Oklahoma ACORN Abandons Papers in Old Office--Illegal Tactics Revealed

About a year ago Red Dirt Report posted about some documents found in an abandoned ACORN office

On the second floor of an old building in South Oklahoma City “Little Mexico” neighborhood, there is a room that until recently, housed a branch of ACORN... Left hurriedly and in a shambles, the small office, coated in a layer of plaster dust, still housed computers, documents, registration forms, I-9 employment info and boxes with an IRS return address and others with a return address for an ACORN office in New Orleans.

The person working at this office, Adam Carter, had reportedly skipped town in June, according to the landlord. and in August, an ACORN representative from Tulsa came down and took more items, leaving behind what was found by Red Dirt Report. ACORN never fulfilled it’s year lease for the property and never paid a dime in rent. The landlord told Red Dirt Report that the ACORN workers seemed to attract trouble and that there was something not quite right about what they were doing. The landlord also said that the aforementioned Tulsa ACORN worker, named “Brittany,” said ACORN didn’t have any money to pay for the rent and that Carter had depleted the South Oklahoma City ACORN account.

How nasty of the White House's favorite community organizing group, everybody knows that when you abandon an office you are supposed to clean up before you go. 

No problem though, Oklahoma Rep Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City cleaned up for them, and while he was tidying up he took the opportunity to look at what the group left behind.

Oklahoma Watchdog now has many of the documents and will reveal them soon.

Rep.Reynolds said, “The contents of the ACORN offices were offered to me late, last summer,” but he didn’t examine them in detail. “My other duties didn’t allow me to examine the tens of thousands of pages available until recently,” he said, adding that when he read national stories about video of ACORN appearing to advise illegal behavior, “I decided I’d more carefully examine it.”

The information has been made available to the appropriate federal authorities, it includes:

• ACORN, which receives millions in federal dollars for voter registration, cannot legally support one party. However, internal documents show ACORN “targeted” state legislative districts in 2007 and 2008, leading up to the presidential election.

• A “Power Plan” document begins: “Oklahoma ACORN has been virtually non-existent since its glory days in Tulsa, over 20 years ago. 2007 is Year Zero.” It continues with a five-year plan to obtain “power”:
  

“Therefore, the route to power is twofold: First, build powerful city organizations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa that can control these municipalities. Second, become an influential organization by shaping a handful of strategic legislative districts that, by themselves, can change who controls the state legislature.”

“(W)e will be seen as the force that is making Oklahoma a progressive state in the way that it was 100 years ago.”

“By using this power to win significant changes for working people, by the end of our 5 years, we will have legitimized the progressive takeover of the statehouse and head into 2012 with a real possibility of changing what Oklahomans look for and expect out of their Congressional delegation.”

• Under a subsection titled “Politics and Elections,” in 2007 and 2008, ACORN was looking to take over State Senate District 43, which they referred to as “the biggest prize,” in hopes of unseating Republican Sen. Jim Reynolds. This district includes part of Del City, abuts Tinker Air Force Base, and portions of southern Oklahoma City and northern Cleveland County.

The ACORN document notes that District 43’s south half will “prove difficult, with more Anglo, Republican and military families,” while the district’s northern half will “be more fruitful.”

Other districts they focused on include: Senate District 33 held by Democrat Tom Adelson; House District 85, won by Republican David Dank; House District 87, held by Republican Trebor Worthen, and House District 93, held by incumbent Democrat Al Lindley.

Jim Reynolds [Mike Reynolds' Brother], reached while traveling, recalled the ACORN tactics used against him in 2008.

“We knew back before the election that they had kind of targeted us,” Reynolds said. “But we didn’t know to what degree.”

Reynolds said ACORN chose his opponent, a previously unknown Democrat he referred to as the “bogus David Boren” to differentiate from the president of the University of Oklahoma, to confuse voters.

His opponent spent thousands of dollars on TV ads during Oklahoma Sooners football games and slick mailers, tactics Sen. Reynolds said politicians had not previously used in state Senate campaigns in Oklahoma.

While Sen. Reynolds is aware of the information his brother Rep. Reynolds uncovered about being targeted, he said he is not sure if he will look at it due to “some painful memories.”

“It was so intense the last couple of weeks … the dollars spent on the negative campaigning against me. There’s a lot of satisfaction winning the election last year,” he said.

He said that he found it disturbing federally-funded ACORN and the national Democrat Party would come into Oklahoma and target him and others. He added it was that much more satisfying that he and his small group of volunteers were still able to win in spite of Obama’s and national Democrat Party voter turnout.

“If the word is not out there they (ACORN and their operatives) will continue to target conservative legislators,” Sen. Reynolds said, adding, “It’s nice to know who your enemies are.”

Oklahoma Democrat Party Oklahoma City office communications director Karina Henderson said she would not comment on “documents we have not seen.”

Those internal documents include a sheet titled “Canvass recruitment rap,” a “script,” directed towards ACORN activists in Houston which says: “Hi, my name is ____. We are hiring Outreach Workers to remind people to get out and vote for Barack Obama in the upcoming election. One of our team members spoke to you today and you signed up for our intake tomorrow. You are interested in working with us on this important election, correct?”

It continues: “We’re hiring for people to go door to door talking to registered voters in Houston to get out the vote for Barack.”

A 2007 grant request sent to an unknown organization seeking $100,000 to “fully fund our efforts here in Oklahoma City” from then-Oklahoma City ACORN organizer Adam Carter stated: “Many of the politicians in this state cater to the so-called ‘winners’ of our society rather than trying to help everyone. ACORN is non-partisan, but we demand that our elected representatives actually represent the people and do what is best for everyone, not a select few.”

There's the key, this division of ACORN is supposed to be "Non-partisan" but they used federal funds to influence both the national and local elections.

Carter also wrote a form letter to Oklahoma City area pastors telling them that ACORN offers tax return processing services for free and that ACORN is a “national nonprofit organization whose mission is help people in need.” This includes ACORN determining if the pastor’s congregants get SoonerCare, Medicaid, food stamps or health insurance for children.

The majority of the documents left behind in the abandoned office were Oklahoma Voter Registration Application forms, most of which had been collected in the Del City area of Oklahoma County.

Tabulating the forms reveals Democrats 128 Democrats and 39 Republicans. The remaining 130 were “No Party” or “Other.”

This information is the beginning of what Oklahoma Watchdog is researching and investigating regarding ACORN’s presence in Oklahoma.

The evidence showing that ACORN is/and has been a criminal enterprise is overwhelming. Why isn't the General appointing a special prosecutor? I think we already know the answer to that.