Senator Denies Distributing Picture of Political Opponent in Blackface
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WASHINGTON — Sen. John Ashcroft responded Thursday to the controversy over a 1960 photograph of Democratic Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan singing in blackface, saying the governor is not a racist and that race-baiting in Missouri politics must stop.
The two are running for the Senate in 2000.
In an interview with Associated Press, Ashcroft (R-Mo.) denied distributing the picture or knowing who circulated the image, which had been published in Carnahan’s hometown newspaper in 1960.
“I was shocked by the picture, and, frankly, the picture does not square with my understanding of who Gov. Carnahan is,” Ashcroft said in a 25-minute interview in his Capitol Hill office. “I’ve known Mel Carnahan for a quarter-century. I respect him. I think he is a decent person. I do not believe he is a racist.”
Carnahan has apologized for the small-town racial insensitivity of the blackface minstrel performance almost four decades ago. The AP first reported the story Sunday after obtaining the image from a GOP source on condition of anonymity.
The governor has accused Ashcroft of having his operatives quietly pass around the photo.
“That’s not true,” Ashcroft said Thursday. “I am very eager that we not have a campaign characterized by any association with race-baiting.”
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