An "Independent" stands for "I'll market myself any way I can to get elected." Lisa wasn't happy with her rejection and circumvented her party to get elected using the Native vote. Walker took his cue from her, circumvented the party's candidate and became Independent, which allowed him to join up with a die-hard leftist who had Native approval. Obviously Walker was never very conservative to begin with. Independent means, they want the job badly and don't really have a platform... except for Walker who would die to get his precious gas line in. Which will never happen anyway.