Wade Rathke, former chief organizer of the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), spoke at the University of Memphis yesterday and expressed his dismay at the current predicament ACORN finds itself in:

“Rathke stepped down from ACORN in 2008. Since his departure, ACORN's been accused of voter registration fraud, embezzlement and worker misconduct....

'It's very worrisome to me,' says Rathke, 'having spent 38 years there. The notion that within one and a half years since I left, the organization could almost evaporate is just stunning and startling to me."

According to reports, Rathke is pessimistic about the future of ACORN:

"The organization has become the focal point of the Right," Rathke said during an interview before his speech.

"I don't know if it can survive another year," he said....

'ACORN, Rathke said, serves an important function in a democratic society, in that it 'provides a vehicle for community residents, particularly lower and middle income, to have a voice in affairs.'

'You are going to have some people who cut corners, and do things that are irregular. ACORN made mistakes,' he said.

Rathke said he was glad to be in Canada when the Baltimore video surfaced. “

Unfortunately, Wade Rathke is still peddling the myth that ACORN actually works to help the poor. Grant applications to various foundations describe ACORN as:

“ACORN is one of the nation’s largest and most successful networks of community organizations, with over 230,000 low and moderate-income members organized into 1200+ neighborhood chapters in 104 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has been building solidly rooted and powerful community organizations that are committed to social and economic justice, and have taken action and won victories on thousands of issues of concern to our members, through direct action, negotiation, legislative advocacy, and voter participation. Fundamentally, ACORN’s goal is to ensure that low and moderate income families have the power to act effectively on their own behalf in the struggle to build a more progressive America. ACORN helps those who have historically been locked out become powerful actors in our democratic system.”

Liberals cling to the myth of ACORN so they can claim that the “right” is trying to stop persons of color from getting ahead, or as it in known in an ACORN “rap,” “the man keeping a brotha down.”

Wade Rathke, a former member of the Students for A Democratic Society (SDS) and The National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) never intended for ACORN to be an organization that really helped poor people. Rathke, from all indications, wanted to use ACORN as a vehicle for political power. It is very telling that ACORN International - now Community Organizations International (COI) - was started after the embezzlement scandal. It appears as if Rathke wanted to secure his future and keep the money rolling in. Screen shots of his international work illustrate that Rathke intends to use COI to corrupt foreign electoral systems in the same way that ACORN has worked domestically. COI may have been started using tax dollars and non-profit tax exempt funds, but the organization has become a critical addition the the political landscape of quite a few countries.

Not only are Rathke's statements self serving, but he fails to admit that the initial cover-up of the embezzlement by his brother Dale Rathke may have contributed to ACORN's current troubles.

Furthermore, it appears that the Interim Staff Management committee (ISM) - which included members like Maude Hurd, Marcel Reid and Karen Innman - acknowledged  the difficulties associated with dealing with COI and Rathke, but decided to wait until ACORN could “get its paperwork in order."

ACORN may be on the ropes, but its not down for the count. Wade Rathke  is successfully meddling in international affairs and Holder's Justice Department continued reluctance to investigate ACORN may offer them a reprieve. Rathke appears ready to shake things up and start ACORN all over again, one country at a time.

According to a report from Ohio today, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked the ACORN-tainted Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, to investigation ACORN's voter registration work in the state.

“U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan has formally asked Ohio's secretary of state to look into allegations that ACORN had at least a preliminary plan to back Democrat candidates in key Ohio congressional races in 2008.”

The political plan was described in an October article as “having been scaled back,” and of course, ACORN denied any partisan activity.

“But to some, ACORN's early 13-page plan for the 2008 election reinforces what critics always assumed: The group's goal was never nonpartisan. The political plan and other ACORN documents show that the group was interested not just in helping presidential candidate Barack Obama, whom it urged its members to support, according to post-election Federal Election Commission reports. ACORN also was interested in Congress and the Ohio Statehouse.

"There's no question that ACORN strategized to figure out how its election efforts could maximize the benefit for selected Democratic candidates in the most competitive races," U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa of California told The Plain Dealer. “

An illuminating  fact not mentioned in either article is that ACORN prepared political plans for several key battleground states in 2006 and again during the 2007-08 election cycle. As evidenced by the draft plans developed in the Spring of 2006 by the Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD) of ACORN Political Operations, these plans were aimed at electing “progressives” and in some cases broke down the Congressional districts by race for maximum targeting. SWORD, which was staffed by Project Vote employees, including myself, worked with ACORN head organizers in FL, MD, MI, MN, OH, PA, and RI to create local documents for the ACORN field staff to implement and present to funders and/or various partner organizations.

A copy of the Maryland and Colorado draft plans from 2006 are available online. Key parts of the plans are the contact and Congressional district sections at the end. For example, in the Maryland plan, it calls for mailings and face to face contact. A screen shot of the type of mailing Marylanders received is shown below.

ACORN used Project Vote staff and computers to create the PowerPoint “Campaign for a New Congress." This PowerPoint was aimed at swaying the Congressional election in Maryland from Albert Wynn to ACORN ally Donna Edwards. Using the final political plan, ACORN canvassed voters and mailed pieces through its affiliate Communities Voting Together.

Communities Voting Together has the same address as the Project Vote office in DC and its address on the screen shot above is the same Elysian Fields address where hundreds of other ACORN entities "reside.

As a 527 group, Communities Voting Together paid over 150,000 to Citizen's Services Inc, and contributed to Wade Rathke's Chief Organizer Fund. Jeff Robinson is listed as the contact for Communities Voting Together and some may remembered Robinson from the 2008 elections (emphasis mine):

"In fact, the Obama campaign paid an ACORN-run organization more than $800,000. In Federal Election Commission required filings, the Obama campaign reported that this money was paid for polling, advance work and event staging. After watchdog scrutiny called this claim into question, the Obama campaign revised its filing and acknowledged that CSI was paid for “get-out-the-vote” projects.

CSI Executive Vice President Jeff Robinson last August told Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter David M. Brown that CSI is a 'separate organization entirely' from ACORN. But as Brown reported, CSI has the same office address as ACORN’s national headquarters, ACORN itself described CSI in 2006 as its 'campaign services entity.' Coincidentally, the widely identified “national deputy political director for campaigns and elections” for ACORN is...Jeff Robinson."

ACORN's shell corporations make it easy for a political plan to become a partisan voter registration drive facilitated by thin veiled “partnerships.” The filing reports of Communities Voting Together raise a number of questions, including whether the misspelling of the name on the filing was intentional. The payments to various ACORN entities should give any astute lawmaker pause.

ACORN has been able to claim that it never worked in some recent elections including NY-23, but as this screen shoot illustrates, Communities Voting together was mailing and passing out door knockers in 2006 for Corzine in New Jersey (without a mention of ACORN).

Will ACORN backed officials like Jennifer Brunner (who has her eye on a Senate seat) and officials in Maryland and Colorado take notices of these obvious attempts to elect Democrats, or will they continue to turn a blind eye to ACORN in order to save themselves?

 Media Matters continues to try to provide cover for the public flogging ACORN has received as a result of investigative videos which showed ACORN employees giving advice on a number of illegal activities including human trafficking, child prostitution, bank fraud, illegal immigration and tax evasion. Meanwhile, the mainstream media has largely ignored a growing scandal that cannot be contained: ACORN is reportedly closing offices across the country, including the site of the DC undercover videotape.

Also, today another damning ACORN tape was released at Big Government. This time an ACORN member openly confessed to ACORN using non-partisan voter registration to secretly produce Obama votes.

Anyone paying attention knows accusations relating to voter registration fraud, illicit partisan activity and other chicanery often have been made against ACORN, with ACORN either denying all or any ACORN fault. In October of 2008, I testified in Pennsylvania regarding the illegal coordination between Barack Obama's Campaign and ACORN:

“A former staffer for Project Vote, a sister organization of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, testified at a hearing in Pennsylvania on Wednesday that the Obama campaign provided the group with a campaign donor list in late 2007 for their fundraising efforts. The former D.C. staffer, Anita Moncrief, said she still has a copy of what she called the 'development plan' she used to help her identify the maxed-out Obama donors for solicitation. The hearing was part of a lawsuit brought by the GOP seeking information and an injunction against certain ACORN activities in Pennsylvania.

“McCain-Palin campaign manager Rick Davis said in a statement, 'We now know that Barack Obama's campaign was working hand-in-glove with an organization reportedly under investigation by the F.B.I. and in more than a dozen states. In addition to funneling $832,000 to ACORN for get-out-the-vote efforts, the Obama campaign and ACORN have been sharing donor lists, encouraging maxed-out Obama donors to contribute to this unethical organization.'" (emphasis mine).”

The member caught on tape publicized by Big Government is another in a long line of “bad apples” for ACORN. As it becomes harder to hide behind poor minorities, ACORN appears to be on the run. Unfortunately, they are running to the White House. There Barack Obama, ACORN's “inside man,” seems poised to protect ACORN and even strike down its enemies. Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) serves as a close confidant of the President with over 20 visits logged in at the White House (he tops the frequent visitor list). Stern has every reason to expect this sort of access, as he not only funneled many millions of dollars into the Obama campaign, but also aligned with SEIU's sister organization, ACORN, to ensure that Obama was elected.

The screen shot is from an internal ACORN document from 2006. When combined with the admissions of the member, it provides additional proof that ACORN and SEIU - with the help of the Obama presidential campaign - intentionally took government and tax exempt donations through organizations like Project Vote to run a partisan voter registration drive aimed at electing Obama. Both the Federal Elections Commission and the media ignored the Obama donor list that was submitted as evidence in the Pennsylvania case and sworn testimony. But can they ignore the admission of someone saying: “I Am ACORN”?

As President ,Obama has paved the way for ACORN and SEIU to receive stimulus money and ACORN favorites to receive prime appointments to both executive and judicial positions.

Of course, Obama has admitted to limited ties with ACORN. But Americans have witnessed Obama run the country like one big ACORN office and trying to implement ACORN's radical agenda. Apparently being a community organizer is something that - like ACORN - is hard for Obama to shake. In 2001, a group of ACORN protesters broke up a community tenant meeting by shouting the words, “Yes, We Can.” Eight years later, ACORN man Obama rode to victory using the same slogan of those angry protesters

With so much to lose, lawmakers are concerned about the lengths to which Obama will go to in order to protect ACORN. Congressman Steve King of Iowa released a statement today suggesting that a cover-up may be being executed under the guise of an investigation:

“Bob Bauer has a public record of defending Barack Obama’s relationship with ACORN. Bauer has acted as the agent between Obama and ACORN, and now he will be perfectly positioned to be tasked with erasing the tracks between Obama and ACORN. Bauer’s hiring appears to be a tactical maneuver to strategically defend the White House exactly one week after Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell raided ACORN's national headquarters in New Orleans and seized paper records and computer hard drives that may lead to the White House.”

Congressman King has reason to worry. The Democrat-controlled Congress has given ACORN plenty of time and warning to prepare for these “investigations”. In March of this year Michigan Representative John Conyers backed down from a call to investigate ACORN after several witnesses testified about the 2008 elections and ACORN. Portions of my Pennsylvania testimony regarding ACORN's illegal activities in 2008 were read into the record and hundreds of pages of evidence were submitted by GOP Attorney Heather Heidelbaugh. In explaining his flip flop, Conyers cited “the Powers that be.” As the “Age of Obama” unfolds, it's not hard to guess who "the powers" are.

Obama is willing to make small, symbolic concessions like removing ACORN from the Census, but his Justice Department remains oddly complacent with ACORN. The bailout hungry media covered up the Obama/ACORN story  and continue to ignore damaging stories like the IRS dropping ACORN from its list of VITA sites.

Mainstream newspapers and online liberal “news” sources appear content to continue to play the “race card” and paint conservatives as obsessed about ACORN because ACORN purported to help the poor. ACORN may be Teflon as long as Obama is in the White House. Charges of tax evasion, child prostitution, voter registration fraud, illegal immigration, bank fraud, etc. may not stick to ACORN.

With 2010 rapidly approaching, a look at ACORN's cookie cutter statements on its voter programs tells us what ACORN plans for America.

Fortunately, Big Government caught one of those “highly trained” ACORN organizers on tape. How many more "bad apples" does it take before it is generally realized that ACORN itself is rotten to the core?

“First, the GOP now must recognize it will either lose without conservatives or will win with conservatives. In 2008, many conservatives sat home instead of voting for John McCain. Now, in NY-23, conservatives rallied and destroyed the Republican candidate the establishment chose.“

“Meanwhile, the Republicans keep running 'moderates' who prove to be very useful to the Democrats… which keeps the growth of the State bubbling along at Bush levels. The radical nature of the current Administration makes the idea of 'moderate' compromise laughable. What’s the moderate position on freedom-crushing trillion-dollar health care and environmentalist legislation? They’re okay, as long as the Democrats pinky-swear to keep the cost under $800 billion? That’s the kind of promise no politician could keep, even if it was made in earnest. A moderate Republican is someone who lives in a state of perpetual surprise as he ponders the monthly bills for nanny-state government. What’s the point of electing people who are guaranteed to spend the rest of their political careers complaining about how they’ve been played for fools?”

“Change is not an open ended mandate or a blank check. Change is a warning to either perform or meet the same fate as the last incumbent. And while Obama was clutching the keys to the kingdom in his dirty little hands, flying endlessly around the world, taking Air Force One on dates and primping and posing for magazine covers; ordinary Americans were losing jobs, families were cutting back, credit card bills piled up, vacations vanished and people came to work every day not knowing if it would be their last. Tonight was a major warning sign to Obama that these Two Americas cannot co-exist forever. And sooner or later Americans will want their White House back from its current lazy and debauched tenants.”

As the nation watches the events in New York's 23rd Congressional district unfold, an appropriate title for this story would be “How to squander money and alienate your base." After the Saturday withdrawal of Republican Dede Scozzfava, the GOP is reeling from a massive insurgency by its conservative base. Of course, the story got stranger as Erick Erickson of Redstate reports

“Dede Scozzafava is throwing her support to the Democrat, Bill Owens.

"She and her husband are working with union activists to drive the vote up for the Democrat.

"The Republican Party spent $900,000.00 to help her and this is how she repays them.

"And Pete Sessions, Chairman of the NRCC, and Guy Harrison, Executive Director of the NRCC, still have their jobs and are failing to take responsibility for this disaster, instead blaming conservatives.”

In the GOP there are still some are shaking their heads and wondering what went wrong. The GOP nominated a “moderate” and if she happened to have big labor and ACORN ties, then so be it. For once, the elephant in the room was not the GOP but this blatant, illogical and damaging alliance it had formed with Scozzafava. As the Wall Street journal reports, this relationship would eventually set off a national chain of events:

“Saturday's decision by Republican Dede Scozzafava to drop out of tomorrow's special Congressional election in upstate New York is a potentially big political moment that could help to return the GOP to first principles—or could lead to internecine ruin. Much will depend on how GOP leaders and conservative activists respond.

"Picked by GOP elites without a primary and with a voting record to the left of many Albany Democrats, Ms. Scozzafava faced a revolt by local and national conservatives in favor of businessman Doug Hoffman, who was nominated on the Conservative Party line. The longtime GOP assemblywoman saw herself falling in the polls and yesterday endorsed Democratic lawyer Bill Owens, who could still win the GOP-leaning seat with a plurality.”

Republican liaisons with far left Democrats have already been detrimental to the conservative movement and Scozzafava's ties to ACORN and their “affiliated” Working Families Party was covered extensively in the blogosphere. Top Republicans chose to ignore the corruption right under their nose and to sell out their base by following the Left's mantra to elect “moderates”. These “moderates” tend to be leftists in Republican clothing. Kirsten Gillibrand is an example of a local “moderate” who abandoned her principles and base after being promoted from Congressperson to United States Senator. Republicans like Darrell Issa (who released a damning report on ACORN last July) backed Scozzafava while still pursing ACORN corruption.

In any partnership, there is compromise. Some compromise is acceptable, but fundamental values should not be compromised. When conservatives align themselves with polar opposites, it always seems that they are doing so because of race considerations or political expediency. During a panel discussion in which I participated on October 23, 2009, Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media asked why Republicans in the Bush administration approved ACORN funding.

John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, replied that Republicans acquiesced with the pretense that these organizations are doing good work and that race is a major factor behind that acquiescence.

While partisanship should not play a role in exposing corruption, when that corruption is rooted in the pay for play politics that tip heavily to the Left, partisanship cannot be ignored. Nonprofit groups have been allowed to run rampant with charitable donations that somehow elect Democrats. To stop this trend, conservatives must become creative and steer clear of situations like the one in the NY 23 with Scozzafava. If such situations are allowed to continue, others will succeed in dividing the GOP from the grassroots conservatives, and thus strengthening the left.

ACORN is a Democrat scandal and it is hard to separate one from the other. Corruption is the overriding theme and it comes mostly from the left. Another particularly odd pairing continues to be the radical reformers of ACORN and top Conservatives and Republicans. The ACORN 8, a group of former ACORN board members, have formed a Scozzafava-like partnership with the Republicans. In attempting to expose ACORN, some appear to have ignored key facts and overlooked a pattern of withholding key information to coincide with opportunistic timing aimed at aiding Democrats. An example of this is the complete removal of two longtime Obama ACORN cronies from a complaint filed with the United States Justice Department last January by the ACORN 8. Madeline Talbott is described by Stanley Kurtz of the National Review Online as “the woman who first drew Obama into an alliance with ACORN.” And Keith Kelleher is Talbott's husband, the Chief Organizer of SEIU Local 880 in Chicago.

Another example of the GOP ignoring the evidence in front of it involves investigative reporting by the National Legal and Policy Center, a group that "promotes ethics in public life through research, investigation, education and legal action." The NLPC uncovered more on ACORN's relationship with Scozzafava. The GOP seems quick to support organizations and people with strong ties to ACORN as long as they technically are not ACORN. Unfortunately for conservatives, the credibility being bestowed on such groups receives little scrutiny beyond the blogosphere and Fox News . Key ACORN opponents have formed relationships of convenience with little thought to the outcome. As the NLPC reports, even the unions are involved:

“The powerful New York City-based health care workers union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199, also has endorsed Owens. But common sense says that if Mrs. Scozzafava is elected, she effectively will have established a Republican congressional beachhead for ACORN, who would claim its 'bipartisanship.' It's not as if her own party will be against her. Top GOP members sending her checks include House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Virginia), National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (California), Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Texas), and Rep. Peter King (N.Y.).

"How did leading Republicans, some of whom (like Boehner) have been ACORN's toughest critics, come to endorse a candidate with a history of endorsements by its main political front, the Working Families Party?" (emphasis mine).

Good question. In NY 23, the GOP candidate selecters chose to ignore the evidence of Scozzafava's ACORN tainted background. Just as the GOP and Fox have also ignored the clear statement on the ACORN 8's website which does not call for not for full truth, transparency and accountability by ACORN to the American people. Rather, as stated on the ACORN 8 website, they call for "truth, transparency and accountability within ACORN." Apparently in exposing ACORN it certainly does not hurt to have a black face to speak about ACORN corruption. The color of whistleblowers should not be important, but their message should be.

When groups like the ACORN 8 speak to conservatives and tell them that ACORN was a great organization that was “hijacked” by some who had sinister motives, it's believable if no one checks the facts. How can an organization whose founder remained in place for almost 40 years become hijacked? How can ACORN be reformed if the same longtime insiders are the new control group? This fiction must be exposed. Fox has been leading the way on exposing ACORN while other so called respected media outlets like the New York Times, finally admitted to having been continually scooped by Fox. But Fox needs to report all the facts to its viewers instead of promoting the ACORN 8 and wishful thinking.

As TV/Radio host Glenn Beck continues to expose the true subversive nature of ACORN, and Obama's radical roots, he contradicts many of the assertions made by this group of reformers. Though no one ever mentions the distortions on air, one has to wonder if Fox is doing its viewers a disservice by aligning themselves with groups who support Obama' s policy initiatives. As the conservative base mobilizes online, there is a disconnect between then and the so called leaders. The base sprung into action as a subsequent Glenn Beck boycott of advertisers begun by Van Jones and his organization Color of Change attempted to silence Beck and that same base is ready to fight as ACORN attempts to DeFox America.

Those outside of this boycott alliance spread the word on Twitter and Facebook about the Left's attempt to silence Beck, while the ACORN 8 remained largely silent on these issues and others that concern the very people they fundraise and ask to support their efforts. Like the $990,000 the Republicans spent on Scozzafava, conservatives are being asked to foot the bill for a partnership that was never ideologically aligned with theirs. As stated, such partnerships are rarely mutually beneficial for long. While the Left exploits the fears of conservatives on the issues of race, conservatives must be willing to fight back and respond to the blows instead of merely trying to deflect them.

After watching the ACORN prostitution stings, Americans do not see ACORN as serving a noble purpose and one has to wonder what people were doing on the ACORN board for years. Marcel Reid was active in ACORN for nine years and her story that the ACORN board was "ceremonial" does not excuse any board member. She claims to have noticed ACORN corruption only after the embezzlement scandal was publicly reported. As a former employee who started in October of 2005, I was already calling the folks at www.rottenacorn.com by May of 2007.

The question now is whether the GOP can overcome its fear of being labeled "racist" by the left and learn to respond to these attacks. Fear of that seems to be the tipping point for their ultimately disastrous relationships with liberals who wish to keep Democrats in power.

Until and unless we conservatives form our own groups and become more involved in the communities of color, we will find ourselves aligned with every group that sprouts from the ACORN seed. ACORN 8 professes to love ACORN and does not want to see it dismantled, just "reformed. " But ignoring the reality of the radical ACORN 8 potentially opens that door to other alliances with ACORN "insiders" who are willing to offer information in exchange for credibility and a chance to retaliate against the very control group that threw them out.

Yesterday's decision by the Supreme Court to reverse Sonia Sotomayor's ruling on the New Haven firefighters case was undoubtedly a blow (albeit, not fatal) to the woman who aspires to sit on the nations' highest court. The Philadelphia Inquirer offers this viewpoint:

An article released today by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review provides direct acknowledgment in ACORN's own words of a quota system in ACORN's voter registration drives. ACORN and senior staff were indicted early last month in Nevada amid charges of fostering an environment that led to voter registration fraud (among other things).

"Despite repeated denials of a quota system, a 2004 manual utilized by the activist community organization ACORN advises managers that workers who do not produce a set number of voter registrations per day should be fired.'If a person performs at less than standard have them come to another training, send them out with a team leader. If they still perform poorly then re-train once more, then fire,' the 2004 management document states.

'Anyone who performs at less than three voter registrations per hour SHOULD NOT BE ON THE STAFF,' the directive states.

A quota system for voter registration drives is barred under state law and has been cited as a major factor in pending criminal cases in Pittsburgh. Seven people, all with ties to ACORN, have been charged by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., with violating state election laws and submitting fraudulent voter registration applications. Those cases are pending."

Though ACORN has repeatedly attempted to deflect attention from the organization wide fraud issue, by blaming "rogue employees," officials in other states are also pursing charges:

"Nevada’s attorney general has charged the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which strives to register low-income citizens, with more than two dozen felonies for operating a fraud-infested voter registration drive in the state during the 2008 presidential campaign."

The map below details ACORN's "usual suspects" battleground states where its affiliate Project Vote conducted the drives.

Despite ACORN's claim to the Tribune-Review that memo is out of date, former ACORN employees, state that the practices from the 2004 memo were still being employed during the 2008 Voter Registration drive.The claims that the workers indicted in Pennsylvania are making sound eerily familiar to the documents set forth below.

A startling reversal that should not be lost on the public is the shocking way ACORN has backed away from the claims that there was not a 20 card per day requirement by management:

"Michael McDunnah, a spokesman for ACORN's affiliate Project Vote, which issued the instructions, said in an e-mail response that the 2004 management directive is no longer in effect.

He declined to make the current version public, but acknowledged that canvassers are expected to produce 20 voter registrations per day.

'Based on years of experience conducting community based voter registration drives, Project Vote estimates 20 completed applications per shift as a reasonable performance standard,' McDunnah said.

He said 20 per day was "a standard" not a quota.

He declined to make the current version public, but acknowledged that canvassers are expected to produce 20 voter registrations per day.

'Based on years of experience conducting community based voter registration drives, Project Vote estimates 20 completed applications per shift as a reasonable performance standard,' McDunnah said.

He said 20 per day was 'a standard' not a quota"

We will circle back to the "standard" in a moment, but for fun, let's look at what an ACORN spokesperson had to say about the 20 card question last month:

Scott Levenson, an ACORN spokesman, said that the group cooperated in the investigation and that charging the organization is "frightfully absurd."

"We're a bit appalled at the political grandstanding on the part of the attorney general's office," he said. "This individual case is truly a situation where, the organization that was most harmed is the organization that is being charged."

Both he and state officials said that the bonus system was instituted by Edwards, who did not respond to a request for comment Monday. That system was "in violation of ACORN's national policies," Levenson said.

"Incentives, bonus systems, are against any training that we do with our employees," he said. Canvassers do not have to meet a strict quota to keep their jobs, he said.

"You expect someone to work," he said. "If someone walks in every day with 17, their job's secure. If we have a goal for an employee of 20 registrations, and they keep coming in day after day with two, there's going to be an issue."

Why the sudden admission? It may had something to do with a document released last month to the Nevada Attorney General's office that was written by the indicted Amy Busefink in 2006. I attended this meeting which was an ACORN Political Operations Voter Registration debrief, and Amy was the leader of several sessions. The screen shot below is from a document entitled POLOP's [political operations] VR Notes:

It's hard to deny your own internal documents, or to argue that this plan is out of date (it mentions 2007-2008 double voter registration program) so this month ACORN is singing a new tune. In addition to the existence of an obvious 20 card quota, documents released to illustrate that ACORN's/Project Vote's own materials speak of that they like to call "the standard"

From the 2004 Document entitled Daily Staff Management:

ENFORCING STANDARDS

Standard: the number of cards per hour or per shift the average person on the crew is
expected to get

Enforce: To Lay the Voter Registration Smack Down
The average number of cards your staffer produce per shift is a direct function of how well you enforce standards. Anyone who performs at less than three voter registration cards an hour SHOULD NOT BE ON STAFF. If there are people on staff who produce less than three cards per shift it means the director is either an ineffective manager or an ineffective trainer. Allowing the crew to perform below standard compromises the operation because of the money wasted on sub-standard employees and undermines the hard work of the good people of the crew.

ANNOUNCE THE STANDARD
Write the Standard in the job description for observers, regular crew and team leaders

Post the Standard where you do your trainings and where you do your individual
meetings

Not only does ACORN put pressure on its workers to produce a certain number of voter registration card, but the manual goes on to illustrate how team leaders should marginalize and criticize poor performers (see Alinsky's Rules for Radicals)

ENFORCE THE STANDARD
Everyday during individual meetings people who meet standard should be fawned over. People who do not should be critiqued. (emphasis mine)

If a person consistently performs at less than standard have them come to another
training, send them out with a team leader. If they still perform poorly then re-train once more, then fire.

If a person performs at less than half of standard they should be placed on ultimatum.

If a person brings in three cards or fewer per shift, they should be fired.

Remember to give staff a specific goal: a specific number of cards per shift to
reach by a specific date along with pragmatic tips on how to make that happen.

Clearly ACORN appears to be fostering an environment of fear and quotas that make employees desperate to avoid criticism and hang on to their jobs. Worse, they are using tax dollars and tax exempt donations to commit crimes in various states. Project Vote's own voter registration manual states "review numbers at the end of each shift with them, before they go out again and waste your money on another bad shift."

Does this sound like an organization dedicated to helping the poor, and low income minorities? ACORN's callous treatment and regard for its employees often leads to them assisting in the prosecution of employees even after the organization seemed to encouraged fraud.

"Mario Grisom and Ashley Clarke told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the quotas outside a courtroom Friday where preliminary hearings were taking place.

'We definitely had to reach a quota. If we didn't reach a quota we'd lose our jobs,' said Grisom, 28, of Wilkinsburg.

Clarke, 21, of Pittsburgh, said supervisors with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now would sometimes complete partially filled applications. ACORN works to get low-income people to vote and lists offices in 41 states and the District of Columbia.

'The bosses -- if the date of birth wasn't filled out -- they would find it and fill it out for us,' she said."

Other exclusive documents revealed here today also show the existence of an incentive program which would support the charges in Nevada that include allegations of a program known as "blackjack"

"The indictment includes 13 counts each against Acorn and its former Las Vegas field director, Christopher Edwards, who is accused of creating an incentive program called “blackjack” because $5 was paid for signing more than 21 prospective voters."

Today's Tribune-Review article notes that:

"In the e-mail, McDunnah wrote, 'this performance standard does not represent a quota system or payment per registration, but simply a baseline for job performance. Failing to meet this standard did not result in automatic termination.
He said supervisors were given "wide latitude" to set standards on a case-by-case basis."

In another case of ACORN blatantly lying to the American people, the unmodified documents shown below are from a 2005 Citizens Consulting Inc. presentation on payroll and accounting, and they reference incentives twice. Also referenced is payroll allocation forms for incentives. Below are screen shots of these documents. To download the whole set click here for The Harrington Report.

The significance of these documents will not be lost on the Nevada Attorney General's office or the officials in Pennsylvania. ACORN has possibility committed felonies in several of the states where these drives were held. It is time to stop their pattern of bad behavior that conveniently leads to another employee being 'thrown under the bus.' By working in minority communities and having a nationwide practice of hiring some employees with questionable characters or backgrounds, ACORN has created what once was a fail safe defense. Reading between the lines the defense becomes "See we tried to help these people, but you know how they are, they wanted to get paid without doing the work."

Lawmakers and politicians who stand with ACORN should be ashamed of supporting these type of harmful stereotypes; especially considering that ACORN has admitted liability and is under a consent agreement in Washington State for the same type of shenanigans that landed them in hot water in Nevada.

-By Anita MonCrief

ACORN's chief organizer and CEO Bertha Lewis appeared on Bill O'Reilly's 'The O'Reilly Factor' on May 29, 2009 to combat the growing criticism that ACORN is a criminal enterprise that is operating as an arm of the Democrats. Well, a watered down version of Bertha Lewis appeared, for those who are not familiar with her colorful character see Youtube. ACORN spokespersons have never had a problem lying on camera, but under oath is a different story (as witnessed by Karyn Gillette's swift departure from a courtroom in Pennsylvania back in October of 2008). ACORN National spokesman Scott Levenson and other ACORN spokespersons have defended their actions and blamed rogue employees. During 'The O'Reilly Factor', Lewis asserted that she is in charge and that no criminal activity will be tolerated on her watch. Really.

For background, Lewis assumed control over the organization, that is, became Chief Organizer after it was revealed that ACORN's founder Wade Rathke had covered up the embezzlement of almost $1 million dollars by his brother Dale, ACORN's longtime chief financial organizer. The embezzlement occurred around December of 2000 and was reported by the New York Times

"The brother, Dale Rathke, embezzled nearly $1 million from Acorn and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000, Acorn officials said, but a small group of executives decided to keep the information from almost all of the group’s board members and not to alert law enforcement."

Dale Rathke remained on Acorn’s payroll until a month ago, when disclosure of his theft by foundations and other donors forced the organization to dismiss him.

'We thought it best at the time to protect the organization, as well as to get the funds back into the organization, to deal with it in-house,' said Maude Hurd, president of Acorn. “It was a judgment call at the time, and looking back, people can agree or disagree with it, but we did what we thought was right.'

ACORN seems to have a knack for rewriting history. According to internal emails from ACORN's own lawyer Steve Bachman, in June of 2008, ACORN began working on a cover up for the cover up. Bachman was present at the time of the embezzlement and elaborates on his role for the benefit of the other lawyers:

"Warning signs concerning these matters were brought to Wade's attention in July 2000. I as general counsel brought them to his attention in October 2000. ACORN upper management addressed the issue with Wade in December 2000. It is a matter of record that immediately before that meeting Wade informed me that my services were no longer required on this matter because I was being replaced by Louis Robein to solve the problem. There is documentary evidence to suggest that Wade told the same thing to is upper level management. It is not clear what Wade told member or Board members of various members of the ACORN family."

Bachman lays out how the seeds of the first cover up were planted and them delves into the crux of the matter. Contrary to the feel good statements released to members, funders and the press by Maude Hurd, as president and Bertha Lewis in her capacity as interim chief organizer; Bachman paints a dark picture of the internal problems within ACORN.

"In short, the evidence suggests that Wade Rathke is a liar, a manipulator, and anti-democratic" (emphasis mine)

"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, but she will need to confirm my recollection and/or her rhetoric. At the very least the Dale note could be construed as a 'sweetheart deal.'

Bachman's email then goes on to bring the legal team and the select board members who received this up to speed on the progress of the new cover up. Bachman first mentions that resolution passed by the ACORN board on June 20, 2008 that reads:

"Wade Rathke shall immediately and permanently be terminated from all employment with ACORN and its affiliated organizations or corporations. Furthermore, Mr. Rathke shall be removed from all boards and any leadership rolls with ACORN or its affiliated organizations or corporations."

When Bertha Lewis made her statement on 'The O'Reilly Factor', she was overlooking several key facts that the media outlets have also overlooked; Wade Rathke never left ACORN. Rathke structured ACORN in a way so that the particulars his community organizing Ponzi scheme were only known to close family and allies. For example, ACLOC (ACORN Community Labor Organizing Center) according to Bachman:

"Uses the ACORN name and seems to enjoy some $2M of business annually from ACORN and SEIU. The board of ACLOC is basically controlled by WR allies."

Read the rest of the email here.

Rathke still has control of several ACORN affiliates including SEIU local 100, Social Policy magazine and it should be reported, Rathke is the chief organizer of ACORN International. The New York Times reported on some of their backroom deals with Rathke to "encourage" him to go away quietly:

"While Mr. Rathke stepped down as the head of the organization this summer, some affiliated with Acorn have said his role as head of Acorn International has allowed him to continue to influence the group, the Times reports. One such deal under consideration that board members shared with the Times would have Mr. Rathke take over the Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now, an Acorn affiliate, and a Texas radio station affiliated with Acorn.

But Bertha Lewis, Acorn’s interim chief organizer, said no deal had been reached"

In case you missed the follow up story in the New York Times (should hit any day now) almost a year later Rathke's site gives the appearance of continued involvement with ACORN affiliated radio stations, ACORN International, Walmart Alliance for Reform Now and SEIU local 100. The first "sweetheart deal' was bad, but the second cover up is excusable. Bertha Lewis, CEO and chief organizer of the newest partner with the Census Bureau has no qualms about lying to reporters, staff, members or the American people. Apparently when Lewis said that no criminal activity would be tolerated on her watch she meant that they were only going to hold the low income and minority staff accountable for their actions (even if they were condoned or encouraged by senior staff).

At the ACORN meeting in Chicago on July 29, 2008 at which four national board members were present (Maud Hurd, Carol Hemingway and the leaders of the ACORN 8 who recently appeared on "Beck," Marcel Reid and Karen Inman), meeting notes reveal that (1) there were discussions as to why Sidley Austin {President Obama's old law firm) was chosen to work for ACORN, (2) Wade Rathke's liabilities and other liability matters "are...not to be discussed with other board members, management staff UNLESS they have officially signed the joint defense agreement, (3) the 14-page Elizabeth Kingsley report (co-authored by Bachmann and dated July 17, 2008) on ACORN's legal vulnerabilities was distributed, and (4) it was decided NOT to "go after Wade" until AFTER the last presidential election: "IF the idea for ACORN to go after Wade is decided upon--the recommendation is to wait until after December--elections, ACORN needs to get their corporation in order, clean house in terms of getting paperwork in order, etc."

PDF documents posted courtesy of the Harrington Report

Anita MonCrief is a blogger and writer in Washington, DC. She has worked with the American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative; the International Crisis Group; Grameen Foundation and ACORN. Anita has partnered with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on their mission to Macedonia as an election observer. In 2005, she joined the Strategic Writing and Research Department of ACORN Political Operations and its affiliate Project Vote. In 2008 Anita came forward to expose the damage that ACORN has done to the impoverished and marginalized communities, as well as its rampant voter fraud. Anita is also a social artist and her works promote social change and poverty eradication. She also blogs at www.anitamoncrief.blogspot.com

Just as ACORN happily accepted millions of dollars from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in its campaign to attain general acceptability and political power as well as to use all that money, ACORN hopes to participate in the upcoming census to promote interests beyond helping to conduct the next census: obtaining general acceptability, power AND confidential information.

ACORN 2008 Urban GOTV Plan

"The core of ACORN’s GOTV model is personal door-to-door contact. We know the best way to reach people and deliver a strong message that they will remember is face-to-face on the doors. By doing this we can ID specific voters who have said Yes, and keep track of exactly which voters and households we’ve had contact with."

During Voter Registration drives, ACORN - using money obtained from its 501(c)(3) Project Vote -would use the voter registration cards after attaching propaganda designed to increase membership. ACORN would sign up voters as provisional members and then contact them using information gleaned from the cards to turn the voter into a dues paying member. Data entry of voter information was handled at 34 cents a card after they were shipped to the Brooklyn ACORN office. According to internal documents ACORN had a strategic plan to build is membership off of voter registration drives paid for by donations and government funds

Concept Paper:

Building Organization Off the 2008 Election Cycle

Moving Forward

Now that we’ve grown more experienced in delivering the product (voter reg cards), the discussion in 2007 around designing the 2008 program has taken an interesting and exciting turn: how can we use the voter registration program to build and move mass membership, and build power for our members through campaign victories.

Data management is our Achilles heel. For the OCC [Organizing Call Center] to be effective there needs to be a way to get all VR [voter registration] card/member combos to be data entered within 2-3 days of being collected on the street. If not, the contact goes cold. For this quick turnaround to exist data entry may need to be done locally. It is possible cards could be scanned and emailed to a national data entry provider. Both means have challenges, however working from an electronic list from the get go is key to a successful follow up program.

Once VR cards/membership card responses are entered they can be put into phone lists for OCC workers. Calls should be made within 3-5 days of the contact being made on the street. It has been suggested that each OCC worker should have an electronic list of new registers/members in front of them. This means a computer on every desk of an OCC worker, along with a phone line. As callers make calls they record answers, and suspicious activity, directly into the data. In this way it is easier to generate “yes” lists or appointments for organizers. Also when using a data base, depending on the size of the list, we may want to do mailings, or email blasts. It would also be great to give every name a bar code to swipe them into the data base.

Proposal for a Joint List Acquisition and Enhancement Project

Project Vote proposes the creation of a List Acquisition and Enhancement program that will serve the needs of organizations, both large and small, with a strategic plan to build and maintain statewide voter files in targeted states. The file would be hosted by a non-501c3 entity to allow for maximum usage of the data by progressive organizations. The development of files will include acquisition of voter data, enhancements with demographic and consumer data where appropriate, and the long-term maintenance of the file which gives our organizations a better understanding of the electorate. Building upon the energy and experiences of the 2004 electoral cycle, this project will begin in 2005 with a long-term vision towards 2006, 2008 and beyond.

Another major challenge to be addressed for the creation of a centralized data bank for 501c3, c4 and 527 organizations is the legality of such an entity. Though that question has not been answered, this proposal seeks to build a centralized data bank for 501c3 organizations with the ability to accommodate and interface with other non 501c3 organizations where legally appropriate.

Information is power and the pieces of ACORN's strategic plan are falling into place. A 2005 document details their plans for a progressive majority:

Voter file

In 2005-2006, ACORN plans to partner with other progressive voter engagement organizations to purchase and maintain a common voter file. A common voter file will maximize the resources of the progressive voter outreach community, and enhance ACORN’s work by improving our effectiveness and efficiency.

With a common voter file, ACORN will:

• Coordinate voter outreach and mobilization work with other progressive organizations to maximize the power of our resources
• Target our voter contact where we will get “the most bang for our buck.”
• Build a long-term base of progressive voters by collecting and maintaining information on contacted voters from partnering organizations, and by developing low-propensity voters into habitual voters.

Membership Canvass

With the Membership Canvass, we are looking to build a large base of voters we can move on issues and elections that affect low- and moderate-income people. With a voter file, we will be able to target the neighborhoods we work in more effectively, with a particular eye on those neighborhoods where we can “get the most bang for our buck” – neighborhoods likely to be supportive of our issues, but where extra voter education and mobilization work would have a dramatic impact on turnout in strategically chosen legislative and Congressional races. Using precinct walk lists will enhance the canvass; the canvasser knows if the resident is registered, how often the resident has voted in past elections, the resident’s name, and other demographic data that helps them to tailor the canvass message to the individual. In addition, we will be able to take the voter information gathered from this mass canvass and add it to the voter file, in order to enhance the work of partnering progressive organizations. [emphasis mine]

If there is a chance that ACORN may be working unmonitored in the communities it serves, who is to say that some type of "suspicious" activity might not occur. After all ACORN is being investigated in almost EVERY state that they ran voter registration drives.

ACORN's core work revolves around Census information and that information leads to funding. In a 2007 a former Project Vote/ACORN Political Operations staffer stated:

"Projects for which I have used Census data include: political plans, project goals, and voter registration targets for programs of all sizes: from single geographies to ACORN's national 2008 civic engagement goals. This work required loads of research and analysis – of eligible voting populations per ACORN's traditional constituency, low-income and minority communities. The original research for national VR targets began with more than 300 geographies; we are continuously focusing our search and have narrowed down our targeting to a potential of closer to 150 counties."

If such data is the core of their programs, could their vested interest in the outcome cloud affect the impartiality?

What is at Stake?

On the surface ACORN appears to be concerned with its members and their well being; staging elaborate acts of civil disobedience for the cameras. However, internally ACORN's agenda is pure political, as this 2006 New Mexico year end report illustrates:

"This will also be the year that Albuquerque has an open seat for mayor. Some of the City Councilors who we help in ’07 may be candidates, and we will play a more significant role in this race. 2010 will, likewise, have an open seat for Governor. We have good relationships with the current, most likely candidates and need to be a player in this race. We need to raise money for our political work for this cycle based on the redistricting that will happen in our state following the 2010 census."

The entire report can be downloaded courtesy of Matthew Harrington here.The Harrington Report will also have the documents referenced in thia blog available for viewing by 5/28/09.

ACORN's vested interest in census data and its legislative outcomes can also be seen in a proposal for funding submitted to the Democracy Alliance. Here is an outline from the proposal.

DA 2008 Proposal For 2009/2010 Funding Cycle Outline

1. Mission, Goals and Activities

1. ACORN Mission
2. Key Goals
1. Program
1. Presidential and Congressional Accountability on Key Progressive Issues
1. Health Care
2. Housing/Foreclosures
3. Immigration Reform
4. Poverty Reduction
2. Using Electoral Process To Push Progressive Agenda
   
1. 2010 Congressional Elections – Key Districts
2. 2010 Leg Elections In Anticipation of Redistricting
1. Key States
2. Key Districts
   

Further proof can be found in a 2008 Political Plan for Ohio (a state where ACORN enjoys close ties with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner):

"The election of 2008 will be the most important national election in a generation and presents an unmatched opportunity for progressives to win the White House, build a progressive majority in the House and Senate, pave the way for the post 2010 redistricting struggle, and hold progressive candidates accountable for implementing progressive public policies. The following political plan is designed to mobilize key progressive constituencies in strategic locations in order to capitalize on this opportunity"

ACORN and the Census are a dangerous mix for the American people. Any organization that has a five year plan based on redistricting and manipulating elections should not be allowed to participate in any way with this important process. Zach Polett, ACORN's Political director outlines ACORN's plan to appeal to Soros and SEIU for money slated for political reasons.

Proposed Process for Developing a 5-Year ACORN Political Business Plan

Both to focus the strategic thinking of our political work and to put ourselves in position to attempt to raise the funds to support an ambitious, multi-year political program that grows out of ACORN’s base and strengths, I believe we need a serious, well-argued business plan. On the fundraising side, places we will want to share this business plan include “the millionaires club” (Democracy Alliance), the billionaires (Sandlers’, Soros, etc.), friends and opinion leaders in the voter engagement world (e.g., Frank Smith, John Podesta), SEIU, the voter participation foundations, etc.

Other groups are also preparing such plans. ACT has told us that they are working on theirs. America Votes had a small meeting last week, that ACORN participated in, to start thinking through what its 5-year plan should be, spurred by some interest from Soros in funding it.

Targeting (NOTE that this could either be a separate short section or one part of the methodology section below)

1. African-American: Major emphasis on voter registration, voter motivation and GOTV. Some parts of this work can be done c3
2. Hispanic & White Working Class: Key component of the initial voter contact is issue identification and persuasion. More time and money needs to be spent on screening and recording issue and policy priorities to determine message for future communication.
3. Though major focus of ACORN’s work will continue to be in urban communities, both of-color and low-income white, part of ACORN’s focus will be in inner-ring suburbs and lower-income and working class areas in exurbs and more rural counties, particularly where they fall in important state legislative or Congressional districts.

States to include are those states ACORN is in that have ’06 or ’08 key Senate races, are ’08 battlegrounds (generally same as ’04) and others with important redistricting opportunities.

Not surprisingly, the silence surrounding ACORN’s latest antics has continued from the main stream media (MSM). Even after a couple of weeks where the Washington Examiner has run two editorials and Bertha Lewis was caught lying by Lou Dobbs. I was gearing up to write a scathing report on ACORN and the Census when startling new evidence was obtained that directly relates to recent articles about ACORN and their questionable alliances. Some of these partnerships do not meet the standard definition of illegal activity, but in some ways they appear to harm a great deal of people. Funders, board members, ACORN members and tax payers. The question becomes how can one serve ACORN and still maintain their integrity.

Aaron Dorfman is the Executive Director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Its website describes the NCRP as:

“For more than 30 years, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy has served as the country’s independent watchdog of foundations. Over time, institutional grantmakers, federal and state governments, and individuals have taken our recommendations and turned them into policy, such as our promotion of comprehensive financial reporting for foundations as well as the inclusion of advocacy organizations in the Combined Federal Campaign…”

Here is their mission statement :

Our Mission

NCRP promotes philanthropy that serves the public good, is responsive to people and communities with the least wealth and opportunity, and is held accountable to the highest standards of integrity and openness.

According to his biography

“Aaron Dorfman is the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the nation’s premier philanthropic watchdog organization. Before joining NCRP in 2007, Aaron Dorfman served for 15 years as a community organizer, including ten years as executive director of People Acting for Community Together (PACT) in Miami, Fla. and five years as head organizer for Minneapolis and Miami chapters of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

Like many of ACORN’s relationships it appears to be fine and a fine example of how community organizers can make a difference, but according to emails recently obtained; Dorfman appears to be working more to protect ACORN’s interests than that of the NCRP.

In July of 2008 the New York Times broke a story about the embezzlement of nearly 1 million dollars by Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke. Dorfman wrote a piece on the scandal:

“As an outrageous breach of the public’s trust, ACORN’s case is a textbook example of horrendously weak governance combined with extremely poor judgment. While the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) serves primarily as a watchdog of foundations and other grantmaking institutions (not of all nonprofits), this case is certainly worthy of comment due to the scope of the issues involved.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that ACORN is a member of NCRP, that I worked for the organization from 1992 to 1997, that a senior ACORN executive served previously on NCRP’s Board of Directors, and that current NCRP board members are executives with foundations that fund extensively ACORN and its affiliates. Additionally, NCRP is currently working on new research that documents the positive impact of policy advocacy, community organizing, and civic engagement, and ACORN’s work will be included in that research.

Despite these connections between ACORN and NCRP, it is important to stress that no organization should be arrogantly allowed to take the public’s trust for granted.”

As one can imagine there were some seriously ruffled feathers at ACORN. In a message dated Friday, July 25, 2008 Nathan Henderson James writes:

Subject: RE: for you PR folk, maybe this isn't news to you, i just got it...

Aaron told me it was coming.

Overall it's not much different from what other charity watchdog types have said and it says a few of the same things as the Drier/Atlas piece.

I did tell him I thought the language was a bit hyperbolic.

Overall, while we may not like the piece, politically it strengthens his position with his board, his funder relationships, and his developing ally relationships vis a vis being able to have our back going forward.

Nathan

Another message sent the same day goes into further detail:

“Subject: RE: for you PR folk, maybe this isn't news to you, i just got it...

I'm sure that he would listen to any feedback we have on his posting. I also feel that if we point out the inaccuracy and ask him to post a clarification or errata or whatever then he will feel obligated to do so.

I think there is value in him hearing from us that parts of us are not feeling so keen about him because of this posting.

I do think he has our back and that this posting, which used language that was really over the top on several occasions, was much more like a Senator voting against their bill so they can move to reconsider later when they have the votes. He's positioning himself to be our advocate with people like Marge Tabankin and Garra LaMarche.

Also, its a blog, so I think he/NCRP would be open to someone posting a response, if we want to go that route.

Nathan

Once again, this information can be construed many different ways and ACORN will try to defend it as internal speculation, but an email from Dorfman (embedded below) clears up any confusion as to what is going on here.

Hey Kevin,

I’m looking forward to our call Wednesday. I have had several recent conversations with funders which have helped me shape the recommendations I will share on the call. I continue to believe that this whole situation can be extremely beneficial to your fundraising efforts.

Congratulations on the WSJ press last week, by the way.

On a related note, I wanted to let you know that I have intentionally not driven traffic to the critical blog piece I posted on July 21st. We have a monthly e-news letter that links to all our major work, and the e-news is what drives traffic from our constituents to the blog. We purposely did not include a link to the critical post in our July e-news, which was sent out at the end of the month. My strategy is that I will write a piece soon that says, “wow, look at how effectively ACORN is addressing these problems they faced. the problems were bad, as I noted in my prior post, but now they’re doing everything right to fix it.” Once I’m credibly able to write that piece and post it, I’ll start driving traffic to the positive piece which will only mention the negative piece in passing. If you have comments, criticism or suggestions for me on that front, I’m certainly open to hearing you out.

Let me know if you have specific items for the call, other than what’s been mentioned here.

--Aaron

What can be gleamed from the conversation is that the NCRP is now participating in crisis PR for ACORN at the expense of its board and funders. Instead of being a watch dog, they have become ACORN lap dogs. Dorfman also shared proprietary NCRP funded information with ACORN.

From: Aaron Dorfman [mailto:adorfman@ncrp.org]
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5:17 PM
To: polnat3@acorn.org
Subject: prospects

Hi Kevin,

It was good to speak with you earlier today. I hope the advice I offered will be of use to you.

As promised, attached is a list of funders you might want to consider as prospects. It's the nation's top 100 social justice funders as ranked by the percentage of their grant dollars that fit agreed-upon social justice criteria. The definition used to generate this list, although imperfect, is attached. It was established by the Foundation Center a few years ago and is based on NCRP's past work to define social justice philanthropy…

As I mentioned on the phone, this list is proprietary and absolutely not for publication or distribution. It is a custom data analysis that NCRP will be using in some future work. I am providing it to you because I value the work of ACORN and its affiliates and because I know I can trust you to ensure it is not distributed beyond a few staff members you consider key to the effort.

As we discussed, feel free to reach out again if you think I may have useful information regarding specific funders from whom you hope to seek funding.

Best regards,
Aaron

P.S. I am also attaching a one-pager about NCRP's project to generate new funder interest in supporting advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement. Our first study site is New Mexico, second will be North Carolina, and we think Minnesota may be third. Lisa Ranghelli is heading up the research on this for us and is in New Mexico this week getting started on the first report. NM ACORN's work will certainly be featured prominently. As this project generates new prospects, we will certainly share those with you, too.

As I have reported in previous blogs about ACORN and the Sandlers, the Ratners, banks, unions, politicians and corporations; these relationships rarely benefit the American people or even ACORN’s own core constituents. Dorfman did write a new article on ACORN a mere three months later entitled It’s time to invest in ACORN again:

It’s time for funders to resume funding ACORN, and to consider major new investments in the organization in the coming year. In times like these, the country needs ACORN back at full strength.

I wrote a critical blog posting about ACORN’s embezzlement scandal a few months ago, and I’ve been following the situation ever since. I’ve been extremely impressed with the openness and leadership of Bertha Lewis, their new Interim Chief Organizer and I am convinced that ACORN is systematically addressing the problems that led it into such trouble.

Has ACORN fixed everything in 90 days that needed fixing? Of course not. But it’s clear that the organization is committed to solving the problems and they are well on their way to doing so.

The most important development is that the organization’s board is much more engaged than it ever was under the leadership of Wade Rathke. When they finally learned about what happened, they took decisive action, and they are now attempting to fulfill their proper roles of governance and oversight. They’ve identified their weaknesses and are seeking training in the areas where they need help. There is still some controversy on the board, and it’s going to be a messy process, to be sure. But my overall assessment is that funders should have confidence that the board is now properly engaged and that the ship is sailing in the right direction.”

Sailing in the right direction? Controversy on the board? If anyone has been following this; the board broke off into two factions with the reformers calling themselves the ACORN 8. They filed a lawsuit against ACORN for complete access to the books and to try and stop them from destroying documents. These same board members had their rights violated when they were kicked off the board without a formal vote or notice and banned from the offices (as CNN reported). I think it is obvious that Dorfman understates the issue in order to deceive the very funders that his group so vigorously serves as a watchdog for. According to the Capital Research Center, some of these policies that seem to favor ACORN have gained public attention:

“A newly released report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) signals the latest step in a continuing war on donors being waged by nonprofit radical advocacy groups with a left-wing political agenda. These groups, representing political activists and special interests, have developed a social theory to justify the claims they make on philanthropists’ money. According to them, philanthropy betrays its highest ideals unless it gives them grants.”

If Congressman Nadler (D-NY) continues with his refusal to call a hearing on ACORN, other “strategic” partnerships will continue to flourish and deceive at the expense of American taxpayers.