ACORN’s loss of federal contracts will cost it millions, but an Associated Press survey found 37 states with no known active ties to the group and just one current contract: $365,000 for foreclosure counseling in New York, now on hold pending a 30-day review ordered by Democratic Gov. David Paterson. Officials in five other states still were checking their databases.
Other Republican governors taking aim at ACORN included Rhode Island’s Don Carcieri and Mississippi’s Haley Barbour. Rhode Island hasn’t identified any current contracts with the group; Mississippi officials were reviewing their records.
Analysts said conservative politicians have nothing to lose by going after ACORN, short for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, after employees were caught on video telling a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp how to lie to get government help. Republicans criticized the group to connect with their conservative base long before the U.S. House and Senate voted last week to sever ACORN’s federal funding.
