The Minnesota chapter of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) political-action committee (PAC) endorsed Terri Bonoff Monday in her campaign for the DFL endorsement in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District race, providing a boost to her field operations ahead of today’s precinct caucuses.

In a press release, MN ACORN PAC chair Sunday Alabi lauded Bonoff, saying: “From fighting predatory lenders and preventing foreclosures to creating a national living wage, Terri has worked hard to help low- and moderate-income communities.  We’re proud to send her to Washington as the next congresswoman from the 3rd Congressional District.”

Political Director Chris Stinson told this reporter Monday evening that ACORN has already been engaged in member-to-member contact encouraging turnout to precinct caucuses and intends to work closely with the Bonoff campaign to help at Senate district conventions as well as the 3rd District DFL convention in May.

Asked about the conventional wisdom that the 3rd is more affluent and suburban than the communities in which ACORN usually works, Stinson responded that “in communities like Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center and Bloomington, there are a number of precincts that are demographically indistinguishable from north Minneapolis. Problems like predatory lending and the resulting foreclosure crisis really resonate in all these places, and we’re taking that message everywhere in the district.”

ACORN has come under fire from the Republican Party of Minnesota and its surrogates in the past. During the 2006 election, the GOP called on DFL gubernatorial candidate Mike Hatch to disassociate himself from the group, citing a 2004 case in which an ex-employee was caught with about 300 completed-but-unsubmitted voter registration cards in his car. 

Nevertheless, the group provides a great outreach and voter contact machine, and should provide a great boost to Bonoff’s efforts in CD3. In response to the endorsement, Bonoff said via campaign release: “I am honored to have the support of ACORN in my race for Congress. Their tireless work on behalf of housing rights is essential in our current economic crisis. I will do all that I can to ensure that American families keep their dignity and keep their homes. I am proud of the work I have done with ACORN in the past.”

As for the other contenders for the DFL endorsement, Ashwin Madia also screened for ACORN’s endorsement and Jim Hovland did not.