By IAN URBINA
c.2010 New York Times News Service
BALTIMORE – The community organizing group ACORN, battered politically from the right and suffering from mismanagement along with a severe loss of government and membership funds, is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy, leaders of the group said Friday.
Two ACORN officials said the organization was holding a teleconference this weekend to discuss plans for a bankruptcy filing. (The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.)
Over the last six months, at least 15 of the group’s 30 state chapters have disbanded and have no plans of re-forming, ACORN officials said. The California and New York chapters, two of the largest, have severed their ties to the national group and have independently reconstituted themselves with new names. Several other state groups are also re-forming outside the ACORN umbrella, and will not be affected if the national organization files for bankruptcy.