Eric Robinson: Independent Larry Pressler Wants to End ‘Poisonous’ Disputes in DC

With the announced retirement of South Dakota U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D) back in March, it seemed that a takeover of the seat by Republicans was all but certain due to a lack of viable Democratic candidates. However, the surprise reemergence of former Republican Senator Larry Pressler, now running to reclaim his seat as an independent, has served to make the race more interesting

“What I’m trying to do is win,” said Larry Pressler in an interview for IVN. “I’m not worried about other candidates. I’m saying what I believe, as I always have, and I’m campaigning as well as I can. I hope to spoil the poisonous system between Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C.”

Serving two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and three terms in the U.S. Senate, Pressler was previously a moderate Republican mainly known for being the only one of 9 members of Congress to refuse a bribe from undercover FBI agents in the 1980 Abscam Investigations (depicted in the movie American Hustle), as well as his work in telecommunications reform. His career in the Senate came to an end when Johnson defeated him in a close 1996 race.

Then in December 2013, long after an attempted political comeback in 2002 and an active post-Senate political life which included reaching across the political aisle to endorse President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and signing an amicus curiae brief in support of same-sex marriage during the Supreme Court’s Hollingsworth v. Perry, Pressler announced his candidacy.

So far, Pressler has been critical of both major parties in his campaign.

“I feel both parties have become a little bankrupt on new ideas,” he said. “I’m running as an independent because I want to end the poisonous disputes between Republicans and Democrats.”

Read the full article here.