Britannia Radio

ACORN had plan to affect state races

Critics: Droppedidea would havehelped Democrats

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Stephen Koff

Plain Dealer Bureau Chief

Washington -- As conspiracy theories go, this one met the legacy test: Skeptics remained convinced that ACORN, the community organizing group, tried to steal Ohio's 2008 election, even though authorities declared the balloting clean.

So be forewarned, because what follows reawakens old suspicions -- and Republicans say there's a good reason. In a nutshell:

ACORN, under attack for other misdeeds, plotted privately to help elect liberal congressional candidates in several 2008 Ohio races, a previously undisclosed ACORN political plan shows. This is the first time that ACORN, formally called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has been linked to Democratic congressional election efforts in Ohio.

ACORN's detailed "Ohio 2007-08 Political Plan," targeting swing "congressional districts upon which the balance of power in Congress will rest," was ultimately scaled back. It appears the organization, which says it merely wants to empower disenfranchised people, decided not to mount voter campaigns that would have specifically helped Democrats Zack Space of Dover; Steve Driehaus of Cincinnati, and Mary Jo Kilroy of Columbus, all of whom won their congressional races anyway.

ACORN said in interviews with The Plain Dealer that its final efforts were generic -- tied not to a political party but to conducting "the largest nonpartisan voter registration drive in Ohio's history." It calls the new conspiracy theories ridiculous.

But to some, ACORN's early 13-page plan for the 2008 election reinforces what critics always assumed: The group's goal was never nonpartisan. The political plan and other ACORN documents show that the group was interested not just in helping presidential candidate Barack Obama, whom it urged its members to support, according to post-election Federal Election Commission reports. ACORN also was interested in Congress and the Ohio Statehouse.

"There's no question that ACORN strategized to figure out how its election efforts could maximize the benefit for selected Democratic candidates in the most competitive races," U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa of California told The Plain Dealer.

Issa is the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. His staff obtained ACORN's Ohio plan, drafted in April 2007, as part of a broader investigation into the group. Issa's staff provided documents to The Plain Dealer at the newspaper's request.

ACORN picks its races

It's common for public interest groups to support political candidates who share their ideals, whether abortion-rights groups on the left or gun-rights groups on the right. ACORN's agenda includes fighting to improve low-income housing and to stop banks' predatory lending, causes typically joined by Democrats.

Yet ACORN has never publicly stated an intent to back a specific party or congressional candidate in Ohio. Critics including Republicans say that ACORN's early blueprint for Ohio congressional elections - written by ACORN's top state organizer, its Midwest political director and its Ohio legislative director - reveals how closely the group aligned itself with Democrats.