025

For too long, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) has operated under a different set of rules when it comes to politics. But the facts are now clear: in pursuit of its president’s political ambitions, the state’s most powerful public-sector union appears to have broken both federal tax law and state election law.

As a nonprofit think tank dedicated to accountability and transparency in government, the New Jersey Policy Institute has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service and submitted a formal Request for Investigation to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC). Our goal is simple: to restore transparency and ensure that the NJEA plays by the same rules as everyone else.

A Dark Web of Political Spending

The NJEA is a tax-exempt nonprofit. That status comes with strict requirements to disclose political spending. Yet over the last decade, union officials funneled more than $100 million in members’ dues into a shadowy political apparatus that seems designed to hide its activity.

In 2013, NJEA leaders created Garden State Forward, a tax-exempt political organization that most teachers and taxpayers had never heard of until recently. The union was its sole funder, pouring in more than $40 million in advance of the 2025 gubernatorial election. Garden State Forward then transferred those funds to a Super PAC, Working New Jersey, run by former NJEA insiders. The money was used to bankroll NJEA President Sean Spiller’s failed campaign for governor in the 2025 Democratic primary.

Despite Garden State Forward being federally registered as a political organization, NJEA never disclosed these massive contributions as political activity on its federal tax forms, as required of all 501(c)(5) entities. This appears to be a deliberate effort to conceal from teachers, parents, and taxpayers that tens of millions in mandatory teachers’ dues were being spent on politics.

Violating State Election Law

The NJEA’s disregard for the law didn’t stop there. Under New Jersey law, contributions to political candidates are capped at $5,800 annually by any organization and its related or affiliated entities. But NJEA found a way to skirt that rule too. By sending money through two entities it funds and appears to control—NJEA PAC and Protecting Our Democracy, Inc.—the union managed to donate double the legal limit to Spiller’s campaign, we allege in our request for investigation.

These maneuvers reveal a troubling pattern: when the rules get in the way of its political agenda, the NJEA simply ignores them.

Why This Matters

This is not just about campaign finance technicalities. It’s about fairness and trust. Every teacher deserves to know how their dues are being spent. Every taxpayer deserves transparency about the role powerful special interests play in our elections. And every candidate, no matter how well-connected, must be bound by the same laws as everyone else.

This dark pattern of deception isn’t just unfair; it’s a breach of trust. Teachers, parents, and taxpayers deserve transparency, not a union that hides $40 million behind shell entities to bankroll its president’s political ambitions.

The New Jersey Policy Institute will continue pressing until transparency is restored and accountability enforced. The NJEA cannot be allowed to play by its own rules. It’s time for fairness—and for the union to finally be held accountable.

Link to Op-Ed here.