MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - In a time before campaign commercials flooded the airways, A.S.J. Carnahan and his son, Mel, would drive the family truck looking for the best trees in Southern Missouri. Only the best trees would be worthy of posters promoting A.S.J.'s candidency for U.S. Representative.
A.S.J., a Democrat, first became a represenatative from the 8th Congressional District in 1945, which began a legacy in Missouri that extends down to this year's election with his grandchildren Russ and Robin running for office, still on the Democratic ticket.
Russ has been a state representative since 2000. This year he is running for 3rd District U.S. Representative- a spot vaccated by Dick Gephardt who has held the seat since 1977.
Robin is running for Secretary of State in Missouri. She has never held an elected office before.
The family's peak came in 1993 when A.S.J.'s son Mel Carnahan began an eight-year term as Missouri's governor, followed by his posthumous election to the U.S. Senate in 2000. His wife, Jean, served in his place until 2002 when Republican Jim Talent won the seat in a special election.
"When people think about traditionilistic political culture in Missouri, people often think of the likes of Mel Carnahan," said Rick Hardy, professor of political science at MU and a close observer of Missouri politics.
Hardy also said that the Carnahan name is synonymous with public service in Missouri and that it is "a name in Democratic circles that is as good as gold."
A.S.J. went on to serve seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before Pres. John F. Kennedy appointed him the first U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone in 1961.
Mel met Jean Carpenter at their Baptist Church youth group when they were 15. They also went to high school together at Anacostia High in Washington, D.C.
"We kept getting seated next to each other. It's like it was meant to be," said Jean, though she did admit the similarities of their last names may also have played a role.
The two went to George Washington University together and got married in 1954.
Mel began his political career in 1962 as a state legislator. He lost a 1966 bid for state senate, but continued serving the public by being on the local school board in Rolla. As his four children grew up, their father's position in the community forced them to stay on the right track.
"When you live in a small town and your Dad is head of the school board, you understand that you are not to get in trouble at school," Robin said. "Keepng yourself out of the newspaper is an important thing."
At 43, Robin is the third oldest. Russ is the second oldest at 46, and Tom, 35, is the youngest. The eldest brother, Randy, would be 48.
Randy piloted the plane that crashed in October 2000, taking the lives of Randy, Mel and one of Mel's top advisers, Chris Sifford.
As their father had done for his father, the Carnahan children grew up helping their father campaign. All the children recalled driving from town to town singing from the back of a truck on the "Caravan for Carnahan."
Russ said he remembers the caravan when his father ran for state legislator the first time. While wearing red, straw, cowboy hats with Carnahan written on the front, he and his siblings traveled around with a piano on a flat-bed truck. The children would sing at every stop and pass out fliers for their father.
"We thought was cool as kids growing up," said Russ.
When they got older and their father ran for higher offices, their role in campaigning increased. Mel ran for his first statewide office, treasurer, in 1980.
"I became the western outpost of the campaign," said Robin who was a sophomore at William Jewell University in Kansas City.
Jean did not enter politics until appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat to which her deceased husband had been elected.
Jean said she never tried to influence her children to be polticians, but each would go on to attend law school.
"I guess they just picked it up at the table," Jean said. "We would always be talking politics or having politicians over for dinner."
Robin has joked in her campaign that her mother calls politics a "genetic defect" in the Carnahan family.
Tom, currently a real estate developer in St. Louis, said he doesn't know yet if he has the defect. He acts as the treasurer for Russ's and Robin's campaign and claims to be more of a behind the scenes guy. He would not say whether he has considered running for office.
"A person should run for office if they have it in them," Tom said.
According to Hardy, Tom would have a good chance of winning any office he ran for.
"Name recognition is critically important in American politics," Hardy said. "It's probably the single most important thing.
"Even if the person has no experience, it is just assumed by many people that the person is bred into it and has the pedigree to do well," Hardy said.
The Carnahan legacy still has a future. Russ has two children, 15 and 10, who he said have not expressed a definite interest in politics yet.
The way campaigns are run has changed since A.S.J. first ran in 1944. Neither of Russ's children has had to dress up in a cowboy hat and campaign for his father. One thing that has remained the same, though, Carnahan's are still serving the state of Missouri.