ACORN, the Working Families Party and Political Corruption: Part 2, Who’s Doing All the Lobbying?

[Ed: This excerpt is the second in a series of articles originally reported at City Hall. Go here for Part I in the series. Lead reporter on City Hall investigation was Edward-Isasc Dovere.]

The Working Families Organization, a tax-exempt 501(c)4, was legally created with a certificate of incorporation filed with the New York Department of State on July 12, 2006. Despite the similarities in the names, this paperwork established the Working Families Organization as a legally separate entity.

That certificate lists four initial directors, starting with now-White House political director Patrick Gaspard, who was then a board member of the Working Families Party. The other three were ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis, Robert Master of the Communications Workers of America and Sam Williams of the United Auto Workers. These three also were and remain the three co-chairs of the Working Families Party.

Kevin Finnegan, who is now the political director for the 1199 Service Employees International Union, but who was then an attorney at Levy Ratner PC, signed the document as the incorporator. Finnegan is also the notary on the official Party rules filed with the Board of Elections and the lawyer who set up Data and Field Services.

The incorporation forms and other documents, like the Organization’s paperwork filed with the IRS, must be made public as a condition of its tax-exempt status. However, the process takes years, meaning that the most recent forms that are completed and available are from 2007.

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Tags: ACORN, Bertha Lewis, Brooklyn, Dan Cantor, lobbying disclosure
Posted Dec 16th 2009 at 6:07 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story, News, Politics, State Politics | 4704217 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/12/16/acorn-the-working-families-party-and-corruption-part-2-whos-doing-all-the-lobbying/ACORN%2C+the+Working+Families+Party+and+Political+Corruption%3A+Part+2%2C+Who%27s+Doing+All+the+Lobbying%3F2009-12-16+14%3A07%3A24Publius

ACORN, the Working Families Party and Political Corruption, Part I

[Ed Note: Recently, City Hall in New York published an amazing multi-part investigative piece on possible corruption, illegal activities and general shadiness within the multi-pronged Working Families Party in New York. For those of you searching for examples of what investigative journalism used to be like, this series is a good place to start. Under the direction of lead reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere, the series explored the tangled web the Party in New York. Big Government readers will note that one of the co-chairs of the Party is Working Families Party is Bertha Lewis, CEO of ACORN. So, for those keeping score at home, this is the second organization headed by Lewis is that marked by opaque and confusing interrelationships and ethically-challenged legal boundaries. Hmm, what are the odds? Today begins Part I]

In August, City Hall published an investigative report explaining the operations of the Working Families Party’s for-profit company, Data & Field Services. In early September, after conducting its own review, the New York City Campaign Finance Board officially declared that “DFS exists as an arm of the Working Families Party.” Over the last three months, City Hall has continued the investigation, relying on dozens of interviews with people within and outside the organization, in addition to a review of tax, lobbying and campaign finance records, as well as confidential internal documents.

Following weeks of in-depth inquiries from City Hall, the Working Families Party announced on Nov. 6 that it was hiring the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to conduct a review of its practices, with the effort to be led by Judith Kaye, the former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN politics, acorn scandal, Bertha Lewis, Center for Working Families
Posted Dec 15th 2009 at 6:03 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story, Politics, State Politics | 4659444 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/12/15/acorn-the-working-families-party-and-political-corruption-part-i/ACORN%2C+the+Working+Families+Party+and+Political+Corruption%2C+Part+I2009-12-15+14%3A03%3A00Publius

Eric Holder Won’t Investigate His Radical Friends at ACORN

Attorney General Eric Holder has made it abundantly clear he has absolutely no interest in investigating his radical friends at ACORN.

Holder’s Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that allows the Obama administration to ignore the will of Congress which has voted overwhelmingly to suspend federal funding of ACORN until at least Dec. 18. He’s also ignored the 88-page report on ACORN’s systemic corruption and flagrant racketeering activities that was issued this summer by Republican investigators on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Apparently, public outrage at the continuing antics of the corrupt radical advocacy group that used to employ President Obama and White House political director Patrick Gaspard counts for nothing.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (center) with ACORN ally Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (left), and former California Gov. Gray Davis (right).

But Americans really shouldn’t be surprised that Attorney General Holder is bending over backwards to help his radical friends at ACORN.

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Tags: ACORN, American Constitution Society, Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand Foundation, Bill Mason
Posted Nov 30th 2009 at 7:01 am in ACORN, Featured Story, Justice/Legal | 3792298 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/11/30/eric-holder-wont-investigate-his-radical-friends-at-acorn/Eric+Holder+Won%E2%80%99t+Investigate+His+Radical+Friends+at+ACORN+2009-11-30+14%3A01%3A13Matthew+Vadum

New Document Reveals: SEIU Will Conquer Using Any Means Necessary

When a small sampling of the White House guest list was revealed several days, Obama campaign bankroller SEIU was at the top of the list.  Having spent over $60 million to elect Obama, why should we expect anything different?

Earlier this year, SEIU president Andy Stern admitted he holds weekly meetings at the White House and, according to the guest list, several with the president himself.  That makes Andy Stern one important man.  Perhaps one of the most important in Washington, in fact.

Andy Stern has long been labeled a ruthless, bare-knuckled union organizer.  His union has a significant portion of its membership made up of health care workers and, not surprisingly, has been of the groups most aggressively pushing for socialized medicine.

Stern’s SEIU has been very aggressive at increasing its membership, often employing intimidation to meet its ends.  Just one example: In, 2008 SEIU thugs beat up members, mainly women, from rival unions at a labor union convention.  SEIU then issued a press release entitled, “SEIU Members Stand Up for the Future of the Labor Movement and the Interests of All Workers.”

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Tags: Andy Stern, government health care, Patrick Gaspard, SEIU, socialized medicine
Posted Nov 12th 2009 at 11:45 am in Big Labor, Healthcare, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 29698121 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/11/12/new-document-reveals-seiu-will-conquer-using-any-means-necessary/New+Document+Reveals%3A+SEIU+Will+Conquer+Using+Any+Means+Necessary2009-11-12+18%3A45%3A30Kyle+Olson

Now Democrats Are Throwing ACORN Under the Bus

A Staten Island Democrat is blaming her city council loss on ACORN.  Apparently she didn’t know her political consultant, Scott Levenson of the Advance Group, was the same Scott Levenson that has been relentlessly defending ACORN.

Levenson has served as ACORN’s crisis communications consultant and needless to say, he’s been a busy man.

Nevertheless, Janine Materna’s loss for the South Shores City Council is ACORN’s fault.  From the Staten Island Advance:

Democrat Janine Materna’s campaign is considering suing its consulting firm, the Advance Group, for $1 million, and claimed that consultant Scott Levenson’s position with the controversial ACORN group was among the reasons Ms. Materna lost the South Shore City Council race.

“It’s because of him that Janine lost the election,” said Jodi Materna, her sister’s campaign manager.

She said the campaign did not know of Levenson’s ACORN affiliation and if it had, “we never would have hired him.”

…

Levenson, ACORN’s national spokesman, said it was a “true sign of political immaturity to scapegoat anyone for Janine’s loss.”

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, Advance Group, City Council, Janine Materna
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 9:59 am in ACORN, Politics, State Politics | 2765035 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/11/10/now-democrats-are-throwing-acorn-under-the-bus-but-if-you-lie-with-dogs/Now+Democrats+Are+Throwing+ACORN+Under+the+Bus2009-11-10+16%3A59%3A31Kyle+Olson

BREAKING: More Proof of White House Political Director Patrick Gaspard’s Ties To ACORN Surfaces

It’s becoming more and more difficult for the Obama White House to deny that White House political director Patrick Gaspard has strong, longstanding ties to the corrupt activist group ACORN.

Gaspard is a longtime operative for ACORN and one of its political parties, New York’s Working Families Party.

Internal ACORN documents show Gaspard gave ACORN $40,000 over the past two years while he worked as an executive vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 1199 in New York.

That’s an awfully large tithe for someone who made $111,894 in 2007 and who has a wife and two children. The $111,894 figure comes from SEIU 1199′s most recent publicly available tax return.

Moreover, Gaspard hails from New York which has a crushing tax burden, especially for individuals earning six-figure salaries — and he lived in the upscale neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn. It was unclear at press time if Gaspard’s wife contributes to the family fisc.

It is also entirely possible that the $40,000 Gaspard handed over to ACORN was SEIU money.

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Tags: ACORN, American Spectator, Barack Obama, Patrick Gaspard, SEIU
Posted Nov 6th 2009 at 10:23 am in ACORN, Big Labor | 2656236 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/11/06/breaking-more-proof-of-white-house-political-director-patrick-gaspards-ties-to-acorn-surfaces/BREAKING%3A+More+Proof+of+White+House+Political+Director+Patrick+Gaspard%27s+Ties+To+ACORN+Surfaces2009-11-06+17%3A23%3A06Matthew+Vadum

ACORN Operative Patrick Gaspard Received Colleague at White House

White House political director Patrick Gaspard met with ACORN spokesman and lobbyist Scott Levenson, a former co-worker, at the White House the Obama administration disclosed Friday.

Levenson’s inclusion in the newly released list of visitors to the Obama White House makes the president’s claim he’s clueless about his former employer ACORN — and its election fraud trials and tribulations — especially difficult to believe. That’s because Gaspard is President Obama’s right hand man. Some describe him as the new Karl Rove.

The purpose of the visit by Levenson (pictured below) who met with Gaspard in March was not disclosed.

The relentlessly combative Levenson, who is also a registered lobbyist for New York ACORN, was thrown out of Glenn Beck’s TV studio May 6 for suggesting during a commercial break that the TV host was racist for daring to challenge ACORN. Levenson’s been helping to coordinate ACORN’s public disinformation strategy which relies heavily on lies and misdirection.

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Tags: American Spectator, Anne E. Kornblut, Barack Obama, George Stephanopoulos, Glenn Beck
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 2:35 pm in ACORN, Big Labor | 2409054 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/11/02/acorn-operative-patrick-gaspard-received-colleague-at-white-house/ACORN+Operative+Patrick+Gaspard+Received+Colleague+at+White+House2009-11-02+21%3A35%3A08Matthew+Vadum

Barack Obama’s Working Families Party – “Tax The Rich And Give It Back To The Poor”

Did ACORN’s Working Families Party steal an election in New York?

Fox News is reporting that absentee ballots were fraudulently cast with stolen identities, and that the number of allegedly fraudulent votes was enough to potentially tip the election in the favor of Working Families Party candidates.

Brian Suozzo voted with an absentee ballot in the Working Families Party primary on Sept. 15 because, as his application stated, he was “at home recovering from medical procedure.”

Jessica Boomhower’s application said she would be attending a “work conference in Boston.”

Michael Ward couldn’t vote in person because he was “taking care of elderly parent.”

Kimberlee Truell was on a “Bus trip to casino,” as was Miguel Vazques.

The only problem with these absentee ballot records at the Rensselaer County Board of Elections in Troy, N.Y., is that they’re phony, voters and investigators say — and they’ve prompted what’s being called an unprecedented investigation of suspected voter fraud.

One person who must comment on these developments is ACORN Chief Organizer and Working Families Party co-founder, Bertha Lewis.

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Tags: Absentee Ballot Fraud, ACORN, ACORN voter fraud, Bertha Lewis, Patrick Gaspard
Posted Oct 21st 2009 at 1:44 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Obama, Politics | 1847031 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amarcus/2009/10/21/barack-obamas-working-families-party-tax-the-rich-and-give-it-back-to-the-poor/Barack+Obama%27s+Working+Families+Party+-+%22Tax+The+Rich+And+Give+It+Back+To+The+Poor%222009-10-21+20%3A44%3A24Andrew++Marcus

Is ACORN’s Bertha Lewis Even Capable Of Telling The Truth?

Did ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis say anything that was true in her recent speech at the National Press Club?

The embattled ACORN CEO deserved an Academy Award nomination for her virtuoso performance in which she not only depicted ACORN as an innocent victim but also as a whistleblower that tried to nip the subprime mortgage crisis in the bud.

She blamed everyone but herself: “We’ve seen this play before, whether it was the civil rights movement or whatever, when you organize poor people to have real power, what you do is often turned against you.”

She blamed Republicans: “The RNC…because we’ve been inflated as the boogeyman, raises almost $2 million a day, every day, and this form of modern-day ACORN McCarthyism has got to stop.”

Lewis’s statement about the Republican National Committee was immediately torpedoed by RNC chairman Michael Steele who defended ACORN.

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Tags: ACORN, American Spectator, Bertha Lewis, Bill Mason, Dale Rathke
Posted Oct 20th 2009 at 12:30 pm in ACORN | 1819078 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/10/20/is-acorns-bertha-lewis-even-capable-of-telling-the-truth/Is+ACORN%27s+Bertha+Lewis+Even+Capable+Of+Telling+The+Truth%3F2009-10-20+19%3A30%3A27Matthew+Vadum

ACORN Paycheck Aside, Patrick Gaspard is a Radical

Several days ago, Capital Research Center’s Matthew Vadum published research here indicating an ACORN alumni in the White House (other than the president): Political Director Patrick Gaspard.  As I did three weeks prior at ACORNcracked.com, Matthew used a Wade Rathke blog as the source, which Rathke, the founder of ACORN,  immediately changed after Vadum’s report, citing “memory tricks.”  Politico led the way in poo-pooing the connection once Rathke played cover-up.

Rathke said it not only on his blog, but also at a book signing in New Orleans, which was recently covered in the Fox News Special: The Truth About ACORN.”  While we attended that book signing and were not able to get that portion on tape, the Fox documentary crew did.  Sadly, the remarks apparently ended up on the cutting room floor.

The fact is, Patrick Gaspard, Obama’s “Glue Man,” is more important than Van Jones ever hoped of being.  The fact is, one of the most critical and influential jobs in a White House, the Director of Political Affairs, is occupied by a former SEIU health care lobbyist and ACORN organizer.  To be exact, he was Executive Vice President–the #2–at SEIU 1199 in New York City.

After Gaspard was appointed to the White House, Carribbean Voice quoted him as saying, “I grew up in 1199…and I will always be an 1199er wherever I am.”  SEIU’s luxury is that now taxpayers are paying for it.

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Tags: 527 organization, ACORN, Al Sharpton, America Coming Together, Barack Obama
Posted Oct 5th 2009 at 8:45 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Obama | 1207028 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/10/05/acorn-paycheck-aside-patrick-gaspard-is-a-radical/ACORN+Paycheck+Aside%2C+Patrick+Gaspard+is+a+Radical2009-10-05+15%3A45%3A36Kyle+Olson