You won’t see him debating Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert on TV and you won’t see lawn signs with his name on them, but Snoqualmie’s Richard Todd is still campaigning to be a U.S. House Representative. He’s a write-in candidate.

It all began in July when candidates were required to register to get their name on the ballot. A retired commercial fisherman, Todd was in Alaska on a fishing boat. He couldn’t register at that time, but decided to run anyway.

Todd is not affiliated with any political party. Getting his name and platform out hasn’t been as easy as he’d thought, though. Two years ago, he ran in the 2004 election and was able to participate in a candidate’s forum at Microsoft as the only independent candidate. Microsoft isn’t doing the forum this year, Todd said.

Instead, he arranged to hold forums at Isadora’s Cafe and Book Store on Railroad Avenue from 2:30-3:30 p.m. every day from Oct. 1 to Nov. 6. He wanted to give local voters a chance to ask him questions and be informed of the issues he plans to address during the next couple of years. Attendance hasn’t been as high as he’d hoped.

“So far, the public has been given information on candidates,” said Todd, “but it hasn’t developed into something where they want to go to a forum.”

He thinks of it as a public service, though. It’s simply making his time available to talk to people about what’s important.

“What I’ve been wanting to do is get people thinking about independent candidates,” said Todd.

His main goal is to reunite the United States. The country is divided between the two major parties, Republicans and Democrats. That’s troublesome to him, he said. He compared it to Abraham Lincoln’s term as president when half the states were slave states and the other half were free. Now, half the states are “red” and half are “blue.”

“It’s important that we overcome that divide,” said Todd. “We need to re-emerge as united states.”

To do this, he thinks the country needs independent candidates. But campaigning is expensive. The major party candidates use TV ads. With the Internet, independents can fund their own campaigns by raising money from individuals and using “Web blogs” such as Howard Dean, former Vermont governor, did through Daily Kos, Todd said.

“It’s important to see independent candidates winning seats,” said Todd. “It encourages me.”

Todd believes an independent is someone whose loyalty isn’t divided between a party and the constituency. As an independent representative in Congress, being able to reach across the “aisle” both ways would be a uniting influence, he said. So even if he’s not that well-known, he plans to stick with the campaign.

“Between now and the seventh of November, there could be a tremendous surge of interest in an independent candidacy,” he said.

If Todd wins, he plans to hold onto his residence in Snoqualmie and rent a room in Washington, D.C.

If Todd doesn’t win, he wants to write opinion articles to the Valley Record. He’s not concerned about losing, though.

“This is an opportunity to make an impact,” he said. “Whether I’m elected or not is not my problem. It’s our problem. We need, as American citizens, to stay informed and make informed choices when the vote is hugely important.”