More ACORN Antics: Minnesota Style

As the world awaits the “final” word on the Senate race in Minnesota, I find myself once again to be walking down a path that has rotten acorns crunching under my feet. As reports rolled in last week that more votes have been found for a certain candidate, I wondered how close the Canvassing Board is to the ACORN office. I also wondered it they were delivered in a red van with a familiar black symbol.

During 2007, ACORN's sister organization Project Vote began operating what some would consider to be a national office out of Minnesota. The newly created position of Direct of Special Projects was given to Kevin Whelan- a long time ACORN golden boy and Zach Polett's right hand man. Project Vote also had a separate development team in MN for fundraising. The amount of resources sent to this office appeared to be for setting up a national office and much time was spent cultivating donors just for our work in this one state.

For some this may not be remarkable, but one must remember that Project Vote did the same thing in Ohio and the results produced an ACORN friendly Secretary of State, who rode into office on the shoulders of a minimum wage campaign.

In December of 2006 during a year end ACORN Political Operations report the Working Families party presented a powerpoint slide to the staff that boasted:

"NY and CT WFP Teamed Up to Help TAKE BACK CONGRESS

Targeted four seats and delivered the Working Families message door-to-door
Universal Health Care
Raising the Minimum Wage
Fairer Taxes, and
Fair Trade

The result: Three new Democratic members of Congress owe us … big time."

In the same presentation the Working Families Party stated that in New York, the "Working Families used its political clout to win a bill that will let ACORN organize 50,000 child care workers!" Sounds like ACORN and SEIU up to their old tricks.

ACORN and Project Vote's strategic plan may not involve direct contact with any candidate in Minnesota, but history has shown that Republicans are not as supportive of their agenda, and ACORN will further their agenda at all costs. Project Vote also has a donor list for the Minnesota DFL Party and seemed to be using it to cultivate donors for their Minnesota Voter Registration Program.

In 2006 Project Vote conducted a study on provisional ballots, the same type that appear to be popping up all over Minnesota. I also testified about the knowledge that there was also a high level of Fraud in absentee ballots and management stated that they would need to “plan accordingly.”

Dirty tricks and stealing elections? Nonpartisan funds used for partisan activities? Poor minorities used as pawns by the rich? If it looks like a crook and acts like one: it must be ACORN.

ACORN'S Ponzi

In the past week the public has been inundated with nonstop coverage of the corruption scandal in Illinois and the Bernard Madoff financial scandal. Many people have expressed shock and outrage at the unbelievable events, however, ACORN insiders know that bribery, corruption, and pay for play endeavors are just a day at an ACORN office.

Since deciding to come forward, I have been duped by reporters with agendas, and partisan views, I have seen real news buried and must wonder why. The answer, unfortunately, is very simple - like Governor Blagojevich, and Bernard Madoff - power and money are a dangerous mix.

ACORN has been brokering power for decades in inner cities across America. Local politicians become state and national politicians and ACORN will do whatever it takes to further its agenda.

As the nation and the financial world were coming to grips with the full implications of the Madoff scheme, ACORN's board was learning of ACORN's own “Ponzi Scheme.”

According to a meeting held between ACORN staff, and members in Chicago on July 19th 2008, Mesirow Financial was hired by the ACORN Board to “conduct a thorough review of CCI's financial management and controls, make whatever recommendations they see fit....”

During the 3 day board meeting that began on December 12^th 2008 in New Orleans Mesirow delivered its report. According to insiders, Mesirow implied that ACORN is no different from any other Ponzi Scheme. Insiders also say that Mesirow allegedly also implied that Citizen's Consulting Inc. (CCI) was nothing but a washing machine for a giant money laundering scheme that encompassed over 200 active or defunct organizations. However, all money that flowed out of CCI came out all dingy and and tinged with corruption. The presentation left members with the impression that all of ACORN's activities were nothing but “smoke and mirrors.

Last week's meeting also brought more news of embezzlement as the board learned that money was missing from the latest Katrina Fund and that the thefts were not confined to 1999-2001. Allegedly, board members were also advised that ACORN's firing of the ACORN 8 board members, as quoted below from CNN was illegal.

ACORN board fires members

Posted: 02:19 PM ET
November 14, 2008

The community organizing group ACORN, investigated this year for filing fraudulent voter registration forms, has fired two board members it had appointed to look into the possible embezzlement of nearly $1 million by the brother of one of the group’s founders.

An internal document from the ACORN executive board, obtained by CNN, shows that members Karen Inman and Marcel Reid were “removed from any office or committee position you may have held.”

Mesirow allegedly advised ACORN that it appeared that the only reason that they got rid of the board was because it was investigating the theft and would eventually uncover the fact that it was much larger and deeper that just Dale Rathke. The evidence of corruption in ACORN is so glaring and obvious, that it makes me wonder why they are still operating. I wonder who is getting paid off and who has something like a elected position to protect.

As noted in my blog The Great ACORN Bank Heist, I exposed the connection between SEIU and ACORN. I think a review of the recent events surrounding SEIU will give anyone a clue as to what is going on. A review of the notes from the Chicago meeting documents that it was mentioned that paperwork filed by SEIU Local 100 may have been incorrect and “there were questions on if proper paperwork was filed, especially in terms of finance going to Wade.”

ACORN's own lawyer Steve Bachman mentions RICO in an email dated July 27^th 2008:

"In short, the evidence suggests that Wade Rathke is a liar, a manipulator, and anti-democratic. Whether the evidence will also establish that Rathke has engaged in criminal activity remains to be seen. One question I have is the degree to which people working with him on the Dale “solution” are subject to RICO prosecution. My recollection is that Gail Harmon told me that the Dale “solution” appeared all but criminal on its face....”

There may be one person who realized early that ACORN was rotten and one person who refused to let the stinking, dripping laundering of funds meant for the poor reach her members: Madeline Talbott. Talbott, is well known in Chicago politics and much has been made of her ties to President-Elect Obama. What most people do not know is that in January of this year, Chicago ACORN shocked the organization but as Wade put it “going Rogue.”

In an all staff memo entitled Going forward and dated February 11, 2008 Wade Rathke details the incident:

Almost a month ago a posting on the internal conference informed all of us that the staff of Chicago ACORN had resigned. In the subsequent weeks we have found that this was not a simple resignation and announcement that a new organization was being formed. In fact it seems that this was a coup d’état in Chicago and an effort was underway not to build a new organization in Chicago, but rather to “re-brand” ACORN under a different name. It also appears that this was something that had been in the works for many months. The ACORN Executive Board has voted to place Illinois ACORN under administratorship under the appropriate provisions of the bylaws given the allegation that the Chicago ACORN board may have been involved in some of this tragedy and because of the ACORN Executive Board’s horror that the bylaws, rules and procedures of ACORN were so completely disregarded and ignored. We are attempting to deal with these problems in a restrained and responsible manner.

Efforts are being made through our attorneys to recover ACORN property and equipment. We have been able to recover our telephone number. A temporary office has been rented. The ACORN tax site opens this week (members are calling asking when!). The first communication from Maude Hurd, as ACORN President, is going out today to our members. Alicia Russell and Toni McElroy, both members o the Executive Committee as regional representatives, have been appointed by Maude as “trustees” to meet with our members and help them restore full functioning and power to Chicago ACORN.

Steve Bradberry and Monica Sandschafer have agreed to “tag team” over coming weeks and months to act as directors of our organizing program in Chicago as democratic functioning is returned to Chicago ACORN and as Chicago ACORN is re-staffed locally.

A number of organizers from Phoenix, New Orleans, and other cities have agreed to work in Chicago to rebuild the organization during this period when ACORN is under such an unprecedented assault. As voiced last night in another conference call by the ACORN Executive Board, the legacy of Chicago is now a huge level of distrust ofthe staff and a keen disappointment that these events could have ever occurred. This is a wound that will take a long time to heal, if ever.

A quick check of the Internet shows that ACORN's old address of 209 West Jackson Blvd, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60606 now belongs to an organization run by Talbott called Action Now. Action Now is described as “a grassroots membership organization of low-income families based in Englewood, West Englewood, Austin and Little Village.” Wade describes that act as a “coup d’état,” but the real coup was the power consoldation by Bertha Lewis who has tapped her old friend Richard Hopson to replace Maude Hurd and help move ACORN's national headquarters to New York.

Talbott reputation precedes her and I am sure that once she even caught a whiff of what ACORN was cooking up that she made a move to distance her members and their legacy from ACORN's. An interesting point to consider is that Talbott sits on the board of the Council of Organizations (ACORN Housing, ACORN, Project Vote, SEIU Local 880 and Local 100, etc.). ACORN is frantically trying to remove her from all dealings with ACORN, but I see this as an opportunity to demand transparency and change. Action Now is seem by some as a rebranding of ACORN, but I see it as community organizing minus the corruption.

What I am asking now is for funders, reporters and politicians to stop burying your head in the sand and deal with the ACORN problem. How many other schemes will lead back to ACORN? How many politicians, reporters and other officials does ACORN and SEIU have to buy or corrupt for this go away? I hope the department of Justice will help me answer these questions.

This Just in from the ACORN 8

From time to time, I get wonderful emails about the struggle. Here is one I got last night from the ACORN 8

ACORN 8 The People's Movement to Reform ACORN
Truth & Transparency
(888) 478-4439 ext 3 ▪ www.acorn8.org

JUSTICE or MANDAMUS

December 11, 2008

The number "8" symbolizes a new beginning; the ACORN 8 represents a new beginning for ACORN of the people, by the people and for the people. ACORN can not change itself without your help, since "Power concedes nothing without a demand, it never has and it never will." – Fredrick Douglas. Our goal is to reform ACORN to insure truth and transparency within the organization, and to our supporting sponsors, and our general membership.

1. Should ACORN members be punished for exercising their civil and constitutional rights? Join the ACORN 8 in a candlelight vigil celebrating our First Amendment right as dues-paying ACORN members and Americans to speak out on matters of importance to ACORN.
2. We will not be stopped … on December 12, 2008 we will go back to court because ACORN has refused to honor our document requests, and has asked the court to dismiss our Writ of Manadamus.
3. But win – lose or draw .... we will continue this movement to reform ACORN. So if ACORN continues to block our civil investigation, then we will be forced to seek a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Justice Department.

The Association Board was told that we sued ACORN when we sued CCI. If CCI and ACORN are separate entities why did they the panic? If all the thieves are now gone, why is staff afraid. They told us before we should not ask questions because Obama, was running for President. Now has won, and we not only will ask questions, but we will also demand answers.

Writ of Mandamus or Department of Justice it's your choice....

Happy Holidays !

In solidarity,

The ACORN 8

Get ready New York: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Most of the big Hollywood disaster movies start with some horrible calamity befalling New York City, sort of like the recent Cloverfield. So, it was of not surprising to hear of a real life disaster in the making. Get ready New York, Bertha Lewis, SEIU and ACORN national will soon be consolidating power in your city. ACORN has ruled out of New Orleans for years, but now Bertha's has decided to set down roots in the same town with old friends, Bruce Ratner, Alida Rockefeller Messinger and the Rockefeller Family Fund. I can only imagine the possibilities for quid pro quo activities disguised as “community investment.”

If ACORN brings with it the long reach of SEIU, this could spell disaster for fair tactics in service an other worker contract negotiations. ACORN and SEIU would also bring their political arms Project Vote and America Votes. For those of you who are not familiar with America Votes, here are ACORN's own notes from 2006:

America Votes Overview Notes 04/06/06

Started in 2003 by Rosenthal, EMILY’s list, SEIU, big money funders, etc. decided to do field work, a huge non-party political field operation designed to take back White House in 2004. Which failed. ACT was part of this grouping or money and organizations and perhaps the best known. Partially a product of McCain-Feingold.

Part of the were a series of “tables” to coordinate local activity on the called America Votes, which was supposed to be a table of equals, but ended up being an arm of ACT. Also a way of keeping Rothenthal’s raging ego from alienating other actors. Tables were places for creating targeted and sensible approach to targeted voters.

Post 2004, ACT disbanded in summer 2005. AV was needed and valuable. SEIU, Soros, and Dem Alliance invested in AV as one key element of progressive electoral work. AV has more resources, still a table of 30 major progressive political orgs, including ACORN (choice, enviros, labor, community). Have its own staff and resources would fill in holes where established groups are missing voters. There will inevitably be tensions around its role and its ability to raise resources. Maggie Fox, deputy political director of Sierra Club and wife of Mark Udall in CO is the new AV ED.

Budgets will be around $1 mil per state, not including the polling and messaging and national support costs.

PA, OH, MI, MN, CO are top tier AV states in 2006. Doing voter mobilization and building the “permanent campaign”. The perm cam means many things to many people.

AV tables in each state. Local affiliates of national partners are repped there as are major single state orgs.

Political Money rules:

--We prefer that political money go to us in the form of a vendor, which would be CSI, our for-profit business, which doesn’t have to report the cash because it’s a business, like the phone company.

--501c3 cannot help any candidate or party, cannot coordinate with them either. But can take hard money up to $20K for non-partisan activities if from a federal candidate ($20K donor limit, not acceptance limit).

--527’s a political committee that can raise reportable unlimited amounts that can be spent in partisan ways, but cannot coordinate with federal candidates or non-profits. State coordination rules are state by state.

--Three questions: What are rules for raising and spending, what are coordination rules/affiliation rules, what are content rules. Hard money can say anything to anybody. Hard money is money that is raised under the state or federal campaign limits.

I will get into the political impact that has already been seen in other states in another post, but today the focus is on the potential for damage and corruption to New York politics. The Rockefeller Family Fund, Alida Rockefeller Messinger, and other liberal organizations like the New York Community Trust are headquartered in NY; and they have funded ACORN and Project Vote indiscriminately over the years. In an effort to further their own political agendas, they have effectively turned a blind a eye to the overt sense of criminal activity that seems to emanate from ACORN negotiations like the Atlantic Yards deal.

In an August board meeting the ACORN board discussed the ramifications of the Ratner loan and some expressed doubts about the resources to pay back the money (many funders were withholding pledges). At this point the president of ACORN Housing promised to cover the note if ACORN could not make the payment. This statement was one of the reasons the ACORN 8 filed suit in New Orleans for access to the books. Apparently ACORN housing receives substantial public and federal support and their interest in the Atlantic Yards deal makes this whole relationship very questionable.

Watch out New York! ACORN has been operating as a de facto arm of the Democratic Party for years, and while I am a ardent democrat, I believe that corruption, is corruption-no matter who is participating.

Here is a paragraph from a minimum wage ACORN political call that took place on March 20, 2006:

Min Wage: MS [Michael Slater] to call Brennan re: potential lawsuit in Ohio. OH moving forward more rapidly in the past, not quite as fast as we want. Switching to pay-to-play streering committee $50K buy-in. Want 10 groups minimum. Thursday meeting with Ohio Trial Lawyers for $$...”

By consolidating power in New York, Bertha Lewis will be able to expand the reach of ACORN and reward old cronies for their loyalty. Business as usual for ACORN? Get ready New York: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

The Great ACORN Bank Heist: Part Two

While most of America was preparing for Thanksgiving and contemplating an Obama administration, ACORN and SEIU were once again planning a way to rob America's banks. Of course, they could not go in the front door-guns drawn- so they devised a particular strategy that has always worked well in the past.
The headline on ACORN's webpage read “ACORN to Present "Turkey of the Year 2008" Awards to Foreclosure Forces Preventing the Change We Need "and the article below it detailed that:

“ACORN chapters across the country will stage events on Tuesday, Nov. 25, presenting ACORN "Turkey of the Year 2008" awards to companies and politicians whose inaction is preventing the kind of serious, structural changes needed to solve the enormous foreclosure crisis we face.”

What the article failed to mention is that this so called protest was actually a shakedown engineered by SEIU. During the 2006-2007 cycle SEIU has given ACORN over 54 million dollars and in an November 12th email a representative of SEIU wrote ACORN the following:

Hi,

Hopefully you’ve come down a little bit from the election of President-elect Obama to focus and get work done. I’m just starting to be able to!

We are starting to think about what possibilities there are in organizing bank workers, since the banking industry is now being infused with billions of taxpayer dollars. We need to get a handle on who these workers are, working conditions, etc.

Do you have ACORN members who work for banks or Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae? Is there anyway you could check?

The banks we’re most concerned about are:
Fannie Mae
Freddie Mac
Chevy Chase/B.F. Saul
BB&T
SunTrust
Bank of America/Countrywide
Wachovia/Wells Fargo
PNC
Bank/National City
Citigroup

Please let me know and if you have other suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
Thank you,"

Since ACORN and SEIU operate as the same organization in some states, these type of tactics are not surprising. Here is a copy of the ACORN/ SEIU draft agreement from 2004.

ACORN PROPOSAL

SEIU and ACORN want to form a partnership to help family providers of childcare to establish collective bargaining vehicle for childcare workers. SEIU will be the union for childcare workers and ACORN the community organization

1. 1. SEIU will pay ACORN :
   97,800 for lost dues
   368,000 for initial investment
   465,800 total

2. ACORN will conduct an affiliation vote with the members and do whatever is necessary to transfer the members and membership dues to SEIU. A transition plan and timeline for the transfer of members will be agreed to in the state planning meetings.

3. A transition process will be agreed to which includes state meetings attended by SEIU and ACORN to plan a joint approach to member signups, transfer of members and dues, and community and political organizing. In some cases, ACORN will continue to assist in organizing new family provider members. ACORN will support the family provider organizing through community
   organizing strategies and helping to build the political support for the
   collective bargaining vehicle. Whatever joint plans are developed will be
   appropriately resourced.

4. As SEIU and ACORN develop joint plans, the appropriate resources will be negotiated to open new states and cities, which may include San Diego and other cities in California, Maryland, Massachusetts as well as other states.

5. When there is a collective bargaining vehicle established, the local representing the child care members will pay ACORN an annual affiliation rate.

I testified about ACORN's Muscle for the Money program and the bank protests are classic ACORN fundraising tactics. ACORN has always been for hire, and during my tenure I saw ACORN go after the Carlyle group at the behest of SEIU (I do have proof of this transaction) because the Carlyle group refused to hire union workers. ACORN's objectives were to intimidate, threaten and the exhort money from the group. Andy Stern and SEIU's mob-like tactics were ignored because the dirty work was being done by low income protesters.

Moreover, ACORN's history with the banks dates back decades and began with ACORN abusing the provisions of the CRA. Stanley Kurtz in his National Review Online articlePlanting Seeds of Disaster ACORN, Barack Obama, and the Democratic party explains the process:

“At first, ACORN’s anti-bank actions were relatively few in number. However, under a provision of the 1989 savings and loan bailout pushed by liberal Democratic legislators, like Massachusetts Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy, lenders were required to compile public records of mortgage applicants by race, gender, and income. Although the statistics produced by these studies were presented in highly misleading ways, groups like ACORN were able to use them to embarrass banks into lowering credit standards. At the same time, a wave of banking mergers in the early 1990's provided an opening for ACORN to use CRA to force lending changes. Any merger could be blocked under CRA, and once ACORN began systematically filing protests over minority lending...”

ACORN's own archives describe the process as:

“The ACORN convention in New York in 1992, the "ACORN-Bank Summit," was organized to hammer out deals with giant banks like Continental, First Fidelity, Mellon, PriMerit, and Chemical. Representatives signed agreements to establish programs for low- and moderate- income people to qualify for mortgages in their communities. Citibank, the nation's largest bank, did not participate. In response, the conventioneers held a lively action at Citibank's downtown Manhattan headquarters, and won a meeting to negotiate for similar programs. The meeting also led to increased Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac funding from the secondary mortgage market to ACORN neighborhoods. These efforts led to billions of dollars of primary and secondary mortgage money flowing into ACORN communities over a period of several years.”

Once again, the ACORN website failed to mention that according the the Capital Research Center, ACORN also became the recipient of sizable donations from organizations like:

• JPMorgan Chase Foundation ($5,007,500 plus at least $300,000 to separate state-level ACORN-affiliated housing nonprofits),
  
• Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc. ($1,405,000),
  
• US Bancorp Foundation ($285,000, plus $470,000 to ACORN Housing Corp. of Illinois),
  
• PNC Foundation ($95,000),
  
• Wachovia Foundation ($5,000)
  
• Provident Bank Foundation Inc. ($5,000 to “New Jersey ACORN”)
  

ACORN has an interesting habit of going after the enemies of their coalition partners. For example, ACORN formed a partnership with Bank of America in 1990 and has seemingly attacked Bank of America's competitors including Countrywide, which was acquired by Bank of America this year.

On the other side of the coin are the unlikely alliances formed after ACORN strikes a deal with a former adversary. Such was the case with H&R Block. ACORN sent protesters out into the streets against H&R Blocks practices, and this year after several generous donations by H&R block, ACORN will utilize H&R Block's extensive tax preparation resources at their tax sites. Is this social change or muscling out the competition?

ACORN has made other famous shady deals and alliances such as the Atlantic Yards debacle in NYC. This agreement orchestrated by new Chief Organizer Bertha Lewis called for Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner to promise that his $3.5-billion arena and residential project would be linked to 600-1,000 below-market-rate condo units. However, community members and leaders cried foul at this deal because of the enormous benefit to ACORN and what some say is the “ghettoization of Brooklyn”

What is really intriguing about this whole Atlantic Yards mess is that Forest City Ratner has begun layoffs while at the same time bailing out their old friends Bertha Lewis and ACORN. I wonder if those unemployed workers know about the $1.5 Million bailout loan to ACORN by the company. At the East Regional Meeting in August of this year, ACORN leadership stated that:

“Big NY ally Forest City Ratner agreed to loan us $1M at 2% and grant us $500k
to pay back health fund and to use for other transition costs. Board will decide
how much to allocate to IRS payment and how much to allocate to lawyers.”

ACORN must be stopped, it is not okay to use the mortgage crisis and government bailouts as an excuse to extort money from banks. The banks themselves must be willing to stand up and tell ACORN that they will not pay them off this time and will report any offers for a side deal to the Justice Department. Also, it might be time for the Department of Labor to look into some of SEIU's activities regarding their association with ACORN.