U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts won re-election for his U.S. Senate seat in Kansas in 2014, but Greg Orman gave him a run for his money. Though Roberts ultimately won by 10 points, polls had Orman leading the Senate race in the final weeks — as an independent.
On KCUR’s Up To Date this week, Orman told host Steve Kraske his campaign proved independents can win in a place like Kansas.
"Demonstrating that an independent can do as well as I did in a state where we have a perception of Republican dominance, I think, sent a pretty strong message," Orman says.
After the election, former Sen. Bob Dole commented to Orman that he might be in the Senate right now if only he had signaled that he would have caucused with the Republicans.
"It's definitely true," Orman says. "But then I would have owed my election to the Republican party, and I wouldn't have been able to bring the change that I really wanted to bring to Washington." What Orman did say was that he would, "caucus with whichever party was willing to promote a pro-problem-solving agenda."
In a new book, A Declaration of Independents, Orman picks up where his campaign left off, arguing for the need for independents in Congress.
Instead of the more homogenous crowds Democrats and Republicans tend to draw to town halls, as an independent on the campaign trail, Orman says he met Kansans from across the political spectrum. And he says he encountered a lot of common ground.
Orman says if more independents ran, the impact of negative advertising would go down.
"Negative advertising works quite well in a two candidate races — you knock one candidate down and the other benefits. In a three-candidate race, negative campaigning ... has the perverse (effect) of helping another candidate."
But the duopoly remains, which, Orman says, "might facilitate reelection, but it makes it impossible to govern."
While he says his very conservative uncle thinks the gridlock in Washington is a good thing — "because if they don't do anything they can't screw up anything" — Orman suspects it could allow government to grow uncontrolled. Without compromise, he suggests non-discretionary spending in the federal budget, including payments on the national debt and Social Security, will balloon.
With voters in the ongoing presidential primaries gravitating toward unconventional choices and showing dissatisfaction with both Democrats and Republicans, Orman thinks over time Independent candidates will break through and win. And, though he has no current plans to be on the ballot this year, he says he wouldn't rule out running again in the future.
Eds note: a previous version of this story had a mistake in the transcription of a quote from Orman.
Amy Jeffries is the Kansas elections editor at KCUR 89.3. You can find her on Twitter, @amyoverhere.
