Carnahan's Widow Enters Campaign

Oct. 30 -- Jean Carnahan, wife of late Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, announced today she would accept an appointment to replace her husband should he win election to the Senate.

“I decided to do what I think Mel would have wanted me to do, to keep his dream alive,” Mrs. Carnahan said this afternoon. “I pledge to take this common dream to the U.S. Senate. Now the choice is up to the people of Missouri.”

Mrs. Carnahan, whose husband died in a plane crash on Oct. 16, added that she intended to uphold his values and political ideology.

“While we grieve, this campaign was never about one person,” Mrs. Carnahan said, during a press conference at the family farm outside of Rolla. Her husband’s Senate bid, she emphasized, was about “giving voice to everyday working families in Missouri.”

Mel Carnahan, the two-term Democratic governor of Missouri, was killed en route to a campaign stop, along with the Carnahans’ eldest son, Roger, and Chris Sifford, a campaign aide.

Gov. Carnahan had been running neck-and-neck in a hotly contested race against the Republican incumbent, Sen. John Ashcroft, a longtime political rival.

Under Missouri election rules, Carnahan’s name has remained on the ballot and he is eligible for election.

Support from New Governor

Last week Missouri’s new governor, Roger Wilson, who had been the lieutenant governor, announced he favored appointing Mrs. Carnahan to fill the position if Carnahan emerged victorious on Nov. 7.

“They were a team,” Wilson said of the Carnahans at a Tuesday press conference. “There is really no other person that has been near all of the critical issues as much as she has.”

Mrs. Carnahan made a similar claim this afternoon, saying she and her husband “worked as partners,” and that she had acted as a de facto staff member “behind the scenes.”

She added that her arrival at this decision “wasn’t something I did lightly or easily. No one urged me to do this.”