Carnahan’s Conflicts of Interest Go Unquestioned

Russ Carnahan’s wife, Debra Carnahan, serves on the Board of Directors for Planned Parenthood. Yet as far as we can tell Russ does not abstain on votes potentially effecting Planned Parenthood grants and contracts. In fact, according to Project Vote Smart, “Representative Carnahan supported the interests of Planned Parenthood 100 percent in 2006.” In their finance report from last year, Planned Parenthood shows over $300 million dollars in such federal funds as revenue. That is about 30% of their budget. Who is asking Rep. Carnahan about this conflict of interest?

Russ Carnahan’s brother, Thomas Carnahan, runs a wind farm energy company. Yet as far as we can tell, Russ does not abstain from any energy bills (Such as HR6 in 2007) which will potentially affect tax credits or other government programs for such businesses.

Who is asking Rep. Carnahan about this conflict of interest? The answer, of course, is that no one is asking these questions. The more salient question may be, “why not?”