DON'T LET CAMPAIGN'S HEAT REPULSE VOTERS

Missourians should view with jaundiced eye the current television campaigns being carried out by their two candidates for governor, Mel Carnahan and Bill Webster. Rather than discuss the issues in one of the most important elections in the history of the state, both candidates have chosen to trash each other, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to accomplish this senseless, non-productive goal.

The TV commercials being sent into living rooms around the state are nothing less than disgraceful. Carnahan zeros in on his opponent's administration of the Second Injury Fund, and Webster takes aim at Carnahan's legal earnings while serving as lieutenant governor. In the minds of most Missourians, neither issue is of great relevance in a state that is burdened with far too many pressing problems and challenges.

What makes this conflict all the more distressing is that both men are capable of carrying on a dialogue of issues that would be relevant to the voters of the state. Both are acquainted with the problems facing Missouri, and both have sufficient knowledge about them to make a contribution to their solution. Instead, they have chosen to concentrate on negative tactics that serve their own special interests while ignoring the concerns of 5.1 million Missourians.

Whether candidates recognize it or not, many voters begin with the assumption that most politicians have a small degree of larceny in them and ar~e more than willing to shave a few ethical or even legal corners to get ahead~ in th~e~ ~~great game of politics. Now it can be argued that pure-as-snow pols such as John Ashcroft are the exception to that rule, but no one who has watched him doubts the ability of the governor to play hardball politics when it suits his purpose. Politicians this clean use the excuse that the cause they seek to advance is worth whatever political muscle is required. It's not a bad excuse, but it does overlook the fact that there are, on occasion, victims left bleeding by the side of the road.

The current Webster-Carnahan feud, however, goes beyond these bounds, stretching into the area of burn-and-destroy and take-no-prisoners. Each man is obviously seeking to discredit his opponent, a tactic that unfortunately has gained widespread acceptance within the political communities of Jefferson City and Washington, D.C. But this obsession for trashing the opponent leaves a policy void in a campaign that will in the long run prove to be detrimental to the winner.

One of the principal laws of politics is that what goes around, comes around. Political winners who devote their campaigns to trashing an opponent inherit no less than 100 percent of the loser's friends, associates and allies. And most governors have learned, some very quickly, that to be a successful leader in the state Capitol, one must on occasion call on one's enemies for assistance. John Ashcroft has been most adroit in avoiding the appearance of romancing the Democratic majority in the General Assembly, but when the chips were down and the state's needs took precedence over political appearances, even the most popular chief executive in many a year had to take hat in hand and walk up a flight of stairs to the Capitol's third floor.

Surely the memories of Webster and Carnahan are not that obscured as to recognize this important point. There is, after all, life after November 3, and the careers of both men will depend in no small measure on how they conduct themselves between now and the general election. Webster's jabs at Carnahan will alienate a General Assembly that will probably continue to be controlled by the Democrats. And Carnahan will no doubt need to call on the minority leadership when he introduces legislation that he believes is critical to the state as well as his own record in office.

Public office-seekers attempt to portray themselves as paragons of virtue, a high priority with our incumbent governor, but even if the voters were interested in electing only saints, the character of politicians is not the central point of effective governance. Laws and programs to benefit millions of constituents are not enacted because the sponsors attend church every week or refrain from alcohol and tobacco. They are enacted because laws and programs are needed and because there is effective leadership in the executive office to secure their approval.

We know both Carnahan and Webster well enough to know that they are interested in becoming effective leaders, and we also know they are issue-oriented career politicians who have high hopes of writing effective public records. We urge them not to let the heat of a campaign alienate the voters and destroy their effectiveness as leaders of Missouri.