As the New Jersey governor’s race heats up, one man who hoped to be on the November ballot instead faces legal scrutiny over campaign spending. Sean Spiller, who until last month was president of the New Jersey Education Association, finished fifth in June’s Democratic primary despite outside spending on his campaign exceeding that of all the other candidates combined. As a longtime member of Mr. Spiller’s union, I wondered who was supporting him with that kind of money. Turns out it was teachers like me.
I’m not a political activist. I have nearly two decades of experience in the classroom. And I have consistently paid about $1,500 in annual union dues in the belief that my union would use the money to bargain for better wages, fair working conditions and classroom improvements. Instead, the union passed a portion of the dues paid by me and 200,000 other teachers—more than $40 million—to a series of political organizations that backed Mr. Spiller’s failed campaign.
Mr. Spiller finished fifth out of six candidates in the Democratic primary with just 89,472 votes, or 10.6% of the total. That means the union spent about $450 a vote. Many teachers pointed out that we were never even surveyed to see if we supported his cause.
Win or lose, the union’s handling of members’ money was wasteful and irresponsible. I argue, in a lawsuit filed Sept. 30 in New Jersey Superior Court, that it was also an illegal breach of contract and a violation of the union’s fiduciary duty to its members.