ACORN Whistle-blower Leaves First Friday Crowd Speechless

(Lori Piotrowski) – Anita MonCrief, who came to be known for shining a bright light on ACORN’s voter registration policies, took the podium at First Friday, and left her listeners speechless.

“I grew up a Democrat,” she said, “and I believed in ACORN.”

MonCrief is editor of Emerging Corruption, co-founder of the Crispus Attucks Tea Party, and spokesperson for American Majority.

While working in the Strategic Writing and Research Department of ACORN Political Operations and its affiliate Project Vote in Washington, DC, she lived in the poorer sections of the city. Seeing the disparity, she wanted to get involved. And she did.

After her quick rise through the ranks of ACORN, she found that some of the processes weren’t legal. Raising the red flag at the office didn’t work, and so she contacted the New York Times, which she felt, being the Gray Lady and all, would take her seriously.

“For six months, I was a confidential informant for the New York Times, but then one day, the reporter called to tell me that they weren’t going to run the story. It had been killed by the editors.”

“It was one week until the election, and I didn’t know what to do. I ended up calling Fox News and I was on the Sean Hannity show. I was scared to death, me being black and from ACORN. But I had to get the story out.”

She talked about the Angle-Reid election and when she knew something was wrong. “In one county, 70% of the county’s voters had voted with absentee ballots. Whenever there is an abnormality in voting, you know something is up.”

She added, “You know that thing where the screen would change a vote to Reid? It really was happening.”

Earlier in the evening, author and musician Angela Alegna addressed the crowd, speaking about the issue of caring for veterans. She quoted statistics about the high number of suicides among veterans and emphasized, “We need to do better by them. They have given us so much; it’s time we took care of them.”

Alegna began America Helping Heroes (www.americahelpingheroes.org) in 2008 to assist returning veterans and their families cope with reintegration successfully.

Once again, Alan Stock emceed the event, greeting his listeners with a smile and handshake. Chuck Muth, first Friday organizer, joined Alan, Anita, and Angela as they toasted the Armed Forces.