ACORN, Soros Linked
to Franken Vote Grab
by David A. Patten
NEWSMAX
December 22nd, 2008
Minnesota Secretary of
State Mark Ritchie,
who orchestrated the recount
that gave Democratic
challenger Al Franken a lead
some six weeks after incumbent
GOP Sen. Norm Coleman
appeared to win by 725 votes
on Election Day,
has extensive ties to both the
ACORN organization now under
federal investigation for
vote fraud,
and to MoveOn.org ultra-liberal
kingmaker George Soros.
In 2006, ACORN endorsed Ritchie in
his bid to become secretary of state,
and Ritchie also received a campaign
contribution that year from Soros.
Indeed, Ritchie has credited his own
political career in large part to an obscure,
Soros-funded group called the
Secretary of State Project (SoS),
whose express purpose is to seed state
election bureaucracies nationwide with
partisan activists — Ritchie among them —
who are strategically positioned to
influence the outcome of close recounts
like the one now underway in Minnesota.
The SoS Web site lauds Ritchie as
“arguably the most progressive
secretary of state in America,”
and states:
“Thanks to SoS Project donors,
Minnesota’s Mark Ritchie –
a true champion for Democracy –
was able to defeat a two-term incumbent
Republican by less than 5 points.
We helped close the gap and make
the difference with cable television
ads targeting women and seniors.”
.
Nor does Ritchie downplay the role
of the Soros-funded nonprofit in
his own election win.
“I want to thank the Secretary of
State Project and its thousands of
grassroots donors for helping push
my campaign over the top,”
he states on the partisan political site.
Newsmax has learned that contributors
to Ritchie’s 2006 campaign,
which made him the No.1 official in
charge of impartially supervising
Minnesota recounts,
is a veritable Who’s Who of partisans
seeking to alter the outcome of elections,
including:
The link to the SoS Project is a
major reason Washington Times
editor Peter J. Parisi has described
Ritchie as a
“hyperpartisan Democrat” –
not exactly the calling card most
states would seek in their chief
election official.
.
SoS is funded in part through
Soros’ contributions,
according to Minneapolis
Star-Tribune columnist
Katherine Kersten.
Kersten describes Ritchie as a
“poster boy” for SoS,
and Ritchie has proudly endorsed
that organization’s efforts to sway
the outcome of electoral contests
nationwide.
SoS was founded after Democrats
involved in George W. Bush’s
narrow 2000 election victory
blamed Florida Secretary of State
Katherine Harris for influencing
the outcome.
They also charged that then-Ohio
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell
helped return Bush to power in 2004.
In response,
SoS was created to target key
secretary of state races nationwide –
down ballot races that often can be
impacted by even small amounts
of money and assistance.
So far they take credit for helping
Democrats win those key jobs in
New Mexico, Nevada, Iowa, Ohio,
and, of course, in Ritchie’s Minnesota.
That Ritchie would be the prize
protégé of the SoS is no surprise,
given his own long history as a
community organizer.
In 2003, he led National Voice to
register over 5 million new voters
nationwide.
As ruling after ruling by the
Ritchie-led State Canvassing Board
has gone against Coleman,
some are now openly questioning
Ritchie’s influence.
.
“Mark Ritchie as we all know
now is a hard-core liberal who
was endorsed by ACORN and
funded by ACORN,”
Matthew Vadum, senior editor of
CapitolResearch.org, a nonprofit
think tank, tells Newsmax.
“It’s not surprising that he has
a permissive attitude toward
the recount process.”
.
A few weeks ago, Vadum says,
he expected Coleman to emerge
the winner.
But now he says Coleman’s
chances are “diminishing daily.”
Franken has a 251-vote lead,
but many thousands of votes
remain to be counted.
.
“I think things are looking
pretty grim.
It’s pretty ominous for Coleman.
What battle in the recount process
has he won?
It’s pretty hard for him to lose
every single challenge,
and yet go on to win the election,”
Vadum says.
Kersten, a long-time observer of
Minnesota’s political machinations,
writes that it’s too soon to say
whether Ritchie’s influence and
resume will taint the credibility
of the contentious recount.
“What we do know,”
she writes,
“is that the referee in the contest
appears to be wearing the colors
of one of the teams.”
.
