New Jersey Education Association president Sean Spiller is the latest Democratic Contender to enter an already crowded field for the Governor's seat but his announcement was met with some backlash after he secured an endorsement from his Union and the financial resources that come with it Spiller a member of the NJ PBS Community Advisory Board remained silent about the endorsement until now senior political correspondent David crw sat down with him for the first time to address the endorsement and his goo torial run this is our chance to make New Jersey the place that we know it can be uh and that it should be for us as well that Sean Spiller the Monclair mayor and New Jersey Education Association president is getting the backing of the powerful union he leads is no surprise that the backing of the Union makes him a genuine contender in the race for governor shouldn't be a surprise either it has millions and millions of dollars from Union dues and ass Associated packs and it's not afraid to weaponize them as it did against the former Senate President in 2017 Steve Sweeney tries to tell you he gets things done for South Jersey don't believe him you know nobody questions when we have all these millionaires billionaires who swoop in all the time right and and one or two of them exert more influence than my God all of us put together right but but when you get 200,000 Educators who come together voluntarily uh who pull our resources and say uh you know we want our voices to be heard we want to have uh a little bit of say in in in the outcomes that affect us uh when we do that you know there's a question of uh of well is it is it is it is it fair that we uh try to get influence is it uh you know how are we doing this the union dropped $2 million into a nonprofit advocacy group called protecting our democracy adds that featured Spiller in the months leading up to his announcement just a small sample of what the I can do but beyond the Union's influence Spiller still has to answer questions about his tenure as mayor of Montclair which is about to come to an end after one term and was marked by controversy and often chaos let's see him address that yeah I am I am going to address it former mayor and City councelor Bob Russo a Spiller critic says the mayor who makes close to $400,000 as Union president still has to answer why he took benefits from the city to which he wasn't entitled Shuan has as you know a big job High pay all benefits covered and still he took the payments in lie which amounted to about $50,000 people are outraged at that I'm a pol political science teacher for years at Montclair State in ruter I give him a D minus it's just some of the baggage that Spiller will have to carry into an already crowded Democratic primary field field with two Mayors including Ras Baraka of Newark and Steve FIP of Jersey City Plus the aforementioned njaa Public Enemy Number One with others set to follow analyst Micah rasmuson says that's a heavy load for Spiller sometimes political controversies and Scandals don't have a personal Edge to them this one does not because he's necessarily enriching himself but because there's a perception when it involves benefits or when it involves salary or compensation um that it is there's perception of self-dealing and that is one that is very difficult to get out from under but to the extent that this information gets known by primary voters he's going to have to have some tight answers to these questions and my lawyer made me do it which is spiller's current defense may not fly with a skeptical electorate even in a Big Field where there's going to be plenty of distracting noise I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News [Music]