Missouri Senate race matches two political 'titans'

From CNN's Patti Davis

July 19, 2000
Web posted at: 6:24 p.m. EDT (2224 GMT)

ST. LOUIS (CNN) -- Missouri's Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan, who wants to be his state's next senator, has kicked off a four-day, 21-county whistle stop tour much like a another famous Missouri senator years ago.

"The seat I'm seeking in the U.S. Senate is Harry Truman's old seat," Carnahan tells voters.

Just two weeks ago, the man who now holds that seat, Republican Sen. John Ashcroft, launched his own campaign with a bus tour.

Sen. Ashcroft is not expected to pick up many black votes in November. He blocked a black Missouri Supreme Court justice from being appointed to a high-profile federal judgeship.

The race between two of Missouri's most popular politicians is one of the closest Senate contests in the country.

"You have two titans squaring off -- two politicians that are not used to losing, and not only not losing, but winning by gigantic margins throughout their whole careers. And this time, one of them has to lose," St. Louis University pollster Ken Warren said.

The latest poll commissioned by the Kansas City Star shows Carnahan trailing Ashcroft by four points, a spread within the poll's margin of error. As many as 10 percent of the state's voters remain undecided. As in the presidential race, education, health care, Medicare and Social Security are big issues.

"I designed the lockbox that is in the Senate rules that makes sure we don't spend Social Security trust funds," Ashcroft claims.

Gov. Carnahan is a moderate to liberal Democrat who has fought for abortion rights and gun control.

Carnahan is a moderate to liberal Democrat who has fought for abortion rights and gun control. In this campaign he says he's setting his sights on working families, and "providing their security for future years, sending a child to college, paying the high cost of health care and prescription drugs."

The state Republican party posted photographs of Carnahan appearing in blackface at a civic club function in the early 1960s, when he was a municipal judge in southwest Missouri. Carnahan has apologized.

But Ashcroft is not expected to pick up many black votes. He blocked a black Missouri Supreme Court justice from being appointed to a high-profile federal judgeship -- a move that angered many African-Americans.

Democrats hit back by attacking Ashcroft's support for "irresponsible" tax cuts -- "three times even more than George W. Bush thinks we can afford," the party charged in a recent campaign ad.

Carnahan is still expected to have an uphill battle: Ashcroft even abandoned a possible presidential campaign in order to keep the seat in Republican hands. But observers agree that a Carnahan pickup here would be a major victory for the Democrats who haven't elected a senator since 1980.