Readying for fall Senate race, Carnahan and Talent talk issues

ST. LOUIS -- Newly nominated in a nationally watched Senate battle, Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan and Republican Jim Talent said Wednesday they will stick to issues, with the incumbent talking about homeland security after visiting Fort Leonard Wood and the challenger hitting the road to promote his ideas on job creation.

"We will emphasize records and I want Missourians to compare records," Talent, a former four-term congressman from St. Louis County, said in an interview between congratulatory calls at his campaign headquarters.

Mrs. Carnahan, stepping off the Army post where campaign activities are discouraged, told reporters she will focus on education, health care, the economy and security issues.

She plans to launch a statewide bus tour next week, with the theme "Freedom, Faith and Family."

"When you get to Washington, some times you get off and you realize you're kind of insulated from what's really happening in the real world," Mrs. Carnahan said. "So it's good to come back here and to have people look you in the eye and tell you the things they're concerned about."

Focusing on jobs

Talent, who has been crisscrossing the state for months, announced a multiday swing across Missouri to talk about his ideas for creating jobs.

"I am starting to contrast the records in areas such as jobs and health care and defense," he said, "and we do have differences on the issues in each of those areas."

Analysts said Wednesday that Talent has little choice but to discuss issues rather than attack Mrs. Carnahan because there is still sympathy for the widowed senator, who assumed by appointment the Senate seat won posthumously by her late husband, Gov. Mel Carnahan.

"I still think there is a sympathy vote there," nearly two years after the governor, the couple's eldest son Roger and campaign aide Chris Sifford died in a plane crash three weeks before Election Day 2000, said Ken Warren, a political scientist at Saint Louis University.

Drawing women voters

Warren also said Mrs. Carnahan, 68, will draw "disproportionately" more votes from women than Talent, "even from Republican women who won't tell their husbands how they voted."

Women attending Talent's election-night watch party disagreed, saying the 45-year-old attorney and father of three young children has a record of helping women during eight years in Congress.

"There is a segment of the population that has a stereotype of Republicans, that they don't represent women's interests," said Molley McCombs, a Talent backer from St. Louis. "But when women hear him speak on the issues, they'll realize Talent does represent their interests."

Mrs. Carnahan was alongside Mel Carnahan during 19 Missouri campaigns, but Tuesday's primary marked the first time she stood before voters. She drew 83 percent of the Democratic primary vote with nearly all ballots counted, while her lone opponent Darrel D. Day, jailed since June 13 for a parole violation, received 17 percent.

Mrs. Carnahan said she wasn't bothered about losing nearly one in five primary votes to a felon.

"I feel like my percentage is great," she said on election night.

Talent piled up 90 percent of the vote in a five-person GOP primary with nearly all ballots tallied.

The Republican was dealing with a political distraction on Wednesday: The party's only other statewide nominee, Allen Hanson, was a surprise winner in his state auditor primary against Jay Kanzler, who had been recruited to run by GOP leaders.

Hanson served nine months in prison in Minnesota for felony theft and swindling convictions -- background that startled Talent and prompted his repudiation of Hanson.

"If that is true," Talent said of Hanson's criminal background, "I'm certainly not going to support him."

In contrast, Mrs. Carnahan said Wednesday that she will be delighted to campaign alongside incumbent Democratic State Auditor Claire McCaskill, who was unopposed for renomination.

"I think she'll be a strength to the ticket," Mrs. Carnahan said of McCaskill.

"I look forward to running with her."

Other parties contribute

Tamara Millay won the two-person Libertarian primary for Senate, defeating Edward Joseph Manley of Hillsboro, 59 percent to 41 percent with nearly all ballots counted.

The Green Party has petitions pending with the secretary of state's office, aiming to place Daniel Romano of St. Louis on the fall ballot as Senate nominee, the secretary of state's office said Wednesday.