Color of Change Connections to ACORN

Color of Change is touting its boycott against Fox News host Glenn Beck supposedly in retaliation for saying that President Obama has a problem with white people. Having had some success in bullying some sponsors from advertising on Beck’s program, the last thing that Van Jones’ Color of Change wants now is to be linked to the embattled and disgraced ACORN.

Color of Change co-founder, James Rucker, also a former MoveOn.org community organizer, co-founded the ‘Secretary of State Project’. This group was instrumental in helping get Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie elected in 2006. Ritchie is a former community organizer with strong links to ACORN, having accepted campaign contributions from the group.

Interestingly, while performing a Yahoo search for “’secretary of state project’ and acorn” I found that an article that appears to have been defending Acorn against attacks of voter registration fraud have been removed from their site. Perhaps the group is already trying to distance themselves from Acorn.

In his Huffington Post column, Rucker defends the Beck boycott as strictly a matter of principle for having accused the President of being a racist and insists that it has nothing to do with Beck’s investigation of Van Jones. However, at the end of the third paragraph Rucker says, “There was another, more personal motivation too.” The use of word “too” is perhaps a slip of the tongue, but indicates that the battle does, in fact, include a wish to avenge Van Jones.

IBDeditorial reported during the Minnisota senate race debacle between Al Frankin and Norm Coleman, “It was Ritchie who orchestrated the recount that gave Democratic challenger Franken a lead some six weeks after Coleman appeared to win by 725 votes on Election Day. Ritchie has extensive ties to the Acorn organization now under federal investigation for vote fraud and was endorsed by the community activist group in 2006.”

Wade Rathke, co-founder of ACORN and SEIU, mobilized the troops for the Beck Color of Change boycott in his “Chief Organizer” blog.

Additionally, on SEIU’s Facebook page participation in the Color of Change Beck boycott is also proclaimed to followers.

Clearly Color of Change, Secretary of State Project, Acorn and SEIU are simply different arms on the same octopus. They share a single spirit and goal and happily use their different masks to hide their connection.

Companies supporting the Color of Change boycott might wish to consider that as Acorn continues to make headlines of corruption, and as the strong connections between the groups continue to surface, supporting Color of Change will eventually be seen as akin to supporting Acorn.