At Last Minute, Bill Clinton Hits the ACORN Gala

The 25th anniversary gala for ACORN, the national nonprofit that advocates on behalf of low- and moderate-income families, was held at Citigroup Center last night, and the group had a major headliner as their guest: Bill Clinton. It’s no surprise that Clinton would support a social-justice organization like ACORN — indeed, the Clinton Foundation and ACORN work together on several projects — but, as it happens, ACORN officials were pretty surprised that Clinton was actually on hand last night. According to one insider, both Bill and Hillary were invited to the event about a month ago, and both declined to attend. But just a few days ago, the insider says — and, we should note, after a week of great week of publicity in New York for Barack Obama, Hillary’s rival from the Democratic presidential nomination — Bill’s people called ACORN to re-invite him. He was set to join mayoral contenders Adolfo Carrion, Christine Quinn, Anthony Weiner, and Bill Thompson, former Mets slugger Mo Vaughan, and actress Cynthia Nixon (who ultimately didn’t show) at the gala. Hillary, according to her schedule, stayed in Washington. —Geoffrey Gray