Sleeper Agent in the Senate

With friends like these....

by Rod D. Martin
September 16, 2002

It turns out that, thanks to an obscure Missouri law, the GOP may regain the Senate as early as November, at least for the rest of the year.  And they may lose it again almost immediately, courtesy of The Big Tent.

First the good news.  Capitol Hill is abuzz with talk that a win by Republican Jim Talent in Missouri’s U.S. Senate race could shift control of the chamber, at least for the remainder of the year.  Talent is running against Sen. Jean Carnahan, widow of Mel Carnahan, the corpse whom Missouri voters elected over then-Senator John Ashcroft two years ago.  Mrs. Carnahan was appointed to fill the vacancy.

By Missouri law, Mrs. Carnahan must win the seat in her own right this fall.  But it now appears that, if she loses, Missouri law forces her out of the seat immediately:  Talent would become Missouri’s junior senator this November, not in January.  That would shift the Senate back to Republican control, at least for the following two months:  50 …