Ben & Jerry's founder's play for IA, NH
Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 10:27 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
States, Security
From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro
Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, wants to reduce the size of the Pentagon's budget -- and to accomplish that, he and the business group he heads are trying to influence the Democratic contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Cohen is the president of
Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, which wants to eliminate about $60 billion per year in defense spending and allocate that money instead to education, children's health care, and energy independence. And his group is spending about $2 million per year to get its message heard in the early nominating states and to impact the election results there. "What if we ... made [the presidential candidates] listen to us?" he tells First Read.
To make them listen, Cohen says Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities now has at least 9,000 Democratic voters in Iowa who have pledged to caucus for the candidate the group endorses in November. In a contest that typically has low voter turnout, he says, 9,000 voters could end up deciding the winner in Iowa.
Cohen tells First Read that he and his organization have met with most of the Democratic candidates to discuss cutting Pentagon spending and various weapons programs. "Richardson and Biden have been great on the issue," he says. "Kucinich has been there all along -- but it doesn't look like he can win the nomination." Edwards, he adds, "seems to be on board," but has yet to explicitly back the goal.
What about Obama and Clinton? Cohen says that he met privately with Obama, while his staff in Iowa met with Hillary's people. "Clinton's campaign didn't seem to have interest in getting our endorsement," he notes.
And the Republicans? Cohen says his group has given up trying to work with them. "They're bleeding hearts when it comes to weapons systems. They've never met a weapons system they don't like."
