Non-celebrity Candidates

Candidates like John Hickenlooper have a good ideas. How do candidates with altruistic ideals factor into our choices? Those candidates have an honest platform. Is it possible to field a true candidate that has a fresh world - view without labeling that candidate as fringe? We ask for something different, but we tend to coalesce toward the headline grabber. That's like buying into the media narrative. My two cents. Thoughts?