POL, Rev. Claude Porter is a Republican

Rev. Claude Porter has made a bunch of money running Proviso-Leyden Council for Community Action (PLCCA). PLCCA's mission:

To create, through comprehensive and coordinated program activities, a climate of awareness within which conscious, self-directed social change toward the elimination of poverty can take place on the part of individuals, families and community institutions.

Critics have said that Porter is primarily about making money for him and his family and influence peddling. His programs do little to lift people out of poverty. And he's resistant to accountability. In one case when a individual at a funding organization started asking questions and the individual found himself off the board in question.

On PLCCA's welcome page there's a picture of Rev. Claude Porter with a Republican Congressman at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) 2005 Tax Summit. What's eliminating poverty in Proviso Township got to do with Republican tax policy?

Porter was there because he's a Republican contributor. A month before Porter got his award from the National Republican Congressional Committee he gave $5,000. But that's not all.

Other Porter contributions include:

• $300 NRCC, June, 2001
• $200 Friends of Blagojevich, August, 2002
• $500 Citizens for Lightford, March, 2003
• $250 NRCC, November, 2004
• $200 Citizens for Lightford, November, 2004
• $250 NRCC, December, 2004
• $200 NRCC, June, 2005
• $5,000 National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), September, 2005

Does something seem wrong with someone nominally devoted to Proviso's impoverished being a big-time Republican campaign contributor?

Is Porter the classic poverty pimp? He raises money. He spends it with minimal accountability. And gets very little done for the money spent.

[UPDATE: The local ministers are posing with Congressman Ray
LaHood (R-Peoria). LaHood's signficant because he's a member of the House Appropriations Committee, the final gate keepers before Congress decides how to spend money.

[President George W. Bush pushed his Faith-Based Initiatives.
The idea was to give federal money to churches for social service
programs. Many people thought that it was more about buying off
churches and ministers and less about delivering social services.

[One obvious question for Porter is, were his contributions to the Republican Party about the same time PLCCA either received federal grants or was seeking federal grants?]

[UPDATE2: TPMmuckraker (Paul Kiel) has some 411 on NRCC's Business Advisory Council and "Businessman of the Year" program.

Building on my last post on the NRCC's bogus Business Advisory Council and "Businessman of the Year" program, it turns out that Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari isn't the first member of the council to be indicted on charges of supporting terrorism.

[End update2.]

KLEPT, Stan Fields giving away taxpayer money to Welch political ally [D209]

Superintendent Stan Fields decided to buy ten tickets to the PLCCA Masquerade Ball held last Saturday for $2,500. PLCCA is the non-profit organization run by Rev. Claude Porter. Porter is a political ally of Eugene Moore, District 209 school board president Chris Welch and the Stroger family.

District 209 provided information about the ball in the packages provided to board members before the December meeting. Fields did not suggest District 209 buying tickets at the November meeting, the December meeting or the January meeting.

Since the January meeting Fields decided to contribute $2,500 to PLCCA and polled the board members individually. Apparently four of them said "yes" to the expenditures.

The day after PLCCA's Masquerade Ball Fields reportedly attended Porter's church. Fields invited Porter and members of Porter's church to attend the February meeting of the board of education. Fields promised to unveil his education plan. At least one member of the board minority is rankled that Fields is shopping his education plan with Porter before telling board members of its existence.

Further, minority board members have complained that Fields portrays himself as being a disciplined steward of taxpayers' money by portraying board members as wasting money for going to education conferences while Fields is just giving away money to political allies of board president Chris Welch.

[UPDATE: A board member now says that the board voted to approve the expenditure, but that Fields hid it within another expenditure. Is this legal?]