What does “independent” really mean?

Having lived in this beautiful area for a quarter century – I don’t remember a local election so full of huge signage.

With the election drawing down to under a month, I must share some questions about the ubiquitous signs everywhere, especially for former-Sheriff Gary Edwards. On all these signs he distances himself from the Republican Party and lays claim that he is an ‘Independent’. To my knowledge there is no ‘official’ Independent Party - how does it sponsor him? Is the ‘Independent’ party donating the large sums of money to print, stake, and put up those signs for their candidate?

According to recent PDC state records he has raised close to $84,000 in this race. However, looking over all his listed contributions from real estate companies, Republican mayors, lawyers, ranchers and bankers - I must have missed notice of any funds contributed by any local labor unions, or school teachers, firemen or nurses unions which one would think comprise a more balanced support group.

A large number of his signs are located together with McCune, Becker, Barkis, Wilcox and Trump signs– all of these are known to be Trump Republicans. So why the denial of being a Republican – goodness knows his opponents don’t have that kind of money to throw at signage. So my questions remain - Why is Gary Edwards claiming to be an ‘Independent’ and what does that really mean to us?

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 1:16 PM with the headline "What does “independent” really mean?."