'Occupy' Groups in Cedar Falls, Iowa City, Des Moines Say They Won't Disrupt Caucuses

Iowa spin-offs of the Occupy Wall Street movement have invited like-minded people from across the country to participate in sit-ins at presidential candidates' state headquarters, but say they have no plans to disrupt the Jan. 3 caucuses.

Nevertheless, state GOP officials say they have contingency plans in place to help guard against any disruptions on caucus day. Gov. Terry Branstad, too, has told reporters he is taking any threats seriously and that plans are in the works to counter any attempts to sully the vote.

Occupy DSM, which has set up a tent city near the capitol building in Des Moines, plans a peaceful protest march for Saturday's Family Leader candidate forum and "civil disobedience" demonstrations in the week leading up to the caucuses.

Occupy members also say they are not affiliated with the group Anonymous, which has issued a call on YouTube to peacefully shut down the caucuses, and they don't believe that group will cause problems.

Tom Hudson, 27, belongs to Occupy Iowa City, which has had a camp of about 50 tents set up in a downtown park since early October. He said he doesn't appreciate the comparisons, but concedes the two groups share some similarities.

"I'm not going to have any part of (disrupting the caucus), and I don't want it associated with our movement," Hudson said. "A lot of people view Anonymous as our spokesman, but they are totally separate from Occupy. They couldn't be more separate."

Across the state, on a cold, rainy evening in Des Moines recently, about 20 people huddled into a tent with a wooden floor to discuss, among other matters, just what to do about the upcoming Iowa caucuses and the events leading to them.

Jessica Mazour, a 24-year-old West Des Moines member of Occupy DSM, explains that the group will meet prior to the Nov. 19 Family Leader candidate forum and march the short distance from Tower Park to First Federated Church.

“We’ll leave when the doors to the event close,” she explains. “By that time, the media and the people attending will be inside, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to keep hanging out.”

The group, which coordinates some of its efforts with other Occupy protesters around the state, including from Occupy Iowa City and Occupy Cedar Valley, has no intention of disrupting the actual Iowa caucuses, said Jessica Reznicek, 30, a Des Moines member of Occupy DSM’s caucus committee. But they do plan, in the days leading up to the caucuses, to occupy the campaign headquarters of candidates.

“The candidates are here because of corporate money,” she said. “We don’t have the money to be heard, so we’re going to use what we do have, which is our voices and our bodies, to reshape the conversation.”

An invitation to other Occupy groups to come to Des Moines the week before the caucuses has been extended, but neither Reznicek nor other members of her group have a good feel about the number of people who will show.

"I've heard 100 from one place, 250 from another, but we really don't know," said Rod Niemier, 50, an Air Force veteran and Occupy DSM member. "We'll see."

In Cedar Falls, members of Occupy Cedar Valley have no plans to disrupt the caucuses, either. They have heard of Anonymous, but none had heard about the video or seen it. When told the video's content, they all thought its call to shut down the caucus went too far.

"I can see the benefit in occupying the caucus. You have to do big things to get your message heard," said Brandon Long, 24. "But you don't want to be a destructive force. Shutting it down is just destructive." 

Andrew Montgomery agreed.

"It's undermining a tradition, undermining something that's been in place a long time, and that's just hectic," said Montgomery, 23. "It takes it too far to knock down longstanding traditions. I think it's a little rash."

The group plans to end its occupation Thursday.

Jill Ellsworth, of Grimes, a precinct captain for the Polk County Republican Central Committee, said there has been some concern about the Anonymous video, but she said the general sense is there is more hype behind the claim than is deserved.

Still, she said she is taking it to heart, and in her caucus planning may assign another person to keep protesters from blocking the door if they show up. She said she has no problem with protesters showing up at the event with signs, but does not want the path to vote blocked.

"I don't have anything against the Occupy folks, everybody has the right to free speech," she said. "At the same time, we have a right to free speech, too, as well as any other group does, and part of that is the right to run our caucus.

"I have no problem with other groups as long as they don't cause violence. If they are outside with their signs or whatever I don't mind that," she added.

Occupy Iowa City members said they are waiting to see what Occupy DSM has in store before making any decisions on how to protest the caucuses.

Stephany Hoffelt, 40, a freelance writer, said that Occupy Iowa City's voting body hasn't taken up the matter. She said it is clear that Occupy does not want to disrupt the caucuses, but there may be protesters near caucus sites.

"I think it's not about disrupting the caucuses, it's about engaging people who want to question just how effective the political process is at the moment," Hoffelt said. "Is it truly a representative democracy anymore when you have a certain financial background just to participate?"

Michael Rack, 39, a University of Iowa employee, said what Occupy is trying to do is show people that voting isn't the only way to get involved politically, and that organizing, occupying, protesting and educating are in ways more effective forms of participating in democracy.

"It's more effective because you're organizing from the bottom up, you're not just going out and voting and expecting some savior to come and fix everything," Rack said.

Ryan Keller, executive director of the Polk County Republicans, said the state GOP and state law enforcement authorities are taking the threats seriously and are working on contingency plans that will help the caucuses go smoothly.

"We are working with the state party and local law enforcement in cooperation to have a successful event," he said. "It's in the best interest of both Democrats and Republicans that we have a successful caucus."

Do you think it's appropriate to stage protests outside campaign headquarters? What about at caucuses?