Update at 8 p.m.:

Republican U.S. Senate candidates Clint Didier and Paul Akers announced Thursday evening they are going to be joining forces -- despite the fact that both are competing for the same seat.

The two said they would be doing joint radio ads and talking together online. Both said they were upset at the political establishment, which they said is trying to control the election.

"To my knowledge, no one has ever done this before," Akers said in about working with a political opponent. "We are innovators, to say the least."

The two are considered long-shots in the race, which also includes Republican Dino Rossi and incumbent Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.

They made their announcement during a joint appearance in an online radio broadcast.

Update at 7:45 p.m.: The blogtalkradio connection is working now. An announcer apologized for what she described as a "complete phone system crash." Didier is now on the air.

Update: 7:35 p.m.

Somebody keeps repeating: “Good evening everyone” in a screech. We are hearing all sorts of pings, and snippets of people saying things like "ridiculous."

It sounds like we are trying to hear astronauts from mission control, and the space craft has just gone to the dark side of the moon.

Update: We finally heard something on the phone-in line. Somebody announced that "we will reconvene" at 7:30 p.m. -- giving out a new call-in number 1-712-432-3900, with a conference call code 285110# and an online url at blogtalkradio.com/squareonemedia.

Republican U.S. Senate candidates Clint Didier and Paul Akers appear to be having technical troubles with their telephone town hall meeting, at which the two have said they plan to make some sort of big announcement this evening.

The links for a live web feed and a call in phone number didn't work when The Times tried to listen in. We did managed to get some kind of connection through which you could hear people cursing in the background.

At 7:10 p.m., we called Didier's spokeswoman Kathryn Serkes, who said she didn't have time to talk, because she had to try and get the Town Hall meeting going. She then hung up.