Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL) has been attacking ACORN and the SEIU hard lately.  Here are some snippets from a press release that coincided with his press conference last Monday. In it, he lays out an uncomfortable, yet unsurprising number of Illinois connections between the SEIU and ACORN. From the press release:

Official filings show that SEIU, referenced in the U.S. Attorney’s indictment of Governor Rod Blagojevich, contributed more than $4 million to ACORN and its affiliates since 2006.  According to recent Department of Labor filings, the SEIU employs ACORN Founder and ACORN International Chief Organizer Wade Rathke.  Mr. Rathke was recently exposed for running a cover-up of an embezzlement scheme run by his brother.

In Chicago, SEIU Local 880 and SEIU Local 1 contributed more than $230,000 to ACORN groups in Illinois and Texas since 2006 – the most recent to “support election efforts.”

SEIU Local 880, which until recently boasted it was founded by ACORN, used an ACORN e-mail address on its Web site and tax filings, was co-located with an ACORN “tax center” and employed the former president of ACORN Illinois, according to official records.   Recently, the IRS terminated is relationship with ACORN tax preparation offices.

In a 2006 end-of-year report issued by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, SEIU Local 880 recounted working with ACORN to reelect Governor Blagojevich and referred to ACORN as its “sister organization.”  A new report issued by the Committee in July reports SEIU and SEIU Local 880 are official members of the “ACORN Council,” according to whistleblower documents acquired by the Committee.

Earlier this year, SEIU Local 880 became “SEIU Health Care Illinois and Indiana”, located on the floor below ACORN Housing’s national headquarters and rents its own space from an ACORN front group called the “Chicago Organizing and Support Center” (COSC).