Former ACORN Staffer Testifies Under Oath

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Former ACORN Staffer Testifies
By Brad Bumsted
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | Thursday, October 30, 2008

HARRISBURG -- A former staffer for an affiliate of the Association of
Community Organizations for Reform Now testified today that the
organization was provided a "donor list" from the presidential
campaign of Barack Obama in late 2007 for fundraising efforts.

Anita Moncrief, a former Washington, D.C. staffer for Project Vote,
which she described as a sister organization of ACORN, said her
supervisor told her the list of campaign contributors came from the
Obama campaign. Moncrief said she has a copy of a "development plan"
that outlines how Obama contributors who had "maxed out" under federal
contribution limits would be targeted to give to Project Vote, and
that it was her job to identify such contributors.

Project Vote national spokesman Michael McDunnah denied that the list
came from Obama's campaign, according to The Associated Press. Donor
lists for candidates are public information and can be downloaded from
the Federal Election Commission's Web site. The lists include how much
individuals have given. ACORN officials have said Moncrief was fired
from Project Vote and that she is not a credible witness. Moncrief
testified that ACORN and Project Vote were virtually identical.


The Obama campaign said it wasn't involved in ACORN registration
drives .

"Our campaign has not coordinated with ACORN whatsoever on any voter
registration activities," said Obama spokesman Sean Smith.

A Republican lawyer submitted a computer disk of the Obama database to
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson.

Moncrief, whom Project Vote fired earlier this year, testified for
more than two hours during a hearing on a Pennsylvania Republican
Party lawsuit aimed at curbing voter fraud in Tuesday's general
election.

An Obama campaign spokeswoman last week had said the campaign has "no
ties" to ACORN.

Moncrief, 29, who now lives in Virginia, also said that she had taken
a call from an Obama campaign worker inquiring whether it was the same
organization Obama had worked with in the 1990's.

Moncrief said she had received repeated warnings to "back off" from
testifying today by people she knows at ACORN.

"I thought it was powerful testimony. She took a great personal risk,"
said Heather Heidelbaugh, an attorney representing the state GOP.

On cross-examination, Moncrief admitted that she had no personal
knowledge of how Pennsylvania ACORN registered voters.

Moncrief said she was fired because she put personal expenses on the
organization's credit card. She said she repaid about half of the
money. "I am really sorry," she said.

An ACORN spokeswoman said the group sets aside problematic voter
registration forms and turns them over to authorities.

The spokeswoman, Carol Hemmingway of Philadelphia, called the lawsuit
"an attempt to suppress voters."

Hemmingway said Moncrief was not part of "senior management" at ACORN
and can't speak for them.

The lawsuit against ACORN and its affiliates, as well as Secretary of
the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes, asks the court for a preliminary
injunction. GOP lawyers want the court to force ACORN to make its
voter database available and require voter education efforts. The
Republicans also want the Department of State to make its voter
registration database more readily available to counties. A Department
of State lawyer has said Pennsylvania is already doing so.

Moncrief said she does not have a vendetta against ACORN.

"I do not think it is a bad organization," she said. Moncrief said she
came forward and contacted Heidelbaugh because she believes low-income
vote canvassers were not trained and then were "thrown under the
bus"-- facing criminal prosecution -- for frauduent registrations. She
said there were quotas of voter registration forms for workers and
that some were fired for not meeting them.

"The (voter) cards are tied to money. The more cards you get the more
money you get," Moncrief said.

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