Americans for Prosperity-Illinois (AFP-IL) took to the airwaves today with a TV ad that urges Illinoisans to sign the “Say No to ACORN” online petition and stand up against ‘pay to play’ politics asking Governor Quinn to say no to ACORN’s involvement in Illinois politics and their affiliates like the Service Employee International Union (SEIU). 

ACORN and its affiliates like SEIU have been receiving millions of taxpayer dollars that in are being used to pad the war chests of state politicians like Governor Pat Quinn and corrupt former Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Last year, Americans for Prosperity exposed SEIU in a scandal that played out between 2002 and 2005, where the SEIU exploited a government process to export taxpayer money and send it into their own bank accounts. SEIU used a combination of political patronage, campaign donations, and executive orders which has generated more than $11 million in new union dues for SEIU.

Governor Blagojevich rode to victory on the back of Big Labor and over $800,000 worth of SEIU dues - in the form of campaign contributions. He then unilaterally granted organizational rights to politically favored service employees and placed them under the purview of the ACORN affiliate SEIU.

Since then, SEIU has given over $12 million to Illinois political campaigns, on both sides of the aisle. This includes the monies to disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich, and now over $45,000 to current Governor Pat Quinn, who not so surprisingly authorized the SEIU, through an executive order, to unionize Home Health Care workers. 

Americans for Prosperity launched the Say No to ACORN site on October 2, 2009. The site was developed in reaction to the cozy relationship between the Illinois State government and the troubled Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

By partnering with instrumental citizen leaders and bloggers to provide the facts to the taxpayers of Illinois and providing a platform of grassroots action, our goal is to put the heat on state leaders and urge them to launch a real investigation into ACORN and its affiliates like SEIU. It’s time to end the culture of corruption in Illinois.

Join us, Say No to ACORN