Politics

SECRET: Kansas Independent Candidate Received Backing From Harry Reid Group Days Before Election

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Campaign finance filings released last week show that just days before the Nov. 4 election, the Senate Majority PAC spent $1.5 million to help Kansas independent Senate candidate Greg Orman in his race against Republican Pat Roberts.

The revelation is noteworthy because Orman, a multi-millionaire businessman, went to great lengths during the election to distance himself from Democrats, including Reid, as he tried to convince Kansas voters that he was a centrist and not beholden to either political party.

But according to FEC reports, the Reid-aligned Senate Majority PAC sent $1.31 million to the Committee to Elect an Independent Senate and another $151,000 to Kansas Support Problem Solvers, the Kansas City Star reports.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, both of those groups supported Orman in his race against the 78-year-old Roberts.

The Committee to Elect an Independent Senate spent $3.9 million, all of it to support Orman.

Likewise, Kansans Support Problem Solvers spent nearly $690,000, all of it to back Orman.

The spending may have seemed like a wise and necessary move in the weeks and days before the election. The most recent poll before the midterm had Orman leading Roberts by one point. With close races predicted in other states, it was believed that defeating Roberts in Kansas would help keep the Senate in Democratic hands.

But the contributions now seem to have been an colossal waste.

Roberts ended up defeating Orman handily in the election, 53 percent to 42 percent.

During the campaign, Roberts hammered Orman repeatedly on his political ties, saying that Orman was a Democrat posing as an independent. Roberts cited donations Orman had given in the past to Reid and President Obama as evidence of his true political leanings. He also reminded voters that Orman had briefly ran as a Democrat during the 2008 Kansas Senate election.

But Orman, who became a front-runner after Democratic nominee Chad Taylor took his name off the ballot in September, remained coy, saying that he was above partisan politics while refusing to say which party he would caucus with if elected.

With the revelation of the donations, it seems all the more clear that Orman would have caucused with Democrats if elected.

Reached through text message, Mike Phillips, Orman’s campaign manager, declined The Daily Caller’s request for comment.

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