Robin Carnahan
From Ballotpedia
Contents |
| State Government |
|---|
|
| State officials |
| Elections, 2010 |
| State legislatures |
| Find your state |
Family Legacy
Carnahan's family has a legacy of being active in Missouri politics for several generations. Her father, Mel Carnahan, served in several offices, most notably as Governor of Missouri from 1993 until his untimely death in a plane crash on October 17, 2000. Her mother, Jean, served as United States Senator for two years in the seat won posthumously by her husband until she was narrowly defeated in a special election held in November 2002 by Republican James Talent. Her brother, Russ Carnahan, is a congressman representing the southern portion of the St. Louis Metropolitan area. Her grandfather, A.S.J. Carnahan, served as congressman for south-central Missouri and as the first U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone, having been appointed to the position by President John F. Kennedy.
Education
- Graduated from Rolla High School
- Bachelor's degree, William Jewell College in education
- Juris Doctorate degree, University of Virginia Law School (1986)
Professional experience
Shortly after completing law school, Carnahan returned to Missouri and began practicing law with the St. Louis law firm of Thompson & Mitchell, focusing on business and corporate law. In 1990, she was part of a team from the National Democratic Institute sent to help rebuild the democracies and economies of the nations of the former Soviet Union and other formerly Communist regimes. In this role, she helped draft voting laws, train new political leaders and monitor elections in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Since then, she has worked in six countries to promote democracy and free elections. Carnahan also served as an executive at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. At the bank, Carnahan worked to help American companies increase the sale of their goods and services to buyers around the world.
Political career
Proposition B
Carnahan's own political career within Missouri began in 1999 when she led the statewide campaign against the concealed carry referendum known as Proposition B. She chaired the Safe Schools and Workplaces Committee (SSWC) and orchestrated television advertisements against the measure. These spots were controversial in that they made several misleading statements or downright lies concerning what the proposition allowed. Specifically, the SSWC alleged that Proposition B allowed Missourians to carry the UZI carbine rifle, despite the fact that the UZI shown in the advertisement had been banned in the United States since 1994, and that individuals convicted of assault, stalking, even child molesting could legally carry concealed handguns under the law, totally ignoring the law's stringent requirements barring such individuals from taking part.[2] Proposition B was narrowly defeated in April 1999 by a margin of 3.3%, but a similar right-to-carry proposal was adopted by the Republican legislature over Governor Holden's veto four years later. Regardless of her work to defeat Proposition B, Carnahan insisted in 2004 while running for Secretary of State that she supported the Second Amendment.
Overturned Ballot Titles
It is the responsibility of the Missouri Secretary of State to produce fair and neutral ballot titles for proposed Missouri initiatives. In two cases in early 2008, ballot titles for the Missouri Stem Cell Prohibition Initiative (2008) and the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative (2008) written by Carnahan were thrown out by two different Missouri judges.[3]
ACORN
Under President George W. Bush, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed charges against Carnahan and the state of Missouri in a lawsuit related to the National Voter Registration Act, which charged that ineligible voters within the state were not properly pursued; nearly identical charges were filed in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, New Jersey, and New York. According to the Heritage Foundation, the Justice Department "pursued the lawsuit successfully all the way to the Court of Appeals, but a month after Carnahan announced her run for the Senate, the lawsuit was dropped by Obama-Holder."[4]
The Republican Party of Missouri has argued that Carnahan ordered the St. Louis Board of Elections to approve more than 5,000 questionable registrations submitted by ACORN in 2006 and that her unwavering support for the embattled liberal organization has continued to this day. It was recently discovered that in the report she issued on the 2008 elections, "she failed to mention ACORN’s organized effort to commit voter fraud across the state by submitting thousands of fraudulent voter registrations to county election boards in Missouri."[5] Far more revealing, however, was ACORN's own proclamation that Carnahan had been “helpful” in its lawsuit against the state of Missouri—a lawsuit that ended after the state agreed to pay ACORN $450,000. Carnahan has had numerous contacts with ACORN, including meetings in her own officer, between 2007 and 2009, despite never having been named in the lawsuit against the state.[6]
Electoral History
| 2004 Race for Secretary of State - General Election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Percentage | |||
 Robin Carnahan (D)
| 51% | |||
| Catherine Hanaway (R) | 46.4% | |||
| Christopher Davis (Libertarian) | 1.9% | |||
| Donna Ivanovich (Constitution) | 0.6% | |||
| Total votes | 100% | |||
| 2008 Race for Secretary of State - General Election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Percentage | |||
| Robin Carnahan (D)
| 61.8% | |||
| Mitchell Hubbard (R) | 35.6% | |||
| Wes Upchurch (Libertarian) | 1.4% | |||
| Denise C. Neely (Constitution) | 1.3% | |||
| Total votes | 100% | |||
Family life
Robin Carnahan currently lives in Rolla, Missouri with her husband, Juan Carlos Antolinez. They currently have no children together.
Contact Information
Office of the Secretary of State
State Capitol, Room 208 or State Information Center, 600 W Main
Jefferson City, MO 65101
(573) 751-4936 [ SOS Information ]
SOSmain@sos.mo.gov
External links
- Official Missouri Secretary of State website
- Robin Carnahan's Facebook profile
- Robin Carnahan's Twitter account
- Robin Carnahan for Senate Campaign website
- ACORN and Carnahan website
References
- ↑ AMERICA Blog "Robin Carnahan is running for Senate in Missouri" 3 Feb. 2009
- ↑ MOCCW "Top 5 List of Misleading SSWC Statements or Actions" 29 March, 1999
- ↑ Judge rewrites contentious ballot title
- ↑ YouTube video - Questions Raised About Robin Carnahan's implementation of election law in Missouri
- ↑ Missouri Republican Party "Robin Carnahan ally ACORN in serious trouble" 15 Sept. 2009
- ↑ Robin Carnahan’s Involvement in ACORN Lawsuit
| ||||||||||||||
