http://www.personalliberty.com/news/acorn-to-cease-operations-april-1-due-to-financial-hardships-19685106/The embattled and highly controversial community organizing group known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, announced on Monday that it will formally disband on April 1 due to declining revenues.
ACORN’s funding and reputation took a huge hit last year after a widely disseminated video showed several of the anti-poverty group’s employees giving tax advice to two conservative activists posing as a prostitute and pimp. The organization’s credibility has also been tarnished over the last 18 months following several charges of voter fraud and embezzlement.
In light of the video, which surfaced in September 2009, Congress pulled ACORN’s federal funding, while many private donors have blacklisted the organization. Officials with the group have consistently professed their innocence and have indicated that partisan attacks have forced them to close their doors.
“ACORN has faced a series of well-orchestrated, relentless, well-funded right wing attacks that are unprecedented since the McCarthy era,” said Bertha Lewis, CEO of ACORN. “The videos were a manufactured, sensational story that led to rush to judgment and an unconstitutional act by Congress.”
Although the organization will officially disband in April, several of ACORN’s affiliates broke away earlier this year and are operating under different names.