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Friday, August 5, 2016

Jersey Jazzman: Steve Sweeney's Weak Case Against New Jersey Teachers & Police Unions

Jersey Jazzman: Steve Sweeney's Weak Case Against New Jersey Teachers & Police Unions:

Steve Sweeney's Weak Case Against New Jersey Teachers & Police Unions


As usual, Tom Moran -- editorial page editor of the Star-Ledger -- leaves all logic behind if it means he can get in a good whack at New Jersey's teachers unions:

Did Senate President Steve Sweeney just commit political suicide?
Sweeney (D-Gloucester) is the highest-ranking Democrat in Trenton, and wants to be governor.
But he just called for a criminal investigation of the state's largest teachers' union, the New Jersey Education Association, which is by far the richest and most powerful special interest group in the state.
"I'm not going to be bullied and I'm not going to be pushed around," Sweeney says. "Whatever it means to my future."
His charge is that leaders of the teachers' union, and the police union, may have crossed the line into bribery and extortion by explicitly linking campaign donations to a vote by the Legislature.
He may have a point. You can wink and nod about this stuff, but you can't promise money for a specific official action. [emphasis mine]
First of all, as I said before: Sweeney is claiming the unions threatened to withhold money if he didn't put a constitutional amendment on pension funding on the ballot. How can it possibly be a bribe if you don't give someone something? The NJEA hasn't promised money for a specific action; what they've said, quite rationally, is that they're not going to Jersey Jazzman: Steve Sweeney's Weak Case Against New Jersey Teachers & Police Unions:



 Big Education Ape: Jersey Jazzman: Sweeney Goes Full Trump on NJ Public Employee Unions - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/08/jersey-jazzman-sweeney-goes-full-trump.html