Citing Synergy with OWS, Jill Stein Makes Noise on The Hill

Looks like Washington has been listening to Jill Stein, the Lexington resident and Green Party presidential hopeful.

In a Nov. 28 feature, Kris Kitto of The Hill wondered whether Stein is the country’s first Occupy Wall Street candidate. While Stein declines the label, saying Occupiers will pick their own candidate, she does note a “synergistic” chemistry between the Occupy movement and her Green New Deal platform.

“We are not looking to hijack them or force them to be electoral or force them in any way to shift from what they’re doing,” Stein told The Hill, which describes itself as a "must read" print and online newspaper for and about Congress. “I think the chemistry between the two entities is rich and synergistic, and we’ll see where it goes.”

According to Kitto, while Stein is embracing the Occupy Wall Street, she’s careful not to be too optimistic about becoming the movement’s candidate—and it remains to be seen whether OWS is willing to have her. He writes:

It remains unclear how willing the Occupy Wall Street activists are to embrace Stein. An Occupy Boston spokesman said the group doesn’t endorse politicians and was unsure whether Stein had made any lasting impression on his comrades.

“I do believe I have heard that name around camp, but I am pretty sure she has kept a low profile,” spokesman Ryan Cahill wrote in an email.

Monday was not the first time Stein has appeared to align herself with Occupy Wall Street.

In her announcement remarks last month, Stein introduced a and pointed to the Occupy Movement as an example of standing up for the 99 percent.

"In fact, young people are not only not giving up, they’re standing up like never before - – as we see so clearly in Zuccotti Square and Freedom Square and Grant Park and Dewey Square and hundreds of other Occupy encampments around the country," Stein said Oct. 24 at the State House. "And just like in the civil rights movement, when the young people stand up, the nation changes forever."

And, earlier this month, and charged that video footage from Wall Street, UC Berkeley and Occupy Oakland shows officials are "suppressing rights of free speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press."

"The use of police in full riot gear with helicopters buzzing overhead to arrest peaceful and largely sleeping protesters is frightening commentary on the militarization of state and municipal security," Stein said in a statement. "Unprovoked police violence against citizens practicing peaceful civil disobedience - clearly documented on videos gone viral on the Internet - is deeply alarming."