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Family Ties Possibly Contributed to Robin Carnahan's Loss

By Bill Raack, St. Louis Public Radio

St. Louis, MO – One question that Democrats in Missouri are asking themselves today -- how did U-S Senate candidate Robin Carnahan lose so badly to Republican Roy Blunt Tuesday? St. Louis Public Radio's Bill Raack reports.

Blunt beat Carnahan by 14 points in the race to replace retiring Senator Kit Bond. University of Missouri-St. Louis professor David Robertson says Carnahan's loss may have been due largely to her family.

"I was wondering a couple of things...whether or not their identity with the, the Carnahan's name identity with the Democratic Party in the state may have hurt both of them to some extent," says Robertson. "And also, I think that ad about the windmill that went to Tom Carnahan, the brother of the two Carnahans, I think that was pretty damaging myself."

Just weeks before the election, a federal grant was awarded to Tom Carnahan for a wind farm in northwest Missouri.

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