Akin Pains in Missouri
If you don’t know Todd Akin’s name, that doesn’t mean you don’t know who he is. Remember the Missouri representative who claimed women’s bodies had a way to “shut down” rapes that are “legitimate?” That’s him.
Todd Akin is the Republican representative from Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, which begins just to the west of I-170 from campus, and he’s now running for the Senate seat that Claire McCaskill has held since 2006.
Akin is not just your run-of-the-mill Republican; his views are so extreme that even the Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus called on him to step down from the race and refused to send him another dime in support, even if the race is tied. And it doesn’t end with his comments on rape: Akin has said that evolution is based on faith, not science; that liberalism is based on “a hatred of God;” that the morning-after pill is “a form of abortion,” and that student loans are “a stage-three cancer of socialism.” He’s philosophically opposed to the minimum wage and thinks the Voting Rights Act of 1965 should be overturned.
Claire McCaskill’s story is a fascinating one, too. She is the second-most-followed member of Congress on Twitter and, along with Russ Feingold, she is one of only two Democratic Senators to have sworn not to use earmarks. Despite that, she voted for low-income housing bills that netted her husband’s firm nearly $40 million in federal subsidies; however, she argues that none of this made it into her family’s personal accounts and that her husband’s business didn’t influence her votes in any way. Todd Akin likes to tie McCaskill to Obama, and for good reason: she’s been one of his biggest allies during his presidency and even before.
McCaskill has proven herself a shrewd politician in this years’ election. When three candidates were running for the Republican nomination for her Senate seat, she seemed to select Akin as the weakest candidate and therefore the one she would attempt to secure as her opponent in the fall election. Her campaign released flatly negative television ads against Akin’s challengers in the Republican primary that attacked them outright, but her campaign against Akin was a different story. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, her ads against Akin in contrast featured “upbeat music and American flags” and attacks that, for a Republican primary, essentially amounted to an endorsement: her television ads noted that Akin is against big government, wants to cut down the federal energy and education departments, and that he has been an outspoken critic of Obama.
As a major obstacle for a Republican takeover of the Senate, McCaskill has become an obvious and irresistible political target. According to Mother Jones, outside groups spent nearly ten times as much on ads attacking her as on ads in her support. Of the $12.75 million that had been spent on ads against McCaskill up to July 2012, more than half was from organizations that conceal the identities of their donors, such as the Super PACs of Karl Rove and David Koch.
This is a race of contrasts and the candidates seem to know it. After their first debate, Akin remarked that McCaskill’s performance wasn’t as “ladylike” as in 2006 and that she fought “like somebody let a wildcat out of the cage.” Instead of addressing her policies or her demeanor in an appropriate fashion, he simultaneously belittled her with the stereotype of a woman in a catfight and criticized her for straying too far from the female stereotype of being demure and “ladylike.” If we consider this in conjunction with Akin’s comments on “legitimate rape,” it’s clear that Missouri’s senate race is the front line of the war on women this year; and Missouri’s first female elected to the Senate is the
In some ways, Senate and Congressional races are more important than even the Presidential election in determining the US’s course over the next few years. The Republican Party needs to gain only four seats for control of the Senate, and with Akin’s persistent popularity in the polls, Claire McCaskill’s seat is certainly near the top of their list. Voting in Missouri, a traditional bellwether state in Presidential elections, is exciting enough: McCain won Missouri by just 3,632 votes in 2008, roughly equivalent to two classes of WashU undergraduates. But this year Missouri voters have the best shot at making a real difference with how they vote in the Senate race.