Trenton heat for teacher

Imagine you're a Democratic legislator voting to support the key initiative of a conservative Republican governor.

Imagine that initiative suspends some collective-bargaining rights for public workers, including teachers, and forces them to pay far more for benefits.

And imagine one more thing: In addition to being a Democratic legislator, you're a public-school teacher.

Welcome to the world of Assemblywoman Celeste Riley.

"I had to do a lot of soul-searching," Riley says, "but I came to the Legislature as a legislator first and a teacher and union member second. My vote has to be in the best interest of the 220,000 taxpayers I represent."

Last month, the 51-year-old art and technology teacher at Morris Goodwin School in Greenwich Township, Cumberland County, did something extraordinarily brave - or absolutely unconscionable, depending on your perspective. She joined with every Republican and 20 Democrats in the Assembly and Senate to approve a compromise measure on pensions and health benefits that has already been called the defining victory of Gov. Christie's term.

She did this as thousands of teachers marched on the Statehouse calling for the heads of wayward Democrats, and as her union dues to the New Jersey Education Association ($952 a year) went toward the campaign against her and her colleagues.

At one point, Riley got a robo-call at home from the NJEA urging her to call her office and tell herself to vote "no."

A liberal blog, "Blue Jersey," put her on a list of "betrayers" of the Democratic cause (adding, in italics, "a teacher!"). On Facebook someone called her a "sellout." The Communications Workers of America wrote to members that Riley and her "collaborators" were "owned" by political bosses, vowing: "We will REMEMBER THIS NOVEMBER," when legislators face reelection.

One of the "bosses" called out by the unions is Democrat George E. Norcross III of Cherry Hill, because all the legislators in his sphere of influence voted for the bill. Riley said she had met Norcross only a few times and had not spoken with him about this issue.

On the day of the vote in Trenton, Riley opted not to speak on the Assembly floor - partly in fear of being booed by union activists in the gallery above.

But all Democrats who sided with Christie faced such wrath. Did it end up being any worse for Riley because of her day job?

Actually, not really.

During an interview over eggs and hash browns Friday morning at the Harrison House diner in Mullica Hill, Riley said teacher friends had been supportive. (Even if she was lucky to vote after school let out for summer.)

Teachers in her school are simply nice people, she said, and she goes to church with many of them. " 'Do what you need to do,' " she said colleagues had told her. " 'That's why you were elected.' "

In fact, she said, some colleagues might even agree that to save the wildly underfunded pension and health-benefits systems, major change is needed. "The people that I work with have high taxes, too," she explained.

Riley is a former Bridgeton City Council member who was appointed to fill a departing assemblyman's term in 2009. She won election a few months later, but redistricting may make her race tough this fall. The district now includes less of her Cumberland County home base and more of Gloucester County, where she's so unknown that at breakfast, she wore a white blouse with "Assemblywoman Celeste Riley" written on it.

It's unclear whether her vote will help or haunt her at the polls. (Another Democratic legislator-teacher who voted for the bill, Sen. Jim Whelan of Atlantic County, is in a tough reelection fight.) "My job is to vote correctly," Riley said. "My job isn't to listen to my union, a very vocal minority."

She'll feel the vote in her pocketbook. Having paid zero toward health benefits for most of her teaching career, she now pays $750 a year (1.5 percent of a $50,000 salary). She said she believed that the legislation would balloon that to about $2,000 annually. She also has a higher pension payment.

But Riley, whose husband is a unionized worker at the PSE&G nuclear plant, is better off than some, NJEA spokesman Steve Baker said.

"Not every educator has access to a part-time second job that pays $49,000 a year," Baker said, referring to Riley's legislative salary. "So for those educators who don't, it's a real blow."

The NJEA is "disappointed in every legislator who took that vote that harmed hundreds of thousands of middle-class families in New Jersey," he said. "And I think it's fair to say we're particularly disappointed in those legislators who have worked in public schools."

Yes, Riley said when asked, she cared that other teachers might not be able to afford higher benefits payments.

But she said, "I also think about those people who lost their jobs last year and are struggling to pay their taxes."

She thinks about her hairdresser, too, who pays $600 a month for health care.

"I love my job," she said of teaching. "But I'm a legislator. That's what I do."