Did Robin Carnahan's Brother Get $107 Million from President Obama?

As I was talking to a few Kirksville residents about the upcoming elections, we were discussing the negative campaigning done by Robin Carnahan and Roy Blunt. It seems that these residents have had enough of the negative campaigning.

As we were discussing that a third candidate for Missouri Senate race might actually be good for the voters, one of the residents mentioned to me that Robin Carnahan's brother, Tom, received $107 million in stimulus funds as a "pay off" for Robin supporting President Obama's economic package and for her brother's help raising money for Obama's 2008 campaign. When I asked the Kirksville resident what her source was, she replied, "Roy Blunt's ad."


On checking with different sources, it is true that a company founded by Carnahan's brother received stimulus fuding for a wind farm project in Missouri, but there is no evidence that Robin Carnahan had anything to do with it or her brother got a "special deal."


After questioning the value of the stimulus legislation, the Blunt ad asks: "Where’d our money go? Ask Robin Carnahan. Her brother’s wind farm got over a hundred million stimulus dollars." True enough, but why ask Robin Carnahan about it?

Carnahan did support Obama and the stimulus package like the ad says. But Carnahan, the Secretary of State is a Democrat, so this comes as no surprise. The ad also claims that "her brother lobbied for his special deal and was a top Obama fundraiser." It is true that Tom Carnahan was a fundraiser for Obama, but there is no evidence of a "special deal".

Furthermore, Tom Carnahan did receive $107 million as part of the stimulus. But, he received it for his company, Lost Creek Wind, a project of the Wind Capital Group. However, this $107 million was part of a total of $5.2 billion awarded to 1,000 companies nationwide. According to the Treasury, "qualified applicants receive payments generally equal to 10% to 30% of the basis of the property, depending on the type of the property. The Lost Creek Wind was awarded the 12th largest payment."

Wind Capital Group also states that Lost Creek project had a total cost of $300 million and was the largest private sector investment made in Missouri in 2009 and that it generated 2,500 U.S. jobs. This statement from Wind Capital also rubbishes claims from Blunt's ad when he says that Obama's stimulus (supported by Carnahan) did not provide any of the promised jobs and just added more generations of debt.