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A Single Seed Grows Many Branches: ACORN’s Web of Connections in North Carolina

Francis De Luca  |  January 7, 2010

A Single Seed Grows Many Branches: ACORN’s Web of Connections in North Carolina

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) has woven itself into the fabric of the left in North Carolina. Listed below are short explanations of the ties between the groups illustrated on the above chart. For more detailed information on ACORN NC see Capitol-Monitor.org.

Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN)
ACORN NC – ACORN’s North Carolina arm – has offices in Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte. ACORN NC is a member of Blueprint NC and partners with NC Housing Coalition, NC Policy Watch and the NC Justice Center, among others.  

Blueprint North Carolina
Blueprint NC was organized and funded by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. It is a partnership of over 40 progressive (liberal) state-level nonprofits housed at the  NC Justice Center. Blueprint NC’s partner organizations are:

·         Phillip Randolph Institute

·         Action for Children

·         American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina (ACLU)

·         Carolina Justice Policy Center

·         Center for Community Self-Help/Center for Responsible Lending

·         Center for Death Penalty Litigation

·         Common Cause

·         Community Reinvestment Association of NC- CRANC

·         Conservation Council of NC Foundation

·         Conservation Trust of NC

·         Covenant with North Carolina’s Children, Inc.

·         Democracy NC

·         Disability Rights NC

·         El Pueblo

·         Environment NC

·         Equality NC

·         Fair Trial Initiative

·         Institute for Southern Studies

·         Ipas

·         League of Women Voters - Charlotte

·         Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation

·         NARAL Pro-Choice NC

·         NC ACORN

·         NC Against Gun Violence

·         NC Alliance of Black Elected Officials

·         NC Association of CDCs

·         NC Center for Voter Education

·         NC Coalition Against Domestic Violence

·         NC Coalition Against Domestic Violence

·         NC Coalition Against Sexual Assault

·         NC Coalition to End Homelessness

·         NC Community Development Initiative

·         NC Conservation Network

·         NC Environmental Defense

·         NC Fair Share

·         NC Housing Coalition, Inc.

·         NC Institute of Minority Economic Development

·         NC John Muir Foundation (Sierra Club)

·         NC Justice Center

·         NC Latino Coalition, Inc.

·         NC Minority Support Center

·         NC NAACP

·         NC Policy Watch

·         People of Faith Against the Death Penalty

·         Planned Parenthood Health Systems

·         Planned Parenthood of Central NC

·         Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

·         Southern Coalition of Social Justice

·         Traction

·         Working Families Win

Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation funds progressive groups. Among them are El Pueblo Inc., North Carolina Housing Coalition, NC Justice Center and Project Vote.

NC Housing Coalition
The Campaign for Housing Carolina is a collaborative effort led by the NC Housing Coalition joined by NC Justice Center, A.J. Fletcher Foundation and ACORN NC.

Project Vote
Project Vote is ACORN’s voter mobilization arm and has provided legal support, including supporting litigation, for ACORN in a number of states. Project Vote registered more than 1.3 million individuals to vote; many of who were deceased, under the voting age or were fabricated registrants. 

A.J. Fletcher Foundation
The A.J. Fletcher Foundation, whose mission is to support progressive nonprofits, gave $205,000 to the NC Justice Center and over $66,000 to the NC Housing Coalition in 2007.

Tides Foundation
Tides Foundation received a $25,000 grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, part of which was used to create gettraction.org. The Tides Foundation has given grants to the Center for Community Change as well as over $1 million to Project Vote.

Center for Community Change
The Center for Community Change received money from the Tides Foundation and is partners with the NC Justice Center.

Traction
Traction and their blog, gettraction.org, define themselves as the “future of the progressive movement.” Traction was created through the Tides Foundation from a Z. Smith Reynolds grant.

NC Policy Watch
NC Policy Watch is a project of the Justice Center and located there. NC Policy Watch affiliates with El Pueblo Inc, works with ACORN NC on projects and is a member of Blueprint NC.

El Pueblo Inc.
El Pueblo, an advocacy organization for the Latino community, is a member of Blueprint NC and affiliates with NC Policy Watch. They also received a $107,500 grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations is a federation of 57 international labor unions. In North Carolina, AFL-CIO shares a building with ACORN NC and is on the North Carolina chapter of Health Care for America Now.

Bank of America
Bank of America has donated millions of dollars to ACORN for “neighborhood preservation.” They also financially support the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA).

North Carolina Coalition of Health Care for America Now
NC HCAN is the North Carolina arm of a grassroots organization that pushed for passage of the national health-care bill. NC HCAN has a 16-member steering committee, whose organizations include ACORN NC, AFL-CIO and SEIU. SEANC is one of NC HCAN’s coalition partners.

State Employees Association – North Carolina
SEANC is the largest state employees’ association in the South with over 55,000 members. SEANC became legally affiliated with SEIU in 2008 and is now SEIU Local 2008

Service Employees International Union
SEIU has donated over $3.6 million to ACORN over the last six years. SEIU Local 100 was co-founded by ACORN founder Wade Rathke. In 2008, SEIU gave $1.1 million to the NC Democratic Party.

Wade Rathke
Wade Rathke is co-founder of ACORN as well as SEIU Local 100. He served as ACORN’s chief organizer until stepping down in 2008 after his brother Dale Rathke’s embezzled over $1 million dollars from ACORN and it became public. Wade Rathke is also the former director of the Tides Foundation.

State of North Carolina
Over $640,000 of North Carolina taxpayer money wasawarded to the NC Justice Center in 2006. Continuing payments have likely exceeded $1 million. The state also granted $1 million to NACA. 

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Related Issues: Corruption & Ethics | Elections & Voting | Other

ACORN

Submitted by Freedomvoice on Sun, 01/17/2010 - 1:50pm. Sun, 01/17/2010 - 1:50pm

I knew something bad was happening in NC and that we were being run over like a freight train with liberal laws, regulations, taxes, and fees. I new something bad was going on in Raleigh and the so called halls of justice. I just couldn't put my finger on it. You have helped me find the finger prints and they are everywhere. I suggest we let people know how to control this from two fronts. Sorry but don't get on your bandwagons just yet thing about what you are doing. I suggest we stop the giving of our money to these organizations that are in support of ACORN, let people know were the non-profits and not for profits are really up to. I suggest we stop the tax monies that are in support of them. I suggest that the grant monies be exposed as to what the tactics are really for. The grant money is being used to come up with a cause; (EPA, Education, Children, etc.) are being used as fronts for this ACORN group. We need to put people in office that has the guts to not only say NO but tell the public why. The second is to make people aware of voting straight Democratic ticket is just putting them right back in office. Voting straight ticket is their number one push to keep these people in office. We need to educate the voter to put a face to the person they are putting in office so they can watch what they vote for. Republican and Democrats alike are slipping in under the radar through this method of straight voting because there are more voters not keeping up with the politics of government than voters who are keeping up with politics in government. When myself, as a pole worker can change minds voting day ,with a card, piece of paper,etc at the poles, then something is ringing bells. The voter doesn't have a clue who they are voting for. I see the polls here that when the taxing, laws, and or situations are exposed and you agree with the conservative of no new taxes, fewer laws, etc. But when you are asked who you would vote for, you are willing to put back the people in office that you disagreed with their vote. Get the picture? Now get active.

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On Acorn In NC

Submitted by Cheryl Pass on Wed, 01/13/2010 - 1:37pm. Wed, 01/13/2010 - 1:37pm

This map and information is invaluable to North Carolina residents who are concerned about the infiltration of socialists into our republic. To me it looks like a nest of predatory parasites who are so embedded into our institutions that it will take an act of God to rid ourselves of the scourge.

In defense of Bank of America, I will submit that the bank was forced by the Federal Government to do much of (for) what they are being demonized. I think the map shows a perfect quid pro quo, where the Bank was forced to take the bailout money and then was forced to fork some of it over to Acorn. The Feds forced the banks to take the bailouts. It was the Feds who forced the banks to make the high risk loans to low income people, yet the banks are the ones taking all of the heat for doing what they were told to do. No wonder to me they created derivitives to get rid of the dead weight....if they hadn't done that, the Feds would have taken them over and/or shut them down anyway for lack of viable assets. Ken Lewis was told to go forward with the Merrill Lynch merger and then told to keep his mouth shut to the board on the condition of Merrill Lynch, and now the SEC is suing Bank of America for doing just what the Feds told them to do. Get it? You can't win...Lose lose LOSE! This banking crisis was entirely orchestrated by the Feds (and Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Franklin Raines, etc.) from the beginning. I can think of little to nothing that American citizens can do to stop this corruption in our government. The slow answer is: Unseating corrupt congress members would be a start, but rescinding the laws supporting these corrupt policies has to be at the top of the list.

Our citizens are damned if (we) do, and damned if (we) don't. The government has become the mafia.... You will pay g'zillions for worse health care and if you don't, you will go to jail and we will take all you own. You will pay small fortunes for inferior toxic light bulbs or else!! You will drive an electric tiny can for 30 miles and then plug it into the grid...using more electricity to go shorter distances. You will give up your farm pond to the EPA. You will not exhale without being taxed. The mafia (Chicago or otherwise) is the model now for our government.

With all due respect to carla (above), our representatives in DC are no longer our representatives and they don't give a flying flip about what we think or need. Most of them (especially in the majority) are members of the same mafia. And with Acorn stealing elections, I'm not sure how we can get the @@#$$%@!!s out of there.

We need a NC Sovereignty resolution....fast. And that may only suffice to hold them back to a degree. It would help. However, it will be next to impossible to get this done, since the Democrats / Socialists are in the majority in the state house and senate and the governorship.

Sorry to be so glum.....it just doesn't look good to me...
Hang in there folks.

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Conservative Organizations in NC

Submitted by lmkitties on Wed, 01/13/2010 - 8:06am. Wed, 01/13/2010 - 8:06am

This is why the work you do is so important. Look what we are up against! If Conservatives want to make a difference, they will have to make the effort and take the time to do the same thing. This has taken many years and it seems like Conservatives seem to think that going to TEA Parties is going to make Raleigh and DC hear us. TEA Parties are important, don't get me wrong but they are not an end in themselves. Raleigh and DC won't hear us until we become a part of their everyday lives. We have to infiltrate the political culture and that takes time, and money and effort. Thank you for investigating and publishing this so we can see just how far we have to go. Let us not lose heart. If they can do it with bankrupt ideas, we can do it with time tested ideas.

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ACORN

Submitted by carlabee on Wed, 01/13/2010 - 6:27am. Wed, 01/13/2010 - 6:27am

Thanks for publishing this information for the general public to view. Glenn Beck has been presenting the ACORN facts for months, and I believe is responsible for the legislation that has come down against them. This woven tapestry of Acorn in our lives is more threatening to us than Al-Quieda, and must be stopped. SEIU is one organization that cannot be allowed to go forward. I have experienced their tactics when a member goes against them!
I urge everyone to call their representatives in Washington DC and let them know how they feel. Wake up America, we are being taken over!

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