What is ACORN, and why does it make FOX News pundits so angry?

Related subjects: In the Loop, Media, U.S. Politics, Vote 2008 Comments (1)

30 September 2008 :: staff

ACORN is an organization that unites and coordinates the efforts of multiple community-organizing groups around the country, focusing originally on housing-availability and inequity issues, and expanding into healthcare rights, civil rights, voter registration and electoral and state-representation reform. The acronym stands for the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now. It was founded in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1970, in response to the need to deal with a number of civil rights issues in the city.

FOX News has taken up the mission of pseudo-conservative talk-radio showmen, who have sought to paint the group as a dangerous, “radical” or “fringe” group, working to somehow undermine the American political system. The reasons for this are not clear, as the group has no history of radicalism or of anything other than non-violent organization, protest and lobbying action. Some conservatives resent the organization’s efforts in the 1980s to focus national attention on the need for low-income housing by directly protesting the policies of Pres. Ronald Reagan.

Prominent members of the Republican party —Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is one—, the Wall St. Journal editorial page, and prominent conservative bloggers have sparked anger and opposition to the group and to the financial rescue package with the false claim that the bill included a “slush fund” for ACORN. There is no such provision.

The legislation would direct certain funds to states and cities in an effort to help relieve economic stresses on communities; those local governments may choose to direct funding to causes —like low-income housing, micro-credit and low-wage tax relief— that ACORN often supports, but there is no ACORN earmark and no reason to assume they would receive any funds. Federal oversight standards are laid out, and state and local governments would choose how to address housing issues in their jurisdiction.

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Ties between the group and the Democratic party have grown over time, as Democratic politicians and affiliated groups have worked with ACORN to try to reach some of its stated policy goals. In this way, it can be seen by pro-Republican analysts or strategists as a Democratic PAC, which it is not. The group has worked to help elect Democratic candidates and has sent delegates to the Democratic National Convention in the past, but has set as its standard for endorsing individual candidates a 75%-support threshold among its membership.

Among ACORN’s signature civil rights issues is not only housing, but lending-borrowing rights. According to Wikipedia:

ACORN has fought against lending practices that it sees as predatory by targeting the national companies that practice them, working for stronger state laws against predatory practices, organizing against local financial scams, and steering individuals toward loan counseling.^[3] Following a three-year campaign Household International (now owned by HSBC Holdings and renamed HSBC Finance Corporation), one of the largest subprime lenders in the country, and ACORN announced on November 25, 2003 a proposed settlement of a 2002 national class-action lawsuit brought by ACORN. The settlement created a $72 million Foreclosure Avoidance Program to provide relief to Household borrowers who are at risk of losing their homes.^[3] The settlement came on the heels of an earlier $484 million settlement between Household, Attorneys General, and bank regulators from all 50 US states.^[4]

Other key rights issues on which the group focuses its efforts include establishing in every region of the country real “living wages” —meaning that minimum wage should not be insufficient to cover the actual cost of living for an employee and his or her family—, education policy and reform —notably added funding for underprivileged communities, availability of books and learning materials for poor students, and action against for-profit takeovers of public education systems—, and gun control —siding with cities that seek to limit the number of firearms on the streets—, each of which are issues that many conservative Republicans feel work against their ideological positions.

The group also played a role in bringing relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina, in areas where public assistance was lacking or entirely absent. Again, Wikipedia reports that:

ACORN’s Home Cleanout Demonstration Program has gutted and rebuilt over 1,850 homes with the help of volunteers. The ACORN Katrina Survivors Association formed in the aftermath of the storm is the first nationwide organization for Katrina survivors and has been working for equitable treatment for victims. Displaced citizens were bused into the city for the New Orleans primary and general elections. ACORN Housing Services have helped more than 2,000 homeowners affected by the storm and is an official planner working with the city on reconstruction.

There have been several instances in which Republican politicians and state governments have made allegations of volunteers for the group being involved in issuing “false” or “fraudulent” voter registration forms. In no case has any investigation found the group to have planned or been involved in such efforts. In several cases, the “false” registrations amounted to forms not fully completed by voters, and which while perhaps inadequate under state law to secure the voter full registration, were not in fact fraudulent at all.

ACORN and other election observers have accused the federal government of using its prosecutorial powers to create a phony “voter fraud” issue, under which it can effectively target groups that help to register and organize voters considered demographically less likely to vote for the Republican party. All such allegations have been denied, but the Justice Department now faces an independent prosecutor’s investigation of the attorney general’s predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, and his deputies, for allegedly firing US attorneys who refused to engage in politically-driven prosecutions.

While four ACORN employees —each of them fired by the group— were indicted for allegedly submitting false voter registrations in Ohio in 2004, it is not clear there was any criminal wrongdoing, and the organization itself has denounced any such action and taken action to prevent it and to bring it to light wherever it may occur.

The Republican administration of the state of Ohio has also been investigated for vote-blocking efforts that may violate federal law and for alleged misuse of electronic voting equipment, and the head of Premier/Diebold election systems, which manufactured many of the electronic balloting machines used in the state, faces investigation for ongoing, systemic flaws in the software and hardware he sold to numerous states, which has repeatedly malfunctioned in such a way as to skew vote totals. He infamously said in 2004 he would do anything in his power to help Bush win Ohio.

In at least one case:

In 2007, five Washington state ACORN workers were sentenced to jail time.[25] ACORN agreed to pay King County $25 000 for its investigative costs and acknowledged that the national organization could be subject to criminal prosecution if fraud occurs again. According to King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, the misconduct was done “as an easy way to get paid [by ACORN], not as an attempt to influence the outcome of elections.”

Those “fraudulent” voter registrations would not influence the outcome of an election, because incomplete or false registrations do not permit anyone to cast votes. An individual must appear and demonstrate —usually by signature or photo ID— that he or she is legitimately registered. Also, in the Washington case, it appears ACORN itself was defrauded by staff falsely claiming to have completed work they did not do (registering actual voters).

Perhaps it is this attack/counter-attack that stokes the fires of animosity among some of FOX News’ more pro-Republican commentators, but it must be part of the record of reporting and commentary for this election that ACORN is not a radical group, and is not working to undermine American government or to rig American elections. No evidence of any kind exists to support such claims.