WASHINGTON — The Republican and Democratic National Committees have formed a rare joint task force after a U.S. Senate candidate in Idaho announced he would not caucus with either party. The move ended what aides described as a 48-hour period of sustained bipartisan panic.
Todd Achilles is an Army tank commander, a former tech executive, and a former state legislator. He has been a Republican. He has been a Democrat. Now he is running as an independent. He has pledged to stay unaffiliated in a closely divided Senate.
The announcement triggered an emergency meeting on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers described the candidacy as a “category five independence event.” One internal memo said an unaligned senator was worse than a hostage situation because hostages eventually choose a side.
“We are not saying independent candidates are dangerous,” said a spokesperson for the joint task force. “We are saying they are unpredictable. Washington cannot budget for unpredictable.” The spokesperson added that both parties had already agreed on one thing: this was unacceptable.
Achilles has focused his campaign on issues that neither party wants to discuss without a poll first. Idaho has no oil refineries. Gas and diesel cost too much. Rural hospitals with fewer than 15 beds rely heavily on Medicaid. A trillion-dollar cut in a recent bill will close some of those hospitals.
The candidate has made that math easy to follow. “I’ve made the commitment I’m not caucusing with either party,” Achilles said. “In a closely divided Senate, both parties are going to be working for my votes.” That sentence caused the task force to add a second meeting on Tuesday.
Achilles asked how Idaho’s two senators could vote for cuts that hurt their own rural hospitals. The two senators did not respond. The joint task force did respond. It introduced the Stability in Affiliation Act. The bill would require any candidate who has belonged to two parties to pick one by the filing deadline. It would also list “thinking independently” as a reportable offense under FEC rules.
A poll of likely Idaho voters found that 61 percent wanted an independent voice in Washington. The same poll found that 58 percent would never vote for anyone who had switched parties twice. The task force called both numbers a validation of its work.
The measure has drawn support from Don the Con. His own party registration history includes Democrat, Reform, independent, and whatever the Republican Party is now. Aides said this makes him an expert on the dangers of indecision.
The emergency declaration does not name Achilles directly. It does require any unaffiliated candidate to submit a notarized letter explaining why neither major party was acceptable. The form is 47 pages long.
