Activists propose to ‘occupy’ Iowa caucuses
The Occupy Iowa general assembly voted Monday night to invite other Occupy movements from across the country to help in an effort to shut down the Iowa campaign headquarters of presidential candidates until the state’s caucus day, Jan. 3.
“You go inside or if they won’t let you in, you shut ‘em down,” Frank Cordaro, an Occupy Iowa protester who came up with the idea, told the Des Moines Register, which first reported the story. “Who knows? It could be a very big deal.”
The call for a grass-roots disruption of the 2012 campaign struck Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn as ironic.
“It’s ironic that this group would choose to disrupt the most grass-roots-oriented process in national politics, the Iowa caucuses,” Strawn told the Register.
“That is true grass roots, not this publicity stunt.”
The group will also target President Obama’s campaign offices in the state, CNN reports. Organizers expect the effort to run from Dec. 27 through Jan. 3.
Cordaro told CNN that he envisions “people coming to Iowa, occupying every presidential [candidate’s] office, shutting them down until they start talking real turkey about what’s going on in this country, where the 99% of the people who are not benefiting, at the expense of the 1% who are getting away with murder.”
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
