The Michigan Messenger

State Sen. Michelle McManus

LANSING — In a brief interview with Michigan Messenger at the state Republican Party convention on Friday, Republican state Sen. Michelle McManus, now a candidate for secretary of state in 2010, made her disdain for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now quite clear, going so far as to claim that the organization, better known as ACORN, should not be allowed to operate in the state of Michigan.

When asked what her agenda would be as secretary of state, the Lake Leelanau lawmaker replied:

I think every voter should have the opportunity to vote here in the state of Michigan. My platform is maybe a little different from some of the other candidates running. I mean, first of all I believe in customer service. Lines can never be too short in my mind. Number two, I am very interested in looking at how we can be more transparent at the secretary of state. And I’m also interested in taking on groups like ACORN that, you know, promote fraud and, you know, come into Michigan when they shouldn’t be here.

McManus also claimed that ACORN is not registered with the state, saying: “I want to make sure that there is no fraud. [With] groups like that, we need to figure out how to make sure that they’re registered with the secretary of state and that they’re regulated and that they have to check in.” When asked if that was not already the case she said: “Not in every situation, no. They don’t have to register with the state of Michigan when they come into Michigan.”

In fact, ACORN is registered with the state as a nonprofit in several different ways. The organization is licensed with the state attorney general’s office for charitable solicitations (License No. MICS38969). It is also registered as a nonprofit organization. And ACORN does “check in” with the state regularly. The Michigan state government website, for example, notes a meeting last summer where officials from the Bureau of Elections and ACORN met to discuss voter registration programs in the state.

Jeff Ordower, the Midwest director for ACORN, scoffed at the idea that his organization was some outside group “coming in” to Michigan. In an interview, Ordower said that the organization has been operating in Michigan for more than 30 years, working mostly on housing issues. ACORN also works closely with local elections officials on voter registration drives, he said.

When Michigan Messenger asked McManus if she knew of any examples of voter registration fraud in the state other than the ongoing case in Jackson where an ACORN canvasser had turned in fake voter registration forms and was charged by the attorney general last fall, she said:

Not that we know of, yet, but I assume with the federal stimulus money going toward ACORN and groups like that, that we’re gonna get more activity in states.

She was asked then if there was money in the federal stimulus bill for ACORN, and she said, “Yeah, there was” and called over an aide for details. “Do you know what’s in the stimulus package for ACORN?”

“No,” the aide replied. “We’ll have to check with you,” McManus said. “I can’t get that specifically,” she told Michigan Messenger.

The ACORN stimulus claim McManus initially made repeats a common talking point from the Republican leadership, including U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, who said a few weeks ago that the legislation contained more than $4 billion in subsidies for ACORN.

Although these claims have been debunked by FactCheck.org and other organizations, the ACORN-stimulus accusations remain. FactCheck.org concludes:

The bill does include funds for which ACORN would be eligible to compete — against hundreds of other groups. But most is for a housing rehabilitation program ACORN says it never applied for in the past and won’t in the future.

FactCheck also points out that the funding for housing programs goes to two programs, the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) program and Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), both of which were signed into law by Republican presidents. ACORN has always been eligible to receive funds through those two programs but has only received $1.6 million in CDBG funds over a span of four years. If it wishes to apply for such funds, it would have to compete with hundreds of organizations for them. And such funds have nothing to do with ACORN’s voter registration work.

As for the NSP funds, ACORN has never applied for them and is not going to do so now. “We have not received neighborhood stabilization funds, have no plans to apply for such funds and didn’t weigh in on the pending rule changes,” ACORN Director Bertha Lewis said in a statement.

In regard to the charges of voter registration fraud by the organization, as Michigan Messenger documented last year, in nearly every case where an ACORN canvasser has been caught and charged with turning in fraudulent registration cards they’ve been caught because the organization turns in every registration card to local elections officials along with the identity of the canvasser that took each one. They are flagged in advance as possibly fraudulent and turned over to the counties in a separate bundle with a cover letter explaining why their validity is in doubt and which canvasser took them. There is no evidence, or even an accusation, that anyone registered by ACORN in the state of Michigan has ever voted improperly.

Ordower says that McManus’ comments about ACORN reflect ignorance of the work the organization does and comprise an attempt to undermine their efforts. “We’ve been in Michigan for 30 years and we’re looking forward to being there for another 30 years,” he said. “We wouldn’t be there if we didn’t have supportive people in the community who have donated to the organization and are a part of it. If groups came and went based on whether politicians decided they should exist, we wouldn’t have much of a democracy. Our job is to hold politicians, regardless of party, accountable to the people and not to their donors.”