EXECUTIVE SUMMARYOrganizational Background

ACORN is one of the nation’s largest and most successful networks of community organizations, withover 230,000 low and moderate-income members organized into 1200+ neighborhood chapters in104 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has been building solidly rooted and powerfulcommunity organizations that are committed to social and economic justice, and have taken actionand won victories on thousands of issues of concern to our members, through direct action,negotiation, legislative advocacy, and voter participation. Fundamentally, ACORN’s goal is to ensurethat low and moderate income families have the power to act effectively on their own behalf in thestruggle to build a more progressive America. ACORN helps those who have historically been lockedout become powerful actors in our democratic system. Colorado ACORN opened its first office in1977 in Denver. It has since grown to a statewide organization with 2500 members in 15 chapterslocated in 3 cities: Aurora, Colorado Springs, and Denver Colorado ACORN was formed with the purpose of organizing and empowering low- and moderate-income people to take leadership and work toward reform on issues such as under performingschools, worker’s rights, neighborhood policing issues, and lack of affordable housing. Fifty percent of our members are African-American, 40 percent are Latino, and 10 percent are Caucasian. Throughlegislation, civic participation, and negotiation, ACORN’s low-income members create long-lasting,concrete changes in their communities, cities, and state.

Votes To Win in 2006

Based upon NCEC data, the following table illustrates the votes needed for progressives to win in2006. The figures take into consideration the progressive base vote in non-Presidential years todetermine how many voters progressives must generate from “drop-off voters” – that is, voters whocast ballots for Democrats in Presidential Election years but who usually do not vote in non-Presidential elections. The “Votes Needed” is broken down into Base Democratic voters and votersthat need to be persuaded. Below are the calculations for Colorado.Total Registered Voters in ColoradoXExpected VoteXVote Goal (52% of expected vote)XReliable Base VoteXVotes Need to FindXVotes to find that are from baseXVotes to find that are persuadablesX

(America Votes, a coordinating coalition of progressive civic engagement organizations, hascalculated the “Votes to Win” from NCEC data.)

Colorado ACORN’s 2006 Political Plan will:

Register xxx people to voteTarget and mobilize xx base voters and xx persuadable votersWork in x Senate and x House districts

Political History

Notable Accomplishments

With over 2500 member families in 15 chapters and 3 cities, Colorado ACORN has had a number of successes:One major accomplishment of Denver ACORN was registering over 32,000 non-partisan voters for the 2004 election year.

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Through an intensive “get out the vote campaign,” Denver ACORN handed outthousands of posters and fliers in targeted low-income neighborhoods, providedtransportation to the polls, provided numerous opportunities for voter registration,

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Made sure polling places were easily accessible and available for all residents of Denver regardless of economic status.In 2004, legislation was proposed in the state legislature that would have pre-empted any cities frompassing living wage ordinances in Colorado.

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At a senate sub-committee hearing, impassioned testimony from the ColoradoACORN state Board Chair Betty Wilkins was largely responsible for the bill beingkilled on the floor and future opportunities for establishment of living wages weresaved.In 2001, ACORN members took on the banking and predatory lending industry, forcing Denver CityOfficials to consider predatory lending practices in granting bank contracts.

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ACORN members were named to a committee that reviewed the City’s bankingcontracts.

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As a result, the two largest banks in Denver, Wells Fargo and US Bank, lost their largest city contracts

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In addition, members won a city outreach and education program and succeededin getting the city to track foreclosures by lenders, which will make it easier todocument the need for even stronger anti-predatory lending policies.Recently Colorado ACORN members have fought and won a number of neighborhood health andsafety issues.

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In the community of Park Hill, members worked for an increase in communitypolicing and established a local crime watch.

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In Westwood, members fought for and won better street lighting, alley clean ups,and stop sign installations at busy intersections.

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ACORN members are rallying around education issues and challenging theDenver school system for smaller class sizes and more after school programs.Currently, Colorado ACORN is focused on increasing wages for low-wage workers through a ballotinitiative.

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The campaign to increase the minimum wage includes organizing drives in 12communities during the year to identify and train precinct leaders and minimumwage supporters.

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Colorado ACORN will carry out door-to-door and site based efforts to collectsignatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot, and build a large crew of volunteersto carry out get out the vote activities leading up to election day.

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Colorado ACORN plans to develop a block captain system and large volunteer crews in low- and moderate-income communities to drive up voter turn out andthus increase their political power in the state.Across the country, ACORN has secured a number of wins for low-income families:

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ACORN led and won the campaign to increase the minimum wage in Florida.ACORN built a coalition of organizations that took on the restaurant industry andother employer interests, qualified the constitutional amendment ballot initiativethrough a massive signature-gathering campaign that gathered over a millionsignatures, and educated and mobilized the public to give Floridians a dollar an hour raise, indexed for inflation.

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Registered 1.13 million voters to vote, and contacted 2.3 million voters to GOTV.The increase in turnout from 2000 in ACORN precincts was 20% higher than theincrease in non-ACORN precincts.

Geography

Denver ACORN has recently expanded into the communities of Colorado Springs and Aurora, andhas formed a broad coalition of three separate community organizations that now make up ColoradoACORN. The target neighborhoods that Denver ACORN are organized in are Athmar Park, Barnum,Clayton, Cole, Curtis Park, East Colefax, Elyra, Swansea, Five Points, Globeville, Mont Bello, ParkHill, Valvarde, Villa Park, and Westwood. We will also be completely organized in Aurora andSouthwest Denver at the end of the year. We are opening field offices in xxxOur registration and mobilization efforts will be focused on the following geographies:

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Aurora

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Colorado Springs

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Denver

Campaign Issues

A key component of ACORN’s voter engagement strategy is to connect issues that affect the lives of our constituency with the election. In Colorado, our number one issue is increasing the minimumwage, but there are other additional issues our program will be focusing on, in order to engage thebroadest range of our constituency.Economic Justice

Predatory Lenders make home loans with unfair and abusive terms. These lenderstarget low income and minority homebuyers, and capitalize on these buyers’ lack of knowledge of complicated transactions—or use outright deception—to close loans that lead to a loss of equity or foreclosure. In 2001, members began addressing the issue of predatory lending and worked for policychange, whereby predatory lending would be considered when giving out the city’s banking contracts.ACORN members belonged to a committee that reviewed the City’s banking contracts. As a result,Wells Fargo and US Bank lost their largest city contracts, the two biggest in Denver. In addition,members won a city outreach and education program and succeeded in getting the city to trackforeclosures by lenders, which will make it easier to document the need for even stronger anti-predatory lending policies.Renters Protection To pay the rent working families work hard. But they should not have to makechoices that adversely impact their families. They should have time enough to be husbands andwives, fathers and mothers, friends and neighbors. It's time to level the playing field. We needhousing laws that work for ordinary people. In order to enforce their rights tenants have to go intocourt, as a defendant, and convince a judge that they should win by evoking the warranty of habitability as a defense. This is extremely difficult for tenants, particularly low-income and immigranttenants who are overwhelmingly in pro per as they cannot afford an attorney

Colorado ACORNmembers are fighting to protect tenants from landlords who increase rents or evict for nonpaymentwhen a unit has been found to have health and safety violations by a government agency.