Swingleft.org, a left-leaning nonprofit organization concerned with flipping seats in the House of Representatives from Republican to Democrat, will be hosting a series of protests this week outside Rep. John Katko’s (R-Camillus) office in Syracuse.

These protests come after a demonstration on Feb. 15 against Katko’s connections to the National Rifle Association in the wake of last week’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

William Happy, a representative of swingleft.org who works in New York’s 19th, 22nd and 24th congressional districts, said protests on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will each cover different issues. Tuesday will focus on the protection of DREAMers, Wednesday will address gun control and Thursday will cover the investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Happy said the week of protests will culminate in a march from Katko’s office on South Warren Street to the James M. Hanley Federal Building on South Clinton Street to demonstrate against the congressman.

“I think what a lot of people have a problem with and why people are so angry is because John Katko has billed himself as a moderate, but he votes with the Trump administration over 90 percent of the time,” Happy said.

According to statistics website FiveThirtyEight, Katko’s votes align with President Donald Trump’s agenda 91 percent of the time, while before Trump’s inauguration he was expected to align with it only 57.5 percent of the time.

But Happy said he’s optimistic, based on what he’s seen since he started working in New York’s 24th congressional district, which contains Syracuse.

“We had a protest last Thursday at his office about gun control and we got some good press for that,” he said. “It’s difficult to organize people last second, we had just thought of the idea for that morning. But we were able to get about a dozen people out there with some good signs, and the energy is definitely real.”

He added that he’s been organizing a weekly protest, which in the past three weeks has grown to involve about 35 people at the Wegmans in DeWitt.

He said he hopes the weekly protest will grow and involve more people from the Syracuse community. Happy added that he hopes the swingleft.org protests are similar to frequent protests in areas such as California’s 49th congressional district.

Congress is on recess right now, and Happy said he expects Katko to be present at his office this week. Happy said he heard rumors that he is not going to be there, but the protests will be happening regardless.

Published on February 20, 2018 at 9:20 pm

Contact Charlie: cesawyer@syr.edu