The Centrist Project aims to empower a growing political middle by channeling the support of moderate Americans to a handful of key U.S. Senate hopefuls across the country.
Centrist Project Founder Charles Wheelan said getting people to donate money to, and vote for, candidates who lack a major party's backing have been a huge challenge. But he feels it's worth the effort, as a small caucus of independent senators could help bridge the gap that has kept Republicans and Democrats from reaching compromises and with five take away the major party majority.
"The thinking is if you just pick up one, then people will wake up to the idea that it's possible, and therefore you get more candidates and voters are less worried about throwing away their votes," said Wheelan, a senior lecturer and policy fellow at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. "The first one's tough, but ideally it cycles in the right direction." Current independents are caucusing with the Democrats.
The project hasn't yet picked its candidates for 2016.
Pressler, who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from 1979 to 1997, decided to run for South Dakota's open seat as an independent in 2014, partly because of his progressive views on social issues and war.
Pressler had difficulty raising funds, but after a poll in October put him ahead of Democratic candidate Rick Weiland and close to former Republican Gov. Mike Rounds, he drew national attention and attack ads from both sides. "And I didn't have the money to take to the airwaves and defend those attacks," Pressler said. "It didn't make any difference what my stances on the issues were."
Rounds easily won the seat, with Pressler getting about 17 percent of the vote.
Greg Orman, a Centrist Project-backed independent from Kansas who challenged Republican Sen. Pat Roberts and Democrat Chad Taylor, faced a far different scenario. Orman, an entrepreneur, felt he had a path to victory with three candidates in the race.
When Taylor abruptly dropped out in September over concerns about split votes, Republicans jumped to start branding Orman as the de facto choice of liberal Democrats. It was an attack strategy that wouldn't have worked on him if there was a Democrat on the ticket, Orman said. "When it became a two-candidate race, it changed the nature of the race," he said.
Wheelan said the Pressler and Orman campaigns suggest that it may be best for independent candidates to keep low profiles as late in the cycle as possible. "It's very counterintuitive for politics, but the nature of these races is you kind of got to sneak up from the middle," Wheelan said. "They both peaked too early."
The Centrist Project grew out of Wheelan's book, "The Centrist Manifesto," which argued for a third political party. He eventually scaled back to focus on individual U.S. Senate races.
The 2014 election results offered several other lessons that are shaping the project's mission. The organization this past year has spent considerable time honing its branding and marketing efforts with a focus on trying to connect with independents on an emotional level. "How can we take what's really kind of a cerebral, wonkish idea, both the strategy and what they stand for, and wrap it in something that resonates more emotionally?" he asked.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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