Posturing to Fix the Unfairness

To justify that $928 in annual dues their members pay the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) put Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-19) to work right before announcing their legislative endorsements. The bill, S-5815, is not yet on the state website but insidernj had some thoughts on timing if not substance.

It had been Coughlin’s hope, or at least that was the closest human emotion observable in the political transmission of moving the bill, that some show of action would cause the NJEA to move on their endorsements of legislative incumbents.

It was the witching hour, after all, the end of August closing in, caucus members trying to prepare autumn mail, and the organization usually issued its endorsements in early August. NJEA leadership could also – and this big, a source said, use the appearance of a slight melting of the legislative iceberg that the bill puts on display.

Chapter 78 relief is their homerun issue.

So Coughlin drafted the bill – with input from the NJEA – and then let it drop.

….

Coughlin, for his part, knew the organization doesn’t need more people in the legislature wired (probably as a consequence of taking Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee money) to buck the governor come crunch time.

But the people he has in there needed those endorsements.

So he moved the bill, knowing that made the NJEA temporarily happy, while knowing Sweeney wouldn’t budge in the other house.