I only met Anita Moncrief a few times when blogger conferences were a thing, and activists and writers gathered to discuss ways to combat voter fraud and the Obama agenda, but she was always delightful. Moncrief was an ACORN whistleblower and later a grassroots activist who was a regular fixture at Tea Party events. We lost this freedom fighter as we learned she passed away last week.
As you can see from the reactions to her passing, Moncrief left an impression on those who attended these conferences and gatherings. Moncrief started by blasting her former employer, ACORN, which no longer exists, and later became part of an army of citizen journalists, bloggers, and activists fighting for economic liberty.
The following are portions of her testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee regarding ACORN’s operations:
My name is Anita MonCrief and I've been referred to as "the ACORN whistleblower."
I attended the University of Alabama and began my advocacy and human rights efforts with the American Bar Association. I traveled to Canada to promote understanding of the United Nations System and volunteered in several countries. In 2002, I served as an election observer with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on its mission to Macedonia to maintain stability during a crucial presidential election.
In 2005, I turned down a promotion to move to Maryland with a company that has offices worldwide.
Instead, I accepted an offer from ACORN's Nathan Henderson-James to move to DC to work in ACORN's national office. Though the cost of living was higher and the pay lower, I felt ideologically connected to ACORN's mission. I joined the staff of ACORN affiliate Project Vote's development department. I worked for both ACORN and Project Vote. I worked with grassroots organizers across the country to fund one of the largest voter registration drives in United States history.
After leaving ACORN in January 2008, I worked with the Grameen Foundation and the labor-affiliated American Rights at Work. While at ACORN/Project Vote, I worked in the Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD) within ACORN’s Political Operations (POLOPS). As part of the SWORD staff my title was Writer/Researcher. My salary was paid by Project Vote, with which I held the title of Development Associate, but I had an ACORN email address.
During my time with ACORN I served in various capacities within the POLOPS family. A summary of my main duties can be broken into two categories, ACORN Political Operations and Project Vote:
ACORN Political Operations
• Provided assistance and sample boilerplate proposals to local political offices to use in local fundraising efforts (most of these assignments supported voter participation programs and the election administration work of various members of the COUNCIL of organizations).
• Worked with state Head Organizers in such states as Maryland, Ohio and Colorado to devise and implement a state political plan that could be used to demonstrate to funders, partner organizations and other political professionals that state’s 2006 electoral plan.
• Researched the Maryland citizens of voting age to produce an estimated number of unregistered Latinos and African Americans.
• In 2005, 2006 and 2007, was primarily responsible for creating the Political Operations YEYB presentation presented every year at an internal meeting of ACORN staff members and focused on political participation.
• Created various PowerPoints for other COUNCIL organizations including Community Voting Together and a presentation for ACORN's Precinct Action Leader (PAL) program.
[…]
Project Vote
• Worked with the ACORN National fundraising staff out of Brooklyn, New York, and was responsible for the migration of all donor database functions to a database called DonorPerfect.
• Served as the DonorPerfect system administrator for Project Vote and provided administrative support, training, and tracking for Project Vote's grant-based fundraising for a myriad of 2 purportedly 501(c)(3)-compliant voter participation efforts.
• Utilized DonorPerfect and the accounting system Navision and reconciled all data in DonorPerfect with existing Citizens Consulting Inc. and Project Vote data (this reconciliation involved accounting for almost $9,000,000 of unaccounted funds given to Project Vote since 2004).
• Provided ongoing administrative support to all fundraising activities including: financial document-marshaling support for the 501(c)(3) fundraising program (boiler-plates, Project Vote budget, c3 voter registration budget creation, gathering of audits and financial reports from CCI, etc.), understanding funders and maintaining funding relationships.
• Assisted Project Vote with a fifty-state survey examining how states implemented HAVA’s provisional voting requirement and conducted survey interviews with election officials across the country.
• Created materials and assisted in providing training to ACORN state political directors on 501 (c)(4) fundraising so that they could solicit funds locally for voter registration programs.
• Maintained and updated the Project Vote Election website.
While employed with ACORN/Project Vote, I noticed ACORN's practice of poorly training employees and sometimes covertly encouraging people to skirt the rules during voter registration programs…
RIP, Ms. Moncrief.
