Census cuts ties with ACORN but not SEIU

by Brian Leach, at the examiner.
Following the release of the undercover videos that depicted ACORN workers helping a fake pimp and prostitute commit crimes, the Census Bureau quickly severed ties with the group. Soon after, Congress cut funding to the organization and its affiliates – including the SEIU.
However, the Census Bureau has not severed ties with SEIU. The union even refers to its ya es hora !HAGASE CONTAR! campaign to get a “full count” of Latinos next year on its website. (SEIU claims the Census is important to Latinos because their community “could see up to an additional $100 million in federal funding.”
The Service Employees International Union was founded by Wade Rathke who also founded ACORN. The ties between the two groups are extensive. Under Rathke’s direction, ACORN created THE SEIU Local 100 in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas and THE SEIU Local 880 in Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas.
According to affidavits from whistle-blowers within the group, the SEIU provided ACORN with funding for political activities and union organizing. Union financial reports filed with the Labor Department show that the SEIU, along with Change to Win, gave ACORN over $1.7 million in 2008, and more than $4 million since 2006.
Rathke only resigned as “chief organizer” of ACORN, a post he had held since its founding in 1970, last year when it became known that his brother had embezzled more than $1 million from the group. However, he continues to run SEIU Local 100 and ACORN International – known now as Community Organizations International.
ACORN and the SEIU are basically one and the same. Is the Census Bureau trying to play a shell game with the American public?
Two Illinois Representatives have called on the Census to completely sever the ties. "ACORN and the SEIU have a long web of connections in Chicago and around the country, and there's simply no place for a group so closely connected to ACORN to be part of something of such national importance as the U.S. Census," said Representative Peter Roskam (R-IL) in a press release. “Given SEIU’s co-location with ACORN in Chicago and SEIU’s intimate financial relationship with ACORN, we should take action to protect the public from the corruption of the 2010 census,” added Representative Mark Kirk.