SPECIAL REPORT: ACORN Workers Claim Minimum Wage Funds Helping McCaskill
PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE VIDEO REPORT
Several former and current workers demonstrated today in front of the St. Louis office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) demanding to be paid for work they had performed and alleging that they were instructed to tell people to vote for U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill while registering voters in support of the proposed minimum wage increase.
Ten-year ACORN veteran Josephine Perkins claims she was fired last week, in part because she informed the teams she supervised that it was inappropriate and illegal for them to campaign for McCaskill while being paid by ACORN and Give Missourians a Raise, the political action committee which supports Proposition B and, according to campaign finance reports, has given money to ACORN to circulate its literature.
Several other ACORN workers also told PUB DEF that they were told to ask voters to vote for McCaskill. But Johanna Sharrard, the political field director for ACORN, denies that is the case.
“That’s not going on in this office,” she said. “It’s not been the case at all.”
She declined to say on-camera why Perkins was fired. But Perkins told us the reason Sharrard, who has been at the St. Louis office only four weeks, gave for her termination was theft, a charge she vehemently denies.
Another ACORN worker, Joseph Weick, said he has not been paid for work he did with the organization last month. He also said that he and others were told last week that they needed to re-apply for their positions, which he took as a termination.
“They refuse to give me my check,” said Weick. “I guess there’s at least about a half a dozen of us that have worked for these people and aren’t getting paid.”
Weick said he too was told to ask people to vote for McCaskill while registering voters and passing out literature supporting the minimum wage increase, which if true could be a violation of federal election laws.
“These are very serious allegations and we are reviewing our options as they relate to the McCaskill campaign and the potential exploitation of a tax-exempt organization that is supposed to help those who need help the most,” said Rich Chrismer, a spokesman for McCaskill’s opponent, Sen. Jim Talent.
The McCaskill campaign declined to comment for this story.
About This Author: Antonio D. French is a writer, political consultant, and newly-elected Democratic Committeeman living in north St. Louis, Missouri. If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
This is a problem for McCaskill if these activities were coordinated with a member of her campaign.
It’s a problem for Give Missourians a Raise if workers paid by that committee were engaged in “federal election activity” such as campaigning for McCaskill within the scope and course of their employment, because GMAR is a state-law committee that has accepted contributions from sources (corporations and unions) which, though legal under MO law, are illegal under federal law.
It’s a problem for ACORN if ACORN is a corporation and is paying the employees, because corporations are prohibited from engaging in any federal election activity whatsoever. It’s an even bigger problem if ACORN is a 501(c)(3).
There’s not one set of laws for folks on our side and another set of laws for the folks we don’t like. We got all these laws passed to keep corporations from dominating our elections any more than they do, but those laws apply to us too when we organize ourselves in the manner covered by those laws.
Oracle, my understanding was that a 501 (c) 3 (which I believe ACORN is organized as) COULD campaign on behalf of issues, but not on behalf of candidates. I believe they have to demonstarte that less than a certain % of their activites were directed towards political activities. A similar situation is the Catholic church (a 501 (c) 3) which has been very active in its opposition to the stem cell initiative, but can’t tell people to vote for Talent.
I agree, Tim. The focus of my comment was on PubDef’s report that the paid (or supposed-to-be-paid) workers were also working for federal candidate McCaskill, at the direction of supervisors of either or both of ACORN and Give Missourians a Raise. (I’m not sure that stiffing the workers is necessarily a defense.)
Acorn was very active in telling people how to vote in many previous elections and who to vote for outright, but there were no complaints then or coverage by any news media outlets.
Why has this suddenly become a problem now?
Probably because certain Democratic political factions and their crooked friends are trying to shake Claire McCaskill down for campaign dollars to fill their own personal pockets, with no regard for helping Claire McCaskill win or improving the communities that they represent at all-only themselves.
These clowns are attacking Claire McCaskill on behalf of Republicans, but are greedy, shameless elected Democrats. These shameless, full of grandma’s chicken feet, deceitful elected Democrats just want money and will create a negative news story or do whatever the heck it takes to hold Claire hostage with false accusations.
To these fake Democrats, go ahead and join the Republicans and give up your elected positions as Democrats, because after the November elections your elected positions will be taken one by one and you will be revealed for the greedy traitor prostitutes that you are!
Claire even if you feel like it, don’t move out of town yet or quit. Remember there is a lot of work left to do, and some people really are going to help you become the next U.S. Senator for the State of Missouri.
http://www.saintcharlescounty.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=165
Rich Chrismer is the Director of Elections in St. Charles County. Is this person also working for Jim Talent or are there two Chrismers.
Re: “Acorn was very active in telling people how to vote in many previous elections and who to vote for outright, but there were no complaints then or coverage by any news media outlets. Why has this suddenly become a problem now?”
If ACORN’s actions then were as described above, they were just as illegal then as now. People who knew about it then either didn’t know it was illegal or were happy to help conceal the wrongdoing because they favored those who benefitted from the illegal activities. The media then either didn’t know or, as Republican conspiracy theorists would surmise, consciously overlooked illegal activities that benefitted the causes that they favored.
It has become a problem now because of something new: a journalist with integrity.
I’m not really sure how these disclosures would benefit politicians trying to shake down the McCaskill campaign, but I may be a little naive here. Yee who know so much, please educate us all.
I thought Foley got his library card revoked for pending over the pages, not stiffing the workers.
Man, that joke gets a lot of use.
Sad, really.
TRouble
St. Louis Oracle you are not naive. Shaking down Claire McCaskill for money and having people in your camp that have worked with ACORN come out with false stories helps the crooked Democrats because they are getting money from Republicans undercover and creating a bad situation for Claire McCaskill. So they receive the money from the Republicans through various means, and then will automatically receive some money from Claire McCaskill and the Democratic Party for GOTV (Get Out The Vote).
This crooked Democratic faction assumes that pressure will be created for Claire McCaskill from the negative press that she receives from this website and this will result in Claire McCaskill feeling the need to spend more money to GOTV to offset this negative press from your “journalist with integrity.”
Remember this “journalist with integrity” has been cited as a credible source by the Republican party for some of their press conferences to attack Claire McCaskill.
These are just the facts folks!
Don’t worry though, Claire McCaskill knows what Democrats are really working with Republicans and taking her money too!!!!!
Always remember this St. Louis Oracle, “Santa Claus delivers his gifts in December, after people have celebrated Thanksgiving in November.”
Now for those shameless, greedy, pathetic Democrats ask yourself a question!
HAVE YOU BEEN BAD OR GOOD?
HOE, HOE, HOE, HOE, HOE!
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
ACORN came into King County Washington during the contentious governor’s race and told the elections department to count a bunch of votes that were not legal, due to incomplete registations associated with the. King County Election bowed to the demands, but in fact later admitted “We shouldn’t have counted those.” fer cryin’ out loud!
This reeks of Republican dirty tricks. Hire a some people to get jobs at a pregressive not for profit and then quit and claim that they were told to do something illegal. Works out pretty well all the way around, ties up an unfriendly not-for-profit group and tars your opponent. Good tactic Talent. Can’t win on the issues so you have to resort to this. Nice job!
OK, some newcomer folks come in from KC, and they are so “on the ball” that they not only ask the the STL crew to canvas for McCaskill, they FIRE and REFUSE TO PAY the workers.
Brilliant.
Anyway you want to spin it, it’s so obvious who is credible and who is not.
Thank you Antonio. Thank you for your non-partisan truth.
To the Anonymous poster who thinks I’m picking on the McCaskill campaign, a challenge: Give me a tip on a story on the Talent campaign.
Because it’s not for lack of trying that I haven’t reported something “shady” or illegal or “inappropriate” going on with the Republicans. I just haven’t found anything.
But if a story is right there in my face about a Democratic campaign, literally waving a sign on the street, I’m not going to hold on to it until I have an equal or greater story about her opponent.
Editors and reporters have told me that they were told in advance about both this protest and the earlier Jim Talent fundraiser at which several black businessmen gave Claire McCaskill a failing grade on several issues. And they decided not to cover them.
So ask yourself which journalist’s integrity should be questioned.
But to further add to your theory about this site being the instrument to squeeze money out of the McCaskill campaign, the Talent campaign has purchased an ad on Pub Def, slated to start running this weekend. Should I refuse the ad? Should I only run the ad if a McCaskill ad also runs?
Anybody that wants to advertise on this site is welcome. So while you’re digging up that tip for me, try digging up a McCaskill ad too.
Many companies take advertisement from both political parties, and they remain neutral publicly on the issue of politics.
Take the money from Senator Jim Talent Antonio and be happy as can be.
Just remember that you are remaining neutral as far as politics and stay true to that.
Everyone knows now that you are just concerned about getting advertisement dollars because you are a business and that is the way that a company in journalism or webhosting makes money.
There are some people that are simply confused Antonio and where trying to label you as a Democrat.
Way to take a stand and take an advertisement from Senator Jim Talent, you are the best thing that the Republicans have going for them!
Ride that elephant home Antonio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, anonymous, but that was a really dumb comment. Unless you are able and willing to underwrite Antonio’s operation yourself, you have nothing to say about who he takes ad dollars from. Personally, I’m a bit puzzled by the fact that Talent has advertised here and McCaskill hasn’t. Maybe she thinks it would be preaching to the choir. But it would cost her as much as like two seconds of television time. Somebody in her campaign really dropped the ball on this one.
Republican dirty tricks? Sounds like the Arab world. Every time they don’t like somethiing or get caught they blame it on the Zionists and any one else they don’t like. Why can’t the Progressives just learn to fight with their own ideas? Oh, that’s right, no one in a majority would vote for them!
[Republican dirty tricks? Sounds like the Arab world. Every time they don't like somethiing or get caught they blame it on the Zionists and any one else they don't like. Why can't the Progressives just learn to fight with their own ideas? Oh, that's right, no one in a majority would vote for them!]
If you read the follow up stories you will discover that the fired ACORN member went on work for a rebulican campaign. I don’t think one can help but be a bit suspicious. Things like that just don’t add up.
I sure hope they resolve their issues internally. Acorn is a strident fighter for the rights of the poor and disadvantaged!