On Tuesday, December 1, 2009, House Republicans held a public forum on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, more commonly known as ACORN. The forum, chaired by Congressmen Lamar Smith and Darrell Issa, was intended to raise awareness of the allegations of corruption and voter fraud that have been leveled against ACORN. Congressman Smith opened the forum by citing numerous incidents of misconduct on the part of ACORN and its countless affiliates, including embezzlement, fraud, paying employees with cocaine, and the now infamous videos showing ACORN advising undercover investigators on how to hide prostitution from government officials. Congressman Smith stated that “It is disappointing that the Democratic majority has taken no steps to build a record of ACORN’s wrong-doing even though an overwhelming majority of Members voted to ban ACORN from receiving federal funds. The Speaker has said ‘we have to have our own investigation,' but so far that has been all talk, and no action…Members of the Judiciary Committee have a responsibility to look into allegations that ACORN, affiliated organizations, and its employees have engaged in activities that undermine the integrity of our democracy.  Today Mr. Issa and I, and our Republican colleagues begin that process.”

All of the Congressmen present at the event were Republicans, and in their opening statements the majority of them vehemently asserted that ACORN was a corrupt organization that needed to be thoroughly investigated. Congressman Steve King said that ACORN was a threat to the Constitution, and asserted that the roads following ACORN would eventually lead to the White House. Congressman Louie Gohmert pointed out that “from one acorn, many nuts can grow.” However, one lone Congressman, Joseph Cao of Louisiana, seemed less convinced that ACORN needed investigating, stating that he was attending the forum to “get the details to see if ACORN committed fraud.” He added that “I know that the organization has done some good things,” and left the forum halfway through.

The four expert witnesses at the forum all had intimate knowledge of ACORN and its operational practices, and included Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, Deputy Director of the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office David Caldwell, former ACORN employee Anita MonCrief, and Hans von Spakovsky, a Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission. 

Secretary Todd Rokita's Testimony

Supporting Documents

Secretary Rokita presented evidence his team collected that indicates “ACORN involvement in ‘large scale’ criminal voter registration fraud.” In his state of Indiana, his office examined voter registration applications. In one district, “evidence of a pattern of voter fraud was striking: 61% of the applications had one or more critical defects observable on the face of theapplications – rendering them invalid and useless.” Rokita added that ACORN routinely collects thousands of voter registration applications and holds onto them for months, “only to submit them in large batches very near the close of voter registration.” This gives the election board less time to focus on legitimate applications, and makes it more likely that incorrect applications are processed. Rokita asked that “for the sake of the rule of law, as well as public confidence in elections, I would respectfully ask your committees to demand the engagement of federal government investigation and law enforcement agencies to bring about clarity and justice…public confidence in our grand Constitutional election process is at stake.” 

David Caldwell Testimony

Secretary Caldwell summarized the Louisiana Attorney General's Office's current investigation of ACORN, and mentioned the difficulty in getting the organization to comply with the law. His team is currently looking into the allegations that ACORN founder Wade Rathke was involved in an embezzlement cover-up in 1998. ACORN failed to comply with subpoenas, claiming that their records were protected. In the middle of their investigation, the Attorney General’s office discovered that hard drives from ACORN’s offices had been removed. “We then immediately obtained a search warrant and…seized 178 hard drives, servers, and other relevant documentation.” Unfortunately, the information obtained is too expensive to fully examine, and Caldwell asked for assistance from any law enforcement or agency that “may be interested in benefitting from a shared investigative effort...The task of properly investigating almost 400 entities and over 600 bank accounts is massive to say the least. Estimates…indicate a cost of around $3.5 million. This cost does not include the necessary forensic accounting review of the 600 + ACORN affiliated accounts. A coordinated effort is the only way to fully and effectively investigate this case.” 

Anita MonCrief Testimony 

Anita MonCrief, often referred to as “the ACORN whistleblower,” provided information about her employment at ACORN and Project Vote.  She worked for ACORN’s national office, but stated that in actuality, although she was paid by ACORN, she did much of  her work for Project Vote. She said that “after working on voter fraud research for ACORN political, I saw a pattern of employees being persecuted for shenanigans during election years.” When questioned, MonCreif said that lower level ACORN employees were routinely “thrown under the bus” in order to protect higher-ups in the organization. She also asserted that Project Vote worked for the Obama presidential campaign to solicit donors, and that they contractedACORN employees to conduct “partisan campaign activities” to protect Project Vote’s status as a non-partisan organization. 

Hans von Spakovsky Testimony   

Hans von Spakovsky summarized allegations against ACORN he had found in his research. He pointed out that the incidents were not isolated but instead there were “numerous possible violations of federal law by an organization that has received millions of federal tax dollars in grants.” Von Spakovsky described ACORN as “a tangled mess of interlocking directorates where a small group controls all of the dozens of shell companies that routinely (and possibly illegally) transfer millions of dollars” that followed “the classic pattern used by criminals to launder money and control their operations.” He concluded by calling for government to conduct a full investigation of ACORN. “If [they] are not conducting any investigations, they should be required to explain why they are not carrying out their enforcement duties to investigate and prosecute violations of federal law.”

The forum was well attended, but the congressmen present stressed the importance of continued attention to ACORN and its affiliates, as well as their disappointment with Democrats in congress and federal officials who have failed to investigate the organization. They hoped that their forum would serve as "a wake-up call for America," and called ACORN "a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic party." Congressman Issa speculated that the Obama Administration may be working to overturn its ruling to cut funding to ACORN. Recently, the Office of Legal Counsel decided to honor contracts between ACORN and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, although the decision goes against the ruling to cut all federal money going to the group. Congressman King reminded people that ACORN was far from defeated, and added that "the era of corruption, propagated by ACORN and protected by the White House, has just begun."