Anti-Incumbent Protesters Call for ‘Clean Sweep’

Carrying brooms adorned with signs calling for a “clean sweep” of elected officials, a divergent handful of protesters united by dissatisfaction with government mismanagement and deficit spending picketed Saturday outside the San Fernando Valley office of Rep. Howard L. Berman.

The causes championed by the 20 or so protesters at the “anti-Washington” rally included overhauling the tax system, establishing a national health-care system and limiting elected officials to two terms.

Political analysts and polls in recent months have detected a growing unease among citizens about the way Congress and President Bush have handled the nation’s budget crisis and the various tax hike proposals that have been floated. Those and other issues seem to be fueling state and national sentiment against incumbents.

Belle Palmer, president of the Sherman Oaks political group Seniors for Action, said Berman’s office was targeted because her organization believes that the congressman has not been responsive to their needs. “We’ve had a lot of problems with him,” she said.

Neither Berman (D-Panorama City), who is expected to easily win reelection Nov. 6, nor anyone from his office could be reached for comment on the protest.

Similar rallies were held Saturday outside the federal building in Westwood and at other federal offices nationwide, Palmer said.

Taxpayers Action Day, as it was dubbed, was aimed specifically at federal officials, but some of those at the rally across the street from the Panorama City Mall said they wouldn’t mind seeing nearly all incumbent officials--from City Hall on up--voted out of office the next time they run for reelection.

“We’d like to sweep the whole country if we can,” Palmer said.

“I don’t see how anyone can be satisfied with our government right now,” Sepulveda resident Sid Muskin said.

Everyone at the rally found something to be unhappy about.

Some decried the condition of the health-care system and called for the creation of a federally funded national health service. Others criticized politicians for being beholden to special interest groups and urged the setting of limits on the number of terms an elected official can serve.

Referring to the tradition of tithing, Woodland Hills resident Renee Sphar griped about high taxes, saying, “If 10% is good enough for God, it’s good enough for the government.”

So it would seem that Bernard Zimring, the Libertarian candidate opposing Berman, would have found an audience in this crowd. But when he tried to spread the Libertarian doctrine of absolutely no income taxes, his words fell on shocked ears.

“But how will we pay for the government?” one woman asked, her face aghast at the idea, before rejoining the picketers with her broom.