photo by: Associated Press

TOPEKA – Greg Orman rose to prominence in the Kansas political world quickly in 2014 when he ran as an independent candidate and threatened to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts.

It was a race that drew national and international attention because the balance of power in the Senate was at stake that year. And Orman actually led in several polls leading up to Election Day, leading many to believe, at least for a while, that the political tides had shifted and that voters might actually be willing to look outside the traditional two-party system in an era of bitter partisan divide.

But that was also an election in which there was no Democratic candidate. The Democratic nominee that year, Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor, abruptly withdrew from the race shortly after the primary — some say at the urging of state and national Democratic leaders — giving Orman a clear shot at taking down a Republican without the Democrats having to risk their own resources.

Orman ended up losing that race by more than 10 percentage points after a huge influx of outside money was poured in from Republican groups who came to Roberts’ aid.

Now, Orman is trying again, this time running as an independent candidate for governor. But this time, there are strong candidates from both major parties in Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly and Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Recent polls have shown Orman running in a distant third place, barely breaking into the double digits at times, leading many observers to suggest he can only be a spoiler in the race by siphoning votes away from one of the other major-party candidates.

On social media, Democrats in particular have even urged him to suspend his campaign and bow out of the race to avoid being a spoiler. But Orman flatly rejects any such notion.

“No, we’re not looking at that,” Orman said in a recent interview. “I believe that there is a pathway to win this thing. I think there are a lot of voters who may be looking at this race and may be concerned, and acting out of fear, that if they support me it will help one of the other candidates.

“And that’s a little sad that we would have to vote for a bad candidate just to avoid a worse one,” he said.

Background and education

Orman, 49, who lives in Olathe, has been a successful businessman most of his career.

He was born and raised in Minnesota, and after his parents divorced, he stayed mainly with his mother in Mankato while his father moved to Stanley, Kan., in southern Johnson County, where he opened a furniture store.

After high school, Orman enrolled at Princeton University, where he earned a degree in economics.

In 1992, he founded a company called Environmental Lighting Concepts, which designed and installed energy-efficient lighting systems for commercial and industrial customers. The company was later sold to Kansas City Power & Light in 2002.

Since then, he has worked largely in the investment business. He co-founded a private equity firm, Denali Partners LLC, and he is listed as managing partner of Exemplar Holdings LLC, which owns a number of other business including a sports equipment manufacturer, real estate holdings and a financial services company.

Running from the center

As a private citizen, Orman has made campaign contributions to candidates from both major political parties. And in his political pursuits, he has adopted positions that tend to appeal to the moderate wings of both parties.

On abortion, for example, Orman says he wants to reduce the number of abortions that are performed, but not by enacting new legal restrictions on the procedure. Instead, he says he wants to address what he calls the “root cause of the problem.”

“Which I believe is access to contraception, education and economic factors,” he said in an interview. “And so I’d like to pursue programs like they’re doing in places like Colorado, where they give young women seeking birth control access to low-cost, longer-lasting birth control, and they’ve seen a substantial reduction in the abortion rate.”

Economic development: With his background in economics, Orman has made stimulating the Kansas economy the centerpiece of his campaign.

Orman has frequently said that Kansas suffers from what he calls a “reputational deficit.” He says it’s difficult to lure new businesses to the state because their employees don’t want to move here, either because of its reputation for being flat and boring, or because of some of the conservative social policies that lawmakers have adopted in recent years.

“And this is an area where I simply have stark disagreements with Secretary Kobach, who wants to create an environment that’s hostile to workers, particularly immigrant workers,” Orman said.

His main economic development proposals would aim to address the state’s labor shortage by encouraging young people who grow up here, as well as military personnel who are discharged from Kansas military bases, to remain in Kansas by making it easier for them to get job training through the state’s community colleges and technical schools.

“We’ve talked about filling in the gaps in education financing and providing a revolving loan fund for our graduates who are trying to get certificate degrees in things like welding and masonry and concrete finishing work, or maybe even rail work,” he said. “What we’ve found is, when someone gets a degree like that, they tend to get a job within 50 miles of where they get a degree.”

Higher education: Orman said if elected governor, he would restore funding for higher education that was cut during the Brownback administration. Then he would work to hold down future cost increases by agreeing to increase funding at the rate of inflation in exchange for agreements from the six Regents universities not to increase tuition and fees by more than the rate of inflation.

Marijuana: Orman says he supports legalizing marijuana for medical purposes and decriminalizing it for recreational purposes.

“I don’t think we should waste criminal justice resources arresting, booking, confining, trying and incarcerating our citizens for buying a dime bag of weed,” he said. “So I would substantially alter the penalties for recreational use and treat it just like a speeding ticket.”

Gun policy: Orman said he is a gun owner and supports Second Amendment rights. But he also says the state has gone too far in allowing people to carry concealed weapons without a permit or training.

“In the state of Kansas we require people to have 1,000 hours of training to be able to legally wax an eyebrow, and yet anybody can carry a concealed weapon because of the constitutional-carry law without a minute’s worth of safety training,” he said.

Orman said he would support reinstating training requirements. He would also call for repealing current statutes that require college campuses and municipal buildings to allow people to carry concealed weapons. And he would support requiring background checks for gun purchases, including sales between private individuals.