ACORN, DCCC and Jim Oberweis

This ACORN voter registration fraud is fading from the headlines, but it shouldn't.  Voter fraud allegations will be the story if this is as close election as polls are showing. And running across a connection between ACORN, the DCCC and Jim Oberweis' 14th CD campaign has made the ACORN story even more interesting.

Who is allowed to vote and ACORN's questionable activities was addressed a few days ago in a press release by Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole (more on IR later today). Cole's points about ACORN are poignant:

Unfortunately, it does not appear to be just a few bad apples at ACORN. The entire organization has a considerable record of manipulation and fraud. In June the Consumers Rights League published a series of internal documents from the organization that reveal ACORN has comingled political money and taxpayer funds. In order to prevent future taxpayer rip-offs and blatant voter fraud, the Community Reinvestment Act needs to be overhauled, and ACORN should never again receive a penny of taxpayer money. Furthermore, those responsible for the fraudulent registrations must be thoroughly investigated, and if found guilty, punished to the full extent of the law.

What does that have to do with Republican Jim Oberweis?

In Illinois, a Lake County household received notice their dead goldfish was registered to vote by another group called Women's Voices.   ACORN and their cousins, Women's Voices as well as Illinois' Coalition of Immigrants and Refugees' Rights (ICIRR) have been implementing questionable voter registration manipulation tactics for years.  It's about time someone began paying attention.

This whole ACORN thing came home when I was watching a FOX NEWS broadcast about the ACORN allegations a couple of weeks ago.  In the discussion between Meghan Kelly and the head of Ohio's ACORN, FOX used a video clip featuring a young blonde-haired woman who looked familiar to me.  Where had I seen her?  In Illinois' 14th Congressional District. 

Here's the piece:

The blonde woman in the red ACORN t-shirt was notable -- I had looked her straight in the eyes at a town hall forum in West Chicago, one featuring 14th CD candidate Jim Oberweis. 

The blonde was at the forum to video Oberweis, and Jim acknowledged her in the room and joked that she'd been following the town hall circuit, saying she was recording the conservation for the DCCC on behalf of Bill Foster's campaign.   She was forthright, and didn't attempt to disguise her activities.  She butted her way around the room and stayed next to Jim the whole time he talked to constituents after the forum. (See to the right a photo I took that night, which includes on the far left a photo of her hand with video cam.)

So what a surprise it was to have the Oberweis campaign acknowledge that the woman who had been following their campaign with a video cam in hand was the same woman who had acknowledged to Oberweis campaign workers she also worked for the DCCC, and that the Oberweis campaign was the one she was assigned to follow.

Anything wrong with any of these activities?  Not as far as we know now.  But to those of us who aren't fully immersed in politics, it's fairly enlightening to know how the DCCC works.  And how we're often innocently manipulated. 

Congressman Cole's recommendations should be seriously considered in the days ahead.  However, since DCCC workers double as ACORN workers, we can be fairly certain absolutely nothing like that will happen with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid leading Congress. 

That's a grim reality.

Comments

I hope the (more on IR later) establishes the relationship, or lack of same, between the unconnected parts of this story.

There is a jump from ACORN to non-ACORN people in Lake County outside the 14th to the 14th to a DCC worker.

Two possibilities: Either groups like ACORN and ICRR do (or don't) take orders from the DCC. Either they are, or are not independent.

This could be compared to whether Rush, Sean, etal take their orders from some Republican group or official. Or whether URF takes orders from McKenna. They might have conversations and are aware of each other's positions. But that is not the same as taking orders.

[Frank Goudy]

No tax money should be funded for any of these so-called voter registration organizations.

We all know that this is a Democratic scam on the American public with the obvious intent of using my money to register Democrats. And if the Republicans go along with this type of legislation they are just as bad.

I expect to see more of it, not less, in a new Democratic Congress and probably President.

[Andy Haaf]

The bottom line is Americans are being scammed this election not only by the words the Democrats use to spin their solutions but by the voting process upon which we rely on for accuracy and integrity.

The challenge is this however. How do we educate people on a mass scale when traditional media will not? This forum is great for exchanging ideas among like minds (and Will From NYC) but it does not reach those who are ill-informed or misguided.

Will the RNCC do it effectively? No. Will the ILGOP do it effectively? No. Conservatives need a new and more powerful organization to advance our principles or at least clean house on the leadership and consultants which currently exist in the ones we have today.

[Fran]

Couldn't share frustrations more, Andy. Getting around the lame stream media is the challenge conservatives face for tomorrow. As you've said lots on IR, our message is good, it just needs to be updated and presented in an appealing way.

The way I look at it is that while IR isn't the NYT or National REview, it's something. And while our numbers are the most for any conservative blog in Illinois, we admittedly have along way to go. Here's the upside, though . . . if what we do here gets out enough for some with bigger venues to take and use to get out the message, we've been good stewards of the venue we've developed.
And with that, there's hope for the future.
Stories like this are out there everywhere. We just don't have the resources to investigate and research as much as we'd like. But we're pleased to be doing all we can. Perhaps it will be guys like you that can take this mantle and move it forward quickly and powerfully.
In the meantime, the people of the 14th should be motivated to get out there and make a difference.

[Jim Miller]

Looks like that notable blonde woman was doing her job. That is, canvassing real people, not fraudlently filling out voter registration cards as Fox News claims. You may be subject to libel & deflammation of character charges by her. Instead of looking into her eyes, did you ever think of asking a question? Isn't that a journalist's job? Much easier to make uninformed accusations. And the nonsense spreads.

[Fran]

Jim:
When I saw her at the Oberweis event, I had no reason to ask her anything about ACORN. I'm not accusing her of fraudulent behavior, I'm simply sharing an observation of seeing her at the Oberweis event and seeing her by accident on video wearing an ACORN shirt. If sharing observations is "deflammation" of character, then I guess I'm guilty.

But I don't regret sharing the observations... just thought they were interesting.

Lighten up, Jim, we've got a taste of how our speech and other constitutional rights will be muffled when eager liberal leftists take over our country.