Fresh Loaf

Several state lawmakers with Glenn Beck posters in their Gold Dome lockers have convinced Gov. Sonny Perdue to cut ties with ACORN, the nonprofit organization that recently earned acclaim for its innovative approach to working with entrepreneurs and small businesses.

“I want to thank Sen. [Chip] Rogers and Reps. [Tom] Graves, [Mike] Keown and [Ed] Setlzer for bringing the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (“ACORN”) contract to my attention. In July, I directed my office to review all consulting contracts the state has with outside vendors to look for budget savings; that review did not identify the ACORN contract, because it does not involve state funds. The State of Georgia will not renew the contract, which expires in 13 days. Further, I have issued an Executive Order that prevents executive branch agencies from doing business with ACORN in the future and calls for a review of any existing contracts with ACORN.”

Perdue’s statement, on its own, is a little confusing. ACORN’s contract “does not involve state funds,” so it’s hard to tell how the state was paying the organization. Or what service it provided for the state. We’ve asked the governor’s office for some clarification.

The U.S. House and Senate have voted to cut funding to ACORN. On Sept. 11, the U.S. Census Bureau severed ties with the organization.

Perdue’s full statement and the executive order are pasted after the jump.

(more…)

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U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., recently said she’d protest the upcoming census survey by only filling out the number of people who lived in her household. (Bachmann said ACORN, which is a census “community partner,” wanted to eat her home. She was wrong. Earlier this week the Libertarian Party’s DeKalb County party issued a press release in support of Bachmann’s stance.)

U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Uppity, and some fellow elephants are asking their cosmos-dwelling colleague to come back to Earth.

From the Washington Post’s Federal Eye blog:

Republican colleagues have now called her boycott illogical and illegal.

“Every elected representative in this country should feel a responsibility to encourage full participation in the census. To do otherwise is to advocate for a smaller share of federal funding for our constituents,” Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and John Mica (R-Fla.) said in a statement. The trio is members the House Census Oversight Subcommittee.

They argue that her boycott only increases the likelihood of political interference, because Census staffers and volunteers would have to visit her home to do a followup interview.

“Anyone who completes and returns their census form will remove any need for a census taker to visit their residence,” the group said.

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Jesus, this never ends.

Yesterday, state Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chicamauga, was blasted by ACORN, the controversial grassroots organization that was accused of voter registration fraud during last year’s presidential campaign, for the lawmaker’s resolution that urges the Internal Revenue Service yank its tax-exempt status. ACORN said it didn’t have such status.

There was much guffawing. But blogger Anita Moncrief says Mullis was right.

Sentator Mullis was correct in calling for ACORN’s tax exempt status to be revoked because it does have one, it just happens to be registered in the name of Project Vote. Civil RICO charges filed on January 7, 2008 allege what the liberal voter registration world has known for years. The complaint details a report done by ACORN’s own lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley. The complaint also quotes part of the document that was leaked to the New York Times.

There’s lot more to Moncrief’s argument, which can be viewed through the link. (Click that little word “says” up there. Success!)

Updated to reflect a comment below.

(A big tip of the hat is due to Jason Pye, who along with Chris Farris, is providing great Gold Dome coverage this session at Georgia Legislative Watch.)

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Charles Jackson, ACORN’s communications director, sends this prepared statement regarding a resolution filed yesterday by state Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chicamauga, urging the IRS yank the grassroots’ organization’s tax-exempt status.

ACORN says there’s just one problem — it doesn’t have such a status. ACORN President Maude Hurd says Mullis “indicates his ignorance” with the resolution.

*ACORN Response to Ga. Senator’s Legislation: Organization has no tax-exempt status *

On Jan. 13, ACORN President Maude Hurd released the following statement on Georgia State Sen. Jeff Mullis’ legislation urging the Internal Revenue Service to no longer allow ACORN to keep its tax exempt status.

“Senator Mullis is just throwing around an old John McCain talking point. He would do better focusing on the issues of working families in Georgia, like jobs or foreclosures.

ACORN is proud of our work to help low and moderate-income citizens become apart of the electoral process. More than 900,000 voters – mostly minority and low-income — have cast ballots since 2004 through ACORN’s voter registration efforts.

ACORN has never been charged with falsifying any voter records. There has been a small fraction of the 13,000 temporary workers we hired to try to defraud ACORN by turning in bogus cards. ACORN has a zero policy for employees deliberately falsifying registrations, and in the cases where our internal quality control procedures identifies this is happening, the person is fired and turned into elections and law enforcement officials.

As required by law and legal advice, ACORN turned in all signed applications for final verification to be determined by election officials. This extensive Quality Control process held up well in the face of politically-motivated attacks and unprecedented media scrutiny. Though this fact was not always widely reported, most of the forms that Boards of Elections found to be problematic had already been flagged as such by ACORN’s own staff.

Senator Mullis indicates his ignorance by calling for revocation of ACORN’s tax-exempt status; the organization does not have such status.”

(Jim Galloway at the AJC’s Political Insider reminds us that Mullis was one of the earliest supporters of John McCain, the former presidential candidate who accused ACORN of “maybe destroying the fabric of democracy in this country” with its controversial voter registration drives.)

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State Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, filed legislation today that urges the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

If you recall, the grassroots organization pissed off cable news pundits and right-wing Internet trolls during the 2008 presidential election for alleged voter fraud.

From the state Senate press office:

“An organization that chooses to undermine the integrity of our nation’s election process should not be entitled to tax exemption benefits,” said Sen. Mullis. “The excessive amount of evidence against ACORN engaging in fraudulent activity demands that the organization to be held accountable for taking advantage of hardworking taxpayers, and I call on the IRS to ensure that justice is executed in this case.”

The grassroots organization runs a large voter registration drive focused on minority and low-income communities, and during the 2008 presidential election came under fire for submitting voter registrations to 11 states with false information. ACORN has been accused of submitting the names of deceased persons and the names of 15 members of the Dallas Cowboys on registration forms in Nevada. In Ohio, one person stated that he signed 73 voter registration applications over a five-month span through ACORN, and in Connecticut, ACORN submitted a registration card for a seven-year-old girl that contained a false birth date.

Sen. Mullis is calling on the IRS and the Secretary of the Treasury to launch a full-scale investigation into ACORN’s fraudulent activities, and is urging the IRS to remove the organization’s tax exemption status.

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