From yesterday we find out that Glenn Burleigh, MO ACORN Chief Organizer and communist, is involved in a number of organizations. One of those organizations is Forefront Organizing, a company with locations in Washington D.C. and St Louis, whose purpose seems to be as the kind face of organizing backed by the manpower of ACORN and the phonebanks of SEIU.
In April of 2009, Jefferson County voters passed a 911 funding initiative backed by the Jefferson County Dispatch. This followed an intense lobbying campaign from the Dispatch, which included the use of the paid services of Forefront Organizing. When all was said and done, over $185,000 was paid to this Forefront Organizing by the taxpayers of Jefferson County.
On its own, that's bad enough. County funds shouldn't be used for political campaigns to raise more funds, and Pat Martin of the Jefferson News-Leader wrote as much in an editorial attacking the decision. What isn't known is just who backs Forefront, and how they do business.
Glenn Burleigh, noted communist, is the key. Glenn sits on the board of another union group called POWER. This website was up last night. Today it returns a 404, but you can see it here at the Google cache.
POWER not only works with Forefront, they are in negotiations with them for a pay raise. It seems they aren't paid enough for their work, so they posted this note on the website that Mike Dalton should pay them what they deserve.
There are 3 campaigns that Power has helped Forefront win, but there are a lot of questions. Who is Mike Dalton? How big of a company is Forefront? How long have they been around? Do they have employees, or do they only exist to funnel money from county taxpayers to these union groups? And who is getting paid for what?
Of interest is the list of people involved. The officers include Joe Holt, Bob Sweeney, and Ronald Holt, and the board members include Glenn Burleigh (ACORN) and Jason Federow (SEIU MO/KS State Council). This cast of characters is very important, as they demonstrate how public funds go to help finance ACORN and SEIU political activities.
The way it works is this. Forefront Organizing is introduced to the Jefferson County Dispatch as a group that can help organize campaigns. Forefront, upon receiving the contract, subcontracts to the POWER union for the work. POWER then subcontracts the work to the Missouri ACORN office and to the phone bank of the political arm of SEIU.
It's all very cozy, all very confusing, and all designed to hide where the funds are going to, until someone recognizes that the money is funneled from Jefferson County to the offices of ACORN, and the work is performed by an admitted communist who receives voter information that can be used for political campaigns. Remember, Burleigh made the rounds of local media telling them ACORN is financed by member dues, and not federal contracts. ACORN if you read the papers isn't related to SEIU at all. In fact, the same group of people in St Louis keep showing up, working together, organizing together, and ultimately getting paid by unsuspecting taxpayers. The same people who run ProVote/SEIU/ACORN work hand in hand with self-identified communists, and then find themselves working for the political campaigns of Democrats.
Across the country, we see the ties between far left progressive organizations, taxpayer money, and ready made armies of "volunteers" who mix issue campaigns with political advocacy. It's time we exposed how that is done in Missouri.
This is day one. Yesterday I challenged Burleigh and his cohorts to start scrubbing the websites. I was just joking, as they clearly know I saved everything. It comes as a bit of a shock that the site is down 24 hours later. I thought only Jeff Mazur did that kind of thing when caught. Regardless, I'm rolling this story out over the next two weeks, but if any news organizations wants to look over what I have, they are welcome to it. When I'm finished, we're going to have a money trail that is going to look very, very bad.
And there aren't any county counselor's who can sweep this under the rug.
Great post! Keep up the excellent work! I really like your blog!!
Common Cents
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Posted by: Steve | 11/21/2009 at 07:53 AM
Is Bob Sweeney the Hillsboro lawyer who attempted to prosecute Sonia Adams, which ended up costing the City of Arnold quite a bit of money because the lawsuit was based on wrong information?
If so: Why would the city attorney, sit on a board that oversees union organizing, etc--and which earns money from county funds?
Posted by: guesst | 11/21/2009 at 09:47 AM
Perhaps it is just coincidence (if you believe in such things), but Paul D'Agrosa, the defense attorney for our SEIU Purple People Beating Friends, is the Prosecutor for Arnold Municipal Court. So, now we have the Arnold City Attorney (Bob Sweeney) as well as the Arnold City Prosecutor (Paul D'Agrosa) in league with SEIU and ACORN. Very Interesting, can't wait to see the next installment.
Posted by: Guest | 11/21/2009 at 07:45 PM
Unbelievable that a city attorney would have ties to this organization, MUCH LESS BE LISTED AS VICE PRESIDENT.
I SMELL A RAT...SEVERAL RATS.
Good work.
Posted by: Guest | 11/22/2009 at 10:57 PM