WICHITA, Kan. — Independent Senate candidate Greg Orman has been cagey about whether he’ll caucus with Democrats or Republicans if elected.
His supporters think that’s the whole point.
Some of the Kansas businessman’s core supporters, including registered Republicans and independents, argue that his lack of a political party would grant him outsized influence on Capitol Hill.
To be sure, some Kansas Democrats are excited about Orman’s candidacy because they think he has a good chance to beat incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts and has not ruled out caucusing with Senate Democrats, especially now that the Democratic candidate Chad Taylor has dropped out.
But in multiple interviews this week at two Orman campaign volunteer organizing events, supporters referenced the candidate’s IQ and business success as the basis for their belief that he can singularly end partisan gridlock and develop politically palatable solutions to the country’s most intractable problems.
“He can shake things loose,” said Lynn Stephan, an Orman supporter from Wichita and a leader of the group, Women for Kansas, which is supporting Orman and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Paul Davis. Stephan was on hand Thursday evening for an Orman volunteer-organizing event in Wichita.
“He displays a lot of common sense, a lot of intelligence, he’s a natural problem solver,” added Mark McDonald, 55, of the Kansas City, Mo., suburban community of Overland Park. McDonald attended a volunteer event on Tuesday at Orman campaign headquarters in Shawnee, Kan.
The Senate is steeped in tradition and operates by an arcane set of parliamentary rules. On the one hand, those rules afford even the most junior senator extraordinary power to influence legislation and floor deliberations. On the other hand, members of both parties credit some of those rules — or an abuse of them — for contributing to the partisan gridlock that has gripped the chamber under Democratic and Republican majorities.
To circumvent the gridlock, bipartisan groups of Democratic and Republican senators, usually referred to as “gangs,” have occasionally coalesced to push major legislation or negotiate an end to political standoffs. These gangs have met with limited success, and it’s an open question whether one senator might be more effective simply because he is not officially aligned with a political party.
But don’t tell that to Orman fans. Their confidence is encouraged by the campaign, which hints that Orman and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, have a similar approach and could work together as a bloc. King caucuses with the Democrats but has not ruled out joining the Republicans if they win a majority in the midterm elections.
“You’ve got other independents who are in Congress who could go different ways as well, depending on what the outcome of the Congress is,” an Orman advisor told the Washington Examiner, when asked how the candidate would determine which party to caucus with. “I can’t speak for what [King] is going to do.”
“Even though he’s only one guy, and there’s only one other guy up in Maine, they have a hell of a lot of leverage if they can pull this off,” said Orman supporter Joe Forlenza, 71, a registered as a Republican from Olathe, Kan., in suburban Kansas City.
A King aide confirmed Friday that the senator has spoken with Orman, but described the conversation as part of his standard practice of talking to independents like himself who are running for Congress and call seeking advice.
The King aide declined to comment specifically on suggestions that the senator and Orman would work as a team to influence legislation and the election of the next majority leader. But he did emphasize that King would not be campaigning against Roberts or any of his Senate colleagues on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Among the other lofty expectations Orman’s supporters have for him, are:
• That regardless of which party he caucuses with, he might regularly go back and forth between the two parties, as he deems necessary to influence legislation, who serves in elected caucus leadership and to best serve the interests of Kansas.
• That he would be the “deciding” vote on major issues that might otherwise be decided by the tie breaking vote of the vice president, and that the desire on the part of Democrats and Republicans to win his support will position him to broker deals.
• That he can push the Democratic and Republican caucuses to remove Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., as majority leader, or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as the prospective new majority leader, in exchange for his agreeing to join them and guarantee their majority status.
