Jenna Isaacson photo

A job to do Since she was diagnosed with breast cancer in February, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan has undergone chemotherapy treatments while tending to her job as one of the state’s top officeholders. She exhibits the same no-nonsense style whether she’s talking about her illness, state issues or political opponents. After a period of denial, sadness and anger, she’s preparing for surgery and looking ahead to her future in politics.

JEFFERSON CITY - Robin Carnahan someday might be able to inspire and encourage others who face breast cancer.

Someday, Carnahan says, she’ll know "why I had to go through this journey."

For now, she just wants to get past the obstacle course of cancer treatment so she can get on with her duties in the secretary of state’s office.

Since her diagnosis in February, Carnahan hasn’t let breast cancer upstage what she considers important issues that face the state. Over the past couple of months, between chemotherapy treatments, she’s engaged in public battles with Republican lawmakers over legislation that requires voters to show state-issued photo identification.

Carnahan is OK with the fact the GOP hasn’t let up on her, even as she deals with cancer.

"I’m not looking for pity or sympathy," she says, then adds with a smile, "But a little cooperation would be a good thing."

Missouri Republican Party spokesman Paul Sloca said he wishes Carnahan well and her illness isn’t an issue for the party. "Obviously, Robin Carnahan is going through something very personal," he said, "but at the same time, we have to point out the issues dealing with the secretary of state’s office, and we do that."

Jenna Isaacson photo

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan talks yesterday at her Jefferson City office about how her breast cancer diagnosis last February has affected her job.

Carnahan acknowledged that Republicans don’t wish her ill, "but they do wish I’d go away."

Two years into her four-year term, the secretary of state isn’t going anywhere. She will be back next session with a legislative package aimed to make operating a business in Missouri more user-friendly, bills that failed this session. She also wants Missouri to join the 30 other states that allow early voting.

Carnahan displays the same no-nonsense style in her fight with cancer as she does when she talks about statewide issues, using her two- to three-hour chemotherapy treatments as time to get work done on her laptop computer. Sure, there was the initial shock, Carnahan said, but once it wore off, she was ready to deal with it and move on.

"It was hard to get my head around the diagnosis," Carnahan said. "It was hard to accept, but you have to. You go through all of the stages - denial, sadness, anger - then finally you get with the program and start taking care of it."

That’s textbook Carnahan, said her friend Lucy Sutcliffe of Rolla.

"She deals with it very matter-of-factly," Sutcliffe said. "It’s a piece of business that needs to be taken care of, and then she goes on. They are all that way, you know."

Members of the Carnahan family are no strangers to adversity. In 2000, a plane crash claimed the lives of Carnahan’s father, then-Gov. Mel Carnahan, and her brother Randy. Not long after, when voters elected Mel Carnahan posthumously to the U.S. Senate, his wife, Jean, stepped in.

"Three weeks after her husband died, she went to the Senate," Sutcliffe said. "How do you do that?"

Faith in God is vital, Robin Carnahan says, and having a supportive family helps. She also feels blessed that her side effects have been minimal. The cocktail of chemo medications hasn’t made Carnahan sick, nor did it claim her trademark short, sandy-blonde hair.

The worst part is not knowing when the battle will be over, Carnahan said. After six more weeks of her second phase of chemotherapy, she will have surgery to remove a lump from her breast, then she will undergo radiation.

"I like to plan things, get them done and move on," she said. Cancer "has taught me patience."

While the illness has kept Carnahan from running her usual 25 miles a week, it hasn’t kept her from the sport. The one-time New York City Marathon runner still jogs when she can.

On Saturday, she will join about 50 staff members from her office and the office of her brother, U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, during the annual Susan B. Komen Race For the Cure in St. Louis.

Also participating Saturday will be Republican Lt. Gov. Pete Kinder, who earlier this spring said he’d dedicate his run to Carnahan.

"I believe that people in Missouri want us all to work together," Kinder said. "I believe folks want a respite, they want a relief from ceaseless partisan bickering. They want us to pull together and do the right thing. Surely, we can all pull together in an effort to conquer breast cancer."

Carnahan shrugs the notion that she’s put a "famous" face on the disease, saying it affects a lot of women.

Right now, she’d rather put a face to issues she feels voters care about.

"I’m busy doing the job voters elected me to do," Carnahan said. "If I do a good job, I may someday ask for a promotion to a better job."

Will she be asking for that new title in 2008?

"Let’s just say ‘someday’ for now."

SECOND THOUGHTS: Friday, June 9, 2006

A story yesterday about Robin Carnahan should have said chemotherapy claimed her hair but she still dons her trademark short, sandy blond style with a wig.