Cook County Blog

A message from Americans For Prosperity Illinois

Despite what the left-wing media has claimed, the state of Illinois does have official relationships with scandal-plagued ACORN; A 2008 report from the Illinois Housing Development Authority showed that ACORN's housing subsidiary received a $100,000 grant from the agency to build its Predatory Lending Database Program.  Somehow, this grant just happens to not appear in the Illinois Comptroller's database. Illinois has an ACORN problem and it's time to call for a real investigation, immediately.

The housing grant could be just the tip of a huge iceberg. Right now, there's just no way to know because our leaders in Illinois like Governor Pat Quinn have strong ties to ACORN. You can urge Governor Quinn to cut ties and put an end to ACORN right now.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for an investigation into the organization's activities. In Georgia, Governor Sonny Perdue told the state government to cut contracts to ACORN. Similar efforts are ongoing in Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, and Florida. Tell Governor Quinn that it's time Illinois gets serious about stopping corruption.

Through its numerous shell groups and affiliates such as SEIU Local 880, ACORN has been mixed up in corruption in Illinois politics for decades. Illinois State Board of Elections records shows since it began tracking contributions, SEIU has given over $12 million to Illinois political campaigns, both Republicans and Democrats. This includes $538,963 to disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich, and $30,750 to current Governor Patrick Quinn. Tell Governor Quinn that this corruption has to stop.

Recently, Congress has voted to defund ACORN but despite these necessary efforts in Washington, our Senators Durbin and Burris, as well as Representatives Davis, Jackson, Rush, and Schakowsky voted for ACORN to keep its federal funding, which suggests there may be more to the story here in Illinois.

This should not be a partisan issue.  It is a basic responsibility of government to investigate and prevent taxpayer dollars from going to corrupt and unethical organizations.  Join us and Say NO to ACORN.

Sign the petition and tell Governor Quinn that you want a real investigation to end corruption for good.

Sincerely,
Joe Calomino, State Director
Americans for Prosperity-Illinois

By the way, it was Kirk Dillard and Bill Brady who voted for that money going to Acorn's housing subsidiary, and frankly I'm really disgusted that we don't have better representation.

Hopefully we'll be able to work something out that will be more acceptable during this next election cycle - which might be our last chance!

SAY NO TO ACORN! Sign the petition!