Project Vote

Cross-Posted from my new site Emerging Corruption.

What really happened during the 2008 elections? Recent information regarding the primary caucuses paints the picture of a campaign that would stop at nothing to win. A campaign that was willing to strong arm candidates and volunteers in order to meet its goal. The documentary We Will Not Be Silenced delves into the Obama 2008 Campaign.

“We believe The Democratic National Committee (DNC) made a grave error by depriving American voters of their choice of Hillary Clinton as Democratic nominee. Senator Clinton, by all accounts, except caucuses, won the Primary Election and, therefore, should be the 2008 Democratic Nominee. That didn't happen, due largely to illegitimate and illegal acts. We have interviews of many accounts from caucus states recounting threats, intimidation, lies, stolen documents, falsified documents, busing in voters in exchange for paying for "dinners," etc. There are at least 2000 complaints, in Texas alone, of irregularities directed towards the Obama Campaign, that have lead to a very fractured and broken Democratic Party.”

In July, the 2007 2nd Quarter Obama Donor List was revealed and tied back to Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and its sister organization Project Vote. On Friday, August 13th a three-judge panel of the United States Court of appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a funding ban on ACORN stemming from Congressional action:

"Congress cut off ACORN’s federal funding last year in response to allegations the group engaged in voter registration fraud and embezzlement and violated the tax-exempt status of some of its affiliates by engaging in partisan political activities."

A clear picture of Obama and his desire to win has emerged and the public is now aware of strong arm tactics and illicit coordination with groups like ACORN. Will an imminent FEC complaint reveal that ACORN/Project Vote used tax-exemept grants and funds to run a partisan voter registration drive to get Obama elected?

Project Vote's 2007-2008 Development Plan lays out a plan to raise over $20 million dollars through a program that including targeting maxed-out presidential donors. The plan-- unaltered since June of 2007 -- can be found here.

What is particularly interesting about the plan is that Sandy Newman is mentioned several times including in a the section below.

"Establish a 'Finance Committee' who will serve as the financial voice of PV. Put together a small group of PV core funders and/or supporters who can solicit new donors and/or connect PV staff to donors or the appropriate contacts. Points: Sandy, Zach, Jeff, Slater, and Karyn"

As a Development Associate with Project Vote, I attended meetings with Sandy Newman, Zach Polett, and Karyn Gillette at Newman's offices in downtown Washington, DC. As a founder of the organization, Newman was extremely involved in Project Vote's finances despite having left the leadership staff in the early nineties. Newman is mentioned on Obama's website as a friend, and mentor. Click to enlarge.

According to Ballotpedia:

“Project Vote (or Voting for America, Inc.[1]) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization. According to its website, Project Vote provides "professional training, management, evaluation and technical services on a broad continuum of key issues related to voter engagement and participation in low-income and minority communities." It was founded in 1982 by Sandy Newman and its current executive director is Michael Slater, who has worked for Project Vote since 2004.”

The problem with lying is that it often becomes hard to keep those lies straight. Project Vote's own website states that it has been around since 1982 and several of its grant application reference this year, but Project Vote and Obama both maintain that he worked for a different organization that was started around 1994. This organization, they claim, of course, was never affiliated with ACORN. The screen shot below was taken last year of Project Vote's website.

Interestingly, Project Vote's own tax returns repeat this lie as seen in the screen shot below:

Maybe Michael Slater of Project Vote can explain why their website says one thing but their tax returns say another.

Back to Sandy Newman. In 2007, Newman did reach out to potential funders and penned a memo to interested parties in the voter registration/participation community. Newman stressed the importance of the work that ACORN/Project Vote and how important the 2008 elections were.

“Together with the voters added to and remaining on the rolls because of the registration drives conducted over the last two cycles, voters galvanized by these three kinds of programs (even before counting voter turnout work) would exceed the 2004 presidential margin in nine states! They would also have an important impact (whomever they may choose to support) on other elections up and down the ballot, from US House and Senate races, Governor and Secretary of State through state legislature and races at the bottom of the ballot”

Newman also urged funders to give even if the reasons may have been to influence the outcome of the election. Newman gently suggested other ways of giving.

“They may also believe that reducing such distortions is likely to yield policies more in keeping with the interests of those whose representation in the electoral process has been inadequate. The fact that a donor may hold such a belief, or even that it may motivate giving decisions, does not cause a charitable contribution to be improper, provided that the donor intends that the actual work supported remain strictly non-partisan – that is, the work supported may not provide support or opposition to any candidate or party.”

As the chart below reveals, ACORN/Project Vote's voter registration drive was not targeted at registering voters as it was at winning for Democrats. A number of their political plans and ACORN's own endorsements of the likes of Obama and Donna Edwards made it clear whose side they were on.

In 2008, it was revealed that the Obama Campaign had given over $800,000 to an ACORN affiliate, Citizens Service Inc,

"The Ohio primary was March 4. According to FEC records, the Obama campaign paid Citizens Services Inc. $832,598.29, from Feb. 25 to May 17.

A Trib analysis of campaign finance reports showed Obama paid CSI for services that stood out as unusual. For example, CSI received payments of $63,000 and $75,000 for advance work. Excluding the large payments to CSI, the average amount the Obama campaign spent with other organizations was $558.82 per check on more than 1,200 entries classified as advance work.

Citizens Services Inc. is headquartered at the same address as ACORN’s national headquarters in New Orleans. Citizens Services was established in December 2004 to “assist persons and organizations who advance the interests of low- and moderate-income people,” according to paperwork filed in Louisiana. In a 2006 ACORN publication, Citizen Services Inc. is described as “ACORN’s campaign services entity."

Project Vote's own 2009 tax returns reveal that it gave a similar amount to CSI.

Here is the explanation:

Ballotpedia quotes from a New York Times article that references the Elizabeth Kingsley report gives insight into who Project Vote was paying at CSI.

"An example would be Zach Pollett, formerly Project Vote’s executive director and also ACORN's political director, until July, when he relinquished the former title. Mr. Pollett continues to work as a consultant for Project Vote through another Acorn affiliate"

As evidence continues to mount against Obama and ACORN it remains to be seen how long Obama's Teflon will last. While the public was distracted by ACORN's antics like registering Mickey Mouse to vote, the group implemented a strategic plan in battleground states to produce the right margin of victory for Democrats. ACORN's own 2008 Get Out the Vote plan illustrates how this was done. Click to enlarge.

ACORN's impact in shaping American politics has become clearer since Obama took office. Considering the number of corrupt politicians holding office, that ACORN effect should not be surprising, nevertheless, the actual numbers are quite startling.

When you break those numbers down by battleground state, the true threat of ACORN and its friends becomes even clearer.

With his ineffective leadership, lies to the American people and an imploding economy, the commander-in-chief is starting to resemble yet another corrupt politician from ACORN- a usurper intent on making deals and passing agendas that push America closer to ACORN's socialist utopia.

Last week's America's Future Now Conference, hosted by the Campaign for America's future, attracted progressive groups from around the country, including MoveOn, SEIU, ACORN's Project Vote and politicians such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Barbara Lee.

Despite ongoing investigations by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and voter fraud allegations in several states, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN continues to maintain its innocence regarding the undercover videos that led to the “dissolution” of the national group. Prominent politicians like Pelosi and Lee have been willing to lend their credibility to ACORN and other radical organizations by ignoring details like the FBI documents released last week by Judicial Watch.

The documents include handwritten notes from FBI investigators interviewing canvassers working with Project Vote, an ACORN affiliate. Among the highlights from the FBI handwritten notes:

• [ACORN] “Told employees not to talk to the FBI. ‘FBI trying to intimidate you.’”
• Fraudulent cards:
  • To cause confusion on election day to keep polls open longer
  • To allow people who can’t vote to vote.
  • To allow to vote multiple times.
• Project Vote will pay them whether cards fake or not – whatever they had to do to get the cards was attitude.
• Constantly threatened
• Staff restricted on what to say to FBI
• “Poverty pimpin” (sic) ACORN
• ACORN HQ is wkg for the Democratic Party.
• PV [Project Vote] pays ACORN $6.00 per card…Said “You treat the cards like (cash) $”
• Some [names] went right from the phone book and made up the rest.

Tom Fitton, president of Judaical Watch raised significant points when he stated:

“These documents show the need for a national criminal investigation by the Obama Justice Department into ACORN. Is Attorney General Holder doing nothing because of Obama’s close connections to ACORN and Project Vote? The information in these new documents has national implications that cry out for further investigation.”

Lawmakers like Representative Donna Edwards who attended the conference have never worried about their connections to ACORN in the past and (considering the speakers listed below) most are willing to turn a blind eye to its transgressions.

This may explain why, when most Americans were beginning their work week, ACORN leaders like Zach Polett were welcomed at a conference called America's Future Now.

Amid numerous reports of its demise, ACORN sent various top leaders to Washington, DC last week. That statement may bring to mind ACORN's CEO Bertha Lewis.

However, ACORN's true leaders have always prided themselves on remaining behind the scenes. Zach Polett, pictured below, is the former Executive Director of Project Vote, former head of ACORN Political Operations and a founding member of ACORN. Polett in his own words, was also once the supervisor of Barack Obama when he worked at Project Vote in the 1990's

Joining Polett last week were ACORN leader, Steve Kest (picture below) and Project Vote Executive Director Michael Slater. If one can imagine the America's Future Now conference like a high school reunion, the ACORN leaders were obviously the football team.

Efforts were made to protect the already "victimized" ACORN from any unwanted scrutiny (more on that later) but it is interesting to note that facts mean little to radical liberals and their “progressive” friends. Hundreds of pages of notes, testimony and evidence exist that suggest that ACORN is a criminal organization set up in a manner that is subversive and harmful, but lawmakers, and apparently the FBI are content to ignore critical facts in fear of where a full investigation would lead.

The fact of the matter is Barack Obama is a liar who has used his position to cover up the very criminal activity that got him elected president. In May of 2009, Bill O'Reilly began to delve into the ACORN/Obama story but stopped short after my statement that ACORN operated as an “unofficial arm of the Democratic Party.” O'Reilly chose to form a truce with the White House after pressure from the administration about Fox's anti-Obama stance and the mainstream media continue to ignore the true story.

Not surprisingly, my testimony in Pennsylvania in 2008 mirrors the FBI notes released last week, and it has been over a year since Heather Heidelbaugh presented testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Yet, instead of investigating, top House Democrats wait for more “credible evidence.” Among the evidence ignored by House Democrats are:

• Project Vote receives donor lists from other Democratic and labor union sources: John Kerry campaign, [Hilary] Clinton campaign, Barack Obama campaign, Democratic National Committee, America Coming Together (“ACT”) (p.3)
• Project Vote development plan was to ‘approach maxed out presidential donors’, and ‘allegedly use the funds for voter registration drives’ (pp.3-4)
• ACORN ‘employees’ were paid through Project Vote for partisan campaign activities telling voters … “don’t vote for Albert Win (sic) or vote for this person” (p. 4)
• There were no divisions between the staff of ACORN and Project Vote, and persons working for one entity actually perform work for either or both organizations (p. 4)
• The Obama campaign’s donor list was part of the evidence admitted into the hearing on the injunction in October 2008 (p. 5)

ACORN's work has been critical to the Democrats to secure and maintain their majority in Congress. My blog posts have noted this repeatedly, but here is ACORN in its own words from page 46 of a 2006 report describing how they will leverage power with the new Democratic controlled Congress (available here). Click to enlarge.

After two full days of speakers and workshops, the attendees gathered for an awards ceremony on Tuesday night. Awardees included the leftist liberal donor Peter Lewis of Progressive Insurance Company and this reporter arrived early to the event. After inquiring about a ticket for the dinner, I decided to give the VIPs a chance to gather their tickets while I walked around.

Judging from the amount of protection that ACORN received at the America's Future Now conference, it is obvious that other liberal groups consider ACORN's work to still be critical to passing the radical agenda.

What happened next can only be described as roaches reacting to sunlight. After smiling for the camera, a stunned Zach Polett of ACORN reacted by scurrying across the room to find Michael Slater of Project Vote while Steve Kest of ACORN attempted to duck into another room with a piano in it. The group chatting so animatedly just a few minutes ago closed ranks (probably to hide other radicals from the lens of my camera).

Inside the awards event Representative Donna Edwards and ACORN insiders discussed plans for America's future, but in the hall I was denied entry to the event after words from Michael Slater to the event staff . Though it had been confirmed minutes early that there were seats available I was told that tables had just been removed. When I decided to wait in hopes of getting a seat, a staffer named Alex Lawson came rushing out with Tommy Christopher from Mediaite.

Apparently, an everyday American is no longer allowed to ask questions or attend conferences with names like America's Future Now. The ACORN leaders inside had complained of pictures being taken and I was grilled (while Mediaite videotaped the incident). ACORN could no longer ignore my statements against them so Lawson was sent to remove me from the event. Lawson accused me of working for Andrew Breitbart (which has been revealed to be a Democrat talking point) and refused to sell me a ticket to an event at which public officials, progressive organizations and ACORN celebrated their success in taking America to the far left.

Anyone who has been paying attention knows that ACORN has not disbanded but merely reformed. One has to wonder what else ACORN and its friends are hiding. SEIU, MoveOn, Media Matters and the Center for Community change have all jumped to ACORN's defense and by discounting the mounting evidence against ACORN, it appears that ACORN is "to big to fail." The implications of admitting that ACORN is a corruption, socialist organization could implicate dozens of funders, allies, partners and politicians.

Who else was hiding behind the liberal wall at the America's Future Now conference? Could it have been Jeffrey Robinson of Citizen Services Inc, the ACORN affiliate that was contracted by the Obama campaign for "get out the vote" activities.

"U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for services the Democrat's campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports.

An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. -- a subsidiary of ACORN -- worked in "get-out-the-vote" projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary."

The same leaders who covered up an embezzlement scandal, ran a massive voter registration drive riddled with fraud and coordinated with the Obama campaign to violate Federal election law are still in place. A glance at Zach Polett's friend list illustrates this point, from Heather Booth to Tom Matzzie of MoveOn, Polett's friends have been instrumental in the Democrat party for decades.

The one lesson I took away from the America's Future Now conference after being turned away is that America is in peril. The left is on a collision course with the Constitution and our freedoms. Among the handouts I picked out was a booklet that laid out the plan for a "Democratic and Socialist Future." I will share more about this booklet later but it's important to see that the past two years have shown Americans the political lives of ACORN and exposed the depth of deception Democrats will sink in order to protect their "vote making" machine.

Obama has lied repeatedly about his background,  and his ties to ACORN. It's time to go after the leaders behind ACORN, and the politicians who are shredding the Constitution for them.

You can follow Anita on her blog or on Twitter.

If elections were like football games, this would be your two minute warning.  All of the passion, energy and renewed interest in politics that propelled the tea party movement of 2009 opens the door to a new level of involvement. As patriot groups around the country prepare for the November 2010 elections, a quiet force has been building behind the scenes.

Investigative reporter Carol Greenberg's work inside Obama's Organizing for America has already helped expose the OFA's connection to ACORN and its network of top Democrat party insiders. Greenberg's latest article explains the OFA plan to deploy rapid response teams to Ohio ahead of the elections.

Any liberal discussion of Ohio includes the sentiment that “Ohio is ground zero for the left.” Long a playground for groups like ACORN, they conducted voter experiments, filed lawsuits against the state and their voter fraud shenanigans led to a civil RICO suit brought by the Buckeye Institute. ACORN's settlement of the case required that it surrender its business license in the state.

Unfortunately for conservatives, the awareness of ACORN's network of organizations and mob like behavior come at a time when he same political workeasily be done by Obama's permanent campaign. A campaign that was absorbed into the Democratic National Committee after it ceased being Obama for America.

Obama's ACORN cronies designed a system that could be substantial from any number of leftist organizations, including the DNC.

“Apparently, ACORN and Project Vote were 'smack dab' in the middle of another one of Obama’s voter registration drives. According to ACORN reports, ACORN was Catalist’s first client. Let me be clear, the ACORN VBASE, is the archetype of the Obama campaign. ACORN’s technology combined with union money elected a president.”

Draft slides of a 2006 Project Vote PowerPoint show that Project Vote's method could produce the desired results to sway an election.

Critics of Project Vote and ACORN underestimate their effectiveness in contacting voters to move them on an issue or to the polls.

Other slides detail their plans to turn this Voter Mobilization Network over to the leftist friends (including the DNC).

The left may scoff at whether this connection exists, but Karyn Gillette, then development director of Project Vote, also gave me a copy of the 2004 DNC donor list to work from. Karyn Gillette came to Project Vote from Ohio where she was employed by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

“According to a court filing in Ohio alleging ACORN violated state Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, 'Project Vote, regularly advises Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (hereinafter “Secretary Brunner”) on election strategy, and recently issuing a news release claiming credit for Secretary Brunner’s directive restricting challenges to suspected unlawful voter registrations.'

"Maurice Thompson, the attorney handling the Ohio RICO action, told me late yesterday, 'Evidence of collusion amongst ACORN, Project Vote, the Obama Campaign and Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner comes as no surprise to us -- these supposedly separate entities appear to have been co-mingling funds, trading political tips, and helping each other gain power for years now.'"

Here is a screen shot of the email Gillette sent to ACORN.org email addresses containing the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Though a number of news outlets like the New York Times had copies of the DNC donor list,  it was never made public, until today.

Click here to view the DNC major donor list ACORN used to fundraise for its voter registration drives.

The OFA's organizing machine can track millions of calls and mobilize countless volunteers and it would behoove the right to take notice. Twitter and Facebook may spread the message and connect folks but there is a serious need for some good old fashion grassroots door knocking. If conservatives are going to win in November there must be a combination of new and old organizing. In 2004 Ohio surprised the nation by going red for Bush. As many others have noted, there was initially a

...lack of outreach among African American communities. Karl Rove proved in 2004 with black voters in Ohio that persons should not assume that African Americans will consistently vote progressive."

Organizing for America has stopped the game clock with the unveiling of Vote 2010. November is the goal and they have the ball. Kickoff events are scheduled around the country for June 5th. Inviting emails with subjects like “What are you doing Saturday?” are making the rounds.

Conservatives, what are you doing this Saturday? If you want to win in November, it should be attending one of those kickoff parties. OFA, it's the new ACORN. Learn who they are and how they operate. Click here to find an event near you or to sign up for their updates. If the OFA can continue to organize to pass Obama's agenda and maintain the Congressional majorities, and all of the momentum of the past year and a half will be lost.

As patriots from across America prepare to descend on Washington, DC to protest the government takeover of health care, the Obama administration is touting the impending vote in the House of Representatives as “historic.” Progressive organizations have been preparing for the moment for decades and not even the outcry of millions of Americans will stop them from pushing their radical agenda through.

Ironically, the past week has been filled with numerous stories of how ACORN is disbanding across the country. News outlets from Politico to the New York Times run stories detailing the demise of ACORN. Of course, some are skeptical about whether ACORN is truly going away:

"In an age of lawlessness, rules for some out of government favor, and special privileges for special classes, racketeers and criminals need only change their suit and their hat and live another day to rob, steal, cheat, and engage in human trafficking... "

Conveniently for the Obama administration the “demise” of ACORN could not have come at a better time. As pictures of empty ACORN offices fill the news, Obama pushes forward with an ACORN planned and approved agenda.

In July of last year ACORN honored the work of Senator Charles Schumer, Rep. Luis Gutierrez and Rep. Maxine Waters at their 39th Anniversary celebration. The invitation email stated:

"P.S. ACORN’s grassroots leadership believes we are experiencing a once-in-a-generation opportunity and must not squander this moment. Your generosity is needed now more than ever. Thanks."

ACORN's socialist agenda has always included some form of universal health care and like many of its “campaigns” this is not the first time ACORN has pushed for national change. The group, which was founded in Arkansas 40 years ago, maintained friendly relations with Bill Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas and then President. The result of this relationship was HillaryCare. Americans fought back and ACORN was forced to back down. However, ACORN was not defeated and began to put a set of conditions in place that in the right political climate, would ensure victory. Michelle Malkin explains a 2008 ACORN memo on why Obamacare is so important:

“Why do they want Obamacare? An internal ACORN memo I obtained from August 2008 makes the motives clear. 'Over our 38 years, health care organizing has never been a major focus either nationally or locally for ACORN,' wrote ACORN Philadelphia region director Craig Robbins. 'But increasingly, ACORN offices around the country are doing work on health care.' The goal: 'Building ACORN Power.' The memo outlines the ACORN/HCAN partnership and strategy of opposing any programs that rely on “unregulated private insurance” – and then parlaying political victory on government-run health care 'to move our ACORN agenda (or at least part of it) with key electeds that we might otherwise not be able to pull off.'

The objective, in other words, is to piggyback and exploit Obamacare to improve and protect their political health.”

ACORN's famous liberal experiments were never outwardly dubbed as socialist action items but within the ranks of employees we knew that what made ACORN great was “fighting capitalism.” By never using certain words with members and outsiders, ACORN painted a picture of the poor rising out of poverty and demanding their fair share. In 2006 ACORN partnered with SEIU on several healthcare campaigns across the country

In California, home of Maxine Waters, ACORN's healthcare campaign in San Francisco mirrors the same tactics used by Obama to pass Obamacare.

“Health: Last year (’05) we saved health clinics. This year we provided the field experience to win a form of universal healthcare. David Sharples staffed the leadership on the campaign with leader Gisselle Quesada. Using the tax program to survey people on health needs, we were able to build a quick base, identify members who could put a face on the problem, and move numerous members on multiple fronts to move the key supervisor and win the campaign.”

According to the 2006 report, ACORN has been working with hospitals to introduce "universal healthcare" at the local levels and that success was the precursor to Obamacare.

The excerpts above are from a 2006 report available here.

The report goes on to state that even ACORN's non-profit affiliate Project Vote was somehow involved in healthcare

"Our issue-based GOTV program targeted some 686,796 people for an average of three contacts each. For example, Project Vote’s GOTV workers knocked on 396,273 doors in Ohio alone. Similar to our Voter Registration work, canvassers relate participation in the elections to salient issues in low- and moderate-income communities, such as healthcare..."

Critics on the left will state that it is a coincidence that ACORN and Obama's old employer Project Vote are both advocating for government run healthcare, but all of the evidence suggests that Obama and Congress are settling debts with their old friends.

Before the ACORN embezzlement scandal and the prostitution videos ACORN was more open about its influence on Capitol Hill. The aforementioned 2006 report has another tidbit about the ACORN political machine:

Immediately after the 2006 mid-term elections when the Democrats took control of Congress members were made aware of who put them there. ACORN used its organizing and voter registration arms to set the stage for Obamacare. Newbies like Democrats Sherrod Brown and Claire Mccaskill were just as beholden to ACORN as long standing members of Congress from ACORN districts. The excerpt and screen shot can also be found in the 2006 report:

"Furthermore, we are working to make sure that key leaders in Congress fully understand the role that ACORN played in the 2006 elections: we are working collaboratively with the political department to ensure that the impact of our political work is widely known and appreciated."

According to insiders, before the 2008 election ACORN and SEIU were so confident that Obama would win that a meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico had an agenda that included a session entitled: Emerging Strategies III: Healthcare – Regime Change Priority with Richard Kirsch, Executive Director HCAN: Health Care for America Now

Regime Change?  A quick look at Wikipedia gives us an inkling as to what ACORN and SEIU are up to:

"In politics, a regime is the form of government: the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of government and its interactions with society. For instance, the United States has one of the oldest regimes still active in the world, dating to the ratification of its Constitution in 1789.

The term is also used to distinguish what is actually being enforced from what is considered legitimate. Enforcement of an unconstitutional statute would be a regime but not a law."

IIf one follows the money, one name (not surprisingly) emerges: George Soros. The Soros backed Democracy Alliance has pumped untold millions into groups that include ACORN and the architect of Obama's permanent campaign (Organizing for America), Harold Ickes's Catalist. The Democracy Alliance vision includes changing America through initiatives like health care.

With leftist billionaires lining up to ensure a permanent majority, the march towards socialism has been a well funded one.

"...George Soros and other wealthy liberals formed a loose-knit group to consider how to fund a political comeback. Their answer: Create a permanent political infrastructure of nonprofits, think tanks, media outlets, leadership schools, and activist groups—a kind of 'vast left-wing conspiracy' to compete with the conservative movement. The group they created –called the Democracy Alliance (DA)..."

Though the fall of ACORN was not anticipated, ACORN like the DA is a taxable nonprofit and its structure allows for such restructuring. Taxable nonprofit?  Matthew Vadum explains:

"Rob Stein explained the group’s legal structure to the Hudson panel:

'It is a taxable nonprofit. Think of it as a corporation that does not make a profit and doesn’t aspire to make a profit. We’re an association of individuals....'

"In other words, the DA has no interest in asking the IRS to register it as tax-exempt or to allow contributions to it to be tax-deductible. Were the DA to request tax-exemption as a 501(c)(4) lobby group or as a 527 political group, it would have to abide by a dizzying array of legal constraints. Members of the Democracy Alliance may want to impose Big Government bureaucracy and red tape on Americans, but the friends of George Soros are too rich to be bothered."

Was ACORN willing to go underground to save Obamacare? Is the Pope Catholic? ACORN's own 5 Year Political Plan describes a structure that is local in nature and prides itself on being that way.

ACORN's temporary fall from grace will allow it to go underground with the tacit support of the White House and use Obamacare to rally its base for a 2012 victory unless the ACORN roots of Obama's socialist agenda are exposed.

Part II of our inside look at Organizing for America was inspired by the investigative work done by Carol Greenberg Thank you Carol for getting involved and driving this story.

Anita MonCrief

From a tiny acorn, a mighty oak can grow. With ACORN's help, Barack Obama "grew" from an ACORN community organizer and instructor, to an ACORN lawyer and ACORN benefactor as a board member of donor organizations, to an ACORN-backed Illinois state senator, to ACORN's favorite United States Senator, to ACORN's candidate for President of the United States in 2008. This article shows how ACORN and its allies helped organize America to make Obama President in this, the computer age.

Barack Obama's meteoric rise from rookie Senator to President had man marveling at the efficiency and breadth of his campaign. Obama's ability to fund raise had seasoned experts playing catch up while his voter registration money machine operated in the background. In 2008, the New York Times explored a seemingly innocent tactic the Democrats were utilizing to elect Obama. The article stated several times that the Republicans had honed this technique and Democrats were just “borrowing the play.”

“For years, Republicans had the landscape to themselves. More recently, however, Democrats, along with such allies as trade unions and progressive groups, have poured millions of dollars into building two formidable databanks. One is managed by the Democratic National Committee and can be used by candidates up and down the ballot. The other is Catalist, a for-profit company headed by Harold M. Ickes, a Democratic political operative, that specializes in providing data for scores of liberal groups supporting the Democratic ticket as well as for the Obama campaign itself.”

Progressive organizations, trade unions and a for profit group run by someone who had been implicated in the radical Teamstergate saga of the 1990's? The crack reporting of The Times glossed over this toxic mix, and the Obama machine kept running.

Harold Ickes' company, Catalist, has been credited with creating this machine:

“Catalist collects and stores millions of pieces of information from public records and commercial sources. In addition to voting rolls and tax information, it also has data about voters' magazine subscriptions and their cars. Campaigns also contribute e-mails, cell-phone numbers and even times when people are likely to be home.

Ickes, 69, said that by using Catalist the Obama campaign is able to generate data as detailed as lists of swing voters who are home in the afternoon in a six-block neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. The list can even suggest which voters would be receptive to a pitch based on Obama's 'change' theme, and which may be more interested in his health-care or energy policies."

The origin of Catalist is intriguing and appears firmly rooted in the same community organizing spirit that has spread throughout the country.

“Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.” -Barack Obama

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN spent a number of years perfecting an organizing model that resembled that of Catalist and the Obama Campaign. ACORN's close “affiliate” Project Vote detailed their efforts in a 2007 report:

“The Pilot Technology Project carried out during the summer and fall of 2006 was a first attempt to integrate the potential of high quality enhanced data developed for voter participation programs with on-going grassroots community organizing programs. Building upon the work of Catalist (formerly Data Warehouse LLC), Project Vote deployed an updated version of our online voter management system (VBASE) to enable local community organizations to access a robust voter file with enhanced phone numbers, geographic and demographic information for use in voter mobilization, membership development and organizational capacity building.”

Apparently, ACORN and Project Vote were “smack dab” in the middle of another one of Obama's voter registration drives. According to ACORN reports, ACORN was Catalist's first client. Let me be clear, the ACORN VBASE, is the archetype of the Obama campaign. ACORN's technology combined with union money elected a president.

To understand the importance of Catalist to the Obama Campaign and later Organizing for America I have included the educational screen shot below.

The writer of the article above sums up the relationship this way:

"Think of MyBo / Party Builder / VAN Votebuilders as being the tool sets and interface for volunteers, staff and field organizers, and Catalist as being the organizer and repository for the data as it flowed in and out of various OFA systems.”

A 2005 Year End ACORN Political Operations PowerPoint further illustrates ACORN's involvement in the creation of the system that powers the President.

Matthew Vadum's profile on the OFA offers some background on the major players but the hows and whys have largely gone unnoticed. In addition to a payment made from Obama for America directly to an ACORN affiliate, Project Vote managed to secure the Obama 2nd 2007 donor list. After all, this cross sharing among campaigns, non-profits and unions appears to have been the goal of the ACORN VBASE. A 2007 report the the Beldon Fund regarding a $75,000 grant lays the groundwork.

“The reason that VBASE, a customized database system has such value in the work of Project Vote's field partners, such as ACORN, is because the model of groups like ACORN integrates year-round community organizing with heavy bursts of civic engagement work.”

ACORN insiders describe the Obama presidency as a “once in a generation opportunity” and ACORN was prepared to make it happen. Research uncovered details the concerted effort of a myriad of non-profit, 527's LINK and union organizations skirting campaign finance and IRS codes. While ACORN is not directly involved with the Voter Activation Network, ACORN affiliates/partners are. America Votes, SEIU, State Voices and even the DNC's owned VoteBuilder share information through this alliance.

In 2007, Project Vote was ready to launch their “beta” phase of the VBASE project and targeted a state that had been made friendly by the election of ACORN ally Ohioan Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner:

“The initial beta version of our 2006-07 database was piloted in Ohio by one of our local community partners. This pre-launch was a bug-testing period for the new system, addressing issues of file access, remote support, and appropriate server load.”

Brunner campaign consultant, Karyn Gillette was set to join Project Vote after successful work on the Brunner, Sherrod Brown and ACORN connected Ohioans for a Fair Minimum Wage campaigns. Meanwhile, Obama was running a massive campaign in Ohio and ACORN's partnership with Catalist allowed a for profit business to market their state of the art organizing technology:

"The success of this program is such that Project Vote will be incorporating it into its 2007-08 Voter Participation Program. While we are still wrestling with the details, we are committed to rolling out this sophisticated and robust system to support the civic engagement efforts of our local partners as they pursue voter registration and voter education programs and as they integrate those efforts into their on-going community organizing programs"

The perfect marriage of ACORN and Catalist was made possible by the deep pockets of the unions:

“Michael Podhorzer, Deputy Political Director of the AFL-CIO, has said: 'Catalist is an essential part of the foundation necessary for building progressive political power in our country. The labor movement relies on the state of the art political technology services provided by Catalist and we are proud to be an early subscriber.'

Discover the Networks goes on to explain the motivation behind Catalist:

"Reasoning from the premise that the United States is a nation rife with racism and injustice, Catalist notes its commitment "to using [its] talents and technology to nurture a vibrant, growing, progressive community, and to working with that community towards a more just, equitable and tolerant America.”

Obama has repeatedly denied any real ties to ACORN. If Obama is lying about organizing, could this mean that there is another purpose over at Organizing for America. Over the summer the nation witnessed the President call out this ready brigade to pass health care and stifle dissent. It's time for the mainstream media to focus on what ACORN is really doing.

The "history making" Obama machine was directly engineered by ACORN's voter database experiments. ACORN's sister organization, Project Vote, received tax exempt money to fund a venture with the for-profit Catalist. Catalist, the Voter Activation Network, SEIU and America Votes provided the needed cover that allowed ACORN to operate in the background.

Without regard for tax codes or campaign laws; candidates and groups like America Votes, SEIU, Project Vote and other "progressive organizations" at times share staff, resources and donors. ACORN boasts over 440,000 member families and Obama benefited from the free flowing data between the campaign and ACORN provided by Catalist.  America is now facing a progressive agenda backed by a ready army of paid organizers trained in ACORN tactics, and the name Organizing for America seems to be missing a question mark.

According to a report from Ohio today, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked the ACORN-tainted Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, to investigation ACORN's voter registration work in the state.

“U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan has formally asked Ohio's secretary of state to look into allegations that ACORN had at least a preliminary plan to back Democrat candidates in key Ohio congressional races in 2008.”

The political plan was described in an October article as “having been scaled back,” and of course, ACORN denied any partisan activity.

“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. “

An illuminating  fact not mentioned in either article is that ACORN prepared political plans for several key battleground states in 2006 and again during the 2007-08 election cycle. As evidenced by the draft plans developed in the Spring of 2006 by the Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD) of ACORN Political Operations, these plans were aimed at electing “progressives” and in some cases broke down the Congressional districts by race for maximum targeting. SWORD, which was staffed by Project Vote staff, including myself, worked with ACORN head organizers in FL, MD, MI, MN, OH, PA, and RI to create local documents for the ACORN field staff to implement and present to funders and/or various partner organizations.

A copy of the Maryland and Colorado draft plans from 2006 are available online. Key parts of the plans are the contact and Congressional district sections at the end. For example, in the Maryland plan, it calls for mailings and face to face contact. A screen shot of the type of mailing Marylanders received is shown below.

ACORN used Project Vote staff and computers to create the PowerPoint “Campaign for a New Congress." This PowerPoint was aimed at swaying the Congressional election in Maryland from Albert Wynn to ACORN ally Donna Edwards. Using the final political plan, ACORN canvassed voters and mailed pieces through its affiliate Communities Voting Together.

Campaign for a New Congress

Communities Voting Together has the same address as the Project Vote office in DC and its address on the screen shot above is the same Elysian Fields address where hundreds of other ACORN entities "reside.

As a 527 group, Communities Voting Together paid over 150,000 to Citizen's Services Inc, and contributed to Wade Rathke's Chief Organizer Fund. Jeff Robinson is listed as the contact for Communities Voting Together and some may remembered Robinson from the 2008 elections (emphasis mine):

"In fact, the Obama campaign paid an ACORN-run organization more than $800,000. In Federal Election Commission required filings, the Obama campaign reported that this money was paid for polling, advance work and event staging. After watchdog scrutiny called this claim into question, the Obama campaign revised its filing and acknowledged that CSI was paid for “get-out-the-vote” projects.

CSI Executive Vice President Jeff Robinson last August told Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter David M. Brown that CSI is a 'separate organization entirely' from ACORN. But as Brown reported, CSI has the same office address as ACORN’s national headquarters, ACORN itself described CSI in 2006 as its 'campaign services entity.' Coincidentally, the widely identified “national deputy political director for campaigns and elections” for ACORN is...Jeff Robinson."

ACORN's shell corporations make it easy for a political plan to become a partisan voter registration drive facilitated by thin veiled “partnerships.” The filing reports of Communities Voting Together raise a number of questions, including whether the misspelling of the name on the filing was intentional. The payments to various ACORN entities should give any astute lawmaker pause.

ACORN has been able to claim that it never worked in some recent elections including NY-23, but as this screen shoot illustrates, Communities Voting together was mailing and passing out door knockers in 2006 for Corzine in New Jersey (without a mention of ACORN).

Will ACORN backed officials like Jennifer Brunner (who has her eye on a Senate seat) and officials in Maryland and Colorado take notices of these obvious attempts to elect Democrats, or will they continue to turn a blind eye to ACORN in order to save themselves?

(Anita was the whistle-blower against ACORN and former ACORN employee. She speaks with authority -- Soren)

Last week there seemed to be some debate over the tax status of ACORN. The great thing for ACORN is that they want it to be that way. ACORN is a conglomeration of “social” organizations whose main goal seems to be keeping minorities marginalized and poor. After 38 years of the ACORN way, I would have to say that the communities that they “help” have hardly seen any of the estimated $120 million a year that the council of ACORN organizations brings in.

Often one entity will solicit money explicitly for ACORN but never mention ACORN in the application. For example, Project Vote did not have the field capacity to run half of the programs that it requested money for during the 2007-2008 cycle.

A quote from the Project Vote 2007-08 Voter Participation Program general support proposal reveals ambitious goals.

“Project Vote’s 2007 Voter Participation Program, made up of the five priority areas noted above, will meet the following goals:

• Assist 1.1 million voters in filling out voter registration applications (over 2007 and 2008) through our “traditional” program

• Assist 400,000 – 600,000 New Americans fill out voter registration applications

• Reach a minimum of 1.9 million voters for voter education and mobilization

The entire cost of this program is estimated at $28 million for 2007-08.

A quick query of the document shows that the word ACORN does not appear at all, but ACORN as everyone is aware, has run the voter registration program for years. Where the problem comes in is that Project Vote is using its tax exempt status to directly fund ACORN. In an email dated Monday, June 04, 2007 Nathan Henderson-James, who serves as both the Project Vote Research Director and the ACORN Political Strategic Writing and Research Director demonstrated this “wink, wink” approach to financial reporting.

Nathan Henderson-James [polnat15@acorn.org]

Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 8:28 PM
To: David Lagstein
Cc: Anita Moncrief
Subject: Dotting i's and crossing t's

Dave,

In an effort to ensure that we are in compliance with government regs about these EAC grants and whatnot, I’m going to ask you to take the notes from February about the MI poll worker project (which I am attaching) on MI ACORN letterhead (I’d say include the part all the way down to the “notes” section) with a cover letter saying something like “Here’s the report of our activities for the Poll Worker Project.”

Actually here’s some suggested language:

Please find enclosed a summary of the work undertaken by MI ACORN-Saginaw for the Young Poll Worker Recruitment Project. As you can see we met or exceeded our numeric goals for numbers of workers recruited. We consider this project a success.

It was great to partner with Project Vote on this project and we look forward to working with you again when circumstances warrant it.

If you have any comments or questions do not hesitate to contact me at (number) or (e-mail).

Regards,

David Lagstein

Head Organizer

Michigan ACORN

Make it out to me (address below) and e-mail me a copy.

But also SNAIL MAIL a copy to the DC office for the paper files. Make it out to Anita MonCrief’s attention at 739 8^th St. SE, Washington, DC, 20003. I’m cc’ing her on the e-mail as well.

Thanks a lot!

Nathan

PS I am enclosing the two narrative reports so you can see how this worked out.

Nathan Henderson-James

Director, Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD)

3655 S. Grand Ave #250

Los Angeles, CA 90007

213-747-7202 phone, 213-747-4221 fax, 510-213-1970 cell

polnat15@acorn.org

The problem that exists with this “partnership” is that there is not separation between Project Vote activities and ACORN activities. In all fairness, in preparation for the intense scrutiny of the 2008 elections, the Project Vote national office in DC did build a door to separate it from ACORN National, DC ACORN and ACORN Housing who all occupy the building.

David's reply can be seen as an acknowledgment of what Nathan is suggesting 

---- Original Message -----

From:
David Lagstein

To:'Nathan Henderson-James'
Cc:'Anita Moncrief'

Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 11:00 AM

Subject: RE: Dotting i's and crossing t's

I see – I am just sending the letter with the attached notes, not the stuff that project vote wrote.

David Lagstein

Head Organizer

Michigan ACORN

1249 Washington Blvd., Suite 1303

Detroit, MI 48226

313-963-1840

Fax 313-963-4268

miacorn@acorn.org

Web: www.acorn.org

It is equally disturbing that the grant in question is a government grant from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) relating to the Help America Vote Act. With ACORN's history of partisan and aggressive activity, I wonder if they would have qualified without Project Vote's tax status. On the ACORN side Nathan helps select the states that the voter registration programs are run, usually based on partisan considerations; and on the Project Vote side, he writes the proposals and the reports to fund ACORN's political agenda.

I think its time that the IRS took a look at this cozy relationship and at their compliance with tax exempt rules and regulations. I am sure that they would be interested to know that tax letters have not gone out to ALL donors since at least 2005, they are un-cashed checks from individual donors dating back to 2004 lying in boxes in the DC office and until late 2007 there was maybe $10 million dollars worth of unaccounted income that could not be tracked.

This house of cards has been shaky for years and hopefully it will fall before it squanders more government funds.

Yesterday, a very important piece of information popped. The fundraising consultant for the Ohio Secretary of State in her 2006 election, Jennifer Brunner, is the Director of Development for Project Vote, Karyn Gillette.

It is easy to see how Brunner's strategy of turning of HAVA checks (and then suing to keep them off) melds nicely with ACORN/Project Vote's strategy to flood the voter rolls with fake people.

This suggests that Brunner is probably a creature of ACORN in some form. One wonders how many more Democratic Secretaries of State were backed by ACORN.

UPDATE: Brunner's office contacted me with a correction. I didn't mean to suggest that Gillette was still a consultant and I have clarified that.