Mel Carnahan, 51st Governor of Missouri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Carnahan

Melvin Eugene "Mel" Carnahan (February 11, 1934 – October 16, 2000) was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as the 51st Governor of Missouri (1993-2000) and was elected posthumously to the U.S. Senate.

Family life and education

Carnahan was born in Birch Tree, Missouri, and grew up on a small farm near Ellsinore, Missouri, with his only sibling, Robert "Bob" Carnahan. During high school, his father, A. S. J. Carnahan, was the superintendent of Ellsinore schools and, in 1944, was elected to the United States House of Representatives.

Carnahan moved with his family to Washington, D.C., where he graduated high school and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from George Washington University. He entered the United States Air Force, rising to First Lieutenant, and served as a special agent for the Office of Special Investigation. He received a Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri School of Law in Columbia, Missouri, in 1959.

Carnahan married Jean Carpenter in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 1954. They had four children: Russ Carnahan, a former member the U.S. House of Representatives for Missouri's 3rd District; Tom Carnahan, founder of Wind Capital Group, which builds wind farms; Robin Carnahan, former Missouri Secretary of State (2004-2012); and Roger "Randy" Carnahan, who piloted the plane and perished in the same crash that killed his father.

Political career

Carnahan's political career started as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives representing the Rolla area. In 1980, Carnahan was elected Missouri State Treasurer. He served in that post from 1981 to 1985. In 1984 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Missouri, losing the Democratic primary election to then-Lieutenant Governor Kenneth Rothman, who lost the general election that year to state Attorney General John Ashcroft.

In 1988 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Missouri. In 1992, he faced Saint Louis Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl in the Democratic primary for governor. He won the Democratic nomination by a wide margin and went on to easily defeat Republican state Attorney General William L. Webster in the general election. He was elected as Governor of Missouri on November 3, 1992 and re-elected for a second term on November 5, 1996, defeating Republican state Auditor Margaret Kelly.

2000 Senate election and death

In 2000, Mel Carnahan ran for US Senate against the incumbent Republican, John Ashcroft. It was a heated and intense campaign, in which Carnahan traveled all over the state to garner support in what was a very close race. Early in the evening of October 16, 2000, the night before a presidential debate to be held at Washington University in St. Louis, just three weeks before the election, the twin-engine Cessna airplane, piloted by Carnahan's son, Randy, crashed on a heavily forested hillside during a rainstorm and foggy conditions near Goldman, Missouri, about 35 mi south of St. Louis. All three in the plane (Mel and Randy Carnahan and Chris Sifford, campaign advisor and former chief of staff to the governor) died in the crash.

Lieutenant Governor Roger B. Wilson succeeded Mel Carnahan to fill the Governor's office until January 2001. Because Missouri election law would not allow for Carnahan's name to be removed from the November 7, 2000, ballot, Jean Carnahan, his widow, unofficially became the Democratic candidate. Wilson promised to appoint her to the seat if it became vacant as a result of Mr. Carnahan's being elected, and the campaign continued using the slogan "I'm Still With Mel." A Senate first, the deceased Carnahan won by a 2% margin. Jean Carnahan was then appointed to the Senate and served until November 2002, when she was narrowly defeated in a special election by James Talent, a Republican.

Carnahan is not the only candidate to have died during a US Senate race. Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota was killed in a plane crash in 2002, 11 days before a Senate election. Representative Jerry Litton, also of Missouri, died in a plane crash in 1976 on the day he was nominated by his party. Richard "Dick" Obenshain of Virginia died in a plane crash in 1978 shortly after receiving the Republican nomination. In the California State Senate race of 2010, voters in the Long Beach district re-elected Jenny Oropeza, who had died of illness the month previously.

Personal life

Carnahan and his family were active members of the First Baptist Church of Rolla, where he served as an ordained deacon and member of the building committee. In 1984, he risked his political career by taking a public stand against Missouri ballot issues, Amendments 5 and 7, which would legalize parimutuel betting and create a state lottery. He was one of only a handful of state elected officials to take such a position; however, both amendments passed.