NJ Teachers Say Union ‘Hijacked’ Dues to Fund Leader’s Campaign

New Jersey teachers frustrated with sky-high union dues are suing to recover expenditures for political activism they do not support and never authorized.

The money trail at the center of the litigation leads in and out of the political action committee Garden State Forward. Teachers allege New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) operatives “deliberately and concertedly took steps to conceal the existence of that PAC from the membership, even going so far as to misreport contributions on tax filings in support of its concealment efforts,” according to the suit filed in September.

It was in this manner, the teachers argue, that the NJEA violated its membership contract with them, as well as other legal and fiduciary rules. 

As the suit explains, membership dues are distinct and separate from voluntary contributions to political causes. Yet the plaintiffs allege tens of millions of dollars in membership dues were diverted to Garden State Forward to support the failed 2025 gubernatorial bid of Sean Spiller, a former Democrat mayor of Montclair, who also served as NJEA president during the campaign.  

Suspicions Piqued

Ann Marie Pocklembo, a high school music teacher in Hamilton and one of the two plaintiffs, told Restoration News that she became privy to Garden State Forward’s machinations when Spiller’s “conflicts of interest” began popping up on social media.

“It’s probably not a good idea to have a union official as mayor because it means he’s probably going to promote his own cause,” Pocklembo said.

She noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Montclair residents were vocal about their dissatisfaction with Spiller’s leadership. “There were lawsuits already claiming double-dipping with his benefits. Fast forward to 2025, and now he’s in the ring for governor, and we already believe he didn’t do a good job in Montclair.”

Pocklembo said union officials repeatedly assured her that her dues were not contributing to Spiller’s campaign because she did not voluntarily contribute to the NJEA’s PACs. Nevertheless, she remained skeptical. She began raising questions about how the New Jersey teachers’ union was financing the gubernatorial campaign of its own president. 

After researching reports on Sunlight Policy Center of New Jersey, a watchdog site, Pocklembo discovered the existence of Garden State Forward. This prompted her to ask more questions on the NJEA’s Facebook pages in January 2025. 

“I believe I was blocked from the private, members-only part of an NJEA Facebook on the very day I began to ask questions about Garden State Forward,” she said. “Garden State Forward is the magic PAC. I believe they don’t want people to know about it.”

Pocklembo also said she was blocked from the public portion of NJEA’s Facebook page for a short period but was reinstated after bringing her plight to the attention of her local NJEA affiliate. Still, to this day, she cannot access the union’s members-only Facebook page. 

“The NJEA is taking on causes that have little or nothing to do with education,” Pocklembo said. “I don’t believe they speak for the majority of teachers, and they pursue a lot of left-wing policies.”

‘Hijacked’

The NJEA, a state affiliate of the National Education Association, is New Jersey’s largest union with more than 200,000 members. A breakdown of dues shows those members pay anywhere from $991 to $1,038 in annual state-level dues. Add what members pay annually to the NEA, the county, and local affiliates, and their total annual dues come to about $1,600.

“Our dues don’t need to be that high,” Pocklembo said. “They waste a lot of money. I think the union has been hijacked by people with self-serving interests.”

The teacher said most of the NJEA’s money goes to the “top echelon” at its Trenton headquarters, with just 10 percent benefiting local chapters. “And it’s the local that does all the work,” she added.

The union’s membership form includes a section that asks for voluntary contributions to the NJEA PAC and the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education. There is no mention of Garden State Forward. 

An information sheet that comes with the application says the PAC contributions are voluntary and “not a condition of membership.” The same sheet also claims members “may refuse to make any contribution and this will not affect his or her membership rights or benefits.” 

However, the suit alleges $40 million in general membership dues were diverted to Garden State Forward, which then sent the funds to two other political action groups: Protecting Our Democracy and Working New Jersey. 

The plaintiffs assert three major claims: breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of fiduciary duty. They also seek damages, along with additional costs and attorneys’ fees. 

Spiller is named among the defendants. He was one of three NJEA officers who controlled and decided how Garden State Forward funds were spent and distributed during his 2025 campaign. The other two officers were the union’s vice president and secretary-treasurer. 

What’s a Super PAC, and Why Does it Matter?

Garden State Forward is a super PAC, which means it can only make independent expenditures. But a super PAC can also raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations, and individuals, and then spend those funds either in support of or against particular candidates. But there is the caveat that, unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are prohibited from donating directly to political candidates, and they cannot operate in coordination with candidates.

Anthony Holtzman, an attorney with the Fairness Center, the law firm representing Pocklembo, noted that both Protecting Our Democracy and Working New Jersey supported Spiller’s gubernatorial bid. As Spiller also served as chairman of Protecting Our Democracy, the suit points out that he was ideally positioned to direct funding over to his own campaign.

Spiller’s alleged conflicts of interest figure prominently into the litigation. While operating simultaneously as NJEA president and as a gubernatorial candidate, Spiller “put his own interests above the best interests of Plaintiffs, who were union members, and otherwise acted arbitrarily and in bad faith towards them, in breach of fiduciary duties that he owed to them,” according to the suit. 

The former NJEA president and failed gubernatorial candidate also faced conflict-of-interest allegations during his time as mayor of Montclair. Influence Watch reported how Spiller was accused of enabling the Montclair Education Association, an NJEA affiliate, to usurp the authority of the local school board and set district policy. 

Spiller, for his part, appears undeterred by the negative press and mounting legal challenges. He is now running to become president of the NEA.

Meanwhile, the plaintiffs in New Jersey would like to ensure that their membership dues cannot be commingled with political action committees.

“We allege the union misallocated dues paid to it by members like our clients and made misrepresentations to them and was not transparent with them,” Holtzman said. 

The “misrepresentations” took on several forms, the attorney noted, including the wording on the membership cards the teachers signed. 

“Those membership cards function as legal contracts,” he said. “They don’t necessarily look like a contract you might see every day because they are short, concise documents. But the courts have acknowledged they function like contracts.” 

The suit highlights what Holtzman calls the “free-standing separate section of the membership card” that’s focused exclusively on making financial contributions to the union’s PACs. Unless teachers check off the box agreeing to make voluntary contributions, Holtzman said they should be free from supporting any of the NJEA’s political action committees. 

By misallocating general membership funds and pouring them into the PACs, Holtzman argues, the NJEA “breached its contract” with teachers. But the membership form is just one of several examples of the union’s “misrepresentations” to teachers, Holtzman said. 

Related Complaints

The Fairness Center, a nonprofit public interest law firm based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, also represents the New Jersey Policy Institute (NJPI) in separate but related cases against the NJEA. 

In a complaint to the IRS, the New Jersey think tank alleges the NJEA, a federal tax-exempt nonprofit, violated federal tax law by failing to disclose its donations to Garden State Forward as political activity on the required federal tax forms. 

Another NJPI complaint filed with the New Jersey Election Law Commission (ELEC) alleges the union circumvented New Jersey’s $5,800 campaign contribution limit. The union, according to the filing, used NJEA PAC and Protecting Our Democracy, Inc. to donate a combined $11,600 to Spiller’s campaign.

“As we allege in the IRS complaint, NJEA appears to have violated the Internal Revenue code provision by failing to disclose the millions of dollars it has allocated to Garden State Forward as political contributions,” Holtzman said. “In our clients’ view, they’re supposed to have listed those millions of dollars going to Garden State Forward. They were supposed to be identified as political spending by the union, but instead, they characterized this spending as a grant in a different section.”

The NJEA’s emphasis on political activism over member services fits into a larger national story. Financial disclosure forms show the NEA has been pumping millions of dollars into “far-left causes,” including so-called “dark-money groups.” 

The NEA election to replace its current president will be held this coming summer at the union’s convention in Denver.

Oral arguments in the NJEA teachers’ lawsuit could come as early as February. The IRS and ELEC have their own separate timetables for any investigations they conduct. 

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