Orman says he’s fighting the two-party system in his unlikely bid to unseat Roberts. Orman confronts Kansas GOP bigs

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Greg Orman says he’s fighting the two-party system in his unlikely bid to unseat this state’s veteran Republican senator, Pat Roberts. On Friday, the system bit back.

It started when Roberts stepped off a decked-out tour bus in front of a 72,000-seat NASCAR arena, and it’ll continue over the weekend as the former Marine trots out one GOP star after another — Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, Bob Dole — in an effort to galvanize his party’s base and hang onto a seat Republicans have been banking on to win control of the Senate.


“There’s an expression that we have out in Dodge City. If you want to be a big flea, you have to run with tall dogs,” Roberts said as he kicked off Friday’s rally. “And I’m just happy to have all these tall dogs with me out here today.”

Even the 91-year-old Dole expressed wonderment at the high-profile turnout: “I’ve never seen so many governors in one place … You’ve got all these stars here, and I’m just a former former.”

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While the GOP revved its engines for Roberts, supporters of the independent hopeful Orman were setting up a bare-bones press conference in an empty yard adjoining an electric company in a quiet, dusty enclave a shade west of the Missouri border. A gust of wind sent Orman’s podium toppling a few minutes before he stepped in front of reporters, and a quick-thinking aide found rocks to secure it.

There were no lawn signs or loudspeakers blaring classic campaign tunes, no surrogates milling around or cultural landmarks in the background. Just Orman, about two dozen supporters and a brick wall.

Orman seemed aware of the imbalance — and relished it.

“It sort of seems like a Washington establishment clown car to me,” he said of Roberts’s star-studded bus tour. “Every day a new person comes out of that car.”

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There’s no clown car full of independents, though. And, if nothing else, the GOP’s long arms could help ferry supportive votes to the polls on Tuesday, a potential edge if the race remains a near-tie.

To be sure, Orman allies and aides say he’ll have some traditional resources at his disposal in the run-up to election day. Hundreds of volunteers will make direct contact with potential Orman voters, and phone banks will reach thousands of Kansans. In addition, the campaign is convinced that a broad swath of independents naturally averse to either party’s orthodoxy, amount to a base — and that it’s as fired up as the Republican faithful.

“What we have is more powerful,” Orman said when asked about the GOP turnout operation. “I think it’s much more powerful to have passionate voters who are working hard than some sort of big paid organization that comes in from Washington, D.C. to try to encourage the voters of Kansas to behave one way or the other.”

It’s not quite David vs. Goliath — Orman has raised significant sums over the course of the race, and has also plowed more than $1 million of his own fortune into the contest, helping to build his own infrastructure and remain competitive.

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It’s also clear that any active help from the major parties would run counter to Orman’s narrative that he’s beholden to no one. He refused again on Friday to say which party he’d caucus with, casting it as a relatively trivial, procedural decision, despite its potential to tip the balance of power in the Senate.

“Regardless of the vote I take to organize the Senate, I am going to act as an independent voice representing the people of Kansas,” he said. Asked whether he’d consider running to lead the Senate himself, Orman and his wife Sybil both chuckled at the question and said he was focused on getting elected first.

Democrats, of course, prefer Orman to Roberts. But they’re legally barred from actively courting voters on Orman’s behalf. Kansas Republicans made clear that they’re hunting for any attempt by Democrats to boost Orman, filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Friday — one Democrats deemed “frivolous” and Orman quickly dismissed — to suggest collusion between the camps.

Republicans pointed to a Democratic field office in tiny Iola, Kan., that had a few Orman lawn signs visibly stacked against a back wall.

At its core, Kansas is still a Republican state, at least by the numbers. Of the state’s 1.7 million registered voters, 44 percent are Republicans, compared to 24 percent Democrats and 31 percent independent. Roberts is spending the campaign’s final days pressing that advantage, planning events likely to fire up base voters.

The Republican’s Sunday schedule includes another rally with Dole followed by a “Kansans for Life” rally alongside conservative stalwart Rick Santorum and a late-afternoon “Friends of the NRA” rally.

Orman’s countdown to Tuesday includes a slew of voter meet-and-greets. No special guests are on the agenda.