"Welcome to my campaign office," Val Neekman says as he opens the trunk of his car.

Lawn signs and boxes of pamphlets crowd the back of the Waterloo resident's Acura. It's a far cry from the headquarters he would have been working out of if he were that city's Conservative candidate — something he had hoped would happen.

"I'm a one-man army now," the independent candidate said.

Neekman, alongside Waterloo city Coun. Hans Roach, are two community members who say they were caught off guard by the Co…