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Robin Carnahan receives another judicial rebuke

September 1, 2010

Robin Carnahan has a poor track record when it comes to defending her decisions in Missouri courts.  Yesterday, she suffered her latest setback when a judge overturned her decision to disqualify a petition from the November ballot.

“Robin Carnahan’s six years as Secretary of State have been marred by poor performance, judicial rebukes, and questions about her cozy relationship with ACORN,” said Lloyd Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party.  “Yesterday’s action by a Cole County judge was only the latest in a series of overturned decisions.  This pattern raises serious questions about her lack of impartiality and her willingness to use of her office to further her liberal political agenda.”

This week, a Cole County judge ruled that Carnahan inappropriately disqualified legitimate signatures from a petition to prevent the government from taxing real estate transfers. Carnahan knowingly excluded these valid signatures because of technical problems beyond the signers’ control.  As of today, the ruling means Missourians will have the opportunity to vote on the proposal in two months.

Throughout the years, serious questions have been raised about Carnahan’s use of her official office to further her partisan political goals.

Last year, the Missouri Republican Party exposed Carnahan’s cozy relationship with ACORN.  We obtained more than 1,400 pages of emails between her office and embattled radical group showing meetings in her office, events, and shared research—what ACORN called a “great team effort.”

ACORN even claimed that Carnahan had been “helpful” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 24, 2008) in its lawsuit against the state of Missouri—a lawsuit that ended after the state agreed to pay ACORN $450,000.

In addition to her long relationship with ACORN, the courts have frequently rebuked her for writing biased ballot language.

Carnahan’s ballot summaries have been called “troubling,” “unfair,” “insufficient,” and “inadequate” by Missouri’s courts, and her ballot language has failed to withstand a court challenge on four separate occasions.   Her record is unprecedented, according to the Associated Press (January 8, 2008): No appeals court has ever changed the ballot language for a Missouri initiative, said Jefferson City attorney [and Carnahan supporter] Alex Bartlett… Bartlett said he also does not know of any previous circuit judge who has rewritten a ballot summary.”