Greg Orman

Background

Orman was born and raised in Mankato, Minnesota, the second-oldest of six children. His mother, Darlene Gates, was a registered nurse. When he was five his parents divorced. His father, Tim, moved to Stanley, Kansas and opened a furniture store. He lived with his mother during the school year; during the summers he worked in his father's warehouse. His mother was a Democrat and his father a Republican. As a young adult, Orman admired Ronald Reagan.

Orman graduated from Mankato East Senior High School in 1987. In 1986, he was the national President of the Boys Nation and met President Reagan at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.

Orman graduated from Princeton University in 1991 with a degree in economics. He was a member of the Princeton College Republicans and worked for George H. W. Bush's presidential campaign in 1988. However, in 1992 he supported independent candidate Ross Perot.

Business career

After graduating, Orman worked for consultancy firm McKinsey & Company before he founded Environmental Light Concepts in 1992, which designs and installs energy-efficient lighting systems for commercial and industrial companies. He built the company into a multimillion-dollar business with over 120 employees in four years, before selling a majority of the company to Kansas City Power and Light in 1996. Orman joined the company was put in charge of KLT Energy Services, a subsidiary. He left the company in 2002. He has since invested in 15 companies, including boxing equipment manufacturer Combat Brands of Kansas. In June,1997 FRM Associates, of which Greg Orman was a partner, purchased The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The building today is known as "Marquette Plaza". According to Business Wire, "The building went under a multi-year renovation and addition which was completed in 2002. In 2011, the building re-established its `iconic status' and became the first downtown Minneapolis building to earn LEED Platinum certification. This status, granted by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is the most prestigious and challenging level of LEED certification to achieve and illustrates the building's transformation and leadership in the greening of downtown." The building is also known as an architectural landmark defined by its unique "caternary" arch design.

In 2004, Orman co-founded private equity firm Denali Partners LLC.

On December 28, 2015 Combat Brands LLC, the Orman led company, announced it acquired Kansas City-based Fitness First, Inc. Fitness First, a fitness equipment provider, was consolidated into Combat Brands' location, but operates under the name Fitness First. Acquiring Fitness First expands Combat's product offerings and helps grow the company, Orman said in an interview with Kansas City Business Journal, "Fitness First has done a tremendous job of building relationships with institutional customers. It gives us an opportunity to grow our business even further and expand into 2016." Orman extended employment offers to all Fitness First employees.

Orman has professional and personal ties to former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta, and served as his designated representative on the board of New Silk Route, a private equity fund, from April 2013 until March 2014. When Gupta was convicted of insider trading in 2012, Orman said that "He is a friend of mine, he made a huge mistake, and he's paying the price for it. It shocked me like it shocked a lot of people when it came out that he was charged with those things."

Political career

At various times Orman has been registered as a Republican and a Democrat. He has been unaffiliated with a party since 2010. After a debate in 2014 he stated, "I've tried both parties; and, like most Kansans, I've been disappointed."

Orman has made donations to both Democrats and Republican candidates. In 2006, while he was considering running as a Democrat for the Senate, he gave US$1,000 to Harry Reid, and US$4,600 to the 2007 presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Public records also show donations to Dennis Moore, Nancy Boyda and Al Franken.

Orman donated to Republicans Todd Akin in 2006 and gave US$2,000 to Scott Brown in 2010, in an effort to block the passage of Obamacare. According to the Associated Press, Orman said regarding repealing the ACA, "…there is no point in trying to repeal it, as Roberts has proposed. I thought at the time we were expanding a broken system." He called, "Republican attempts to repeal the law impractical, considering that Obama remains in office and would veto any repeal…It sounds like a hollow political promise they can't keep." Orman said that "I've made contributions to lots of political candidates over time, and I've generally been disappointed with the results."

Orman's contributions to political campaigns, according to the Associated Press, have been less than US$180,000 since 1997. Of that US$180,000, US$86,079 was contributed to his own campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2008 so that he could refund 100% of the contributions he received when he decided to drop out.

Orman has donated substantially more to political reform organizations. In 2012 he donated US$25,000 to the independent political organization Americans Elect. He has also contributed US$288,236 to the Common Sense Coalition.

Orman was briefly a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 U.S. Senate election in Kansas, but dropped out before the primary, saying "Whenever you run as a candidate in either party, there are certain constituencies that want you to behave and act and believe certain things. As I evaluated the race and looked at the positions I was going to have to take to get the support that was necessary to win, I just didn't feel comfortable taking those positions."

2014 U.S. Senate election

Orman was an independent candidate in Kansas's 2014 United States Senate election. The campaign gathered enough signatures to get on the ballot as a candidate for the general election.

He faced incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts in the November general election. Orman was the main rival to Roberts after Democrat Chad Taylor dropped out of the race on September 3 over concerns that he and Orman would split votes from Independent and Democratic voters not breaking for Roberts.

The group Traditional Republicans for Common Sense endorsed Orman on September 3, 2014. This group is composed of approximately 70 former Republican elected officials. Jim Yonally, chairman of the group, stated "We believe Greg Orman is the best qualified candidate for the office of United States senator from Kansas", although some other members of the group expressed their support for Roberts following the announcement. During the campaign, Orman did not appear to receive significant support or help from any politicians or organizations, including Democrats. After the election, final fundraising reports showed that groups supporting Orman had received $1.5 million from Senate Majority PAC, run by former advisors to Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, $1 million from Independent New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and donations from GOP donors Peter Ackerman, Greg Penner, Jeffrey Binder and John Burbank.

Because the makeup of the U.S. Senate might have been affected if Orman was elected, NBC News said that Orman could be "the most interesting man in politics" in November. If Orman had been victorious, the U.S. Senate would have had three independent senators for the first time in the chamber's history.

Potential caucus affiliation

Due to the close nature of the 2014 Senate elections, Orman could have played the role of kingmaker in choosing the Senate Majority Leader. He proposed to caucus with whichever party held the majority in the Senate, saying that "it's in the best interests of the voters of Kansas that they have a senator in the majority".

In the event that Orman held the tiebreaking vote in the Senate, he stated that he would ask both parties to commit to issues including immigration and tax reform and caucus with whichever agreed. He said in October 2014 that if, after caucusing with one party for four or five months he found that "they're engaged in the same old partisan politics", he would "absolutely" consider caucusing with the other party to give them the majority instead. He explained: "Ultimately, this is about solving problems. This is about the voters of Kansas saying—the status quo doesn't work anymore."

Orman stated that he voted for Obama in 2008 and voted for Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. In 2010 he founded the Common Sense Coalition to promote the voices of "the sensible middle".

Election results

Although Orman led incumbent Roberts in the polls in early November, Roberts defeated Orman 53% to 43%, with the balance going to a third party candidate. Robert's win was coined a "rescue mission" by the Washington Post. According to another Washington Post report, "Roberts spent the better part of September trailing his challenger by as much as 10 points...So, the national party sent in reinforcements and replaced the people at the head of Roberts's campaign. Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul -- a galaxy of the GOP's top stars -- trotted through what is often described as a flyover state. Bob Dole, on his tour of all 105 counties in Kansas, talked about his friend, Pat. Outside groups poured in nearly $10 million to support Roberts and to oppose Orman. Other outside groups also spent nearly $6 million in negative ads against Roberts."

On April 29, 2015, Lincoln Park Strategies released its PAAR (Percent Above Anticipated Results) report on predicted results versus actual results for the 2014 Senate elections. The report included Greg Orman's independent campaign for the U.S. Senate. The report concluded that "Greg Orman in Kansas had the highest positive PAAR score at 10.8. Pat Roberts is back in Washington DC for another six years, Orman was able to drop Roberts an astronomical 12 points below what a Republican candidate was expected to receive in 2014. Governor Sam Brownback and some self-imposed mistakes clearly helped Orman, yet the campaign deserves full accolades for having the second highest PAAR score from both parties."

Political positions

According to Kansas Democratic Party Chairwoman Joan Wagnon, Orman and the Democratic Party have similar views in support of certain gun restrictions, reproductive rights, and other matters. Orman has described himself as "a problem solver, not a partisan" and describes his ideology as "fiscally responsible and socially tolerant". He supports "broad tax reform", is concerned about the impact entitlement spending is having on the federal deficit, and agrees with some of the ideas of Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.

Orman has stated that he supports campaign finance reform, by proposing expansion of campaign finance disclosure rules and contribution restrictions. He also supports a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Citizens United decision. Orman has also proposed several reforms to campaign financing, including a ban on political action committees formed by congressional leaders and a ban on PAC donations from lobbyists to candidates.

Orman has declined to indicate whether he would have voted for the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. He did say, however, that "we need to relax the Dodd–Frank regulations that relate to community banks and region banks."

Orman was never asked his position on whether he would support an increase in the gas tax. He did indicate that he would promote oil and gas development: "I believe that we need to support continued oil and gas development." He also indicated he would support, "promoting fuels like CNG and LNG and electric vehicles..."

Orman accepts the evidence for man-made climate change. Orman was never asked whether he would support a cap-and-trade emissions trading system.

Orman, a gun owner himself, supports universal background checks on gun sales. He has not indicated a position on whether he would back an assault-weapons ban.

According to Orman, he would have opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but is against repeal of it now. He told the Lawrence Journal-World in response to a question if the Affordable Care Act should be repealed in its entirety, amended to address specific problems or left as it is, he said, "I opposed ACA because it did nothing to fix a broken system. We had a national crisis in health care before the Affordable Care Act passed, and that crisis still exists today. But instead of playing political games with this issue as Republicans and Democrats in Congress have done, I believe we need to focus on what Washington can actually do to ensure that health care is affordable for all Americans."

He also has stated he supports maintaining or increasing border patrols to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into the US. In addition, he supports a path to citizenship for some of the illegal immigrants already in the country. Orman has declined to take a stance on whether the Keystone Pipeline should be constructed, saying that he doesn't have enough information to make a decision. Orman is politically "pro-choice".

Orman, a supporter of term limits, has promised to serve no more than two terms.

2016 book release

On May 3, 2016, Greg Orman's book A Declaration of Independents, How We Can Break the Two-Party Stranglehold and Restore the American Dream, published by Greenleaf Book Group, went on sale. In the book Orman describes how hyper-partisanship, division and a win-at-all-costs environment in Washington have created a toxic culture of self-interest that has left the average Americans behind.

The book has drawn critical praise from pundits and readers from across the political spectrum.

Morton Kondracke praised the book in his 2015 Wall Street Journal book review. He said, "[Orman] argues passionately and convincingly that a third force is necessary to challenge the Republican-Democrat "duopoly" that sustains a status quo of laws, regulations, subsidies and loopholes paid for by special-interest contributions to both parties."

Charles Wheelan, a senior lecturer and policy fellow at the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College and contributing writer for U.S. News & World Report wrote in his review, "I hope this will be the first shot in a sustained assault on the broken two-party system. Orman is not a political scientist hunkered down in the Ivory Tower. Nor is he a vapid politician…He's a guy who ran a U.S. Senate campaign that nearly upended the political system. (If he had won, it would have changed American politics forever, as I wrote at the time.)"

Personal life

Orman lives in Olathe, Kansas, with his wife, Sybil and daughter, Imogen. He moved to Kansas in 1997, where he registered as a Republican at the time.