‘Occupy’ protesters stage sit-ins at Heller, Heck offices

WASHINGTON -- The Occupy movement reached Capitol Hill on Tuesday when activists staged sit-ins in the offices of two Nevada lawmakers among selected others in Congress.

A half-dozen protesters sat in the reception room of Republican Sen. Dean Heller from noon until his office closed at 5:30 p.m., reading books and magazines and completing crossword puzzles after being unable to obtain time with him.

Brian Fadie, a member of ProgressNow Nevada, said the group initially ran into Heller in the hallway as he was on his way to a vote, "and he said he would try to meet with us." When they checked in with his staff, Fadie said they were told the senator had off-campus meetings the rest of the day.

"The senator's schedule obviously is done weeks in advance," Heller spokesman Stewart Bybee said in midafternoon. "They are welcome to stay. We are looking at the schedule and seeing if there are any openings. We do have a variety of meetings going on."

Meanwhile, another small protest group spent the afternoon at the office of Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., after requesting time to discuss unemployment, the mortgage crisis and economic inequality.

"We are being told he is not available today, so right now we are waiting to get an appointment to see him while we are in Washington, D.C.," said Jennifer Reed, a UNLV graduate student and a member of Occupy Las Vegas.

Neither Heck nor his spokesman commented on the protesters, who were asked to write down their grievances to be forwarded to the congressman.

A half-dozen Las Vegans were part of what organizers said were about 3,000 protesters at Take Back the Capitol day, put together by an offshoot of the Occupy movement and a variety of labor and community activist groups, including MoveOn.org and the Service Employees International Union. A protester outside the office of Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said the goal was to target 99 congressional offices by the end of the day.

"There are so many issues, you could just have a laundry list to talk to our congressmen about. This opportunity came up, and I wanted to have my voice heard," said Kristal Glass, a Las Vegas mortgage consultant involved in the Occupy Las Vegas movement.

Their message, Fadie said, was that members of Congress "need to start listening to the
99 percent of Americans who don't have the money to pay for lobbyists to be here all day, every day, lobbying for special interests."

Some protesters came prepared for confrontation, but the interactions generally were peaceful.

"We figured we'd get run out of one office before we went to another," said Sebring Frehner of Las Vegas, a student at Nevada State College sitting in Heck's office. "We are not amateurs at this. We know we are going to get run out."

In the Nevada delegation, organizers targeted Heller and Heck, who have drawn the ire of activists and opposition from Democrats after taking positions in favor of revamping Medicare and for questioning the long-term viability of Social Security without a similar restructuring.

About 4 p.m., protesters left Heck's office and went down the hall to the office of Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev. They spent 20 minutes there after being told he was not in.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., was not in the office when the protesters went by. Her staff gave them an office tour and invited them to sign her guest book, Reed said.

A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said protesters did not visit his offices Tuesday.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.