Marathon Pundit: SEIU and ACORN: More problems for Giannoulias

Thursday, May 27, 2010

SEIU and ACORN: More problems for Giannoulias

When will Alexi speak up?

From an Illinois Republican Party press release:

As Alexi Giannoulias remains silent on SEIU's pledge to support his Senate campaign, Rod Blagojevich isn't his only problem. SEIU is also closely associated with ACORN – a group whose members were charged with voter registration fraud in Wisconsin earlier this year.

SEIU has supported ACORN to the tune of at least $4 million.[1]
SEIU's outgoing national president, Andy Stern, serves on ACORN's advisory board.[2]
Wade Rathke, the founder of ACORN, served on SEIU's national executive board, co-founded the SEIU Southern Conference, and founded a major SEIU local in New Orleans (local 100).[3]
ACORN played a critical role in the establishment of Illinois SEIU Local 880. Local 880 claims it "was founded over 20 years ago as an independent union with the guidance of our sister organization, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)."[4]
In a 2000 IRS filing for Local 880's political action committee, the contact email was listed as SEIU880@acorn.org.[5] The mailing address for Local 880’s labor organizing fund was 1024 Elysian Fields Ave, New Orleans. ACORN operated its national headquarters out of that address.[6]
In its 2006 end-of-year report, Local 880 recounts working with ACORN in a 'flawless' campaign to raise the minimum wage in Illinois which would "force the state to raise reimbursement rates for thousands of homecare and other workers and trigger increases in all of our contracts." Local 880 again calls ACORN its "sister organization" in the 2006 report. The two organizations also worked together to help re-elect Rod Blagojevich.[7]
Local 880 rented office space[8] from the "Chicago Organizing and Support Center," an ACORN affiliate[9]. Both Local 880[10] and ACORN[11] had offices at 209 W. Jackson Blvd in Chicago.
Will Alexi Giannoulias call on SEIU to sever its ties with ACORN before taking the Blagojevich-linked union’s help?
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[1] http://www.npr.org/blogs/secretmoney/2008/10/acorns_money_tree_has_many_bra.html
[2] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/16/acorn-suspends-plans-audit-wake-videos/
[3] http://chieforganizer.org/biography/
[4] http://www.accessliving.org/index.php?tray=biography_company&tid=top916&cid=321
[5] http://bulk.resource.org/irs.gov/section_527/part03/364395842-8872-0003.pdf
[6] ibid
[7] Is Acorn Intentionally Structured as a Criminal Enterprise?, U.S. House of Representatives - Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 23, 2009, page 57
[8] LM-2 Annual Report, SEIU Local 880, 2008
[9] Is Acorn Intentionally Structured as a Criminal Enterprise?,U.S. House of Representatives - Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 23, 2009, page 78
[10] http://www.seiu.org/local/illinois/
[11] http://www.cookcountysheriff.org/SocialService/socialService_Financial%20AssistanceRentMortgage.html