The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) spent heavily in Wayne Township to aid its three endorsed candidates in the recent Wayne Township Board of Education election. All three lost to a pro-parent team running under the slogan "Children First!" The NJEA team ran under the slogan "United Not Divided."

The NJEA spent what appears to be a record amount of money on the UNITED candidates. The state union was joined in this effort by the local teachers' union, the Wayne Education Association (WEA). The WEA contributed $5,500.00 directly to the UNITED joint campaign fund. The NJEA donated a total of $24,600.00 under its own name to the fund.

The NJEA also provided help to their endorsed candidates by using a front group called "Garden State Forward." Under New Jersey law, such front groups are considered "Independent Expenditures Committees."

Such front groups/committees are permitted to spend large sums of money on candidates without disclosing where the committee itself got the money. They are not permitted to coordinate with the favored candidates' campaigns and the advertising bought with the committee's dollars must contain a "disclaimer" giving the name and address of the committee and a statement that the committee followed the law.

This is the disclaimer that was used on four full-color mailers sent to Wayne voters by the NJEA front group Garden State Forward. The address on the disclaimer is the same address as the NJEA's Trenton headquarters. Four such mailers were sent out at a cost estimated to be about $8,000.00 for each.

In addition to mailers, the NJEA front group paid for online advertising. The design, printing and mailing cost for each flyer is estimated to be about $8,000.00. If this estimate is correct, and the internet advertising and $24,600.00 direct contribution are factored in, NJEA's total contribution to their Wayne candidates may exceed $60,000.00. Such spending would be a record for a Wayne Township BOE election.

When average citizens contribute more than $300.00 to a candidate, the candidate(s) must identify each such donor, the donor's address and the donor's employer. The campaigns must also itemize how all contributions were spent and include payees. By contrast the NJEA front group Garden State Forward is not required to disclose where it gets its money. It is also permitted to assume a name that is not linked to the primary sponsor of the committee.

In the 2022 BOE election, the Children First candidates Barbara Rigoglioso and Ryan Battershill, spent a combined amount of about $6,000.00. That's one-tenth of the estimated $60.000.00 of aid provided by the NJEA and its front group.

The Children First candidates concentrated their campaign on meeting voters and reaching out to parents and children. Despite the great disparity in campaign funding, the Children First team easily defeated the NJEA's candidates Jacob Van Lunen, board president Suzane Pudup and former board member Stacey Scher.

Barbara Rigoglioso led all candidates with 8,341 votes. Her running mate, Ryan Battershill, was close behind with 7,508 votes. The votes for the NJEA candidates were as follows: Van Lunen 5,127, Pudup 5,432, and Scher 5,510. Matthew Giordano, a candidate who was endorsed last year by the NJEA and lost, ran again this year without the NJEA endorsement and won. Giordano won the third slot third with 5,631 votes.

Observers have wondered why the NJEA was so intent on defeating pro-parent candidates in Wayne in both 2021 and 2022. According to an October 2021 filing with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, Garden State Forward spent $57,749.52 in Wayne. The NJEA may well exceed that amount in 2022. That 2021 spending was more money than the NJEA spent in almost any other town in New Jersey with the possible exceptions of Jersey City where they spent at least $153,842.97 and Parsippany-Troy Hills where they spent at least $74,156.62.

More will be known about NJEA's 2022 spending when final reports are filed with the Election Law Enforcement Commission.