Crackpot ran at an imperial representative (15)
I believe the answer is:
parliamentarian
'representative' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'crackpot ran at an imperial' is the wordplay.
'crackpot' is an anagram indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'ran'+'at'+'an'+'imperial'='ranatanimperial'
'ranatanimperial' is an anagram of 'PARLIAMENTARIAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for parliamentarian that I've seen before include "Eg, an MP" , "elected representative?" , "politician" , "legislator" .)