As ACORN is under investigation for fraud in at least 12 states (battleground states), and reports of multiple registrations, duplicated absentee ballots, and paying or bribing people for fraudulent voter registrations abound; the McCain campaign is pointing out that Senator Obama has minimized his connection with ACORN. While they didn’t bring up the Obama campaign’s $800,000+ payment to an ACORN front organization that shares the same address and much of the same staff, they do layout Senator Obama’s lengthy connection with the group. This is a connection that to this day Senator Obama has been misleading and deceptive about. His campaign has even had to change the write up on his site ‘fight the smears’ because the “facts” they listed about Obama’s connection to ACORN were false.
· Obama Started Working With ACORN In 1992, And Earlier This Year Said He Had Been Fighting Alongside ACORN His Entire Career
· Obama Worked As An Organizer For Project Vote, An ACORN Offshoot
· ACORN’S Website Lists Project Vote As An Allied Organization
As A Community Organizer, Obama Worked With ACORN
Obama: “I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. 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 2008 Website, Accessed 10/8/08)
Obama Started Working With ACORN In 1992. “What’s more, Obama worked as executive director of ACORN’s voter-registration arm, Project Vote, in 1992. Joined by two other community organizers on Chicago’s South Side, Obama conducted the voter-registration drive that helped elect Carol Moseley-Braun to the Senate that year.” (Editorial, “Is ACORN Stealing The Election?” Investor’s Business Daily, 10/8/08)
“Obama Worked As An Organizer For Project Vote, An Acorn Offshoot.” “Early in his career, Obama worked as an organizer for Project Vote, an ACORN offshoot, and represented ACORN in legal actions, according to various published reports, including Associated Press articles. ACORN’s political action committee endorsed Obama in the primary.” (David M. Brown, “Obama To Amend Report On $800,000 In Spending,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 8/22/08)
Time Magazine Described Project Vote As A “Non-Partisan Arm” Of ACORN. “David Leland [is] national director of Project Vote, a nonpartisan arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which claims it has registered more than 50,000 voters in the Columbus area.” (Karen Tumulty and Perry Bacon, “Fighting For Every Last Vote,” Time Magazine, 10/18/04)
To This Very Day, ACORN’S Website Lists Project Vote As An Allied Organization. (ACORN Website, Accessed 10/14/08)
