As she packs, Carnahan looks toward fund-raising possibilities

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Jean Carnahan arrived in Washington amid the tragedy of a plane crash that killed her husband, but despite losing the Nov. 5 election, she left with a sense of possibility about her future.

A moving van arrived Thursday to take her belongings to a new home in suburban St. Louis. However, Carnahan is keeping the Capitol Hill apartment she bought just yards away from her Senate office building.

"I just don't think it's a good idea to sell not knowing exactly what I'm going to do now, and something might bring me back this way," Carnahan said in an interview.

A writer and speaker who as Missouri's first lady published two books about the Governor's Mansion and a volume of her own speeches, Carnahan hopes to pair those skills with a newly developed knack for fund-raising; her campaign broke records by raising $12.5 million.

"I enjoy speaking, and I'm one of those unfortunate people who enjoys raising money, so in that combination, that might make me desirable for somebody who has a foundation or has some cause that they would like to have advanced," she said.

"I like to have a reason to get up in the morning and something to take on," she said.

Carnahan and Missouri's new senator, Republican Jim Talent, were campaigning to finish the rest of the term won in 2000 by Carnahan's husband, the late Gov. Mel Carnahan, in a remarkable election three weeks after his death.

Advice from colleague

In the interview last week, Carnahan's suite of offices was filled with rolls of bubble wrap and stacks of framed pictures and keepsakes. She said she is looking forward to settling into her new apartment -- fire burned the family home in Rolla, Mo., last year -- and to spending time with her children and grandsons. But it is work that excites Carnahan, 68, about her future.

As she told colleagues goodbye Monday in a speech from the Senate floor, Carnahan recalled how she had arrived there with an aching heart. The crash had also killed her oldest son, Randy, who was piloting the plane, and longtime aide Chris Sifford.

She told how Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware advised her early on that hard work was the sure way to heal, repeating encouragement given him after the death of his wife and daughter in an auto accident.

"You were right, Joe, and I thank you for that wisdom," Carnahan said.

It is her work in the Senate that Carnahan will miss most, she said in the interview: "You really can make a difference here. There are things that you do every day that really make a difference in improving the lives of people."

'Doing two jobs at once'

Yet she will not miss the dual work schedule created by a campaign that was heavily targeted by political parties and special interest groups. Instead of serving a normal six-year term, she had two years to position herself for election. Carnahan lost by 21,254 votes, a margin of 1.1 percent of the nearly 1.88 million ballots cast.

"I wish I could have seen the Senate in a different light, where I didn't actually feel like I was doing two jobs at once. It's been a four-year campaign," Carnahan said, referring to her husband's campaign before his death. "I wouldn't wish that on anybody. You do get kind of burned out when you do that."

She didn't rule out running for office someday, although she downplayed the possibility.