Jean Carnahan Accepts Senate Offer

Dressed in black, a mournful Jean Carnahan accepted an offer to become a U.S. senator if her late husband gets the most votes in the Nov. 7 election.

"My husband's name will be on that ballot ... his vision for Missouri's families can prevail, if we want it to," she said from Rolla, Mo. under sunny skies. "With the support of my family, and an abiding faith in a living God, I decided to do what I think Mel would want me to do ... . Should the people of Missouri elect my husband, I promise to take their common dreams to the U.S. Senate."

If the late governor does win, political watchers say, the case will undoubtedly end up in court. And from there, the legal and constitutional variables are endless. Mel Carnahan's name remains on the ballot because he died after the legal deadline for removing it.

Carnahan, his eldest son and a longtime aide were killed in a plane crash October 16th.

Jennifer Duffy, Senate editor of the Cook Political Report, told CBSNews.com that, given Mrs. Carnahan's decision, if the late governor outpolls incumbent GOP Sen. John Ashcroft, the matter is sure to go before the courts, and that it could take some time to resolve.

"State Republicans will probably be the ones to challenge it," Duffy said. "There will be some fundamental questions. There is no precedent. This has never happened before at the federal level."

Such a challenge could come in connection with a line in the U.S. Constitution, which reads "no person shall be a Senator ... who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen."

Duffy added that it wasn't a certainty that Jean Carnahan would be seated in the Senate pending a judicial resolution.

In Missouri Monday, Mrs. Carnahan called a vote for the Democratic candidate "a legal vote, one that (Missourians) can make." She said that, as a U.S. Senator, her issues would be similar to her husband's, and that she would cast votes that favor "Missouri's working families."

David DiMartino, of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told CBSNews.com, "We're waiting and seeing what's going to happen; how that's all going to play out."

Jean and Mel Carnahan    (AP)SIZE>

A poll commissioned last week by The Kansas City Star showed Carnahan and Ashcroft each getting 46 percent of the vote with 7 percent undecided and 1 percent voting independent. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

If Mrs. Carnahan does become a U.S. senator, she'll have to stand for re-election after two years in a special Missouri ballot.

Ashcroft, in Columbia to discuss Social Security and Mediare, sounded a congenial tone, saying, "Mrs. Carnahan has always been kind to me. She's written and said things that are very kind about me."

"We're going to work hard with the people of the state about important issues like the ones we talked about today," Ashcroft said of his continued campaigning. "This has been an unusual campaign and it's been a tragic campaign, a campaign filled with sorrow."

Missouri's Democrats have not stopped campaigning for the late governor. The statewide Democratic ticket, led by gubernatorial candidate Bob Holden, has repeatedly echoed a phrase first uttered by Carnahan's family: "Don't let the fire go out."

Volunteers converged on Mel Carnahan's St. Louis campaign headquarters during the weekend to distribute 780,000 lapel buttons proclaiming, "I'm Still With Mel."

Wilson had said Mrs. Carnahan was his first and only choice to fill the Senate seat if Mel Carnahan receives more votes than Ashcroft. Mrs. Carnahan, while she signalled a willingness to go to the U.S. Senate, did say that she would not enter the fray as a candidate.

"I will not be campaigning in the traditional sense," she said.

A psychologist specializing in grief counseling said Democrats were asking much of Mrs. Carnahan, having lost her husband and son less than two weeks ago.

But Kathleen Boggs, director of the counseling center at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said many people overcome grief by throwing themselves into causes.

"For Jean Carnahan, it may be a way to turn loss into a positive force, to continue the work of someone who has died," Boggs said.

Duffy expressed some skepticism about the political groundswell that Missouri's Democrats are trying to engender.

"The question I have, is how real is this? Is this a tribute, or do people really intend to vote this way? There's no precedent. We have no idea."

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