Blog

New web video highlights revolving door between Carnahan and liberal special interests

February 18, 2010

Top Carnahan aides shuffled between official office, campaign, & ACORN-linked organizations

The Missouri Republican Party today launched a new web video highlighting the revolving door that exists between Robin Carnahan’s office and the ACORN-linked organizations that are bankrolling a massive television ad campaign to benefit her campaign for U.S. Senate.

The Missouri GOP’s video, available at www.acorncarnahan.com, draws attention to the high-level Carnahan aides—Mindy Mazur and Paula Hodges—who have been shuffled between Carnahan’s official office, her campaign, and America Votes, a liberal organization with deep ties to ACORN.

The latest revelations, first reported by 24thstate.com, and the 1,400 pages of email communications between Carnahan’s office and ACORN exposed by the Missouri GOP last year fly in the face of Carnahan’s bizarre claim that she “[doesn’t] have any ties to ACORN.”

Last year, the Missouri Republican Party released email communications between Carnahan’s office and ACORN exposing her friendly relationship with the embattled liberal organization.  The documents, also available at www.acorncarnahan.com, detail meetings in her office, events, research requests, and more.

Mazur, who served as Carnahan’s Chief of Staff from 2005-2008, was a major player in many of the inappropriate email communications with ACORN.  In April 2008, Mazur left her position as Carnahan’s top aide to work as the Missouri State Director for America Votes. Mazur remained with America Votes until March 2009, when she was named Campaign Manager for Carnahan’s US Senate campaign.

Now, another former top aide to Carnahan, Paula Hodges, is America Votes’ Missouri Political Director.

“Robin Carnahan has said that she has no ties to ACORN, but this outlandish claim is contradicted by the fact that her top staff members have been shuffled between her official office, her campaign, and the special interest groups bankrolling the ads running on her behalf” said Lloyd Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party.  “These revelations come only a few months after more than 1,400 pages of emails between Carnahan’s office and ACORN shed a light on just how cozy her relationship with the embattled liberal organization really is.  It is, as ACORN called it, a ‘team effort.’  Despite Carnahan’s attempts to re-write history, the evidence is as incriminating as it is clear: Robin Carnahan and these radical Washington special interest groups are still too close for comfort.”

America Votes was created to coordinate the efforts of liberal advocacy groups—many of the same groups that are now spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on Robin Carnahan’s behalf.   Both VoteVets and the League of Conservation Voters, which combined have spent more than $1.3 million on attack ads in Missouri, are members of the America Votes coalition.  In addition, America Votes has maintained close ties with ACORN:

• America Votes lists ACORN as part of its national coalition. (America Votes Website)

• Until October 2008, America Votes-Missouri listed ACORN as part of its Missouri State Coalition.  The reference has since been scrubbed from the website. (Copy of cached version of the website is available upon request)

• In 2008, America Votes’ Board included two members of ACORN: Maude Hurd, President of ACORN, and Zach Polett, National Political Director of ACORN. (America Votes IRS Form 8871)

• House Committee on Oversight and Government reform calls America Votes an “ACORN affiliate.” ACORN maintains a list of 59,995 campaign contributors to President Barack Obama’s election efforts The Obama campaign made a substantial contribution to Citizens Services Inc. (“CSI”), a nonprofit corporation. However, in notes dated April 6, 2006 about ACORN affiliate America Votes, the document stated: We prefer that political money go to us in the form of a vendor, which would be CSI, our for-profit business, which doesn’t have to report the cash because it’s a business, like the phone company. (Report, July 23, 2009)

# # #