ACORN: An Insidious Force in North Carolina

Updated January 19, 2010

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 & Background
ACORN began as a single 501 C-3 organization in 1970, but the group has grown, currently claiming over 400,000 “member families” nationwide. Affiliated groups with separate corporate tax filings are active in 110 communities all across the country, with the recently-raided headquarters office located in New Orleans.

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 until last year, the group maintained 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.

Until recent revelations of campaign registration irregularities & undercover videos shot by a couple of concerned citizens, ACORN had remained relatively out of the spotlight. All that changed in October of 2008, when the State Board of Elections began an investigation into allegations that ACORN was responsible for a voter registration drive that allegedly accounted for 28,000 new voters in North Carolina alone – a probe which originated when approximately 120 voter registration forms from Durham County caught the attention of various officials.

The organization’s fall from grace resulted from questionable tactics used by the group to obtain voter registrations, despite massive funding from taxpayers and major corporate sponsors. ACORN has been accused of recording voter registrations by copying names out of phone books,  registering the dead and recording the starting lineup for the Dallas Cowboys. While it is unknown exactly how long ACORN has been engaging in questionable practices, they came to light during the 2008 election in North Carolina.

When the October 10th deadline for voter registration in Wake County passed and buckets of mail registrations poured in, county election officials and the News & Observer questioned the validity of many of the influx of last minute registrations. In Durham County, Board of Elections Director Mike Ashe requested that state officials check into some of the registrations due to questionable signatures, as well as the fact that a fourteen year old was registered to vote. Often with missing birth dates or social security numbers, the registrations turned out to be fakes or duplicates in many instances – an experience that was echoed across the state and the nation.

The fallout was swift. By September of 2009, ACORN had apparently shuttered all of its North Carolina offices and laid off those employees (efforts by Capitol Monitor and by major media outlets to contact ACORN officials about the closings netted no response).

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.

American Spectator recently discussed the organization’s political connections with Patrick Gaspard, ACORN’S chief White House contact (and current political affairs director) who formerly served as political director to ACORN President Bertha Lewis in New York (Gaspard also served as political director of SEIU local 1199).

Leaving the family tree aside, one can easily see the political influence a strong federally funded group can have on the democratic process, and imagine the affect on state politics in North Carolina. Indeed, a review of the literature and ACORN-sponsored activities by the Raleigh-based Civitas Institute indicates that by developing partnerships with several high-profile left-leaning organizations, ACORN has deeply enmeshed itself into North Carolina’s politics and public policy in recent years (for more on ACORN's NC connections, click here or on the thumbnail of Civitas' ACORN chart, right).

Public Funding
John Boehner (R- Ohio), the House GOP leader, estimated in October 2008 that ACORN had received over $30 million 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.

Aside from the federal taxpayer grants awarded to ACORN, the Charlotte-based Bank of America has also given at least $2 million just in North Carolina. Bank of America was a federal bail out recipient after the foreclosure crisis transpired in 2008, and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation located in Charlotte donated the $2MM in the following context:

“to…prevent foreclosures and educate people about finances and purchasing homes: $2,000,000 to ACORN Housing Corporation (Chicago, Illinois)”

To follow some circular logic, what essentially transpired was more than just the granting of federal funds directly ACORN. Through the bailout, the federal government also used North Carolina tax dollars to fund an organization that not a single shareholder or taxpayer voted to endorse. Bank of America however, has cut ties with the group recently following requests by several congressmen to divulge all accounting of taxpayer funds & corporate ties to ACORN, and the federal government voted to de-fund ACORN in September of 2009.

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, Gov. 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.

North Carolina Fights Back
Its current withdrawal notwithstanding, only time will tell if elected leaders will take all necessary steps to ensure that ACORN’s organizational corruption will die a permanent death. To date, few of North Carolina’s officials have stepped up to the responsibility of ensuring that ACORN doesn’t continue to infiltrate the democratic process any further.

Congressman Patrick McHenry battled ACORN and the Census Bureau most recently to prevent ACORN from having anything to do with the 2010 census, which plays a pivotal role in congressional districting and federal funding. McHenry finally received a letter from Thomas Messenbourg, Acting Director of the US Census Bureau, which stated that while the Bureau wouldn’t cut all ties with ACORN, the congressman could be assured that ACORN wouldn’t play any role in, “…recruiting or hiring census employees, providing questionnaire assistance centers, or helping people fill out their census forms.”

Rep. Virginia Foxx also went on the record on the Bill LuMaye radio show regarding the student loan bill that included the de-funding of ACORN in the House. As a member of the Rules Committee, Foxx plays a crucial role in keeping an eye out for “loopholes” that would fund groups such as ACORN. She described how she was denied amendments that would have made the restrictions tighter, but pressed on and got the verbiage to be included in the amendment that eventually passed overwhelmingly to at least temporarily deny funding to ACORN.

Foundation Assets
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. 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 was 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.  But 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.

Currently, the Durham County’s District Attorney’s office still holds the cards with regard to any criminal activity by ACORN – so the group’s legal legacy in North Carolina is yet to be determined. Legal actions are also pending in many other states.

But the organization’s tarnished image hasn’t stopped Democrats from making it into a political issue. Following the receipt of letters by US Reps. Bachus, Isaa and Smith demanding transparency from ACORN, and the abrupt withdrawal of support from Bank of America, ACORN executive Bertha Lewis stated, “The Republicans are trying to intimidate banks that have stepped up to help stop the foreclosure crisis”.

How ironic that the very organization which lobbied for laws which encouraged unqualified borrowers to borrow, then watched them collapse under the weight of unaffordable adjustable ARM’s while blaming everyone else still sees itself as a martyr in the economic crisis. ACORN did more than promote the poor lending practices that eventually led to the collapse of the housing market. It used taxpayer dollars to try to artificially elect lawmakers who would continue to heap pain upon the poor – and North Carolina wasn’t immune to the organization’s reach.

Considering that Gaspard’s history with ACORN stretches back to a $750,000 fine issued in 2004 against America Coming Together, taxpayers should be wary. Voters are quickly becoming aware that the tentacles of power that stretch from special interests all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. can taint, and eventually cripple, the democratic process.

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

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

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