Total Makeover: ACORN Edition

Sometimes, the news coming out of Southern California is more entertaining than the movies coming out of Southern California.

Last week the  37,000-member California state chapter of ACORN broke away from its national organization to form a new nonprofit group called the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. Amy Schur, executive director of ACORN ACCE in California, says the decision was made because “the level of controversy had become a significant distraction for us.”

So let me get this straight. The California ACORN chapter, which includes the San Bernardino group that was featured in the ACORN videos providing advice for human smuggling and prostitution, and the San Diego chapter, that conducted what looked like the world’s biggest document dump just before the AG’s agents arrived, wants to split off from the national organization because they say the national group has problems.

If anything, the national group should split off from the California group and beat them to the punch.

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Tags: ACCE, ACORN, ACORN California, acorn scandal, ACORN videos
Posted Jan 21st 2010 at 10:59 am in Uncategorized | 6206249 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/rnehring/2010/01/21/total-makeover-acorn-edition/Total+Makeover%3A+ACORN+Edition2010-01-21+18%3A59%3A27Ron+Nehring

ACORN in California Splits From Bertha Lewis

The California chapter of ACORN has split from the group and changed its name.

Thousands of Californians who live in or close to poverty in the state have worked hard for decades to score victories that level the playing field. They’ve passed laws that increase affordable housing and raise the minimum wage, so they can provide for their families. They’ve also spent their personal time, which is in chronically short supply, pushing for better teachers and textbooks so the kids in their neighborhoods can have better opportunities. On these and other issues the odds have been against them, but these Californians leveraged their significant numbers with coordinated grassroots organizing to achieve victory.

Until now, they carried out this work as a chapter of the national organization ACORN. Until now, governance and financial management resided at the national level. In recent months it has become increasingly clear to the leadership, staff and members in California that the serious challenges ACORN is facing are jeopardizing the important work we are doing here in California.

The new entity will be called Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE). It will, on paper at least, be entirely separate now from ACORN. The relationship will be what Wade Rathke characterized the relationship between ACORN and ACORN Housing. ACORN is its own entity and ACCE is its own entity and the two are fighting for common goals.

It’s important to note that most, if not all, of the staff and board of ACORN in California will be kept on with the new company. In fact, at the bottom of the press release the contact person is Amy Schur. Schur, according to a source, was privvy to the knowledge that Dale Rathke had been involved in embezzlement from ACORN and kept that knowledge from the board.

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Tags: ACCE, ACORN, ACORN Connecticut, ACORN Housing, acorn scandal
Posted Jan 14th 2010 at 6:29 am in ACORN, News, Politics, State Politics | 5949845 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvolpe/2010/01/14/acorn-in-california-splits/ACORN+in+California+Splits+From+Bertha+Lewis2010-01-14+14%3A29%3A19Michael+Volpe