Congressional Hearings Reveal NEW ACORN SHOCKERS

Maybe Congressman Jerrold Nadler is not a big believer of "one man one vote." Last week Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) called for a probe of the Democrat's favorite tax fraud group and Nadler's response was to "take it under advisement."

Nadler was chairing the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties subcommittee hearing entitled “Lessons Learned from the 2008 Election” last Thursday. The hearing featured shocking testimony from Heather Heidelbaugh a Pennsylvania attorney. Last October Heidelbaugh represented “a candidate, voters and the Republican State Committee of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” seeking a preliminary injunction against ACORN and the Secretary of the Commonwealth. The complaint alleged violations of the election code, fraud and misrepresentation, and violations of equal protection and due process.

Some of the specific allegations include:

• The Obama Campaign worked directly with ACORN and the NY Times hid the story: The New York Times articles stopped when Ms. Moncrief, who is a Democrat and a supporter of the President, revealed that the Obama Presidential Campaign had sent its maxed out donor list to Karen Gillette of the Washington, DC ACORN office and asked Gillette and Ms. Moncrief to reach out to the maxed out donors and solicit donations from them for Get Out the Vote efforts to be run by ACORN. Upon learning this information and receiving the list of donors from the Obama Campaign, Ms. Strom reported to Ms. Moncrief that her editors at the New York Times wanted her to kill the story because, and I quote, “it was a game changer”. That’s when Ms. Moncrief telephoned me on October 21, 2008.

• There is no separation between ACORN and Project Vote ..Honestly, there really isn’t a difference between Project Vote and ACORN except for the fact that one is a 501(c)(3) and one is not a (2)(3). As far as the – who does the voter registration
  work and how things get done…Project Vote is basically considered ACORN political
  operations.” Ms. Moncrief testified: [page 44, line 1-25] “There was active cooperation between ACORN’s political wing and Project Vote…[They] basically had the same staff. Nathan Henderson James was the strategic writing and research department…director of ACORN and he was the research director of Project Vote. Zach [Polett] was the executive director of Project Vote and the executive director of ACORN political.

• ACORN and Project Vote were used as a way for Obama's maxed out donors to continue to give to the campaign. ACORN and Project Vote targeted particular individuals and entities to solicit donations. These included: 1.) maxed out presidential donors; 2.) the billionaires club i.e. Herb Sandler, the Rockefellers; and 3.) the millionaires club i.e. Patriciam Bowman, the Bowman Foundation, Wellspring, and Sykes. 

•   ACORN paid people based on a Quota of how many voters they registered. Ms. Moncrief confirmed that ACORN does have a ‘quota system’ for their voter registration canvassers.  Ms. Moncrief testified that she was aware of a system
  that required each canvasser to turn in “…at least 20 cards per day”. If the canvasser does not turn in the minimum of 20 cards per day, the canvasser is “fired”. 

• ACORN knew they had only a 40% accuracy rate, that's why they submitted their voter registration cards just before the elections to make things harder to detect. ACORN knew that their canvassers were turning in duplicate registrations. Ms. Moncrief testified: “I have knowledge that they were striving for at one time 40% accuracy rate.” Further, ACORN knew that their canvassers “dumped” voter registration cards on election divisions throughout the United States immediately before the cut off dates. 

• ACORN waged in Political activity: ACORN and its affiliates engaged in partisan political activity despite their tax exempt status which prohibited them from doing so. ACORN was concerned ‘publicly’ to prohibit its tax exempt organizations from engaging in partisan political activity but in actual practice it occurred behind the scenes.  Ms. Moncrief was told not to get caught engaging in partisan political activity.

• ACORN would force companies provide donations with protests.  They called it "protection money." Muscle for the Money’, Ms. Moncrief testified: “Protection.
  We were very – not to be flippant, but we were just always very sarcastic about it in the offices. We knew what was going on. And its not that we thought it was funny, it was just one of those things that we talked about. That’s why I said it like that, so you understand.”  The ‘Muscle for Money’/’Protection’ programs were carried out against Sherwin Williams, Jackson Hewitt, H&R Block, the Carlyle Group, and Money Mart. (If you want to read the entire testimony click here)
  

These revelation are not unexpected but are still shocking. If these alligations are true ACORN is more like the Sopranos than a political organization.  And now they are helping out with the census.  To promote a transparent political process, the goverment should be cutting off all involvement with this group and conduct hearings into their operations.  What do you say Congressman Nadler?