As Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan seeks a promotion to the US Senate, she has to expect a few questions about her past dealings with ACORN. After all, the Secretary of State ‘administers all statewide elections for both candidates and issues,’ as well as promulgates rules and guidelines, handles ballots and pollworkers, and generally oversees everything having to do with elections in the state.

When a group like ACORN racks up more than a dozen convictions in the state, and submits tens of thousands of questionable or false voter registration forms, you have to expect that the Secretary of State is going to have the chance to explain what she did to fight corruption.

But instead of bragging about what she has done to stop the criminal acts by ACORN and its employees, Carnahan has worked hand-in-glove with the organization for years. The Missouri GOP has asked for copies of all correspondence between ACORN and Carnahan’s office. The result is more than 1,400 E-mails – including these:

Michael Slater (Project Vote Executive Director) to Ron Berry (Carnahan’s Political Director), 3/15/2007: “We very much appreciate having the ability to share information with y’all.”

Michael Slater to Mindy Mazur (Carnahan Chief of Staff) and Ron Berry, 3/21/2007: “I have a very quick research question… I presume Republicans beat the drum of voter fraud as a rationale for the photo ID law, can you steer me to a source to find a quote providing an example of that?”
-Mindy Mazur responds to Michael Slater, 3/21/2007: “There’s one from last year on ‘perception’… ill (sic) see if I can find it.”
-Mindy Mazur responds to Michael Slater, 3/21/2007: “I have a few others too… will send shortly.”

Jeff Ordower (Head organizer for ACORN) to Ron Berry, 10/2/2008: “Again, we’ll do an event whenever Robin can make it to St. Louis, though book closing date is best.”

Jeff Ordower to Carnahan staff and others after the defeat of the photo id legislation in the Missouri General Assembly, 5/17/2008: “This was a great team effort. Thanks everyone for your help.”

This and much more is available at this website from the Missouri GOP. If you want a quick overview, check this out:

ACORN’s lawbreaking has been widely recognized for years. But while some Democrats have put upholding the law above political interest (take for example, Buddy Caldwell), Robin Carnahan has been only too happy to make it easier for ACORN to break the law, as long as it helped her political career. She cannot be allowed to dodge her complicity in lawbreaking, while ACORN funds her campaign and deploys its ground troops to win her a Senate seat.

Red State has endorsed Carnahan’s Republican opponent, Representative Roy Blunt. Donate to him here.