By
JOHN FUND
Democrats
are split on how to deal with Acorn, the liberal "community organizing"
group that deployed thousands of get-out-the-vote workers last
election. State and city Democratic officials -- who've been contending
with its many scandals -- are moving against it. Washington Democrats
are still sweeping Acorn abuses under a rug.
On Monday, Nevada officials charged Acorn, its regional director and
its Las Vegas field director with submitting thousands of fraudulent
voter registration forms last year. Larry Lomax, the registrar of
voters in Las Vegas, says he believes 48% of Acorn's forms "are clearly
fraudulent." On Thursday, prosecutors in Pittsburgh, Pa., also charged
seven Acorn employees with filing hundreds of fraudulent voter
registrations before last year's general election.
Acorn spokesman Scott Levenson calls the Nevada criminal complaint
"political grandstanding" and says that any problems were the actions
of an unnamed "bad employee." But Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada's
Democratic Attorney General, told the Las Vegas Sun that Acorn itself
is named in the criminal complaint. She says that Acorn's training
manuals "clearly detail, condone and . . . require illegal acts," such
as requiring its workers to meet strict voter-registration targets to
keep their jobs.
Other Democrats on the ground have complaints. Fred Voight, deputy
election commissioner in Philadelphia, protested after Acorn (according
to the registrar of voters and his own investigation) submitted at
least 1,500 fraudulent registrations last fall. "This has been going on
for a number of years," he told CNN in October. St. Louis Democrat
Matthew Potter, the city's deputy elections director, had similar
complaints.
Elsewhere, Washington state prosecutors fined Acorn $25,000 after
several employees were convicted of voter registration fraud in 2007.
The group signed a consent decree with King County (Seattle), requiring
it to beef up its oversight or face criminal prosecution. In the 2008
election, Acorn's practices led to investigations, some ongoing, in 14
other states.
The stink is bad enough that some congressional Democrats have taken
notice. At a March 19 hearing on election problems, Michigan Rep. John
Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, pressed New York
Rep. Gerald Nadler, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution,
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, to hold a hearing on Acorn. He called
the charges against it "serious." Mr. Nadler agreed to consider the
request.
Mr. Nadler's office now says there will be no hearing on Acorn
because Mr. Conyers has changed his mind. Mr. Conyers's office released
a statement on Monday saying that after reviewing "the complaints
against Acorn, I have concluded that a hearing on this matter appears
unwarranted at this time." A Democratic staffer told me he believes the
House leadership put pressure on Mr. Conyers to back down. Mr.
Conyers's office says it is "unaware" of any contacts with House
leaders.
Then there's Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial
Services Committee. Last month, he voted for a committee amendment (to
the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act) by Rep. Michelle
Bachmann (R., Minn.) to block groups indicted for voter fraud from
receiving federal housing or legal assistance grants. Identical
language was passed into law in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act
of 2008. Mr. Frank now says he "had not read [the amendment] carefully"
before backing it. He gutted the amendment on Thursday, claiming that
the language Congress passed just last year is "a violation of the
basic principles of due process."
A lot of money is at stake. In the stimulus bill passed by Congress,
Acorn is eligible -- along with other activist groups -- to apply for
$2 billion in funds to redevelop abandoned and foreclosed homes.
Meanwhile, public records show that last spring the IRS filed three tax
liens totaling almost $1 million against Acorn, most of which concerned
employee withholding.
All of this infuriates Marcel Reid, who, along with seven other
national Acorn board members, was removed last year after demanding an
audit of the group's books. "Acorn has been hijacked by a power-hungry
clique that has its own political and personal agendas," she told me.
"We are fighting to take back the group."
Bertha Lewis, the head of Acorn, told me last year before their
ouster that the "Acorn Eight" were "obsessed" and "confused." But Anita
MonCrief, an Acorn whistleblower, says the problems run deep. Ms.
MonCrief worked at Project Vote, an Acorn affiliate, in late 2007. She
says its development director, Karen Gillette, told her she had direct
contact with the Obama campaign and also told her to call Obama donors
who had maxed out on donations to the candidate but who could
contribute to Acorn. Project Vote calls her charges "absolutely false."
(Ms. Gillette has declined comment.)
Acorn's relationship to the Obama campaign is a matter of public
record. Last year, Citizens Consulting Inc., the umbrella group
controlling Acorn, was paid $832,000 by the Obama campaign for
get-out-the-vote efforts in key primary states. In filings with the
Federal Election Commission, the campaign listed the payments as
"staging, sound, lighting," only correcting them after reporters from
the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review revealed their true nature.
Mr. Obama distanced himself from the group's scandals last year,
saying "We don't need Acorn's help." Nevertheless, he got his start as
a community organizer at Acorn's side. In 1992, he headed a
registration effort for Project Vote, an Acorn partner at the time. In
1995, he represented Acorn in a key case upholding the new Motor Voter
Act -- the very law whose mandated postcard registration system Acorn
workers use to flood election offices with bogus registrations.
But Acorn's registration tricks may soon be unnecessary.
Congressional Democrats are backing a bill to mandate a nationwide data
base to automatically register driver's license holders or recipients
of government benefits.
This "would create an engraved invitation for voter fraud," says
Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission member, who
points out that these lists are filled with felons and noncitizens who
are ineligible to vote. Ironically, in light of its troubles with the
law, Acorn was selected in March to assist the U.S. Census in reaching
out to minority communities and recruiting census enumerators for the
count next year.
As for the Nevada indictment, Acorn isn't worried. "We've had bad
publicity before, and all it does is inform the community that we're
here working for the community," Bonnie Greathouse, Acorn's head
organizer in Nevada, assured the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week.
"People always come forward to our defense. We're just community
organizers, just like the president used to be."
Mr. Fund is a columnist for WSJ.com
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