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CHICAGO (AP) - Affiliates of the once mighty liberal activist group ACORN are remaking themselves in a desperate bid to ditch the tarnished name of their parent organization and restore federal grants and other revenue streams that ran dry in the wake of a video scandal.
The letters A, C, O, R and N are coming off office doors from New York to California. Business cards are being reprinted. New signs with new names are popping up in front of offices.
The breakaways are trying to shed the scandal that emerged six months ago when videos showed some ACORN workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute. But while their names are different, most groups have kept the same offices and staff.
That, critics say, means the groups really haven't started anew and severed all ties to ACORN, which faced accusations of mismanagement and rampant voter registration fraud well before the video brouhaha sent even longtime Democratic backers scattering.
(AP) In this photo taken, March 12, 2010, in Chicago, Michael Shea, Executive Director of Affordable... Full Image
Even the national office of ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, doesn't blame affiliates for bolting from under its umbrella - conceding its entire 40-state network has been devastated by what backers characterize as right-wing attacks.
"It is true that these range of attacks do damage to your brand and your good name," said Kevin Whelan, ACORN's communication's director. "The other reality is that we are starting to win some vindication on the facts. But vindication doesn't necessarily pay the rent."
ACORN's financial situation and reputation went into free fall within days of the videos' release in September. Congress reacted by yanking ACORN's federal funding, private donors held back cash and scores of ACORN offices closed.
On Wednesday, a U.S. judge reiterated an earlier ruling that the federal law blacklisting ACORN and groups allied with it was unconstitutional because it singled them out. That doesn't mean any money will automatically be restored, however.
For years, ACORN could draw on 400,000 members to lobby for liberal causes, such as raising the minimum wage or adopting universal health care. Locally, its activists pushed city officials to fix broken street lights and it pressured banks to offer more favorable loans to low-income Americans. ACORN was arguably most successful at registering hundreds of thousands of low-income voters, though that mission was dogged by fraud allegations, including that some workers submitted forms signed by 'Mickey Mouse' or other cartoon characters.
(AP) In this photo taken, March 12, 2010, in Chicago, Michael Shea, Executive Director of Affordable... Full Image
There's a chance the national group could disband, and it, too, may consider changing its name.
"The sorts of attacks ACORN has faced as an organization are unprecedented since the McCarthyism in the '50s, and it remains an open question whether an organization can survive that," Whelan said. "Time will tell."
One of the latest groups to adopt a new name is ACORN Housing, long one of the best-funded affiliates. Now, the group is calling itself the Affordable Housing Centers of America.
Others changing their names include what were among the largest affiliates: California ACORN is now Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and New York ACORN has become New York Communities for Change. More are expected to follow suit.
The housing affiliate has lost more than most. The federal cutoff slashed its budget 75 percent, from $24 million in 2009 to $6 million in 2010. It's closed half of its 33 offices, cut half its 250 staff and reduced numbers of low-income families it gives financial advice to from 20,000 to 10,000.
An unadorned paper sign with the new name was taped at the entrance of the group's Chicago headquarters on a recent afternoon. But much else is unchanged: The new group is in the same offices; and the head of the old group, Mike Shea, is the head of the new one.
Still, insisted Shea, "We really have no relationship with ACORN whatsoever."
Many opponents don't buy it. A distinguishing feature of ACORN for years has been its complex web of affiliates, some of which shared money and manpower without ever assuming ACORN's name, said Frederick Hill, spokesman for Republicans on the U.S. House oversight and government reform committee.
"The idea that some ACORN organizations are trying to obscure who they really are should be troubling to Americans," he said.
A recent report on ACORN compiled by the House Republicans whom Hill represents describes ACORN as a "shell game" with a structure "designed to conceal illegal activities, to use taxpayer and tax-exempt dollars for partisan political purposes, and to distract investigators."
To credibly claim a clean break, argued Hill, the new groups should at least have hired directors from outside ACORN.
"But I can't tell you of a single example our committee has seen where we say, 'Geez, it really looks like they're purging all the individuals who are with national ACORN,'" he said.
The breakaways insist they have changed in more than just name, pointing to tougher ethics rules and better management. Shea said his Chicago-based housing group brought in independent auditors to pour through its books; all, he says, gave them high marks.
"We can prove to our stakeholders that we've put reforms in place and what you saw on the video can never happen again," he said.
In the end, all the confidence-building measures may do little good when it comes to divisive, politically active groups like ACORN. Foes like Hill and a vast range of longtime detractors are sure to harken back to the old ACORN names at every opportunity.
"If a company changes its name, the hubbub eventually dies down," said Bill Lozito, head of Minneapolis-based branding firm, Strategic Name Development. "Changing a name associated with politics is a lot tougher. People won't let go of the original name and won't forget."
The activist group ACORN fired the longtime director of its Louisiana chapter Monday, citing a lack of accountability in a region recovering from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
FOXNews.com
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Beth Butler was the director of that chapter and close to Rathke, whose brother Dale was accused of embezzling about $1 million from the group a decade ago.
A statement by ACORN chief executive officer Bertha Lewis did not specify why she fired Butler.
"I took over as ACORN's CEO last summer, and I vowed accountability at every level of the organization," Lewis said in her statement. "The work of ACORN members everywhere -- especially in Louisiana where the members have fought heroically to bring the city back post-Katrina -- is too important to not have full accountability."
Butler said she was fired because she refused to fire members of a land trust board whom national ACORN leaders wanted ousted. She said ACORN national is "going out of business" and wanted the board gone to seize control of its funds and assets. She called the ordeal "all completely inappropriate and unethical."
The missing $1 million is still an open case. The Rathke family and a donor repaid the money and no charges were brought, but Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has said his office is investigating the embezzlement allegations.
In a subpoena seeking ACORN financial records, Caldwell's office said $5 million was embezzled, but ACORN said he was mistaken and insisted the sum hadn't changed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
OCTOBER 6, 2009
Acorn Woes Hit Union, Democrats by Kris Maher
Democratic lawmakers in a handful of states are facing pressure from Republicans to distance themselves from the Service Employees International Union as a result of its ties to Acorn.
Republicans in Kansas, Virginia and Illinois in recent weeks have called on union-backed Democrats to return SEIU campaign contributions, citing the close connection between the union and the community organizing group, whose full name is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Acorn has been under fire in the past month after secretly recorded videos showed Acorn employees offering advice on evading taxes, setting up brothels and smuggling illegal immigrants. Acorn has called the actions unacceptable and has fired the workers involved.
The Virginia Republican Party urged Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds to return campaign contributions from the SEIU, one of the biggest financial backers of Democratic candidates. Mr. Deeds received a total of $200,000 from the SEIU in 2009, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks campaign contributions in the state.
"The close, almost symbiotic, relationship that SEIU and Acorn have call into question the propriety of being so closely involved with this union," said Tim Murtaugh, spokesman for the Virginia GOP. A spokesman for Mr. Deeds couldn't be reached for immediate comment.
Michelle Ringuette, an SEIU spokeswoman, said the union had suspended all organizing work with Acorn, pending a review of the organization. She said Republicans are engaged in a "smear" campaign against the union.
Meanwhile, the Kansas Republican Party has also issued a call for Democratic candidates to return all contributions received from the SEIU. Tyler Longpine, communications director for the Kansas Democratic Party, called the charges "a distraction."
In Illinois, the Republican Senatorial Committee called on Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias to return contributions he received from the SEIU. Thomas Bowen, a spokesman for Mr. Giannoulias, said the candidate had no plans to return contributions from the union, and noted that Republican candidates had received contributions from the SEIU.
When ACORN took to Las Vegas and started playing "Blackjack" and "21," the activist group was making a far bigger gamble than it ever guessed, according to Nevada prosecutors.
There's nothing wrong with playing the tables in Vegas, but authorities say ACORN was using the names of those casino games as a cover to illegally pay workers to sign up voters as part of an illegal quota system.
A preliminary hearing Tuesday in the downtown Clark County courthouse has put ACORN on trial for the first time as a criminal defendant.
Until now, prosecutions for voter registration fraud have focused on ACORN workers, and authorities have secured guilty pleas from several who admitted to falsifying voter registration forms.
But when investigators from Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller's office raided the ACORN Las Vegas office, Ross says they found a paper trail that implicated the ACORN organization itself.
"We came across policy manuals that outline their policy of creating a quota system, which is against the law," Miller told FOX News in an interview. "This, in fact, was something that was widespread and something the organization itself knew about, and it's important to hold the organization criminally accountable as opposed to the individual field directors."
ACORN denies it had a quota for the number of voter registration forms that its workers were required to turn in every day. Instead, the organization says there were "performance standards" — an expectation that workers would find 20 new voters a day.
But prosecutors say ACORN paid a $5 bonus per day to workers who would sign up 21 or more voters per shift, hence the name "21" or "Blackjack," an alleged quota system that Ross says is the first step toward corrupting the democratic system.
"These charges strike at the heart of having integrity of the electoral process. That's something that is important in Nevada and the entire country," he told FOX News.
"By filing these charges we are sending a clear message we are not going to tolerate these kinds of activities. We have seen voter registration abuse before and we are holding these people accountable."
Pressure has been mounting on ACORN in recent weeks after videotapes surfaced showing staffers in multiple cities offering advice to a man and woman posing as a pimp and a prostitute on how to commit tax fraud.
The IRS and Census Bureau have severed ties with the group, and the inspector general of the Department of Justice is reviewing the agency's involvement with ACORN. More than a dozen state and local authorities are also scrutinizing ACORN, including Maryland's attorney general.
ACORN lawyer Lisa Rasmussen told FOX News that the Nevada prosecution is "selective and has unfairly targeted ACORN." She claims the case violates the right to petition to gather voters.
At the preliminary hearing Tuesday, prosecutors and defense lawyers sparred over the arcane regulations of voter registration. But the highlight of the proceedings was the testimony of Christopher Edwards, the 33-year-old former ACORN field director who has cut a deal with prosecutors to testify against the group.
Edwards has begun to provide a view inside ACORN's operations, telling investigators about the Blackjack program in the Las Vegas office, which allegedly submitted the names of the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys as new voters.
"It's Las Vegas, it's blackjack," Edwards testified, describing what he called the "Blackjack bonus," saying ACORN set a quota of 20 cards per day for workers, and 1,000 a week for the group's political organizers. Edwards described a huge sign in the ACORN office that read: "Blackjack Bonus, 21 cards, extra 5 dollars," and said the program was instituted with the approval of higher-ups.
In fact, he said, other ACORN offices were jealous of the Blackjack program. Edwards said there were problems with payroll fraud at ACORN, noting that a Detroit voter registration director paid himself twice, falsely claiming he was also a canvasser.
Edwards told the court that he hired Nevada "non-violent offenders" from a prison transition facility as canvassers, and when asked if there was pressure from ACORN to increase voter registrations, he said, "every day."
If the trial goes forward and ACORN is convicted, the Nevada operation could lose its tax-exempt status. That would have national implications for the organization — meaning ACORN could end up with a losing hand.
Already facing the loss of federal government funding, the community-organizing group Acorn also has run afoul of one of its big corporate partners, Bank of America Corp.
In response to questions from The Wall Street Journal, a spokesman for the banking company said it has "suspended current commitments" to Acorn Housing, an affiliated group, and "will not enter into any further agreements with Acorn or any of its affiliates," pending assessments by the bank of the organization's operations.
Acorn, officially the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has been under fire since the recent release of secretly recorded videos that showed Acorn employees offering advice on evading taxes, setting up brothels and smuggling illegal immigrants.
The News Hub panel discusses Bank of America's retreat from Acorn, the government's newly-announced $35 billion aid package to homeowners and signs of life in the corporate profits.
Acorn has called the actions unacceptable and has fired the workers involved. Last week, Acorn said it has selected Scott Harshbarger, a former Massachusetts attorney general, to investigate any wrongdoing at the organization.
Acorn Housing for years has worked with Bank of America and some other big banks on foreclosure-prevention efforts.
"Bank of America takes recent allegations made against Acorn and Acorn Housing Corporation employees very seriously," the bank said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Census Bureau dropped Acorn as a partner for the 2010 Census, and the House of Representatives voted to block the group from receiving federal funds.
"We're not surprised that our lending partners like Bank of America want assurances that this won't happen again," said Michael Shea, executive director of Acorn Housing, which is based in Chicago and has about 250 employees nationwide.
Mr. Shea said Acorn Housing is arranging ethics training for its staff as part of an effort to ensure that such "abhorrent" behavior doesn't happen again and that he hopes to be able to resume work with Bank of America once it can be assured that Acorn Housing has dealt properly with the issue.
Mr. Shea said Acorn Housing has worked with Bank of America since the 1990s. As part of that work, he said, the bank provided grants to pay for Acorn Housing to counsel first-time home buyers on how to handle mortgage debt. More recently, most of the work has been in representing borrowers seeking to avoid foreclosure.
Acorn Housing, created by Acorn in the mid-1980s, now has a separate board of directors and budget, though the two organizations share office space in some cities, representatives of the two groups say. The housing arm long has worked with some of the nation's largest banks, helping them reach out to distressed borrowers and potential customers in inner-city areas. Distressed borrowers often are more willing to work with familiar community groups like Acorn than they are to deal directly with their lenders.
The Bank of America spokesman said Acorn Housing has been among various nonprofit groups that the bank works with in foreclosure-prevention efforts. A spokesman for Citigroup Inc. said it "has a program in its early stages with Acorn to help us reach distressed borrowers we have been unable to contact."
At Wells Fargo & Co., a spokeswoman said the bank doesn't have any specific arrangement with Acorn but "will work with any group if they are authorized by the borrower." A spokesman for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said that company also doesn't have any regular working relationship with Acorn. One of the directors of Acorn Housing, Guilermo Loaiza, is a loan officer for J.P. Morgan Chase in Phoenix.
Acorn Housing is among more than 2,700 organizations approved by HUD as housing counseling agencies. That status is needed to qualify for HUD grants to housing counselors and for participation in some state housing-assistance programs.
Last year, Acorn Housing was allocated federal funds that could total as much as about $25 million for counseling of distressed mortgage borrowers under a program known as National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling, created by Congress in late 2007. The share allotted to Acorn Housing was about 7.5% of the $333 million total. That made Acorn the fourth-largest recipient, trailing Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and the Homeownership Preservation Foundation
These funds haven't all been paid to the organizations. Instead, they get an unspecified amount of money up front and then bill NeighborWorks America, a group designated by Congress to manage this program, for counseling work as it is performed, a NeighborWorks spokesman said.
A spokesman for NeighborWorks said his organization doesn't publicly comment on the performance of the groups that get these funds until the program is completed.
Acorn Housing and Acorn also have been big recipients of funds from HUD, collecting a total of about $45 million in the past nine years, a HUD spokesman said. About $18 million of the funding was for housing-related counseling programs, including advice for renters and first-time home buyers. About $12 million was for development of affordable-housing projects. Some $5 million was for a program designed to make the public aware of lead-paint dangers, and $3.7 million was for programs that fight racial discrimination in housing.
A spokeswoman for Acorn Housing said it has made 18,626 proposals to lenders on behalf of distressed homeowners to help them avoid foreclosure in the past 12 months.
—Constance Mitchell-Ford contributed to this article.
Frank Seeks to Clarify Position on ACORN, Expresses Regret Over Probe Request
Rep. Barney Frank sought to clarify his position on ACORN Wednesday after backpedaling on a request for an investigation by the Congressional Research Service into the community organizing group.
FOXNews.com
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Rep. Barney Frank sought to clarify his position on ACORN on Wednesday after backpedaling on a request for an investigation by the Congressional Research Service into the community organizing group.
Frank said his "biggest error was to sign a letter to the Congressional Research Service which I had not thoroughly read and which does not accurately represent my own position in all aspects."
Frank also took issue with reports that said he would have voted against a GOP proposal to eliminate federal funding to ACORN.
"In fact, I would have voted for the motion at that time," he said. "I am very disappointed in the actions that were taken by members of ACORN, and I do not believe that ACORN's response has been adequate for an organization that has received public funding."
ACORN is reeling in the wake of a scandal caused by a sting that appears to show ACORN workers providing tax advice to undercover filmmakers posing as a pimp and a prostitute. The series of videos, filmed by James O'Keefe, a conservative activist, and his partner, Hannah Giles, have led to Congress voting to cut off federal funding, the Census Bureau and IRS severing ties, four ACORN employees losing their jobs and a steady drumbeat of calls by Republicans for a criminal investigation. ACORN has hired a Boston attorney to conduct an independent probe of the group, and it filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers and Breitbart.com, a Web site run by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, which posted the videos.
Frank explained that he missed the House vote to defund ACORN because it happened at the same time he attended a White House ceremony in which a member for his district was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama.
"There are questions about the constitutionality of Congress passing a law that singles out one organization, but the basic principle that ACORN should not now be receiving public funding is an important one," he said. "I have therefore urged the Obama administration to withhold any additional funding for ACORN at least until there is very firm evidence that the abuses of which ACORN members have been guilty have not only ceased, but that the procedures are in place to prevent them from happening again."
On Tuesday, Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter along with Rep. John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to the Congressional Research Service seeking a "clear and objective analysis to sort through the charges and countercharges surrounding ACORN."
Conyers and Frank said in the letter they want the CRS to investigate five specific areas ranging from voter falsification to the federal funds collected by the organization over the past several years.
But on Wednesday, Frank objected to his signature on the letter because of partisanship that he says has been injected into the issue.
Frank noted that ACORN receiving $14.2 million in funding from Bush administration through HUD.
"And I do not remember during the period from 2001 to 2006 when the Republicans controlled the White House, HUD, the House and the Senate, and ACORN was receiving millions of dollars, any Republican objection to this," he said.
"The wild claims that ACORN is the potential beneficiary of billions of dollars in programs voted by Congress is similarly a sad example of excessive partisanship," Frank said. "It is important for the public to know, given what has been made public about these activities, what funds ACORN has received, under what authority, in what administration etc."
Frank said he has asked a fellow Democrat who heads an oversight subcommittee to be ready for a hearing once the figures are made available.
"And I reiterate that my own view is that the appropriate response here would be to have the Obama administration continue what it began with regard to the Census and withhold any funding or authority from ACORN pending a very serious examination of their past behavior and significant changes regarding the future."
Teachers unions have contributed over $1.3 million to ACORN
By: Kevin Mooney Commentary Staff Writer 09/13/09 4:59 PM EDT
Teachers unions have contributed over $1.3 million to ACORN and its affiliates, since 2005, according to U.S. Labor Department financial disclosure forms.
But there is no guarantee that the $1,333,112 million in donations from the National Education Association (NEA) and Teachers AFL-CIO unions are actually being used for their stated purposes, according to present and former Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) officials.
Some of the larger donations include $100,000 from the NEA in 2008 and $200,000 in 2007 for political activities. The Teachers AFL-CIO Local Union 2 contributed $406,730 in 2008, $457,778 in 2007, and $346,300 in 2006 for representational activities.
Now that ACORN staffers have been caught on video helping a man and woman posing as a pimp and a prostitute acquire illegal home loans to set up a brothel it is imperative that these organizations reconsider their support, said Ron Sykes, treasurer for ACORN’s Washington D.C. branch.
Both the NEA and Teachers AFL-CIO advertise as strong advocates for children. ACORN staffers in Baltimore were caught on video instructing James O’Keefe, the undercover filmmaker, and his partner Hannah Giles how they could falsify documents and obtain benefits for 13 “very young girls” from El Salvador.
Sykes and other insiders are now active with ACORN 8, a whistleblower group of present and former officials with the group who have repeatedly called for greater accountability and transparency on the part of ACORN’s leadership.
ACORN 8 activists claim the national leadership maintains centralized control over financial transactions through Citizens Consulting Inc. (CCI), a New Orleans based non-profit. Federal tax documents show links between ACORN affiliates and CCI.
“They’re corporate gangsters,” said Sykes. “This episode with the video shows they really have no scruples and the teachers unions and anyone else making donations need to become aware of what’s happening and what this could mean for young people. I also find it interesting that one of ACORN’s campaigns was for immigration. Apparently, if they don’t get the legislation they want they will use any means necessary to get people into the country.”
Although ACORN moved quickly to the fire the workers, the real blame and responsibility should rest with the leadership and with the national board, said Michael McCray the spokesman for ACORN 8.
“There’s a drastic need for an investigation and a forensic audit,” McCray said. “Until this happens, any funding for ACORN should be withheld. A lot of people on the right would like to see ACORN shut down but that’s not our position. We favor reform.”
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