Romney in the Hamptons: The View From Outside the Gates

Here’s what the hoi polloi outside the GOP presidential candidate’s fancy Hamptons fundraisers had to say.

Samantha Goresh/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


“I’m not going out to protest Mitt Romney,” Justin Wedes, an Occupy Wall Street organizer, announced over the bus PA system on Sunday en route to Southampton, New York, where Romney was holding a fundraiser at the beachfront estate of billionaire industrialist David Koch. Wedes and two busloads worth of activists had set out to protest a corrupted “system,” not any particular candidate, he reminded his fellow passengers as we rolled along the Long Island Expressway.

Occupy organizers had joined with traditional progressive organizations to make the logistics work. The American Federation of Teachers, a large union that typically endorses Democrats, underwrote the bus trip from Union Square and back, according to Aaron Black, another Occupy organizer. Greenpeace and MoveOn.org cosponsored the event.

After the busses arrived in Southampton, where the Hamptons Hedges are trimmed impeccably and lawns must be mowed at least weekly, per town ordinance, protesters assembled along a roadway within eyeshot of the ocean. At a Cooper Beach restaurant specializing in overpriced fried foods, cashier Patty Fanning mused about the protest. “My family has been here since the Civil War, and I’m the first generation to not be able to afford to live here,” she said. “It’s a disgrace.” Fanning would have marched alongside the protesters if not for her shift, she said, ringing up a $2.99 bagel.

A group of young women working at the Cooper Beach parking lot information booth chatted about the protesters as they checked vehicles for beach permits, which cost $40 per day. Ali Wilson, the daughter of a local police chief, said that locals had a generally favorable view of David Koch and family. A friend of hers babysits for their two children at a rate of $20 per hour. That’s “pretty normal for babysitting,” she said. 

After some initial confusion near Cooper Beach, Southampton police permitted protesters to march on the street to their next destination—the entrance to the Koch compound. From there, activists shouted “for shame!” at luxury vehicles entering the property.

Reporters and photographers lined up to visit the sole counterprotester—Jim Wilson, the Romney superfan who travels the country in a pickup truck garishly adorned with campaign insignia. “Give them proportionate attention, will ya?” Wilson told a photographer snapping shots of his vehicle. Last month, Wilson’s truck exploded, and the Romney campaign purchased him a new one. “Wait till they get to know Mitt and Ann up close,” Wilson said. “He’s one hell of an ordinary guy.”

With a pipe dangling from his mouth, Wilson asserted that protesters were “getting paid” to show up and agitate. When pressed for evidence of this, he said “check any website.” Then he went back to talking about the Romneys. “They will fall in love with that couple. They are just upstanding citizens. You know, the peculiar thing—he dresses very well, he wears a suit well. It’s almost as if he’s from Central Casting!”

Though a few protesters said they were strong supporters of Obama, there was little sign of the overtly partisan overtones that Justin Wedes had warned against. Chuck Perretti, from nearby Setauket, New York, said he volunteered extensively for Obama four years ago, but had since become disillusioned. “I thought he was going to stand up for the middle class,” Perretti sighed. “But he was thwarted—by an uncreative way of thinking.” Susan Van Olst, a Southampton native who wore an Obama-Biden pin, took a slightly different view. “It’s not Obama’s fault that he’s caught up in the system,” she said. “The system is broken.”

Organizers eventually declared that a contingent of protesters would “take the beach,” i.e., march a sandy half-mile to the oceanfront portion of Koch’s sprawling estate. Some occupiers who had remembered their bathing suits took quick dips along the way—at 67 degrees, the water was inviting. Security personnel perched atop the dunes at the rear of Koch’s property filmed protesters with their iPads. A Secret Service agent shooed away two reporters who attempted to catch a glimpse of the estate’s backyard. Some swankily dressed men, presumably fundraiser attendees, meandered out and snickered at the scene on the beach.

“David, come out! We got some shit to talk about!” protesters chanted, as a Coast Guard vessel watched on from the sea. David Intrator, the saxophonist who has long been a fixture at Occupy events in New York, belted an impassioned rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Protesters sang along, and one or two officers appeared to crack a brief smile.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate