Orman speaks to Washburn students as campaign enters new phase

Greg Orman speaks to students at Washburn University about his independent campaign for the U.S. Senate. Recent polls suggest Orman is slightly ahead of incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.

? Greg Orman looked at ease Wednesday speaking to several dozen college students in a large lecture hall on the Washburn University campus in Topeka, talking about his independent campaign for the U.S. Senate.

“Normally to get a crowd like this at a college, you have to serve pizza,” he quipped just before launching into his standard stump remarks that have become so familiar by now that he delivers them without notes.

But with polls now showing Orman either tied with, or somewhat ahead of incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, Orman is now getting more attention, and more scrutiny, from state and national media wanting to know more about his politics and his personal business background.

For nearly an hour, Orman spoke off the cuff to the college crowd. He spoke at length about the growing national debt, the rising cost of higher education and health care, and the need for campaign finance reform.

Above all, though, he talked about the partisan divide in Washington and how he believes that prevents the current Congress from solving any of the other issues.

“Americans are reacting to that by giving Congress the lowest favorability ratings on record,” he said. “They rank just slightly above Fidel Castro and on par with Hugo Chavez. In terms of company, that’s not necessarily good company to keep.”

Orman is not the first candidate to poke fun at dysfunction in Washington, and he is by no means the first candidate to run as an independent or third party candidate against the two-party system.

But he may be the first such candidate in Kansas to stand a serious chance of winning.

“Wave elections are hard to predict,” said Washburn political science professor Bob Beatty. “But even in individual states what’s hard to predict is an anti-incumbency feeling, and that’s definitely what we’re seeing.”

Greg Orman, independent candidate for U.S. Senate answers questions about his business background after speaking to students at Washburn University in Topeka. Orman is a Princeton University graduate and founder of a venture capital fund, Denali Partners.

Orman, 45, entered the race early and began airing his first TV ads during the primary campaign, when Roberts was fending off a serious primary challenge from tea party challenger Milton Wolf. Early polls showed him running far behind Roberts and the leading Democratic challenger at the time, Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor.

But with Taylor’s abrupt withdrawal from the race Sept. 3, polls now show Orman running even with, or possibly ahead of Roberts. And the Roberts campaign is not taking that lightly.

Last week, Roberts released a new TV ad trying to characterize Orman as a liberal who is only pretending to be independent. More recently, Roberts has pressed Orman to say which party he would caucus with in the Senate, and to release details of his personal finances.

News organizations have also been digging into Orman’s background and the venture capital firm Denali Partners, which he helped found. He also founded a company, which he later sold to Kansas City Power and Light, that specializes in designing and installing energy efficient lighting systems.

Orman said he would file his financial disclosure statement with the Secretary of the Senate within the next few days.

On the stump, Orman typically talks in vague generalities about the need for both parties to work together to solve problems. And when asked about his own ideas for solutions, he usually refers people to his website, which sometimes has even more generalities.

Speaking about the federal budget, for example, he defines the problem in detail, noting that mandatory spending on things such as Social Security, Medicare and interest on the national debt accounts for about 71 percent of all spending, and that percentage is growing.

But then he adds, “The only way we get the 71 percent to stop growing is for Congress to cooperate.”

Asked later to elaborate on that, Orman said the government spends too much money on health care, and that it needs to find ways to lower the cost. He also said Congress needs to re-examine Social Security disability benefits.

Orman describes himself as “fiscally conservative and socially tolerant,” and he typically tries to steer clear of hot-button social issues.

On the subject of abortion, for example, his website states: “I believe it’s time for our government to move past this issue and start focusing on other important issues, such as healthcare and higher education affordability, tax code simplification, and fixing our broken immigration system.”

On some issues, though, Orman does offer specifics.

On campaign finance reform, for example, he favors a constitutional amendment to limit independent ads by corporations. He also favors overhauling the system of nominating candidates by shifting to a “top two” primary system that would be open to all voters, and the top two candidates would advance to the general election, regardless of their party affiliations.

If elected, Orman said he would caucus with whichever party has a clear majority in the Senate. But in the event that neither party has a majority, which he sees as increasingly likely, he said he will caucus with whichever party is willing to adopt a “problem-solving agenda.”