24th State suggested leading up to the 2010 election that 3rd District Congressman Russ Carnahan didn’t really want to stay in Congress much longer, even if he were to survive that year’s race, which he barely did. The site thought he would be on the lookout for a “cushy international lobbyist job, or get made an ambassador or some junior level position in the State Department.”
This theory came to mind earlier this week when Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill stated that she was trying to avert the pending Clay vs. Carnahan civil war in the 1st Congressional District:
But McCaskill, in a brief interview Saturday in Hannibal, suggested there is a chance the party could bypass such a fracas – and hinted that she was working towards that goal.
“The prospect of that primary gives me a stomachache and I’m hoping it gets worked out,” McCaskill said.
She said she is talking to both Clay and Carnahan, but declined to provide details of their conversations.
The most likely way to avoid this war would be for one of the candidates to find other employment or another race. Carnahan would be the more likely candidate to take an out, but there’s really no other race for him to run. He could try to run for lieutenant governor or something, but that would be a huge demotion, and I doubt he could win a statewide race in Missouri. He wasn’t going to try to run in the 2nd District, because a Republican will win that one. So the most likely out would be a cushy job, one with big pay and few responsibilities.
But hope for this seems to have died:
Over the weekend, McCaskill was quoted at the Democratic gathering in Hannibal, Mo that she was reaching out to both men and hoping for a way to bypass the fight. That led to speculation that McCaskill might be called upon by the party to lobby the White House to give Carnahan a face-saving federal post in exchange for dropping out. There is apparently no such deal in the works.
But maybe this is just a temporary setback. Maybe Carnahan is holding out for a better offer. He is continuing to hope that the Missouri Supreme Court throws out the redistricting map, which would require the creation of new districts, giving Carnahan a shot at a better one to run in. But that’s unlikely. Maybe he will wait until that decision is handed down before shopping for a golden parachute.
But I hope one is not forthcoming. This would be a very interesting primary.
Jefferson County Penknife 