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Subscribe to RSSA campaign worker linked to a controversial Republican consulting firm has been arrested in Virginia and charged with throwing voter registration forms into a dumpster.
The suspect, Colin Small, 31, was described by a local law enforcement official as a "supervisor" in a Republican Party financed operation to register voters in Rockingham County in rural Virginia, a key swing state in the Nov. 6 election. He was arrested after a local business owner in the same Harrisonburg, Va., shopping center where the local GOP campaign headquarters is located spotted Small tossing a bag into the trash, according to a statement Thursday by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s office. The bag was later found to contain eight voter registration forms, it said. The arrest was reported Thursday night by WWBT-TV in Richmond.
Colin Small
The case comes on the heels of a controversy last month over the activities of Strategic Allied Consulting, an Arizona based consulting firm that was paid $3 million by the Republican National Committee this year to register voters in five battleground states, including Virginia. The firm, run by veteran GOP operative Nathan Sproul, was recently fired by the RNC following reports that its workers had submitted hundreds of suspicious voter registration forms in Florida.
Sean Spicer, communications director for the RNC, told NBC News Thursday night that Small has now been fired as well, and that he had been directly employed by a payroll company called Pinpoint, which was previously used by Strategic Allied Consulting to pay workers for the GOP registration drive being run by the consulting company.
Related: RNC cuts ties with firm over voter fraud allegations
Small lists himself on his LinkedIn resume as a “Grassroots field director at Republican National Committee” from August 2012 to the present. But Spicer denied that Small was ever directly employed by the RNC and said he will be “told to take that down.” Small was reportedly in jail Thursday night and could not be reached for comment.
Strategic Allied Consulting also tried to distance itself from the arrested campaign worker. “The relationship between Strategic Allied and Colin Small ended on September 27th, when our firm stopped running voter registration programs in Virginia and other states. We had no contact with Small or any other voter registration worker at any point thereafter,” a spokesman for the firm said in a statement emailed to NBC News. “The reprehensible conduct it appears Small engaged in happened nearly three weeks later. Strategic Allied had nothing to do with such regrettable, illegal activity. We hope he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Spicer, the spokesman for the RNC, said that after the RNC and the Republican Party of Virginia severed their relationships with Strategic Allied Consulting, the state party continued to use some of the firm's same workers, including Small, by paying them through Pinpoint.
The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd talks to NBC's Michael Isikoff about Florida voting fraud and what's being done about it now.
“The actions taken by this individual are a direct contradiction of both his training and explicit instructions given to him,” said Pat Mullins, the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, in a statement Thursday night. “The Republican Party of Virginia will not tolerate any action by any person that could threaten the integrity of our electoral process."
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s office said that, after an investigation and "lengthy" consultations with local prosecutors, Small was arrested and charged with eight felony counts and four misdemeanors under Virginia voter fraud laws and one misdemeanor count of obstruction of justice. “There is no indication that this activity was widespread in our jurisdiction; it appears to be very limited in nature but there is the possibility that additional charges may be filed in the future if it is deemed appropriate,” said the statement from Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson.
It is not clear what motive Small might have had for throwing away the registration forms. Voters in Virginia do not register by party so there is no way to know whether the recovered registration forms were from Democratic or Republican voters. One GOP source said that a campaign worker could be tempted to throw away forms that have incomplete information since there are penalties under Virginia law for not submitting completed registration forms within 15 days after they are signed. It could not be determined Thursday night if the forms allegedly tossed by Small were incomplete.
Sproul’s companies have been accused by Democrats in the past of engaging in tactics aimed at suppressing voter turnout, including throwing away Democratic registration forms. Sproul has denied any wrongdoing and no charges against his companies have been filed. But authorities in Florida said they are conducting a statewide investigation of Strategic Allied’s operations there following reports of suspicious registration forms submitted by its workers, including forms with phony addresses and similar looking signatures. Sproul blamed the suspicious forms on a few “bad apples” who were working for him.
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So it turns out Republicans were right about voter fraud being a problem....
Leave it to the CONservatives to cheat, buy, steal this election any way they have to. This really is'nt a fair election to them, look who they have running, then look who we have? Its no contest, Pres. O wins by a huge margin!!! Keep your voter fraud up, RestupidCONS, you will still lose!!
O & JOE THE ONLY WAY TO GO!!!!
Dark Money Group Told IRS It Wouldn't Be Political—Then Spent $1 Million on Campaign Ads
The group's filings with the IRS illustrate how "social welfare" nonprofits, also known as 501(c)(4)s, are playing an aggressive role in this election, pouring tens of millions of dollars into races around the country, while taking advantage of the donor anonymity their tax status provides.
Petrea was also previously Ohio grassroots director for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative 501(c)(4) backed by the Koch brothers, and has recently done work for Energy Citizens, a group advocating oil and gas development.
So far, employees of the same RNC contractor has been implicated in voter registration fraud in VA, FL and CO. I hope somebody is looking into the possibility of conspiracy and racketeering.
If turns out that hundreds of people who thought they had registered to vote as Democrats are turned away at the polls because RNC operatives intentionally discarded their forms, there will be hell to pay.
Maybe the will send this guy to prison. It is still the one thing where the US is #1 in the world. We incarcerate more people per population that any country in the world. We even top Russia and China, pretty cool, right. It's about the last thing we are #1 at doing.
We're 39th in the world in the number of mother's who die in pregnancy, also interesting given Rep. Walsh's statement that there's no reason to allow abortions in the case of women's death in pregnancy. Maybe, he would like us fall lower than other 3rd world countries.
I love how the conservatives on this discussion are defending criminals while committing a crime. So many are copying/pasting lies from external sources as their own - aka copyright infringement and plagiarism. Just a bunch of mindless zombies.
When Obama wins the 2012 election - lets hope you whiners pucker up or move out.
The funny part is how the whites are clinging on to this election - like Romney is the last great white hope. Meanwhile, the Hispanic population is booming - so all the white folks will be the next true minority, enjoying all the well-deserved benefits.
Capitalist or Communist/Marxist, THAT is our decision on election day........
Every American that can LEGALLY cast a vote needs to see this short piece on youtube.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOmzTLdr_m4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The "media" have been asleep in their vetting of Barrak Hussein Obama. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!
It doesn't even frustrate me anymore to read the liberal media spoon feeding the liberal simple minded people what they want to hear.
Voter fraud is a problem? what? So you were all wrong? You all firmly stood your ground on the topic and said we were making it all up so that the "poor" couldn't vote. As if the "poor" don't have any means to prove their identity. They can obtain welfare and food stamps and they managed to prove who they were for that.
I laugh out loud at those of you whining about GOP lies after we have watched Obama and Biden lie and make up crap to cover their butts about Libya. The only stand up guy you have is Hillary.
Your BS is about to be over and out because 4 years was 4 too many and you are all coping, but not very gracefully.
.....on REAL Issues, voters trust Romney:
Who would better handle economy: Romney 58%, Obama 40%
Who would better handle the deficit: Romney 59%, Obama 36%
Did Obama offer clear plan: Yes 38%, No 61%
Other questions.
Who won the debate? Obama 46%, Romney 39%
Obama versus expected: Better 73%
Romney versus expected: Better 37%, Worse 28%
More likely to vote for: Obama 25%, Romney 25%, Neither: 48%
Stronger leader: Romney 49%, Obama 46%
More likeable: Obama 47%, Romney 41%
More time attacking: Obama 49%, Romney 35%
More caring: Obama 44%, Romney 40%
Answered questions: Romney 45%, Obama 43%
Who would better handle health care: Romney 49%, Obama 46%
Results of CNN's Scientific Poll after Tuesday's debate
I think it's hilarious, that pjam09 masquerading speculation as news. Guy doesn't know the difference between and editorial article and a news article..
The whole "California skewed it's numbers" was a speculative editorial written on foxbusiness with no facts. It's not news.. just a blogger. As a matter of fact if you read the editorial it doesn't even say California skewed it's numbers it said it suspects California skewed it's number.s.
Skewed labor number
The Labor Department said that recent unemployment claims fell by 30,000 to a four-year low of 339,000.
A spokesman for the department stated that one large state accounted for much of the decline, but wouldn’t mention the state. It turns out that California didn’t get its figures in on time and thus wasn’t counted in the final unemployment claims number. California’s absence in the calculations would grossly skew the final number. I’m sure that Labor Department’s failure to mention the omission was calculated to paint a more optimistic picture of a steadily improving economy than is warranted. It lends some validity to the skepticism that a lot of people already felt regarding the sudden and unexpected half-point drop in the unemployment rate in the past two months.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/19/3058130/skewed-labor-number.html#storylink=cpy
LolWut1..... do a little of your own research before you post, you look foolish
Unemployment numbers skewed by California not posting their numbers
Great post!
That was LAST WEEK. This week's numbers remain at a level that leaves the 4 week rolling average without an increase.
That that's OK, your Fox talking point will remain everfresh in the alternative universe of Fox viewers.
Tagg Romney, the son of Republican presidential candidate Mitt RomneyMitt Romney, has purchased electronic voting machines that will be used in the 2012 elections in Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Washington and Colorado.
"Late last month, Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis at FreePress.org broke the story of the Mitt Romney/Bain Capital investment team involved in H.I.G. Capital which, in July of 2011, completed a "strategic investment" to take over a fair share of the Austin-based e-voting machine company Hart Intercivic," according to independent journalist Brad Friedman.
But Friedman is not the only one to discover the connection between the Romney family, Bain Capital, and ownership of voting machines.
DNC - The Federal Election Commission imposed $719,000 in fines against participants in the 1996 Democratic Party fundraising scandals involving contributions from China, Korea and other foreign sources. The Federal Election Commission said it decided to drop cases against contributors of more than $3 million in illegal DNC contributions because the respondents left the country or the corporations are defunct.
Sandy Berger - Democrat - National Security Advisor during the Clinton Administration. Berger fined $50,000 for illegally removing highly classified documents and handwritten notes from the National Archives during preparations for the Sept. 11 commission hearings.
Robert Torricelli - Democrat - Withdrew from the 2002 Senate race with less than 30 days before the election because of controversy over personal gifts he took from a major campaign donor and questions about campaign donations from 1996.
James McGreevey - Democrat - New Jersey Governor . Admitted to having a gay affair. Resigned after allegations of sexual harassment, rumors of being blackmailed on top of fundraising investigations and indictments.
Jesse Jackson - Democrat - Democratic candidate for President. Admitted to having an extramarital affair and fathering a illegitimate child.
Gary Condit - Democrat - US Democratic Congressman from California. Condit had an affair with an intern. Condit, covered up the affair and lied to police after she went missing. No charges were ever filed against Condit. Her remains were discovered in a Washington DC park..
Eliot Spitzer- Democrat - New York governor - resigned from office after being tied to a prostitution ring.
Sowande Ajumoke Omokunde - Democrat - the son of newly elected U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, was booked on charges of criminal damage to property for allegedly slashing tires on 20 vans and cars rented by the Republican Party for use in Election Day voter turnout efforts.
Daniel David Rostenkowski - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1959 to 1995. Indicted on 17 felony charges- pleaded guilty to two counts of misuse of public funds and sentenced to seventeen months in federal prison.
Melvin Jay Reynolds - Democrat U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1993 to 1995. Convicted on sexual misconduct and obstruction of justice charges and sentenced to five years in prison.
Wayne Bryant - Democrat NJ state senator- was convicted was found guilty on all 12 counts against him including bribery and pension fraud.
Charles Coles Diggs, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Michigan from 1955 to 1980. Convicted on eleven counts of mail fraud and filing false payroll forms- sentenced to three years in prison.
George Rogers - Democrat - Massachusetts State House of Representatives from 1965 to 1970. M000ember of Massachusetts State Senate from 1975 to 1978. Convicted of bribery in 1978 and sentenced to two years in prison.
Don Siegelman - Democrat Governor Alabama - indicted in a bid-rigging scheme involving a maternity-care program. The charges accused Siegelman and his former chief of staff of helping Tuscaloosa physician Phillip Bobo rig bids. Siegelman was accused of moving $550,000 from the state education budget to the State Fire College in Tuscaloosa so Bobo could use the money to pay off a competitor for a state contract for maternity care.
John Murtha, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania. Implicated in the Abscam sting, in which FBI agents impersonating Arab businessmen offered bribes to political figures; Murtha was cited as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Otto Kerner - Democrat governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968 was jailed after the manager of two horse-racing tracks admitted to bribing the then- governor; charges were filed after Kerner left office he was convicted in 1973.
Dan Walker - Democrat governor of Illinois from1973 to 1977 served less than two years of a seven-year sentence for receiving improper loans a decade after leaving office.
Gerry Eastman Studds - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1973 to 1997. The first openly gay member of Congress. Censured by the House of Representatives for having sexual relations with a teenage House page.
Hiram Monserrate- Queens City Councilman and state Senator-elect - who has claimed to be an advocate of victims of domestic violence - was arrested for breaking a glass over his girlfriend's face. Monserrate, 41, a former cop, won election to the state Senate as a Democrat in November 2008.
James C. Green - Democrat - North Carolina State House of Representatives from 1961 to 1977. Charged with accepting a bribe from an undercover FBI agent, but was acquitted. Convicted of tax evasion in 1997.
Frederick Richmond - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New York from 1975 to 1982. Arrested in Washington, D.C., in 1978 for soliciting sex from a minor and from an undercover police officer - pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Also - charged with tax evasion, marijuana possession, and improper payments to a federal employee - pleaded guilty.
Raymond Lederer - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1977 to 1981. Implicated in the Abscam sting - convicted of bribery and sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20,000.
Harrison Arlington Williams, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1959 to 1970. Implicated in the Abscam sting. Allegedly accepted an 18% interest in a titanium mine. Convicted of nine counts of bribery, conspiracy, receiving an unlawful gratuity, conflict of interest, and interstate travel in aid of racketeering. Sentenced to three years in prison and fined $50,000.
Frank Thompson, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New Jersey from 1955 to 1980. Implicated in the Abscam sting, convicted on bribery and conspiracy charges. Sentenced to three years in prison
Michael Joseph Myers - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1976 to 1980. Implicated in the Abscam sting - convicted of bribery and conspiracy; sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20,000; expelled from the House of Representatives on October 2, 1980.
John Michael Murphy - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New York from 1963 to 1981. Implicated in the Abscam sting. Convicted of conspiracy, conflict of interest, and accepting an illegal gratuity. Sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20,000.
John Wilson Jenrette, Jr - Democrat - U.S. Representative from South Carolina from 1975 to 1980. Implicated in the Abscam sting. Convicted on bribery and conspiracy charges and sentenced to prison
Neil Goldschmidt - Democrat - Oregon governor. Admitted to having an illegal sexual relationship with a 14-year-old teenager while he was serving as Mayor of Portland.
Alcee Lamar Hastings - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Florida. Impeached and removed from office as federal judge in 1989 over bribery charges.
Marion Barry - Democrat - mayor of Washington, D.C., from 1979 to 1991 and again from 1995 to 1999. Convicted of cocaine possession after being caught on videotape smoking crack cocaine. Sentenced to six months in prison.
Mario Biaggi - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New York from 1969 to 1988. Indicted on federal charges that he had accepted bribes in return for influence on federal contracts.Convicted of obstructing justice and accepting illegal gratuities. Tried in 1988 on federal racketeering charges and convicted on 15 felony counts.
Lee Alexander - Democrat - Mayor of Syracuse, N.Y. from 1970 to 1985. Was indicted over a $1.5 million kickback scandal. Pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax evasion charges. Served six years in prison.
Bill Campbell - Democrat - Mayor of Atlanta. Indicted and charged with fraud over claims he accepted improper payments from contractors seeking city contracts.
Frank Ballance - Democrat - Congressman North Carolina. Pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering related to mishandling of money by his charitable foundation.
Hazel O'Leary - Democrat - Secretary of Energy during the Clinton Administration - O'leary took trips all over the world as Secretary with as many 50 staff members and at times rented a plane, which was used by Madonna during her concert tours.
Lafayette Thomas - Democrat - Candidate for Tennessee State House of Representatives in 1954. Sheriff of Davidson County, from 1972 to 1990. Indicted in federal court on 54 counts of abusing his power as sheriff. Pleaded guilty to theft and mail fraud; sentenced to five years in prison.
Mary Rose Oakar - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1977 to 1993. Pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of funneling $16,000 through fake donors.
David Giles - Democrat - candidate for U.S. Representative from Washington in 1986 and 1990. Convicted in June 2000 of child rape.
Gary Siplin - Democrat state senator Florida- found guilty of third-degree grand theft of $5,000 or more, a felony, and using services of employees for his candidacy.
Edward Mezvinsky - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Iowa from 1973 to 1977. Indicted on 56 federal fraud charges.
Lena Swanson - Democrat - Member of Washington State Senate in 1997. Pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting unlawful payments from veterans and former prisoners of war.
Abraham J. Hirschfeld - Democrat - candidate in Democratic primary for U.S. Senator from New York in 1974 and 1976. Offered Paula Jones $1 million to drop her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton. Convicted in 2000 of trying to hire a hit man to kill his business partner.
Henry Cisneros - Democrat - U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1993 to 1997. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of lying to the FBI.
James A. Traficant Jr. - Member of House of Representatives from Ohio. Expelled from Congress after being convicted of corruption charges. Sentenced today to eight years in prison for accepting bribes and kickbacks.
John Doug Hays - Democrat - member of Kentucky State Senate from 1980 to 1982 Found guilty of mail fraud for submitting false campaign reports stemming from an unsuccessful run for judge. He was sentenced to six months in prison to be followed by six months of home confinement and three years of probation.
Henry J. Cianfrani - Democrat - Pennsylvania State Senate from 1967 to 1976. Convicted on federal charges of racketeering and mail fraud for padding his Senate payroll. Sentenced to five years in federal prison.
David Hall - Democrat - Governor of Oklahoma from 1971 to 1975. Indicted on extortion and conspiracy charges. Convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.
John A. Celona - Democrat - A former state senator was charged with the three counts of mail fraud. Federal prosecutors accused him of defrauding the state and collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from CVS Corp. and others while serving in the legislature. Celona has agreed to plead guilty to taking money from the CVS pharmacy chain and other companies that had interest in legislation. Under the deal, Celona agreed to cooperate with investigators. He faces up to five years in federal prison on each of the three counts and a $250,000 fine
Allan Turner Howe - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Utah from 1975 to 1977. Arrested for soliciting a policewoman posing as a prostitute.
Jerry Cosentino - Democrat - Illinois State Treasurer. Pleaded guilty to bank fraud - fined $5,000 and sentenced to nine months home confinement.
Joseph Waggonner Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1961 to 19 79. Arrested in Washington, D.C. for soliciting a policewoman posing as a prostitute
Albert G. Bustamante - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Texas from 1985 to 1993. Convicted in 1993 on racketeering and bribery charges and sentenced to prison.
Lawrence Jack Smith - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Florida from 1983 to 1993. Sentenced to three months in federal prison for tax evasion.
David Lee Walters - Democrat - Governor of Oklahoma from 1991 to 1995. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor election law violation.
James Guy Tucker, Jr. - Democrat - Governor of Arkansas from 1992 to 1996. Resigned in July 1996 after conviction on federal fraud charges as part of the Whitewater investigation.
Walter Rayford Tucker - Democrat - Mayor of Compton, California from 1991 to 1992; U.S. Representative from California from 1993 to 1995. Sentenced to 27 months in prison for extortion and tax evasion.
William McCuen - Democrat - Secretary of State of Arkansas from 1985 to 1995. Admitted accepting kickbacks from two supporters he gave jobs, and not paying taxes on the money. Admitted to conspiring with a political consultant to split $53,560 embezzled from the state in a sham transaction. He was indicted on corruption charges. Pleaded guilty to felony counts tax evasion and accepting a kickback. Sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Walter Fauntroy - Democrat - Delegate to U.S. Congress from the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1991. Charged in federal court with making false statements on financial disclosure forms. Pleaded guilty to one felony count and sentenced to probation.
Carroll Hubbard, Jr. - Democrat - Kentucky State Senate from 1968 to 1975 and U.S. Representative from Kentucky from 1975 to 1993. Pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Federal Elections Commission and to theft of government property; sentenced to three years in prison.
Joseph Kolter - Democrat - member of Pennsylvania State House of Representatives from 1969 to 1982 and U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1983 to 1993. Indicted by a Federal grand jury on five felony charges of embezzlement at the U.S. House post office. Pleaded guilty.
Webster Hubbell - Democrat - Chief Justice of Arkansas State Supreme Court in 1983. Pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud and tax evasion charges - sentenced to 21 months in prison.
Nicholas Mavroules - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1979 to 1993. Pleaded guilty to charges of tax fraud and accepting gratuities while in office.
Carl Christopher Perkins - Democrat - Kentucky State House of Representatives from 1981 to 1984 and U.S. Representative from Kentucky from 1985 to 1993. Pleaded guilty to bank fraud in connection with the House banking scandal. Perkins wrote overdrafts totaling about $300,000. Pleaded guilty to charges of filing false statements with the Federal Election Commission and false financial disclosure reports. Sentenced to 21 months in prison.
Richard Hanna - Democrat - U.S. Representative from California from 1963 to 1974. Received payments of about $200,000 from a Korean businessman in what became known as the "Koreagate" influence buying scandal. Pleaded guilty and sentenced to federal prison.
Angelo Errichetti - Democrat - New Jersey State Senator was sentenced to six years in prison and fined $40,000 for his involvement in Abscam.
Daniel Baugh Brewster - Democrat - U.S. Senator from Maryland. Indicted on charges of accepting illegal gratuity while in Senate.
Thomas Joseph Dodd - Democrat - U.S. Senator from Connecticut. Censured by the Senate for financial improprieties, having diverted $116,000 in campaign and testimonial funds to his own use
Edward Fretwell Prichard, Jr. - Democrat - Delegate to Democratic National Convention from Kentucky. Convicted of vote fraud in federal court in connection with ballot-box stuffing. Served five months in prison.
Jerry Springer - Democrat - Resigned from Cincinnati City Council in 1974 after admitting to paying a prostitute with a personal check, which was found in a police raid on a massage parlor.
Guy Hamilton Jones, Sr. - Democrat -Arkansas State Senate. Convicted on federal tax charges and expelled from the Arkansas Senate.
Daniel Flood - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1945 to 1947, 1949 to 1953 and 1955 to 1980. Pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge involving payoffs and sentenced to probation.
Otto Kerner, Jr - Democrat - Governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968. While serving as Governor, he and another official made a gain of over $300,000 in a stock deal. Convicted on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury, and related charges. Sentenced to three years in federal prison and fined $50,000.
George Crockett, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Michigan. Served four months in federal prison for contempt of court following his defense of a Communist leader on trial for advocating the overthrow of the government.
Cornelius Edward Gallagher - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New Jersey from 1959 to 1973. Indicted on federal charges of income tax evasion, conspiracy, and perjury
Mark B. Jimenez - Democrat fundraiser - sentenced to 27 months in prison on charges of tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States and commit election financing offenses.
Bobby Lee Rush - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Illinois. As a Black Panther, spent six months in prison on a weapons charge.
Bolley ''Bo'' Johnson - Democrat - Former Florida House Speaker - received a two-year term for tax evasion.
Roger L. Green - Democrat - Brooklyn Democrat Assemblyman. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for accepting travel reimbursement for trips he did not pay for and was sentenced to fines and probation.
Gloria Davis - Democrat - Bronx assemblywoman. Pleaded guilty to second-degree bribe-taking.
Once again, here's the ACORN record. Note that this goes back to when BARACK OBAMA worked for ACORN's Project Vote.
AR
1998
A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.
CO
2005
Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.
2004
An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.
CT
2008
The New York Post reported that ACORN submitted a voter registration card for a 7-year-old Bridgeport girl. Another 8,000 cards from the same city will be scrutinized for possible fraud.
FL
2009
In September, 11 ACORN workers were accused of forging voter registration applications in Miami-Dade County during the last election. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state attorney’s office scoured hundreds of suspicious applications provided by ACORN and found 197 of 260 contained personal ID information that did not match any living person.
2008
Election officials in Brevard County have given prosecutors more than 23 suspect registrations from ACORN. The state's Division of Elections is also investigating complaints in Orange and Broward Counties.
2004
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman said ACORN was “singled out” among suspected voter registration groups for a 2004 wage initiative because it was “the common thread” in the agency’s fraud investigations.
IN
2008
Election officials in Indiana have thrown out more than 4,000 ACORN-submitted voter registrations after finding they had identical handwriting and included the names of many deceased Indianans, and even the name of a fast food restaurant.
MI
2008
Clerks in Detroit found a "sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent [voter] applications" from the Michigan branch of ACORN. Those applications have been turned over to the U.S. Attorney's office for investigation.
2004
The Detroit Free Press reported that “overzealous or unscrupulous campaign workers in several Michigan counties are under investigation for voter-registration fraud, suspected of attempting to register nonexistent people or forging applications for already-registered voters.” ACORN-affiliate Project Vote was one of two groups suspected of turning in the documents.
MO
2008
Nearly 400 ACORN-submitted registrations in Kansas City have been rejected due to duplication or fake information.
2007
Four ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City for charges including identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election.
2006
Eight ACORN employees in St. Louis were indicted on federal election fraud charges. Each of the eight faces up to five years in prison for forging signatures and submitting false information.
2003
Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally.
MN
2004
During a traffic stop, police found more than 300 voter registration cards in the trunk of a former ACORN employee, who had violated a legal requirements that registration cards be submitted to the Secretary of State within 10 days of being filled out and signed.
NC
2008
County elections officials have sent suspicious voter registration applications to the state Board of Elections. Many of the applications had similar or identical names, but with different addresses or dates of birth.
2004
North Carolina officials investigated ACORN for submitting fake voter registration cards.
NM
2008
Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,100 ACORN-submitted voter registration cards after a county clerk found them to be fraudulent. Many of the cards included duplicate names and slightly altered personal information.
2005
Four ACORN employees submitted as many as 3,000 potentially fraudulent signatures on the group’s Albuquerque ballot initiative. A local sheriff added: “It’s safe to say the forgery was widespread.”
2004
An ACORN employee registered a 13-year-old boy to vote. Citing this and other examples, New Mexico State Representative Joe Thompson stated that ACORN was “manufacturing voters” throughout New Mexico.
NV
2009
Nevada authorities indicted ACORN on 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. ACORN provided a bonus compensation program called “Blackjack” or “21+” for any canvasser who registered more than 20 voters per shift, which is illegal under Nevada law.
2008
Nevada state authorities raided ACORN's Las Vegas headquarters as part of a task force investigation of election fraud. Fraudulent registrations included players from the Dallas Cowboys.
OH
2008
ACORN activists gave Ohio residents cash and cigarettes in exchange for filling out voter registration card, according to the New York Post. Some voters claim to have registered dozens of times, and one man says he signed up on 72 cards.
2007
A man in Reynoldsburg was indicted on two felony counts of illegal voting and false registration, after being registered by ACORN to vote in two separate counties.
2004
A grand jury indicted a Columbus ACORN worker for submitting a false signature and false voter registration form. In Franklin County, two ACORN workers submitted what the director of the board of election supervisors called “blatantly false” forms. In Cuyahoga County, ACORN and its affiliate Project Vote submitted registration cards that had the highest rate of errors for any voter registration group.
PA
2009
Seven ACORN workers in the Pittsburgh area were indicted for submitting falsified voter registration forms. Six of the seven were also indicted for registering voters under an illegal quota system.
2008
State election officials have thrown out 57,435 voter registrations, the majority of which were submitted by ACORN. The registrations were thrown out after officials found "clearly fraudulent" signatures, vacant lots listed as addresses, and other signs of fraud.
2008
An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.
2004
Reading’s Director of Elections received calls from numerous individuals complaining that ACORN employees deliberately put inaccurate information on their voter registration forms. The Berks County director of elections said voter fraud was “absolutely out of hand,” and added: “Not only do we have unintentional duplication of voter registration but we have blatant duplicate voter registrations.” The Berks County deputy director of elections added that ACORN was under investigation by the Department of Justice.
TX
2008
In Harris County, nearly 10,000 ACORN-submitted registrations were found to be invalid, including many with clearly fraudulent addresses or other personal information.
2008
ACORN turned in the voter registration form of David Young, who told reporters “The signature is not my signature. It’s not even close.” His social security number and date of birth were also incorrect.
VA
2005
In 2005, the Virginia State Board of Elections admonished Project Vote and ACORN for turning in a significant number of faulty voter registrations. An audit revealed that 83% of sampled registrations that were rejected for carrying false or questionable information were submitted by Project Vote. Many of these registrations carried social security numbers that exist for other people, listed non-existent or commercial addresses, or were for convicted felons in violation of state and federal election law.
In a letter to ACORN, the State Board of Elections reported that 56% of the voter registration applications ACORN turned in were ineligible. Further, a full 35% were not submitted in a timely manner, as required by law. The State Board of Elections also commented on what appeared to be evidence of intentional voter fraud. "Additionally,” they wrote, “information appears to have been altered on some applications where information given by the applicant in one color ink has been scratched through and re-entered in another color ink. Any alteration of a voter registration application is a Class 5 Felony in accordance with § 24.2-1009 of the Code of Virginia."
WA
2007
Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.
WI
2008
At least 33,000 ACORN-submitted registrations in Milwaukee have been called into question after it was found that the organizations had been using felons as registration workers, in violation of state election rules. Two people involved in the ongoing Wisconsin voter fraud investigation have been charged with felonies.
2004
The district attorney’s office investigated seven voter registration applications Project Vote employees filed in the names of people who said the group never contacted them. Former Project Vote employee Robert Marquise Blakely told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelthat he had not met with any of the people whose voter registration applications he signed, “an apparent violation of state law,” according to the paper.
Why ACORN Fell: The Times, Lies, and Videotape
The New York Times hit ACORN with a one-two punch last weekend, making sure that the community organizing group -- flattened by attacks from the right and withdrawal of funding from liberal foundations -- stays knocked out. Both articles -- Ian Urbana's Saturday story, "Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy, Officials Say" and public editor Clark Hoyt's Sunday column, "The Acorn Sting Revisited" -- reflect the paper's obsession with being so even-handed that the truth gets lost.
Both pieces reported conservative allegations against ACORN as if they were true, without seeking to verify them. Yet since 2008 the paper has consistently ignored ACORN's community organizing successes while focusing on its enemies' accusations, belying its reputation as a "liberal" newspaper
This reflects the Times' more general failure to cover grassroots organizing, except when groups engage in protest or otherwise disrupt business-as-usual.
Moreover, when the Times botched the ACORN story, as Hoyt now concedes, it acted as an unwitting co-conspirator with Fox News, Glenn Beck and the rest of the right wing echo chamber in scapegoating an organization that helps the working poor facing hard times to stay in their homes, make a living wage, and vote.
Because of its pivotal role in bringing down ACORN, until recently the nation's largest and most effective anti-poverty community organizing group, the Times owes the group an apology and the public a commitment to assign an experienced journalist to cover the complex world of community organizing, whose diverse practitioners mobilize poor and middle class people to win a voice in local, state, and national politics.
As the Times' public editor, Hoyt is supposed to be a kind of in-house inspector general, evaluating complaints from readers about the Times' news coverage to make sure it meets the standards of first-rate journalism. The crux of Hoyt's Sunday column is the following paragraph about the controversy over ACORN:
Hoyt seems to be saying: Take your pick. Or, according to journalistic convention: the truth lies somewhere in between. In doing so, he fails the test of his job description, which is to examine whether the Times' was accurate in its reporting. It is true, as Hoyt wrote, that conservatives have accused ACORN of being a "criminal organization" and "guilty of extensive voter registration fraud in 2008." But neither of these accusations against ACORN is correct, which Hoyt doesn't bother to explain.
The Times has never informed readers that the Republican Party's ongoing war against ACORN began in 2004 and accelerated during the 2008 presidential campaign. Karl Rove (President Bush's top political adviser) and conservative Republicans orchestrated an attack on Acorn for alleged "voter fraud," as part of a campaign to suppress the voting of minorities and the poor. As part of this effort, a U.S. Attorney was asked to investigate ACORN. The investigation came up empty-handed, but the GOP operatives persisted. The allegations of "voter fraud" hit a peak in October 2008, aided by Arizona Sen. John McCain's charge in a presidential debate with Barack Obama that Acorn "is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." He demanded that Mr. Obama disclose his ties to ACORN. McCain frequently repeated those accusations on the campaign trail.
Urbana repeats the misleading canard that, "Some chapters were also found to have submitted voter application forms with incorrect information on them during the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election, leading to blistering charges from conservative organizations linking Acorn's errors to the Obama campaign."
In fact, ACORN never engaged in voter fraud. When ACORN ramped up for its massive voter registration campaigns, it hired thousands of part-time staff, a few of whom tried to beat the system and get paid while handing in phony registrations. ACORN's quality-control procedures -- phone-verifying every card, flagging problematic cards, and identifying offending workers for local officials -- caught people trying to register under false names or multiple times. After ACORN reported these problem, politicians, mostly Republicans, used them against ACORN in the media and in the legal process.
The statutes in the states where ACORN registered prospective voters required ACORN to submit all registration forms they received, even when ACORN believed they were faulty. In nine of the eleven states where ACORN's registration efforts were questioned, the law or voter-registration practice required ACORN to submit every voter-registration form, regardless of doubts about its authenticity. For any questionable form, ACORN's quality-control staff had attached a "problematic card report coversheet." As reported by McClatchy News Service and CNN, the law gave ACORN no choice but to flag the form and turn it in or face a thousand-dollar fine. ACORN neither had a policy nor an intention to engage in voter fraud. For all the publicity about some ACORN canvasser registering somebody in Florida who called himself "Mickey Mouse," Mickey Mouse didn't vote and couldn't vote. According to Barnard College professor Lorraine Minnite, voter registration and voter fraud are very rare.
Republican candidates and officials accused ACORN of voter fraud, and even filed lawsuits claiming it, but ACORN has never been found guilty of voter fraud. Last December, a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted that as of last October, ACORN had been subjected to at least forty-six federal, state, and local investigations, with only eleven still outstanding. In addition, the U. S. Attorney's office in Louisiana notified ACORN that it has closed its investigation. Only one state, Nevada, brought charges against ACORN, under an ambiguous law that prohibited paying staff to register voters.
The stories planted during and after the election season yielded a bountiful crop of misinformation The mainstream news media was unwittingly complicit in the conservative campaign to frame ACORN. For example, a study of media coverage of ACORN found that over half (55%) of the all stories about ACORN during 2007 and 2008 focused on "voter fraud," while few stories reported on its grassroots organizing work. Moreover, 80 percent of the print and broadcast stories about ACORN's alleged voter fraud (and 63 percent of the Times' stories) failed to mention that ACORN itself was reporting voter-registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law. TheTimes' coverage of ACORN was almost entirely negative; 56 percent of its stories focused on voter fraud and embezzlement.
Similarly, attacks against ACORN as a "criminal" organization have been a consistent mantra of the right and its business allies, who despise ACORN for its success at challenging the anti-consumer practices of banks and low-wage employers as well as its effective efforts to expand voting among the poor. But the fact that Rep. Darrel Issa and other ACORN opponents persistently claim that ACORN is criminal doesn't make it so -- a distinction that gets lost in the Times reporting. This attack line gained prominence when two conservative activists, Hanah Giles (claiming she was a prostitute) and James O'Keefe (claiming he was her friend), visited 10 ACORN offices with a hidden video camera and tried to trap the group's housing counseling staff into giving them advice about buying a home to use for their prostitution ring.
Midway through his piece, Hoyt concedes the Times erred when it reported that O'Keefe entered the ACORN offices dressed as a pimp "in the outlandish costume -- fur coat, goggle-like sunglasses, walking stick and broad-brimmed hat..." Hoyt excuses the error saying, "It is easy to see why The Times and other news organizations got a different impression. At one point, as the videos were being released, O'Keefe wore the get-up on Fox News, and a host said he was "dressed exactly in the same outfit he wore to these Acorn offices." He did not. O'Keefe spliced into the videos scenes of him in the pimp outfit, which Giles later admitted. Hoyt acknowledges that the Times was wrong to write that O'Keefe was dressed as a pimp. But, he says, "just because O'Keefe lied about his wardrobe doesn't mean that his videos don't reveal problems with the behavior of ACORN staffers argue."
Hoyt says, "But I am satisfied that The Times was wrong on this point, and I have been wrong in defending the paper's phrasing." Had the Times interviewed ACORN's staff and done some on the ground reporting it could have avoided that mistake.
Hoyt explains why he thinks the Times got the story wrong. "At least 14 reporters, reporting to different sets of editors, have touched it [the video controversy] since last fall. Nobody owns it. Bill Keller, the executive editor, said that, "sensing the story would not go away and would be part of a larger narrative," the paper should have assigned one reporter to be responsible for it." You'd think that, given its own internal disarray, the most powerful newspaper in the world would understand the management problems of an anti-poverty group -- one that runs on a shoe-string budget and whose staff earns relatively low salaries.
Yes, a handful of ACORN staffers exercise bad judgment in dealing with O'Keefe and Giles. ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis quickly dismissed the offending employees, launched an independent internal review and audit of the service programs, and instituted a complete review of ACORN's management operations to fix its weaknesses. Hoyt failed to emphasize that an investigation by the former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger found that to correct its management troubles ACORN's board fired its founder in May 2008. ACORN, he found "has made reforms in finances and governance a priority, including developing detailed bylaws, whistle-blower and document retention policies, and implementing independent auditing, codes of conduct and ethics, uniform and basic human resources and employment policies, and intensive board education and selection criteria."
Further, while ACORN has had oversight and management difficulties, they have been blown way out of proportion. For example, the Times failed to report that in only 3 or 4 of the 10 offices visited by the fake pimp and prostitute did ACORN's intake staff give patently outrageous advice and the videos covered only 10 of ACORN's 103 offices. In none of the offices visited by the video-tapers did ACORN employees create client files or bills, file tax returns, sign or submit loan documents, or arrange bank loans.
Hoyt also failed to report that O'Keefe and Giles targeted ACORN not because they wanted to expose problems with its housing or tax counseling programs, but because ACORN was a thorn in the side of Republicans and conservatives for its large-scale voter-registration drives among poor African Americans and Latinos who tend to cast ballots for Democrats. "Politicians are getting elected single-handedly due to this organization," O'Keefe told the press.
The Times played a critical role in damaging ACORN's reputation among both its reluctant and stalwart allies and gave aid and comfort to its enemies. A few days after Fox News and CNN played several of O'Keefe's misleading and doctored tapes over and over, the Times inaccurately reported that the fake pimp was "dressed so outlandishly that he might have been playing in a risqué high school play," thus giving its imprimatur to the video-tapers' lies. This image became implanted in the public mind, reinforcing the conservative view that ACORN was not only mismanaged but also that its African-American intake workers were buffoons and/ or corrupt.
Two days later, the U.S. House of Representatives (including many Democrats) voted to de-fund the organization. In reality, less than 10 percent of ACORN's budget came from federal grants. But the symbolism of Congress' action was more important than the money itself. Congress' action provided ACORN's cautious foundation funders with an excuse to abandon their support. By the time other reports exonerated ACORN of wrongdoing, it was too late. Likewise, by the time a federal district court judge in New York found Congress' action to be an unconstitutional bill of attainder on March 10, ACORN could no longer use the money, since it was in the process of closing its offices. (The judge found no evidence that ACORN committed any crimes or violated federal contracts.)
Over the years, the Times has written about ACORN's battles with banks over redlining and payday lending, its campaigns for local living wage laws, and its efforts to protect affordable housing. In most stories ACORN was identified as the "community" or "consumer" voice in a story about a controversy. But since the 2008 presidential election campaign, Times stories about ACORN have typically been about the controversy swirling around the group itself.
Urbana's story is typical. He recounts how ACORN is close to bankruptcy because most of its major foundation supporters have withdrawn their grants. But because he doesn't really understand community organizing and the role of foundations, he never explains how difficult it is for a group that protests the policies of the rich and powerful on behalf of the poor to get cautious foundations to support them. Only a tiny proportion of all foundations provide grants to activist groups. Some of the funders who supported ACORN -- such as the Ford Foundation, the Mott Foundation, and the Campaign for Human Development (an arm of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) -- had long been under attack by conservatives for their grants to ACORN. Some abandoned ACORN after a series of Times reports about ACORN's founder's brother embezzling almost $1 million from the organization's coffers in 2000 and internal fighting that ensued. Others cut off ACORN after the O'Keefe videos surfaced on Fox News and then elsewhere. Other funds abandoned ACORN after Congress voted to de-fund the organization.
Urbana fails to quote any foundation staff to understand why they withdrew their support or whether their perceptions of ACORN were accurate or based on false accusations that, repeated often enough, become what people believe.
ACORN could have survived the controversy over its founder's misdeeds and management problems. At that point, a handful of funders withdrew, but others simply asked ACORN to improve its management oversight and its new leader, Bertha Lewis, had already begun the process. It was the steady drumbeat of attacks on ACORN, repeated by the right-wing echo chamber and reported by the mainstream media that ultimately destroyed ACORN.
By October 2008, a national Rasmussen poll found that 60% of likely voters had a slightly unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of ACORN. The same poll reported that 45% believed that ACORN was consciously trying to register people to vote multiple times in violation of election laws. By November 2009, another survey found that 26% of Americans -- and 52% of Republicans -- believed that ACORN had stolen the election for Obama. Overall 11% of Americans viewed ACORN favorably while 53% had a negative opinion of the group. ACORN has become well known, but what most Americans know about it is wrong, based on controversies manufactured by the group's long-time enemies.
Likewise, Urbana reports that "Darrell Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, described Acorn at a December hearing as a 'criminal organization' working hand-in-glove with the Obama administration. In February, committee Republicans released a report saying that Acorn 'exploits the poor and vulnerable' for political gain." It is definitely true that Issa said this and that the report by the Republican members of the committee (led by Issa, which Urbana doesn't mention) said that. But are they true? Do newspapers have to report any controversial statement by politicians, even if they are known to be false or misleading?
Many journalism schools teach students about the media's mistakes in covering Sen. Joseph McCarthy. In the early 1950s, at the height of the Cold War, newspapers routinely reported McCarthy's accusations that he had an exact count, and the names, of Communists working in the federal government. The numbers kept changing, and he never released the lists, but the media kept reporting his accusations. Haven't today's journalists learned any lessons from that experience?
Urbana apparently has not. His story acknowledges that ACORN did a great deal of good during its 40 years as a grassroots anti-poverty group. But he engages in the typical "he said/she said" journalistic balancing act that journalism watchdogs have long recognized distorts the reality. For example, Urbana quotes two low-income ACORN members who were helped by the organization's efforts. Then, Urbana writes: "But other supporters have grown disenchanted," quoting Rick Tingling-Clemmons, 66, a teacher in Washington, who was "an enthusiastic dues-paying member, but soured on the organization over the reports of embezzlement and dropped his affiliation last year." Based on Urbana's calculations, for every two ACORN members who continue to support the organization, one has quit in disenchantment." There is absolutely no evidence that more than a handful of ACORN members were prepared to leave the organization over the controversies.
Urbana reports that, "Republicans and conservatives attacked the group, in part because the group's registration efforts typically signed up voters who were believed to support Democrats." Yet he fails to inform readers that the voter fraud accusations were bogus.
Will the the Times learn any lessons from its mistakes in its coverage of ACORN over the years?
The Times has no reporter whose beat covers community organizing or, more generally, liberal and progressive activism, but it overwhelms readers with stories about the Tea Party, whose numbers pale in comparison to membership in grassroots community organizing in cities across the country. Community organizing has changed dramatically since the days of Saul Alinsky -- whose books, Reveille for Radicals (1946) and Rules for Radicals (1971) became bibles for activists in the 1960s and 1970s. There are now thousands of grassroots community organizing groups around the country. There are also national networks and federations of community organizations that have significantly expanded and scale and scope of issue battles. These include National People's Action, the Center for Community Change, PICO, Gamaliel, DART, and the Industrial Areas Foundation (the latter founded by Alinsky in the 1940s). On myriad issues, these groups -- often working in partnership with immigrant rights groups, environmentalists, labor unions, tenants organizations, and others -- have waged effective campaigns for reform.
After Sarah Palin attacked Obama's community organizing experience in her acceptance speech at the GOP convention in St. Paul in 2008, there was a short increase -- for about a week -- of articles describing the work of community organizers. But since that peak, the mainstream media, including the Times, returned to its previous ignorance of this vital aspect of American democracy.
The Times does not have a community organizing "beat." Instead, they cover community organizing groups sporadically, typically in stories about controversial issues in which community groups are involved. But like the environment, health care, banking, real estate, City Hall, or the Pentagon, reporters need to develop sources and expertise to understand a subject. No Times reporter has developed expertise in covering community organizing groups, or developed the kind of sources necessary to understand what they do on a day-to-day basis and how they wage organizing campaigns that target some of the most powerful corporations and politicians in the country.
The Times is not alone is this serious failure, but as the nation's "paper of record" its failure is particularly glaring.
Indeed, the role of community organizing in American politics typically gets little attention in the mainstream media and is thus not well understood by the general public. Reporters know how to cover rallies, demonstrations, and riots, where protesters disrupt business-as-usual and get into the media's line of vision. But effective grassroots organizing is rarely so dramatic. It typically involves lots of one-on-one meetings, strategy discussions, phone calls, and training sessions that lead people to join together to channel their frustrations and anger into organizations that win improvements in workplaces, neighborhoods and schools. The Times, like other media outlets, is generally more interested in political theater and confrontation -- when workers strike, when community activists protest, or when hopeless people resort to rioting. As a result, with a few exceptions, much of the best organizing work is unreported in the mainstream media
This was particularly evident over the past year in the Times' coverage of the bottom-up campaign for health care reform. The paper covered the political dance among politicians and inside-the-Beltway industry lobby groups, and the attacks on Obama and other Democrats by Tea Party activists, but it virtually ignored the work of activist reform groups, such as Health Care for America Now!, even when they participated in protest and civil disobedience at insurance company offices, homes of insurance CEOs, and town meetings. On March 9, for example, at least 5,000 protesters picketed outside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, D.C., where America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the powerful industry trade association, was holding its annual lobbying conference. About 50 public figures -- including writer Barbara Ehrenreich, SEIU secretary-treasurer Anna Burger, AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka, the Center for Community Change's Deepak Bhargava, and former Congressman Bob Edgar -- participated in civil disobedience. The following day, 24 insurance-industry victims -- people who lost family members, are suffering because they were denied care, or went bankrupt due to premium costs -- confronted reform opponents on Capitol Hill, including House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. Many major broadcast and newspaper outlets covered the protests, but not the Times.
This was not an isolated example. Throughout the health care debate, the Timespublished moving stories of families hurt by insurance industry malpractices, but overlooked the grassroots organizing among reformers that kept the issue alive when, several times, it appeared to be dead. Over the past year and half, it was HCAN and other grassroots activist groups that kept the pressure on the White House and on the Democrats in Congress, rallied the base, and kept public attention on the insurance industry.
ACORN was a key part of the HCAN coalition when it began in June 2008. As part of HCAN's strategy, ACORN planned to mobilize its members in states with key moderate Democrats, like Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, to push for a strong health reform package, including a public option. But by early 2009, ACORN was reeling from the attacks by conservative echo chamber and the Republicans, and had too few resources to adequately defend itself, exacerbated by the one-sided mainstream media coverage. As result, ACORN played a marginal role in the health reform battles.
Acorn, which once had offices in 37 states will close all affiliated and field offices by April 1st. One of ACORN's legacies is the thousands of its former staff people who over many years learned organizing, research, and lobbying skills from ACORN and went on to work in many other public interest and grassroots activist and advocacy groups -- unions, immigrant rights and environmental groups, health reform groups, consumer groups, and even as staffers to progressive legislators. Although no other community organizing group has reached the scale that ACORN had achieved at its peak two years ago, there are other local, state, and national groups that will continue to mobilize the poor for social change. Many of these groups will benefit by hiring some of ACORN's laid-off staffers. And the state branches of ACORN that recently broke off to form independent anti-poverty groups will no doubt emerge as serious advocates for the disadvantaged. But the loss of ACORN leaves a huge void in the nation's political landscape, one that won't be filled quickly.
The mainstream media, including the New York Times, played a pivotal role in ACORN's demise, but it has refused to acknowledge its role, as the two stories in theTimes last weekend reveal. Hoyt, who rebuked the Times' editors last year for missing the right-wing attack on ACORN, now needs to urge the daily to assign a reporter to cover the important work of progressives community organizing groups.
Peter Dreier is professor of politics at Occidental College and co-author of a recent study of media coverage of ACORN. John Atlas is author of a new book about ACORN, Seeds of Hope, published by Vanderbilt University Press.
Owen,
You are very high with propoganda and very low with facts. I saw the files that contained the cases against Acorn and their were ten of thousands of cases. This had nothing to do with a witch hunt but rather that this organization was so corrupt that even the Liberals and their defender could not stop their demise. Your statement shows nothing but that you do not research facts but rather just listen to liberal news and think their word is gospel. You might wish to not trust any news (they are all biased one way or the other) and look to the facts of the case.
Owen presented a great deal of information above, including numerous embedded links that can be used to vet and expand on what is on this page.
You responded "DID NOT!"
Who's low with facts?
Repubs will do anything to win - buy the election, fix the voting and LIE, LIE, LIE! How proud you GOPers must be.
I voted for Obama/Biden
We need a good old poll tax to limit the voting to the successful that can afford to vote...that means only taxpayers can vote - not the other 47%
Thanks for coming right out with the real problem Conservatives have with our representative democracy...the "wrong people" vote.
S Allison
If you got your wish, the red states that take most of the welfare would be up the creek without a paddle. You throw out your BS out here and do not even consider that your party has more on welfare. So, do you want to play this game of racists BS any longer?
This is not close to what Acorn did. Acorn was in the business of getting homeless off the streets, trying to find them jobs and other services for the poor. Voter registrations was just a small part of what they did.
They hired hundreds and hundreds of people and paid them $1 for each new voter registration. A very few of those they hired found it easy to sit on their butt and make out a bunch of registrations themselves and collect their money rather than doing the actual work of going door to door. This was not about voting fraud but lazy people wanting to collect money for registrations. Acorns aim was to get more voters.
When Acorn found out what was going on, they are the one who reported it and after an investigation ACORN was totally vindicated of all wrongdoing. They lost Federal Funding and was shut down thanks to the Republicans screaming at the top of the rooftops for months. Makes me wonder about the homeless they could have helped if a panic had not been started.
Now we have the Republicans who are not trying to increase voters but to decrease voters. This company was hired by the RNC in the last election. When caught, The RNC naturally had to fire Nathan Sproul. Now it comes to this election and the RNC told owner, Sproul, to change his companies name so they could hire him again to go out and do the same thing again. Nathan Sproul was paid millions by the RNC to act illegally. The RNC needs to go through an investigation just as Acorn did and because their act has been intentional, pay whatever is fitting and whoever hired this company (for the second time) fired.
In the Acorn investigation, they didn't mess with the idiots who registered themselves 10 times. They went after the top of the heap. Here they are only bothering with the hired kid.
And shame on Democrats for their cowardly behavior as accessories to the crime Republicans perpetrated against ACORN.
Carol,
You might wish to look up the facts, Acorn was started as a political group and continued as such until the mass corruption was so bad even their saviour Obama could not save them. With the GOP you have a few isolated cases, with the Obama camp you had tens of thousands and very little was ever done. Everyone from any party that commits voter fraud should have had a fine and imprisonment.
Why should Carol do your research, Tbenton? It's your assertion, YOU prove it...or not.
Oh please ..The GOP hired Strategic Allied Consulting to commit voter fraud and suppression in 2004 and 2012. The GOP hired the same man each time, Nathan Sprouls.
After being caught in 2004 the GOP hired him again in 2012 and suggested Nathan Sprouls change his company's name. Sprouls changed it to Strategic Allied Consulting. The guys in this story are the kind of people Nathan Sprouls hires to do the voter fraud. My question is .. Why isn't Nathan Sprouls in jail yet ?
In 2004 the Bush campaign hired a firm run by Nathan Sprouls. Sprouls was paid $4 million for registering voters. It registered voters, both Republican and Democrat. But they were caught destroying the Democrat registration forms
In 2012 The Republican Party hired the same firm, but advised it to change its name, and is now called Strategic Allied Consultants. It is now being investigated for registering dead people, having bad addresses and names with similar hand writing. Florida found the evidence of fraud in one county and has since found the same scam in five more counties. Since the Florida finds, Colorado, Virginia, Nevada, and North Carolina have found the same evidence
The GOP has fired the firm. The GOP paid Nathan Sprouls $3 million.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Want You People to STFU and Just Trust Them
The Obama campaign, on the one hand, has got all these different tools that you can use to figure out how Obama’s policies will affect you: as a woman, for example, (The Life of Julia) or as a taxpayer (you can calculate your tax rate with his nifty tax calculator).
Romney and Ryan, on the other hand, have no nifty tools—Whiteboard of Fail, notwithstanding—and are willing to tell voters exactly two things: Jack and Sh#t.
In an interview today, Romney advisers explained that the Romney-Ryan Fail Parade sh*t Show would not be providing any policy details because in this day and age, campaigns that provide too many details are campaigns that lose.
Seriously.
Better to be vague and accuse President Obama of being black than to tell voters what you stand for, (or, as the case seems to be, than to tell voters just how much you’re going to screw them when you get elected.)
Right Mittens?
--Quote Imani Gandy (ABL)
Vote Obama/ Biden
So let me see if I understand this right, the liberals are complaining about two cases of registration fraud when they had thousands of them last election. I goes to show that when a bad egg in the GOP does it it is a very isolated case, when they liberals do it they have thousands doing it at one time. I would shut up before some other news agency brings this up since we all know NBC will never bring up anything to make their messiah look bad.
Insanity is doing the same exact thing twice hoping that the results will be different the second time. Don't be insane vote Romney 2012.
Prove to us there were thousands of cases of registration fraud in the last election.
@pjam09 - While you try to paint this as a single incident by a subcontractor far removed from the process, you may want to take a look at Sproul's history. He doesn't tend to remain "fired by the republicans" for very long, it seems: So far 40 or more cases have been opened up this year alone however in the Nathan Sproul case -he has a very long history of working to “fix” elections for the republicans. George Bush hired him, Sen. McCain and now Mitt Romney paid a sum of 1.3 million in July and August and up to 3.1 million for Sproul’s services. While Sproul has this long history with republicans he also is keenly aware of how to “game” the system and fix the election.
ROMNEY PLANS TO STEAL THE ELECTION..FAMILY PURCHASES VOTING MACHINES IN OHIO and COLORADO...see article...if true, this is completely unethical and arrogance..
www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13221476-romney-family-buys-voting-machines-through-bain-capital-investment
“The actions taken by this individual are a direct contradiction of both his training and explicit instructions given to him,” said Pat Mullins, the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, in a statement Thursday night. “The Republican Party of Virginia will not tolerate any action by any person that could threaten the integrity of our electoral process."
English Translation:
“The actions taken by this individual are a direct contradiction of both his training and explicit instructions given to him, he was told to shred Democrat registrations before discarding them” said Pat Mullins, the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, in a statement Thursday night. “The Republican Party of Virginia will not tolerate any action by any person that could threaten our voter intimidation and voter supression efforts."
ACORN.. do i have to remind you how many are waiting to go to jail for Obamas first 4 years.. that is who he worked with.. remember that.. I do think this guy needs to go to jail also.. But dont act as though the REPS. are the only ones who have screwy people doing jobs they shouldnt have.. Who knows he might have been hired by the DEMS to do this.. I do know that the NAACP has asked the UN to come over here and watch our elections, to see if minorities are being treated different.. What a joke.. Obama allowed this.. he is trying to globalize us.. The are communist and socialist and they are being allowed to go into our polling places and intervene if they want to.. What is going on people. This is not AMERICA.. call or email your congressmen. this is so wrong and racist.. why do blacks constantly think they deserve more than everyone else.. i was not racist but i am gonna look at black people differently now.. You all want to be slaves to the commusnist and socialist.. Go right ahead.. why dont you move to the middle east..
Yes, please tell us how many are waiting to go to jail due to ACORN...because they were cleared in multiple investigations;
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-03-01/news/27057678_1_acorn-offices-o-keefe-and-giles-prostitution
http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Two-years-later-ACORN-cleared-of-voter-fraud-993123.php
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7600
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/12/acorn_workers_cleared_of_illeg.html
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0310/ACORN_cleared_in_Brooklyn_No_criminality.html
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/06/15/preliminary-report-clears-acorn/
http://www.fair.org/blog/2010/07/21/sherrod-story-raises-question-how-many-breitbart-frauds-will-media-fall-for/
So no, Democrats DO NOT do the same thing...so stop pretending they do.
I am voting for Romney. I am a registered Republican (only because I have to register to vote). I don't vote party - I vote principal. Colin Small, if found guilty, should be thrown in jail for a few years and made to memorize everything that people went through to begin and sustain this free nation. Voting is a responsibility and a sacred right given to us by God and the men and women in uniform who see to it that we can elect our own government, peacefully. Much blood was shed to give us this right. May we never take it for granted!
WE the people are totally screwed no matter who wins the Presidency. They had two debates about domestic issues and NO ONE asked HOW we the people can afford to pay atleast 8% more in TAXES for 2012 because of discontinued TAX BREAKS which we will not recieve. NO ONE CARES? OR the system SUCKS and we the People are SCREWED???
I am changing my name legally to YOUR FIRED and adding it to novembers ballot.
The bag was later found to contain eight voter registration forms..
Florida warns voters of fraudulent notification letter
Well this just can't be!!!! I mean...he's a member of the GOP!!!! He's one of the chosen followers of everything good in this world!!!!!! It HAS to be a conspiracy!!!!!!
Funny how Republicans spin this story. Spinning is fine if you're for the GOP apparently. It doesn't matter who employed him and how many ballots. It's fraud.
GOP = Greed Over People
Boy Scouts you are not.... Win at all costs, lie cheat and steal your way in so you can take more from the country for your personal greedy selves.