NJEA: "Largest Political Spender in Trenton"

This morning’s NJ Spotlight counts the cash raised and spent by New Jersey Education Association, especially its new PAC, Garden State Forward,which has already spent more than $6 million. And,

This doesn’t include the union’s massive lobbying efforts in recent off-election years -- largely to combat Gov. Chris Christie and funding and pension cuts. With those, the NJEA has spent more than $30 million since 2010, double all of its political spending in the previous decade, according to the commission’s reports. An ELEC analysis in August found that NJEA was by far Trenton’s largest political spender between 1999 and 2012. 

“Ever since it first registered as a lobbying group in 1964, NJEA has been a major influence in Trenton,” said Jeff Brindle, executive director of the state’s enforcement commission. “But its spending since 2010 has taken the group to a whole new level.”