Barack Obama - ACORN and Project Vote
President Barack Obama's involvement with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and its voter regestration arm, Project Vote.
ACORN
Obama's affiliation with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, began in the early 1990s.
In the video to the right, Deepak Bhargava opens the Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum December 10 2007 - a forum exclusively for thousands of "community organizers" including ACORN personnel.
Obama promises to invite community organizers to the White House even before his inauguration, to contribute to setting his "agenda for change".
Project Vote political connections
Project Vote was and still is, the voter registration arm of ACORN.
During Project Vote, Obama met many of Chicago’s liberal fund-raisers. According to David Axelrod:
“He met people not just in the African-American community but in the progressive white community...The folks who funded Project Vote were some of the key progressive leaders.”
Obama met Axelrod through one of Project Vote’s supporters, Bettylu Saltzman, whose father, Philip Klutznick, was a Chicago shopping-mall tycoon, a part owner of the Bulls, and a former Commerce Secretary in the Carter Administration. Saltzman, a soft-spoken activist who worked for Senators Adlai Stevenson III andPaul Simon, took a strong interest in Obama.[1]
“I honestly don’t remember what it was about him, but I was absolutely blown away...I said to several people that this guy, who is now thirty years old, is someday going to be President. He will be our first black President.”
Founders, Barack Obama connection
Washington DC based "think tank" Demos was founded in 1999 by "social entrepeneur" Charles Halpern. Most of Halpern's recruits to Demos were well known politicians or activist such David Callahan, Rob Fersh, Stephen Heintz, Sara Horowitz, Arnie Miller, David Skaggs, Linda Tarr-Whelan. Why did Halpern recruit a then obscure State Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama to help him[2].
- By 1999, Halpern had assembled a talented working group to develop Demos. Among them were David Callahan, a fellow at the Century Foundation; Rob Fersh, a long-time policy advocate; Stephen Heintz, Vice-President of the East-West Institute; Sara Horowitz, founder of Working Today; Arnie Miller, a leading executive recruiter; Barack Obama, then a state senator from Illinois; David Skaggs, a congressman from Colorado; and Linda Tarr-Whelan, an internationally recognized expert on women and economic development. This working group would eventually form the core of Demos' staff and Board of Trustees.
Demos/ACORN/Project Vote
Demos has worked extremely closely with ACORN and its voter registration wing Project Vote on several projects.
In 2008 Demos Fellow Lorraine Minnite served on the Project Vote board of directors[3].
Demos President Miles Rapoport was one of ACORN's most ardent defenders when the organization was accused of widespread voter registration fraud during the 2008 election.