ACORN Donation Obama Figures?

Another ACORN scandal – in a funeral home?
Group operating out of small building donated $33 million to Obama campaign
Posted: May 14, 2009
11:30 pm Eastern By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Fox News' Glenn Beck may have uncovered another twist to a series of ACORN's alleged scandals when he revealed on his show that the group's main affiliate is operating out of a former New Orleans funeral home and bringing in millions of taxpayer dollars.

The Service Employees International Union's New Orleans headquarters location that also houses ACORN is supposed to be home to more than 270 related corporations and non-profits.

"Does that former funeral home look big enough to you to house 270 organizations?" Beck asked. "The owner of the building is a company whose partners are – oh my gosh! – Wade and Dale Rathke."

Wade Rathke, a New Orleans resident, is founder of ACORN and also founder and chief organizer of Service Employees International Union, which donated $33 million to President Obama's campaign last year.The online OpenSecrets.org estimates Obama's entire campaign spending at about $640 million.

According to the New York Times, he failed to notify police in 2000 when he learned that his brother Dale, ACORN's chief financial officer, had embezzled $948,600 from Citizens Consulting Inc., the ACORN affiliate that handles its financial affairs.

Beck said Wade and Dale are listed as president or partner in dozens of companies based in the New Orleans building.

"[T]he big question remains unanswered: Millions of dollars flow into that building every year," Beck said. "Where does it go?"


Wade Rathke


He said ACORN received as much as $10 million in federal grants last year. But it could get up to $8 billion more after the House passed Rep. Barney Frank's amendment allowing organizations indicted for voter fraud or related crimes to receive taxpayer dollars today.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., urged Congress to block ACORN's access to federal housing funds.

"ACORN, as you know, is no stranger to the spotlight," Bachmann said outside the Capitol. "Yet no matter how many times prosecutors investigate and even indict ACORN and their employees, they emerge unblemished as far as the federal government is concerned from having access to federal tax dollars."

Bachmann told Fox News that ACORN has received at least $53 million in tax dollars since 1994. Frank's amendment passed by a vote of 245-176, largely upon party lines.

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