Carnahan formally launches campaign

MAPLEWOOD, Mo. -- Sen. Jean Carnahan on Sunday formally launched her campaign to close out the term won posthumously by her governor husband, casting herself as an effective Beltway voice for Missouri's "working families" and senior citizens.

Since Mel Carnahan's death in an October 2000 plane crash and her eventual appointment to the seat he won just weeks later, his Democratic widow told a few hundred supporters during a rally in this St. Louis suburb, "you and I took a giant leap of faith together."

"You trusted me to do the right thing for Missouri and our nation, and I trusted God for the strength to do the job," she said during the campaign kickoff at an American Legion post. "And I still get up every morning thankful for that strength, and I'm dedicated and determined to earn the trust you've place in me."

Moments later, a blast of multicolored confetti punctuated the start of a race many believe will be among the nation's most closely watched and contested.

Carnahan, 68, later Sunday was to stage a similar event in Kansas City, then visit Springfield and Cape Girardeau today.

She was appointed to the Senate after her husband's November 2000 election victory. He had died while campaigning against then-Sen. John Ashcroft. Missouri's Constitution stipulates that because she was appointed, Carnahan faces election after just two years instead of six.

One-seat edge

Republicans, eager to erase the one-seat Democratic edge in the Senate, consider Carnahan vulnerable and have turned to Jim Talent, the Republican who gave up his House seat to run for Missouri governor in 2000, narrowly losing to Democrat Bob Holden.

Carnahan, who favors abortion rights and restrictions on guns, joined a handful of Democrats in the U.S. Senate who shaped a compromise on Bush's tax-cut plan and took the lead on aid for airline and aviation workers laid off after the Sept. 11 attacks. She also lobbied colleagues to allow the merger of American Airlines and bankrupt Trans World Airlines, a major Missouri employer.

Talent, 45 and from affluent suburban St. Louis County, announced his candidacy last year. He opposes abortion, favors rights for gun owners, was a player in the 1996 welfare overhaul and authored an anti-poverty law giving tax breaks and other incentives to create jobs and spur development in downtrodden communities.