B. Thomas Marking has constructed a pretty simple campaign platform. It's based on four words: What do you want?

The "you" in that question is the South Dakota voter.

Marking, a 61-year-old North Dakota native who has called Custer home for a decade, has declared himself a candidate for the U.S. House seat held by Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. He intends to run as an independent. And he claims to be independent of partisan politics, but not the views of South Dakota constituents.

Marking says that if elected - and that's a massive "if" - he would rely not a carefully constructed set of policy positions, but rather the opinions of the folks back home.

If you check out his campaign Web site at www.sdindie21.org you'll see that Marking has a plan for "a secure computer system" where South Dakotans could register to vote on issues before Congress. Neanderthals among us - like me - could use paper ballots.

Marking would determine his position on issues based on a tally of constituent votes.

"Don't give your proxy to a major party candidate and then hope for the best," he writes on his Web site. "I vow to follow your lead and advocate the majority opinion of my fellow South Dakotans, whatever that may be."

I asked Marking about that concept - which seems both highly democratic and antithetical to statesman-like leadership - in an e-mail exchange. He declined to say how he feels on hot-button issues, including gun rights, abortion, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, cap-and-trade legislation, the stimulus bill and the bank bailout.

Marking says he won't define his positions until he sees what the voters want.

"If you've reviewed my Web site, you will have seen that I'm hoping to alter the relationship between citizen and elected representative," he writes. "My personal feelings on an issue will take a subordinate role."

As for where he falls on a political scale typically bordered at either end by "conservative" and "liberal," Marking argues that "such labels are so badly abused that they inhibit civil discourse." So he left it up to me to label him, ‘based on your personal definition of what those terms mean."

Other than "underdog," I have trouble coming up with a label for a guy who won't tell me how he feels about important issues. And that seems to be OK with Marking.

"Sorry if I don't fit the mold, but that's kinda the idea," he writes.

It's an interesting concept that seems unlikely to cause the groundswell of support he will need to ride an independent wave into the U.S. House. Herseth Sandlin is the clear favorite in a 2010 reelection run. But she will also face a more competitive GOP candidate than she did in her last two blow-out runs for reelection.

There'll be plenty of partisan rhetoric exchanged along the way, from opposing campaign platforms that will be much more specific and carefully constructed than Marking's. "You may be used to a major party concept of developing a platform that covers every conceivable issue and attempts to pander to as many interest groups as possible. I reject that model as an insult to the electorate," he writes. "My platform will have fewer planks, but it is built of sturdier material. It is not designed to fix every problem, but to get at some of the root causes of those problems, and especially to empower South Dakota citizens to participate in governance at a new level."

First, though, he needs their participation at the old one - the ballot box. And that'll be the tough part.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com