Kleinman brings Occupy ideals to race against Schwartz

Nate Kleinman may be the only political candidate this election cycle to boast that the group he rose out of chose not to endorse him.

The 29-year-old congressional hopeful from Jenkintown has been dubbed by some as the first significant candidate to emerge from the Occupy Wall Street movement.

But when time came for Occupy Philadelphia to lend support for his primary bid against Democratic U.S. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz, its 50 or so members opted out. They chose not to endorse any candidates in any election.

And Kleinman wouldn't have it any other way.

"The movement isn't about electoral politics," he said. "To me, it's very clear that the Occupy movement has made a decision to work outside of the political system."

That aversion to engage in the electoral process - even to back one of their own - continues to frustrate some on the left.

Heading into this year's presidential and congressional races, Democratic strategists had hoped the grassroots Occupy movement, with its outrage over widening income inequality and what it sees as lax government oversight of corporate interests, would help energize the more progressive fringes of the party's base - much the way the tea party did for conservative Republicans in the 2010 midterms.

But so far, the Occupiers' populist rage has yet to translate into identifiable political gains.

Only a handful of outside candidates - such as U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts - have publicly staked their campaigns on solidarity with the movement. And when it comes to protesters hoping to transition into political office themselves, Kleinman pretty much stands alone.

"The Occupy movement is in this weird place at the moment," said Dannagal Young, a University of Delaware professor who has studied public perception of the Occupiers. "They're not occupying the headlines as they had been, and everyone is wondering where does this go next."

The Occupy Philadelphia group's decision last month not to endorse any candidates will come as little surprise to those who have followed the movement's spread from a group of protesters in a New York park to a nationwide cause.

From the start, its members have proven reluctant to embrace leaders or spokesmen, and many still view institutional politics with suspicion.

Kleinman is about as well-suited as anyone to serve as a presentable face for the movement.

Lanky, bespectacled, and frequently seen sporting a button that says "Repeal the Patriot Act," he speaks fluently on issues ranging from health care to drug policy.

He has enough activist idealism to earn respect among the movement's most ardent demonstrators. After graduating from Georgetown University, he staged a 12-day hunger strike outside the White House in 2005 in hopes of ending genocide in Sudan.

His career thus far has consisted of a series of odd jobs - landscaping, stagehand, clerical work, and food delivery - that have allowed him to sustain his activist bent with frequent trips to humanitarian trouble spots such as Honduras and Oaxaca, Mexico.

But he also possesses enough political experience, after stints on campaigns for President Obama and Joe Sestak, to suggest he's not just a stunt candidate.

Listen to him talk about his decision to take on Schwartz - who represents Montgomery County suburbs and parts of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania's 13th District - and it becomes clear that he is approaching the race with the seriousness of a seasoned political operative.

Outlining his campaign to a group of supporters at a recent meeting, he pulled out a map identifying new, more heavily Democratic areas of Philadelphia added to Schwartz's district during this year's congressional redistricting.

"Her old district was 94 percent white," he said. "Now, it's more than 30 percent minority. That opens an opportunity for us among voters who don't know her yet."

And the meeting - an open strategy session held in the food court of an Asian market in which he welcomed input from district residents on how to run his campaign - reflects how heavily Occupy ideals have infiltrated his thinking about the race.

"One of the things that impressed me most was the inclusiveness of the movement," he said. "Anyone could walk up and speak and affect the way the movement is going. That's the way our Congress and my campaign should work."

But while Occupy has shaped how Kleinman hopes to run, his strict embrace of its ideals could threaten any chance he has for a victory.

Schwartz, a four-term incumbent, is considered by many to be a lock this election cycle. She comes to the race with a war chest of $2.3 million and record of victories over Republican competitors. She has not responded to requests to discuss Kleinman's candidacy.

Kleinman, meanwhile, has sworn off accepting donations from corporate bigwigs or their political action committees and promised, if elected, not to spend a minute of his time fund-raising.

"Frankly, I think fund-raising is illegal," he said. "You're elected to represent your constituents."

But can a candidate sustained by small donations alone stand a shot in the current big-spending political environment? Not likely, said David S. Meyer, a sociologist at the University of California-Irvine.

Kleinman's hard-line stance on fund-raising offers only one example of why the Occupy movement may have trouble shifting into institutionalized politics, Meyer said.

Historically, candidates who have emerged from populist grassroots groups have had to find ways to mold their ideas to the political reality in order to get elected. Only then can they begin to legislate their agenda, he said.

The tea party's awareness of that fact helped propel it to dozens of electoral successes in 2010.

"The tea party was oriented toward political institutions from the get-go," he said. "They realized to advance your agenda you have to play by the rules as they exist."

But Kleinman rejects the comparison.

One need only flick on the television to see how deeply the Occupy vernacular has already saturated political discourse in this election cycle.

Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum continue to tar rival Mitt Romney as a "1 percenter." President Obama referenced the "99 percent" in his State of the Union address last month.

For Kleinman, that is indication enough that Occupy has already begun to achieve its goals - with or without a slate of candidates.

"The debate in this country has shifted from 'fiscal responsibility' and 'deficit reduction,' " he said. "Now, it's about inequality. We changed that."