Political independent Greg Orman fighting perception he’s an enigma

Greg Orman: Businessman, candidate, mystery.

Ninety days ago, those descriptions seemed appropriate. Few Kansans knew anything about the 45-year-old Olathe resident pursuing a then long-shot independent campaign against incumbent U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican.

Today – in a development that has grabbed headlines across the nation – Orman is locked in a close race with Roberts with party control of the U.S. Senate potentially at stake.

Yet Orman remains an enigma. In one poll, more than one in four likely Kansas voters said they hadn’t heard of Orman or were unsure of their opinion of him.

Some confusion is inevitable. Orman has run for office just once, dropping out long before the ballots were printed. He has no legislative voting record. He claims no membership in a political party.

“It’s not easy to understand who I am,” the candidate said.

In speeches and TV ads, the independent has walked a careful path, often offering this-but-also-that statements. His debate performances have been competent, careful, businesslike affairs.

‘A natural leader’

Some voters may see Orman as a political neophyte, a businessman who was so disgusted with Washington he decided to leave the private sector to do something about it.

In fact, Orman’s thirst for a public life appears to have started decades ago.

In 1986, the Mankato, Minn., high school student traveled to Washington for Boys Nation, a summer program for budding politicians.

Orman ran for president and won. Patrick Ungashick, then of St. Louis, was elected vice president and remembers Orman in the thick of the chase for high office.

“Greg was a natural leader,” Ungashick said. “You could tell that right away.”

Their elections earned Orman and Ungashick handshakes with President Ronald Reagan. For the Minnesota teenager, it also meant the first tentative steps into the political arena.

‘He understood business’

Orman’s accent – the nasal twang with which he punctuates his belief that leaders should focus on “creating jaaahbs” and “saaahlving praaahblems” – harkens back to a childhood spent in the Upper Midwest.

His mother, Darlene Gates, raised him and five siblings in Minnesota, where she worked as a nurse.

His father, Tim Orman, moved to Johnson County in the early 1970s and opened a furniture store, where Greg worked in the summer.

There was little family money and no college fund.

“I believe that kids should have to pay for their college,” Tim Orman said. “They appreciate it. They show up on time. They learn a work ethic.”

At a recent campaign party in Wichita, Tim Orman explained the rules he established for Greg and his brother when they worked in the warehouse of the furniture store.

“Because your name is on the door, if we start at 8 o’clock, you start at 7:45,” he told them. “If a break is 15 minutes, yours is 12. If closing time is 5, yours is 5:15. That’s just the way it is. … You lead by example.”

Greg Orman worked his way through Princeton University, earning a degree in economics. He was a member of the school’s chapter of College Republicans, but his senior yearbook photo includes a quote from businessman Ross Perot, who had started making noise about a run for president as an independent.

After graduation, Orman joined McKinsey and Co., a management consulting firm.

Soon he exhibited a restlessness that would mark much of his career. He began a side business that designed and installed energy-efficient lighting. It eventually became his full-time occupation – until 1996, when Kansas City Power & Light bought most of the company and hired Orman, who was still in his 20s.

“He understood business,” said Drue Jennings, the former chief executive at the company. “Mind racing all the time.”

Eventually, the company picked Orman to run a subsidiary overseeing its investments. The unit was successful enough for some people to mention Orman as a candidate to run the entire company.

He wasn’t interested. Restless again, he left the utility and plunged into the world of private equity investing.

“I wanted to go back out on my own,” Orman said.

Legal entanglements

On his own and with partners and business associates, Orman began amassing a multimillion-dollar fortune by purchasing various firms, reassembling their parts and sometimes selling them, a small-scale version of Mitt Romney’s work at Bain Capital.

“I probably get involved with one business every year or 18 months,” Orman said, often spending several million dollars to acquire them.

His efforts have brought their share of headaches.

He’s been sued by developers, other entrepreneurs, even the actress Debbie Reynolds. A shrimp farm went belly up. He’s been sued for trademark infringement.

Yet no entanglement has caused more problems than Orman’s relationship with Rajat Gupta, a Goldman Sachs financier who was convicted of insider trading and sent to prison.

Orman was Gupta’s financial adviser and helped with his defense. The Roberts campaign and Republicans have repeatedly criticized the link, suggesting Orman improperly aided a federal felon.

But Gary Naftalis, Gupta’s chief lawyer, said Orman played only a small role in the case.

“He was simply one of a number of potential defense witnesses who could have testified in the case,” Naftalis wrote in an email. “Mr. Orman had no involvement in the conduct for which Mr. Gupta was charged. There was never any allegation at any point that Mr. Orman had done anything improper or wrong.”

Orman never testified in open court. He did testify before a federal grand jury, but that testimony has not been made public.

Today, Orman says Gupta remains a friend. Asked whether he thinks Gupta was guilty, Orman demurs.

“He was found guilty in a court of law,” Orman said. “I’m not the kind of person who turns on their friends when they make a mistake.”

‘Not a partisan’

While Orman’s business interests grew, the political itch returned.

Records show he made several small donations to Republicans in the 1990s, then began giving mostly to Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, then-U.S. Reps. Dennis Moore and Nancy Boyda of Kansas and Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2007.

In 2007, he took his first official steps into the public arena, filing papers to run for the Senate from Kansas as a Democrat.

He raised almost $570,000 for that campaign, including more than $86,000 from his own pocket. Then he withdrew.

Two years later, Orman spent more than $20,000 launching the Common Sense Coalition for Change, a bipartisan group that planned to use social media to inform the public about political issues.

The effort eventually ended.

Orman said his first Senate campaign, the coalition and his current independent candidacy reflect an ongoing search for a nonpartisan approach to solving problems.

“Running as an independent has its challenges,” Orman said. “But it’s also very liberating. I can go to Washington as a problem-solver, not a partisan.”

That viewpoint resonates with supporters like Cindy Kelly of Wichita. A registered Republican, she said she was raised to value fiscal conservatism and small government. “But I also recognize that if we don’t take care of everyone, then everyone will suffer.

“I’ve been disappointed in both parties and never particularly dedicated to either of the two,” said Kelly, 47. “So when Orman starts talking about how he’s disappointed in the parties, I can relate.”

His critics see him as reluctant to take a stand.

“Kansas needs someone in the Senate with conviction and backbone,” Roberts said in a recent debate. “My opponent has neither.”

Orman bristles at the accusation.

“Pat Roberts is a guy who has flip-flopped on more positions and more issues as he’s tacked hard to the right,” he said. “I have consistently held positions for a long time.”

Yet Orman refuses to say which party he would align with if elected to the Senate.

Orman said he would have voted against the Affordable Care Act, yet he does not think Obamacare can be repealed.

Instead, he said he wants to address health care affordability.

Asked whether he supports construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, Orman said yes – if it’s environmentally sound. His staff will look into it.

He wants banking rules eased, but just for smaller banks.

When pressed, Orman said he would have voted differently from Roberts on some issues. The candidate said he would have voted for the last farm bill, for example, and for reform of veterans programs.

He said he would have voted for the U.N. treaty on the rights of people with disabilities, which Roberts opposed.

Orman said he wants to cap tuition increases at colleges where some federal loans are available. He said illegal immigrants who pay a fine and take other steps “should be able to stay here and work” – a subtle step away from his website, which says those immigrants should be able to “get in line” for citizenship.

Orman said he does not see these statements as contradictory or straddling, but insists on asking voters for some maneuvering room if he makes it to Washington.

Personal wealth

If he gets there, Orman would rank among the richest members of the Senate.

He is worth between $21.5 million and nearly $86 million, according to his first financial disclosure statement. He lives with his wife, Sybil, in a $1.2 million home near the Shadow Glen Golf Club in Olathe.

Republicans have made an issue of Orman’s wealth and his investments in out-of-state and foreign companies. Orman said his money hasn’t obscured his view of those with fewer resources.

“Just because I’ve been able to climb the ladder of success to a certain extent, I don’t believe you should pull it up from behind,” he said.

He carried a similar message to campaign volunteers last week at an Old Town restaurant in Wichita after his televised debate against Roberts.

“We have 20 days to go. We have 20 days to make history,” Orman told the cheering crowd.

“We have 20 days to demonstrate that Kansans can think and see in shades that aren’t just red or blue. We have 20 days to send a message that there is a new way forward, and that path travels through Kansas.”

Contributing: Suzane Perez Tobias of The Eagle

This story was originally published October 18, 2014 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Political independent Greg Orman fighting perception he’s an enigma."