ACORN: Grassroots Activism By Quota?

Mission
ACORN aims to organize a majority constituency of low-to-moderate income people across the United States, building community organizations “that are committed to social and economic justice, and self-proclaimed victories on thousands of issues of concern to our members, through direct action, negotiation, legislative advocacy and voter participation.”

History
ACORN began as a single 501 C-3 organization in 1970, but the group has grown, currently maintaining over 400,000 “member families” nationwide. Affiliated groups with separate corporate tax filings are active in 110 communities all across the country, and the New Orleans based organization now counts New York City and Washington, DC among its other corporate headquarters.

In addition to assisting low-income individuals in obtaining affordable housing, ACORN has historically advocated for living wages, “tax justice,” and other left-leaning ideological stances. The group proudly follows the teachings of radical Saul Alinsky:

“The organizer is in a true sense the highest level for which man can reach – to create, to be a ‘great creator’, to play God.” – Alinsky

In North Carolina, ACORN activities can be traced back to 1994, and the group now maintains at least three offices, in Raleigh, Durham, and Charlotte. None of the North Carolina offices have filed tax returns relating to their activities within the state. While ACORN’s original non-profit charter was granted in New Orleans, based on filings at the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office, it appears that the three North Carolina offices may be affiliated with an ACORN subsidiary, the ACORN Housing Development Agency out of Chicago, Illinois.

Background
Until recently, ACORN had remained relatively out of the spotlight, focusing primarily on affordable housing and grassroots issue advocacy. In the new millennium, however, ACORN turned its attention to massive voter registration and GOTV (get-out-the-vote) campaigns – using some questionable tactics which landed the organization in the national news. In September, the Durham Herald-Sun quoted Durham Elections Board Director Mike Ashe, who noticed a number of irregularities among the voter registration sheets submitted by ACORN, including one instance in which a 14-year-old was registered to vote. When the October 10th deadline for voter registration arrived in Wake County, the News & Observer reported an influx of last minute registrations, including those from ACORN which were missing birth dates or social security numbers. Some were even duplicates.

All of this brought ACORN to the attention of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which began an investigation into the registrations, both in Wake County and in other communities statewide where the 28,000 new voters attributed to ACORN’s voter drive efforts originated.

Conflicts of Interest
Even without being able to determine who serves on ACORN’s Board of Directors - or anything else about its internal workings - conflicts-of-interest are apparent.

Partisanship?
Despite its claims to non-partisanship, ACORN isn’t shy about its preference for the left. That wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that taxpayers are apparently floating the tab for the group's activities.

Public Funding
John Boehner (R- Ohio), the House GOP leader, estimated in October that ACORN has received over $30 million dollars from the federal government. According to the New York Post, ACORN realizes 40% of its funding from tax revenues paid by citizens, including those in the state of North Carolina. The remaining 60% comes from private contributions, primarily from left-leaning groups like the Democracy Alliance and outwardly spoken leftists such as George Soros.

While organizations are free to spend private money in any way they choose, the use of taxpayer dollars for advocacy efforts that lean in either direction (left or right) is just plain wrong.

Issue Conflicts
In August of 2008, Governor Easley signed three bills into law with the backing of ACORN. Oddly, the bills were crafted to curb the predatory lending practices that ACORN is notorious for promoting to its members in the first place.  Nevertheless, the group was not shy in claiming credit for their progress in the North Carolina legislature.

• HB 2188 bans yield spread premiums by lenders which will prevent brokers from being able to receive kickbacks for pushing borrowers into loans they shouldn’t have qualified for in the first place.
• HB 2623 grants the commissioner of banks the authority to use funds for home foreclosure prevention programs, and to consult with community organizations (ACORN & AHC) on how to best implement those programs.
• HB 2463 makes it a crime to penalize borrowers for early payment on home loans under $150,000.

Foundation Assets
Calls to ACORN’s offices in Raleigh and Durham were answered by voice mail, but requests for return calls by the Capitol Monitor went unanswered. While we were able to reach an individual in the Charlotte office, promised callbacks also went ignored. The complexity of ACORN’s tax filings, which are generated from many, but not all of ACORN’s "allied organizations," makes it impossible to determine the revenues and expenditures of the organization, either as a whole or specifically in North Carolina.

Foundation Staff
Contact personnel and staff resources dedicated to North Carolina efforts remain undetermined.

Summary
North Carolina, a traditional red state, became a battleground during the 2008 presidential election cycle, in part because of the Obamachine, a wildly successful grassroots effort by Democrats which resulted in the state’s first election of a Democratic president since 1976 and solid, if not comfortable margins down the ballot in races for governor, most Council of State posts, and in both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly. 

ACORN claims to be bi-partisan, but its left-leaning issue efforts and voter registration drive make it appear to be anything but – and the organization is playing a larger role than ever before in motivating Democratic voters. While it may be unfair to conclude that the efforts of ACORN were influential enough to alter the outcome of an election, the entry of the organization into major political activism is a trend worth watching.

Some former ACORN personnel attribute the submission of fraudulent voter registrations to ACORN's practice of assigning quotas to its recruiting staff - a practice which, if true, should be eliminated.  In North Carolina, the State Board of Elections has not yet concluded its investigation into the issue of voter fraud by the group, currently reporting just 135 bogus forms out of the 28,000 submitted. But according to Dan Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, even the smallest occurrences of voter fraud brought into play by ACORN are of great concern because they can ultimately lead to disenfranchisement of legitimate voter registration.  Additionally, efforts to prevent fraudulent entries from becoming actual voter fraud can strain the resources of county elections boards and the SBOE.

Meanwhile, the Capitol Monitor has been unable to locate any independent tax filings related to North Carolina activities, including revenues and disbursements. But if any funding for the group is coming from taxpayers, ACORN should be answerable to those unwitting donors.

Whether ACORN is up to no good or not, repeated calls to its North Carolina offices for help with these issues went without response, leaving us to conclude that this organization, once noted for good works for disadvantaged individuals, chooses to operate under a cloak of secrecy. And that’s not good for anyone.

Contact Information
Charlotte Office
3557 Sharon Amity Rd. Suite 200
Charlotte, NC 28205
Phone: (704) 531-9800

Durham Office
115 Market St., Ste 380
Durham, NC 27701
Phone: (919) 682-4273

Raleigh Office
1408 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27605
Phone: (919) 833-6194

Updated November 12, 2008