Casey Under Fire For ACORN Vote

U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, Jr., D-Pa., is facing a landslide of criticism for being one of seven senators voting to continue funding a conflict-ridden organization with taxpayer dollars.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, commonly referred to as ACORN, is embroiled in a controversy concerning attempts to aid a child prostitution ring. The story broke last week after a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute caught ACORN employees on tape attempting to help the couple.

Last week the U.S. Senate voted, 83-7, to amend the Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2010 spending bill to bar federal money for the organization. A vast majority of lawmakers voted for the amendment, including U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., but Mr. Casey voted in support of ACORN.

Mr. Casey, along with six other lawmakers, voted to keep federal funds flowing to ACORN. The six other lawmakers were: U.S. Sens. Roland Burris, D-Ill.; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Kirstin Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.

A freshman senator, Mr. Casey has kept his distance from controversial votes, but his decision to support ACORN has ignited a grassroots firestorm. A spokesman for Pennsylvania’s junior senator said Mr. Casey shares in the nation outrage, but justified the vote by attempting to draw delicate distinctions.

"The reported actions by ACORN employees are inexcusable and should be investigated thoroughly by the proper authorities," said Larry Smar, Mr. Casey’s communications director, in a statement.

"ACORN Housing, although affiliated with ACORN, is a separate organization and is legally distinct from ACORN. ACORN has never received funding from the federal government. However, ACORN Housing has, in the past, been the indirect recipient of federal funding through programs under the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help low-income people obtain housing and to avoid foreclosure.”

Republicans, however, claimed ACORN has received federal funding and liberal Democrats are attempting to split hairs to save face.

“It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. “Simply put, ACORN should not receive another penny of American taxpayers’ money.”

ACORN has received $53 million in direct government funds since 1994. This total does not include federal monies ACORN received through indirect means. This fiscal year, ACORN Housing received $1.6 million in federal funds.

“It is outrageous that ACORN continues to receive taxpayer dollars after repeated revelations of corruption and potential criminal activity,” Mr. Boehner added.

Mr. Casey’s vote, however, has resulted in an uprising in Pennsylvania, a Democratic state known for some blue-collar populist leanings. It has shoved the lawmaker onto the national stage and caused conservatives and independents to question why a self-professed moderate lawmaker would align himself with the Senate’s self-professed socialist, Mr. Sanders.

But Mr. Casey supported the organization in the past and even appeared in a fundraising video saying ACORN was an essential part of the legislative process.

Even pushing aside the fact ACORN employees counseled a pimp and prostitute to evade taxes, government watchdog groups contend ACORN played a major part in the housing debacle that unraveled last year and is heavily connected to voter fraud.

“The ACORN Housing Corporation has long been pushing the very loose-lending policies that helped destroy the housing industry. And now it has been exposed for working with prostitutes, as well. Yet, these seven Senators have knowingly voted to keep sending taxpayer money to a highly corrupt organization of pushers and pimps,” said Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government.

“The constituents of these seven unconscionable Senators need to know that despite ACORN’s clear track record of bad lending practices, the ‘Sordid Seven’ have chosen to look the other way.”

The organization is also facing serious investigations for voter registration fraud in several states, including Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Missouri, and has a long history of such fraud in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Mexico.

“These seven Senators, who I’m now calling the ‘Sordid Seven,’ ought to be held to account, and Americans for Limited Government promises to remind their constituents often of their acting as bagmen for ACORN,” Mr. Wilson said.

By JOE MURRAY, The Bulletin