He could have asked the president for a ride.

Do you think anyone would notice?

fundraiser open to the public or appreciation party by invitation only? I heard it both ways.

How did this guy get elected to congress? There are some impressive democrats in South StL and Jeff County, he doesnt seem to be one of them.

I’m relatively new to the area, so maybe I don’t understand the inside baseball.

Randy,

He got elected because his Dad, Governor Mel Carnahan, was killed in plane crash. That is the ONLY reason he is a Congressman.

Randy
Check out the movie “Can Mr. Smith Get To Washington Anymore? and you’ll see that Russ got there only by a whisper, only about 1600 votes out of more than 100,000 cast. His opponent, Jeff Smith, won both St. Louis city and St. Louis county. In fact Russ did not win anything but managed to sneak through only because of his name in rural areas that did not have any idea who Jeff Smith was–and what a superior candidate he was despite the fact that this was his first politcal race of any kind. Don’t miss the movie. It was in the final 15 for an Academy Award three years ago for best documentary.

It will be interesting to see if he survives the next redistricting in two years. He is in Gephardt’s old district which was gerrymandered to give Gephardt safe areas in South City when the burbs became too hostile for Gephardt’s extremist left-wing views. This took mainly black areas from Clay whose margins of victory shrunk from the district he inherited from his father. As more blacks have moved south, it would only be natural for Clay to want his district to follow them south. Meanwhile the new parts of Clay’s district Creve Coeur, Ladue, etc. don’t want anything to do with Clay and and obviously the feeling is mutual as he never visits that part of the district. So, my prediction is Prince Clay will use his seniority to move south pushing Prince Carnahan into the more rural and conservative areas of south county and Jefferson County and Akin will reclaim the parts of West County he lost in exchange for moving farther west into St. Charles. While Akin may not want Creve Coeur and Olivette, he will want Ladue and Frontenac as that is where the big money is and most of us here don’t contribute outisde our own Congressional districts. If the GOP comes up with a fresh candidate, I think Carnahan can be beaten. If Democrats continue to oppose abolishing the death tax, they ought to at least have an inherttance tax on political offices.

So if Russ is so bad a congressman, why did you people elect him? Must have been a better candidate than the republican. If Rep. Carnahan didn’t make his own fundraiser, I’m sure those in attendance understand that he had more pressing things to do. I, for one, would not have thought it proper for a politician to attend a fundraiser with such a controversial and important bill awaiting a vote.

He gets elected because he is in a district that has been designed to elect democrats. If that district gets changed next time, he could be in trouble.

Republicans and Democrats alike, you need to know that there is a candidate who is running against Russ this time around who is fully capable of beating him, Chris Sander.

I have seen him speak and heard his ideas on several issues and I can tell you personally, that he was dead on about this housing crisis and was talking about it 6 months ago.

Also, this guy is more of an independent than a republican. He’s pro jobs and even attended the rally earlier this summer for the teamsters. He isn’t a politician or a lawyer.

Best of all, he’s got some great ideas about solving this housing crisis that still is not fixed, and his ideas about fixing education costs are extremely refreshing.

Carnahan has also agreed to debate him on Oct. 16 according to his website at http://www.chrissander.com.