Posted on 10/18/2009 3:02:00 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
WASHINGTON -- As conspiracy theories go, this one met the legacy test: Skeptics remained convinced that ACORN, the community organizing group, tried to steal Ohio's 2008 election, even though authorities declared the election clean.
So be forewarned, because what follows reawakens old suspicions -- and Republicans say there's a good reason. In a nutshell:
ACORN, under attack for other misdeeds, plotted privately to help elect liberal congressional candidates in several 2008 Ohio races, a previously undisclosed ACORN political plan shows. This is the first time that ACORN, formally called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has been linked to Democratic congressional election efforts in Ohio.
ACORN's detailed "Ohio 2007-08 Political Plan," targeting swing "congressional districts upon which the balance of power in Congress will rest," was ultimately scaled back. It appears the organization, which says it merely wants to empower disenfranchised people, decided not to mount voter campaigns that would have specifically helped Democrats Zack Space of Dover; Steve Driehaus of Cincinnati, and Mary Jo Kilroy of Columbus, all of whom won their congressional races anyway.
ACORN said in interviews with The Plain Dealer that its final efforts were generic -- tied not to a political party but to conducting "the largest nonpartisan voter registration drive in Ohio's history." It calls the new conspiracy theories ridiculous.
But to some, ACORN's early 13-page plan for the 2008 election reinforces what critics always assumed: The group's goal was never nonpartisan. The political plan and other ACORN documents show that the group was interested not just in helping presidential candidate Barack Obama, whom it urged its members to support, according to post-election Federal Election Commission reports. ACORN also was interested in Congress and the Ohio Statehouse.
"There's no question that ACORN strategized to figure out how its election efforts could maximize the benefit for selected Democratic candidates in the most competitive races," U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa of California told The Plain Dealer.
Issa is the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. His staff obtained ACORN's Ohio plan, drafted in April 2007, as part of a broader investigation into the group. Issa's staff provided documents to The Plain Dealer at the newspaper's request.
ACORN picks its races
It's common for public interest groups to support political candidates who share their ideals, whether abortion-rights groups on the left or gun-rights groups on the right. ACORN's agenda includes fighting to improve low-income housing and to stop banks' predatory lending, causes typically joined by Democrats.
Yet ACORN has never publicly stated an intent to back a specific party or congressional candidate in Ohio. Critics including Republicans say that ACORN's early blueprint for Ohio congressional elections -- written by ACORN's top state organizer, its Midwest political director and its Ohio legislative director -- reveals how closely the group aligned itself with Democrats.
ACORN was careful not to characterize its goals as "Democrat" or "Republican." But the plan cited bright prospects for Democratic candidates. It quoted Democratic pollsters and consultants to reinforce its get-out-the-vote strategies. And it gave detailed results of past congressional elections in Ohio.
One objective was to "hold progressive candidates accountable for implementing progressive public policies."
The document also reiterated that ACORN wanted to draw more "progressives" -- a word used interchangeably with "liberals" by many Democrats -- to the voting booths. This included a desire to find a "progressive ballot measure" to bring out key voters. That part of the plan was dropped later.
ACORN also discussed voter outreach efforts to help elect congressional and Statehouse candidates in specific races, including the one in which then-incumbent Congressman Steve Chabot ultimately lost to Driehaus.
Citing a Democratic pollster's optimistic analysis, the ACORN plan discussed challengers who could potentially defeat another Southwest Ohio Republican, U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, although Schmidt went on to win. In a more competitive race, ACORN planned to use its so-called swing voter program to help Kilroy carry a Columbus-area congressional district.
ACORN considered a similar role to help Space, whose conservative eastern Ohio district makes him a perennial target.
Even before this plan surfaced, ACORN was tacitly linked to helping Democrats -- not formally, but with "a nod and a wink," said Chabot, the Cincinnati Republican whom Driehaus defeated.
Asked by The Plain Dealer if he ever saw evidence that ACORN worked to defeat him, Chabot said he had "no information that specific." But he said that news reports on ACORN's voter outreach made it "pretty clear to us that there was something unusual, possibly unprecedented, in last year's election."
ACORN's other troubles
ACORN came under attack from Congress and lost several funding sources recently, after staffers were caught on hidden camera advising a man and woman on how to buy property for houses of prostitution.
Separately, Dale Rathke, a brother of ACORN's founder, has been accused of embezzling about $1 million from the group. ACORN settled the embezzlement dispute privately but it is now being reviewed by the attorney general of Louisiana, where ACORN is headquartered.
ACORN's chief executive officer, Bertha Lewis, told an audience at the National Press Club recently that the prostitution videos "made my stomach turn." She noted that the employees were fired. But ACORN also has struck back, filing a lawsuit against the couple who shot the videos -- and posed as a prostitute and pimp -- because, ACORN says, the duo broke the law with their clandestine taping.
Last year, Ohio Republicans accused ACORN of trying to rig the presidential election by using fake names to register voters, and registering other voters multiple times. But the GOP failed in court to force Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to investigate by cross-checking hundreds of thousands of new registrations.
ACORN said the fraud was limited to a handful of independent workers, whom it fired. Brunner directed county boards of elections to check their own records. And Cuyahoga County elections officials said after their review that it was highly unlikely anyone could vote more than once.
As for the Ohio plan, Katy Gall, the head Ohio organizer for ACORN in 2007 and now ACORN's national field director, says the document obtained by Issa was an early draft. Gall, listed as the lead author, said subsequent drafts changed before the election.
ACORN ultimately ditched the idea involving congressional districts, Gall said. The group focused instead on registering voters in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland regardless of their congressional districts -- these cities have two districts apiece -- and urging them to back unspecified candidates whose positions spoke to their needs.
"We didn't coordinate with any candidates, either federal or state candidates," Gall said.
The Plain Dealer asked to see subsequent drafts of the plan. Gall said she did not have them. She provided an excerpt from a post-election report that said ACORN had conducted "the largest non-partisan voter registration drive in Ohio's history."
The whistle-blower's boss
The squishy nature of this controversy makes it likely that skeptics will never be satisfied. But Republican doubts are high for one more reason: the whistle-blower who unearthed the Ohio plan.
The whistle-blower is a former employee of an ACORN affiliate called Project Vote (where Obama once worked), and her name is Anita MonCrief. MonCrief said she could not comment, on the advice of her lawyer. Until her firing -- she was accused of putting personal expenses on a Project Vote credit card -- she worked as an assistant to a former Ohioan named Karyn Gillette.
And according to court testimony by MonCrief, Gillette boasted during the campaign that she was in touch with the Obama campaign.
This is where Ohio GOP eyebrows start to arch again. Gillette was a fund-raising consultant before joining Project Vote, and her clients included Brunner.
Which brings this full circle -- because Brunner oversaw Ohio's 2008 election and, Republicans still say, she refused to fully investigate ACORN.
"It's like the old saying," said Jason Mauk, executive director of the Ohio Republican Party. "Where there's smoke, there's fire."
Gillette, who left Project Vote in April, says this is preposterous -- that her former assistant, whom she describes as "a disgruntled ex-employee," is wrong and conspiracy theorists are trying to link dots that have no connection. The Ohio political plan was drafted months before she even started at Project Vote, and she says she has no idea how or where her assistant got it.
Brunner, too, seems to believe that imaginations have run amok, since Gillette's work for Brunner's campaign "was totally separate from her later work at Project Vote," according to Brunner spokesman Kevin Kidder. "She never worked concurrently for Project Vote and Secretary Brunner."
The staff of U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa of California obtained ACORN's Ohio plan, drafted in April 2007, as part of a broader investigation into the group. "There's no question that ACORN strategized to figure out how its election efforts could maximize the benefit for selected Democratic candidates in the most competitive races," Issa said.
Kilroy didn't win. Her Republican opponent did. Jennifer Brunner, the CORRUPT OH ACORN-backed Sec of State, stole that seat for Kilroy. The Republican led in all the votes until they "miraculously" found some "extras," just enough to give Kilroy a "win." How convenient. Just like the Coleman-Franken MN race.
Communist termed to avoid use of the words "communist" and "socialist", to create a catchy misunderstood agenda description. Sorta along the lines of "un-documented immigrant" and "right to choose".
The State-Run-Media pimp the agenda and the codewords.
Of course they would find votes for good ol’Mary Jo! her being caught on tape espousing socialist views virtually sealed that deal!
Good thing the Heritage foundation hasn’t been caught doing these things. /s
Yeah, but Mary Jo Kilroy is an “authority” and she declared her own actions “clean”. Now, any further comment makes you a conspiracy theorist and probably racist to boot.
Of course not if they did they could not receive federal funding.
Their actions and their words prove that they are an unregistered Political Action Committee and as such they should lose their tax exempt status and be barred from receiving any federal funding for any of their activities.
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