ACORN, the Working Families Party and Political Corruption: Part 3, Who's Paying the Rent?

[Ed: This excerpt is Part 3 from a series originally reported by City Hall. Part I can be seen here, Part II can be seen here. Lead reporter on the investigative series was Edward-Isaac Dovere.]

The Working Families Party has irregularly reported rent payments over the years on its state campaign finance disclosures, leading some to question whether the Party has been getting what could be considered large in-kind contributions in the form of office space.

Also among the recipients of rent payments was an entity called NYOSCI, listed on multiple documents as having an address in New Orleans identical to one used by many ACORN entities on incorporation documents.

NYOSCI has been the recipient of most of the Party’s recent rent payments, though some have also been made to Community Labor Administrative Services, a group also reporting the 2-4 Nevins Street address on records with the State Board of Elections.

Rent does not seem to be Community Labor Administrative’s main purpose: not only has the entity received funding from SEIU and the Amalgamated Transit Union Fund for New York, but the company consulted for the 2005 Council campaigns of Jessica Lappin and Dan Garodnick, the 2003 Council campaign of Robert Jackson, the 2001 Council campaigns of Hiram Monserrate and James Sanders, the 2001 comptroller campaign of Bill Thompson and the 2001 mayoral campaign of Mark Green.

Listed services include field and GOTV, printing, office expenses, IT support, phone banking, database purchase and voter files. Oscar Owens, the Working Families Party database consultant, provided the database construction and maintenance for Community Labor Administrative, according to interviews.

While the database software is remembered as quite good, no campaign is listed as having paid the Community Labor Administrative for it after 2005.

Read the whole article here.