Carnahan closes gap in Senate race in aftermath of oil spill

  Oil drenched brown pelican. June 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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Despite trailing in the polls recently, Robin Carnahan (D-MO) is now dead even with Roy Blunt (R-MO) in the race for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat.

Released yesterday, Rasmussen Reports’ latest poll shows Carnahan trailing by one point, but there is an error rate of plus or minus 4.5.

Recently, Carnahan’s campaign has been blasting Congressman Blunt for his ties to big oil, including numerous campaign contributions.  It has effectively tied him to the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The poll shows that 82% of Missouri voters are concerned about the environmental impact of the oil spill.  81% say that the oil companies should be paying for the damage, something Carnahan’s campaign has been advocating for some time.

The League of Conservation Votes (LCV) has named Congressmen Blunt to their “Dirty Dozen”—a list of 12 politicians targeted for poor voting records on environmental and conservation issues—because he has an abysmal 2% lifetime score on environmental and clean energy issues.

In addition to receiving over $ 1 million from energy interests including Big Oil throughout his career, Congressman Blunt has received over $ 460,000 from the oil and gas industry alone.  That might explain why he has only cast four pro-environment votes out of 189 scored by the LCV since 1997.  It might explain why Carnahan’s campaign is accusing Blunt of supporting a $ 12.5 billion bailout for Big Oil.

Whatever the case may be, it appears that Carnahan’s strategy is working.  Facing pressure, Congressman Blunt is trying to take some of the heat off of his campaign.  He introduced legislation in an effort to increase the amount of money an oil company would have to pay in the event of an oil spill.  However, Carnahan says his legislation doesn’t go far enough because it leaves caps on oil spill liability in place.  Carnahan wants the caps removed entirely.

Blunt also continues to support the expansion of off-shore oil drilling while Carnahan has thrown her support behind a moratorium on new drilling.