You spent $40 million to run in the NJ governor's primary? And finished last?

Photo above - "Suppose I told you that someone could become NJ governor for only $460 per vote?"

Some guy named Sean Spiller spent $40 million in last month's NJ democrat primary. He was following his dream, that he might someday be governor. Sean got 87,000 votes. That’s a cost of (ka-ching, let’s do the math) . . .$460 a vote! (see link below)

I know what you’re thinking. Candidate Spiller spent his own money. Or conned a bunch of donors into coughing up the $40 million. But wait . . . it gets worse. Waaaay worse. He’s the president of the state teacher's union – the New Jersey Education Association. And the money was union dues. Payroll deductions from teachers' paychecks. That $460 a vote is about half the annual union dues for a NJ teacher.

Sean isn’t a political first timer. He was actually mayor of Montclair, NJ for several years. Population 40,000. Wikipedia has no info on how much each vote cost in THAT election.

This isn’t an anti-union rant. And teachers are mostly well meaning, but get fleeced for no good reason sometimes. NJ teachers were already getting fleeced even before the election, because they pay the highest union dues in the nation. Hundreds of dollars a year higher than teachers in California.

NJ residents also face the highest tax burden in America. Personal income tax, sales tax, real estate tax. I didn’t do a deep dive on the election platform of Sean Spiller, candidate for governor. But without even looking, I’m pretty sure he didn’t run on “tax relief” and “government transparency”.

In a nation where a candidate can come in last in a PRIMARY (not general election) for governor, and spend $460 per vote, anything is possible. But you already know that. That’s how we ended up with a 2024 presidential election where we had to choose between Kamala and Trump. But we only paid $206 per vote for that one.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

A $40 million flameout in New Jersey’s race for governor puts scrutiny on teachers union