State Representative Accuses ACORN of Oklahoma Political Agenda

By Jennifer Pierce, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma state representative alleges a non-profit organization has plans to put Democrats in power in the state.

State Representative Mike Reynolds accused the organization known as ACORN of having a political agenda in Oklahoma. He said the proof is in the documents he supposedly found in an empty office.

"I realized there was some political activity out of what is supposed to be a non-profit organization's offices," Reynolds said.

Reynolds said ACORN volunteers left computers and paperwork in an abandoned ACORN Oklahoma City office.

"They had very specific Republican legislators that they were working against," Reynolds said.

One of those Republicans included Reynolds' brother, state Senator Jim Reynolds. Several documents supposedly targeted key 2008 races and districts to put Democrats in power. Senator Jim Reynolds' district was one of them.

"They targeted to register at least 5,000 new voters in that district, a discussion how that would be a prize for them to win that seat," Reynolds said.

There are also documents titled Oklahoma ACORN political plan and an unrelated letter with Democratic State Senator Andrew Rice's name attached.

"All I can say is that I've never had any affiliation with them, and I didn't authorize this letter and don't know where it came from," Rice said.

Senator Rice said he has never been affiliated with ACORN and didn't know they had a local office.

"It seems strange that a group that is in so much controversy nationally would inexplicably have abandoned files in Oklahoma and they'd end up in a partisan politicians hands," Rice said.

Representative Reynolds said he has had the documents for a year but didn't see the need to reveal them, until now.

"I guess to answer directly about why now? I've heard people say that ACORN doesn't participate in the political process, they're just a community help organization and things of that nature. I knew that to be nonsense and I just couldn't stand hearing that said anymore," Reynolds said.

Attempts to contact other local ACORN offices listed on some of the documents recovered by Reynolds were unsuccessful.

The chairman of the Oklahoma Democratic Party told NEWS 9 he is suspicious of Reynolds' ACORN accusations, and he was not aware ACORN had offices in Oklahoma City.