GOVERNOR RACE: CARNAHAN APPROACHES SECOND RUN DIFFERENTLY

(First in a series of articles profiling Missouri's five major gubernatorial candidates.)

In early January 1985, Mel Carnahan officially left the state treasurer's office to return to his law practice in Rolla.

Rather than seek an almost certain re-election, Carnahan instead sought the Democratic nomination for governor, which he lost to then Lt. Gov. Ken Rothman.

Following the failed bid, Carnahan pretty much figured his days as an elected official were over.

But in late 1987, Democrats were scrambling to find a strong candidate for lieutenant governor. Harriett Woods was not seeking re-election, and since it was the only statewide office the party held, Democratic leaders were anxious to find a winning candidate.

Travis Morrison of West Plains, who ran a close race for auditor two years before, was the logical choice. But Morrison declined to run.

A group began courting both former Sen. Phil Snowden of Kansas City and Carnahan. The two men talked and agreed that only one of them would run; Snowden decided not to.

That decision to run for lieutenant governor in early 1988, was to Carnahan a second chance to run for governor.

"Had Snowden said yes, I would not have run," said Carnahan, admitting he thought his political career was over. "I went back to law practice, and the law practice was better than ever. I was not out actively looking for a race."

Carnahan won the lieutenant governor's office by a comfortable margin in 1988, and began immediately to lay the groundwork for his present gubernatorial campaign.

"All lieutenant governors from my memory have run for either U.S. Senate or governor. And over that period of time, half have been successful," he said. "It is not a surprise to anybody that I am running.

"I haven't looked to the right or left. I haven't considered running for another office. I think my preparation is to be governor."

Some party leaders this year urged Carnahan to run for the Senate instead. Carnahan grew up in Washington, D.C., the son of a Missouri congressman, A.S.J. Carnahan, and once desired to serve in Congress. But that desire is a thing of the past.

"Because of my knowledge of state government, because of my interest in it and my commitment to it, I believe I can give more here and be more effective, and that's why I have set my sights on governor," Carnahan said. "And I have in one way or the other been working toward that ever since that decision to run for lieutenant governor in early 1988."

After winning a seat in the Missouri House of Representatives in 1962, Carnahan lost a bid for the Missouri Senate in 1966.

Except for his election to two terms on the Rolla school board, he was out of public office until his election as treasurer in 1980. He spent the time developing his law practice, building a charcoal manufacturing business with his brother, and with his wife Jean and their four children.

Carnahan believes that experience in private life clearly sets him apart from the other major candidates for governor.

"I think I've got a perspective that other candidates don't have any inkling of, and that is, there is life after public office," said Carnahan, who is 58.

"I do know there is an outside life and I've been successful there. I know I can be again. That gives a tremendous confidence, and frankly, permits you some independence on issues that I think the candidate just holding on for dear life does not have and cannot have.

"It has given me a maturity. I don't see things only from the government point of view. I've got a long history of being in private life, being the private citizen, being the very one we say we are trying to serve and understand."

Asked to describe his proudest accomplishment in public office, Carnahan points to his "financial reform" of the treasurer's office.

"My predecessor, Jim Spainhower, who I admire very much, did excellent political reform. He took over an office that had a cloud of corrupt look about it and he cleaned it up and did it extremely well."

Carnahan said he focused on the next step, which was modernization of the office through the electronic transfer of funds, increased computerization, and bidding the main account.

"Those were Herculean management problems; those were things everybody told me I could not do," he said.

Carnahan also brought a cash management consultant into his office. Those techniques were applied to other state agencies.

"That experience makes me believe that better management techniques will yield a lot of benefits for state government," he said. "We need to reform and reorganize the way we manage state government."

As governor, Carnahan said he would use executives, either retired or borrowed from the private sector, to help modernize government. He said there has been no serious consideration of reorganization since the early 1970s.

Carnahan's main Democratic challenger, St. Louis Mayor Vince Schoemehl, has predicted the kinds of cuts he can make in state government. But Carnahan said he does not want to throw specific numbers around.

"Anytime you take something that has been running along without a particular re-examination of the size and growth of state government, you know there will be a lot there," he said.

"But I haven't put out the claims to say I'm going to do `X' amount or that amount. I'm satisfied that I can make 5 to 10 percent in savings, but I'm a cautious individual," Carnahan said.

"I am very aware the public is cynical and they don't want me telling them I'll cut 10 percent unless I'm going to come up with 10 percent. I don't think they want my opponent telling them 20 percent unless he means 20 percent."

Although past governors have tried to portray themselves as "outsiders," Carnahan stressed the governor's important role of "team leader" for state agencies and employees.

"You wonder why the morale of state employees is down and why we can't get the best of services sometimes," he said. "They do awfully well for the support they have been given.

"I think they would do multiplied times better if they had somebody they thought wanted to help them deliver services to people and cared about them."

Being involved in politics was a natural move for Carnahan, who, as he says "had a wonderful introduction to politics through my father."

When he was 10 years old, his father a former school teacher and superintendent was elected to the first of seven terms in Congress in a south-central Missouri district.

"I really have been involved in elections one way or the other ever since then," he said. "So much so, I think being involved in politics is normal, and I've brought my children up to think the same way."

Carnahan said his father had a career "I could idolize."

The walls in the lieutenant governor's office on the first floor of the capitol building, reflect his father's career. Among the photos are autographed pictures showing the elder Carnahan with former presidents Harry Truman, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

After growing up in Washington, Mel Carnahan returned to Missouri to attend law school at the University of Missouri "with the express purpose that that was my best way to get into politics."

His first race was for municipal judge in Rolla, at the age of 26. He thought he was going to run unopposed, but as a joke, friends filed the operator of a local pool hall. "He ran a pretty good pool hall and was pretty popular," recalled Carnahan.

Since he had lived in Rolla only three years, Carnahan had to knock on doors to win the office an effort that helped him win a race for state representative a year later.

In just his second term, Carnahan became majority floor leader of the House. Shortly after he was elected to a newly created post of assistant majority leader, Floor Leader H.F. Pat Patterson died from a heart attach in March 1965. The Democratic caucus 10 days later chose Carnahan as their leader.

Carnahan said he's very much aware of public distrust of politicians.

"I at least come off in my personal contacts as `what you see is what you get,' and I've lived a life to be able to claim that," said Carnahan. "I don't have a history of broken promises, change of directions on issues, or promising people things they didn't get. The very things that people think about politicians, has not been any hallmark of my life."

Carnahan said he thinks it's possible to reverse the current trend of "bashing" the government.

"I don't think people are as anti-government as they are anti-do-nothing-government," he said. "We've had a bad case of it the last 12 years. They've been very decent honorable people but haven't been willing to grapple their jobs.

"They've been sort of filling time, enjoying the honor of it all, and waiting to do perhaps the next step.

"I'm not going to have that approach. Being governor is going to be the apex of my career, so I'm going to be judged by how well I do the job of governor."