SHAWNEE, Kan. — Greg Orman is taking heat for avoiding questions on politically charged issues and being cagey about which party he would caucus with if he’s elected to the Senate. But Kansas voters don’t seem to mind.
Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, 78, and others are attacking the Independent candidate for playing both sides of the fence in an attempt to hide his allegiance to the Democratic Party.
On Tuesday morning, the conservative hosts of Topeka’s WIBW news talk radio program, “Kansas Live,” attacked Orman for promising to change Washington but declining to say how. During the segment, they played the song “Who Are You?” by the rock band “The Who” in the background.
Orman would have voted against the Affordable Care Act, but won’t say if he would support legislation to repeal Obamacare. He vows to caucus with the Republicans if they win a firm majority of at least 51 seats in the midterm elections. But if the GOP wins 50 seats, Orman might caucus with Democrats, which with Vice President Joe Biden’s tie breaking vote would ensure that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., continues as majority leader.
Supporters of Orman, a 45 year-old multimillionaire businessman, don’t much care.
In interviews with more than half dozen of the approximately 50 people who showed up at Orman headquarters in Shawnee Tuesday evening to sign up to volunteer for the campaign, the overwhelming sentiment was that it doesn’t matter what he believes or how he would vote on legislation. What matters are that he would shake up a gridlocked, dysfunctional Senate and use his political independence to get government working again.
“He displays a lot of common sense, a lot of intelligence. He’s a natural problem solver, so instead of having to align himself with a party position, I think he’ll try to help find a way to solve things and move the country forward,” said Mark McDonald, 55, who like many in attendance told the Washington Examiner he first got to know Orman professionally.
Asked what positions Orman has taken on major issues that he is most enthusiastic about, McDonald added: “I don’t know that it’s so much a position focus, as change.”
Perhaps ironically, one of Orman’s avowed Democratic supporters said she was in fact supporting him because he has staked out affirmative — and favorable — positions on issues important to progressives.
“Probably the two things biggest to my heart are healthcare and gun control and I like both of his stances on those,” said DeeDee Cooper, 58, a real estate agent from the suburban, Kansas City, Mo., community of Prairie Village.
Several self-described registered Republicans were on hand Tuesday evening to join a volunteer army that the Orman campaign claims in more than 600 strong and growing. And most trumpeted a campaign message that emphasizes Orman’s leadership skills over getting bogged down in Washington process and partisanship. These Republicans weren’t dwelling on how an Orman victory could upset GOP prospects for winning control of the Senate.
But the Democrats who showed said they are hopeful that the independent will caucus with Senate Democrats despite his assurances that he will join the Republicans if they win an outright majority. To them, Orman is, if not an actual Democrat, a de facto Democrat who could be the first non-Republican to win a Senate race in Kansas since the 1930s. Orman has led Roberts in recent polls.
“He’s free to do what he wants to do. He’s running as an independent and that’s kind of the gamble that we take as voters,” Courtney Erterich, a stay-at-home mom, said. “I also feel like if he caucuses with the Republicans, that I clearly would be disappointed.”
Erterich’s hope is not unfounded.
Although Orman was a Republican when he was younger and voted for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, he has also registered as a Democrat. He ran for Senate as a Democrat in 2008 and has donated money to high profile Democratic politicians, before later becoming an independent. National Democrats successfully convinced Kansas Democratic Senate nominee Chad Taylor to remove his name from the ballot to boost Orman’s chances of defeating Roberts.
Roberts and his backers don’t think Kansas Democrats have anything to worry about. They contend that Orman is masquerading as an independent because it’s his only shot of winning in deep red Kansas and is likely to support Reid for Senate majority leader regardless of his promise to caucus with Republicans if they win the majority. The line has become a major component of Roberts’ argument for why voters should elect him to a fourth term.
“Greg Orman is a liberal Democrat,” Roberts campaign manager Corry Bliss said. “A vote for Greg Orman is a vote for the Harry Reid, [President] Barack Obama liberal agenda.”
