Word: carnahan
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...weeks ago, Missouri's freshman senator, John Ashcroft, running neck-and-neck against the state's Democratic governor, Mel Carnahan, appeared to have been handed the race when Carnahan was killed in an air crash. Ashcroft said and did all the right things in the face of the tragedy, suspending his campaign and paying tribute to his opponent...
...Carnahan's death shocked his home state. At his campaign office, aides wandered listlessly. After last week's presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri, several hundred mourners massed in a nearby park in the chill air. Condolences filled talk radio. An officeholder since 1960, when he was 26, Carnahan was a beloved two-term Governor. A self-styled New Democrat, he had some of the Midwestern twang and even a bit of the look of Harry Truman, who once held the Senate seat Carnahan was seeking. His death not only cut short his career but dimmed Democratic hopes as well...
There's still a slim chance that Carnahan may win a posthumous victory. Under Missouri law, Carnahan's name will remain on the ballot despite his death. If he were somehow to defeat Ashcroft--the race had been very close--a series of odd but formidable events would unfold. On Jan. 3, Ashcroft's Senate term would expire. Missouri law would require the seat to be declared "vacant," since the victor in the election would be dead. The state's interim Governor, Roger Wilson, who took office last week upon Carnahan's death, would appoint an interim Senator, who would...
About the only way the late Carnahan can beat a living Ashcroft is if Wilson announces in advance whom he intends to appoint should Ashcroft lose. The problem for Wilson, and the Democrats, is that the choices are few. The state's leading member of Congress, House minority leader Richard Gephardt, doesn't want the job. Attorney General Jay Nixon and former Senator Thomas Eagleton probably can't beat Ashcroft. The only Democrat with a shot at doing that would be Carnahan's widow Jean. But since she also lost a son, Roger, in the crash (an aide...
DIED. MEL CARNAHAN, 66, Missouri Governor and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate; in a plane crash; near St. Louis, Mo. Elected Governor in 1992, he famously stood by tough decisions despite political aftershocks--such as honoring Pope John Paul II's request that he stay the execution of a murderer. Carnahan's son Randy, 44, who piloted the plane, and a top aide, Chris Sifford, 37, were also killed in the accident...