Democratic debate gives Jim Webb a chance to come out of the shadows

If there’s a chance for a wild card on the stage at Tuesday’s lead-off Democratic debate, the smart money’s on former senator Jim Webb of Virginia.

Running an unconventional presidential campaign with little ground support, advertising or even public appearances, Webb somehow manages to march on. And with an eclectic set of views that defy categorisation, he has a chance to draw attention and find, or repel, a new audience in Las Vegas.

A one-term senator from Virginia, secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan and a Vietnam War veteran, Webb falls both to the left and right of former first lady, senator and secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton. Like Senator Bernie Sanders, he was an early opponent of the war in Iraq. Long before Black Lives Matter protesters demanded attention from the Democratic candidates, Webb was working on criminal justice reform in the Senate.

Yet Webb holds conservative leanings as well. He opposes President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. After a white supremacist massacred nine black churchgoers in South Carolina, he called the symbolism of the Confederate flag “complicated.” He speaks often of low-income white men as ignored and disparaged by the Democratic Party.

His idiosyncratic views have not got traction so far. He polls in the low single digits both nationally and in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Unlike former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, he has not built a large campaign or tried aggressively to challenge front runners Clinton or Sanders.

Democratic strategist Joe Trippi said that reservation could be helpful in a debate. Republicans Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, he noted, surged in polls after debates during which they bypassed other candidates’ bickering.