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Akin was favored to beat McCaskill until his remarks about "legitimate rape." KANSAS CITY, Missouri - Missouri Republican U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, who sparked a furor in August with comments about "legitimate rape," was defeated by Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill on Tuesday. Until the rape comment, Akin was considered the favorite to beat McCaskill in a state that has trended Republican and voted for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday. But the race reversed course after Akin's comment to a television station that women have natural defenses against pregnancy from "legitimate rape." The comment drew scorn from state...

I’ll have more in the morning, but my quick thoughts. Of course it was a bad defeat tonight.  Let’s not kid ourselves. We had a chance to stop the decline, and we didn’t. We held the House pretty strongly, so that’s good, and a reflection that candidates and ideology matter.  We nominated candidates at the District level who could make the case; we didn’t make the case at the national level.  It also looks like we did well in state races. Wrong lessons will be drawn from the Senate races.  We nominated a moderate who lost in a Wisconsin which rejected...

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) predicted Monday that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would carry the state of Pennsylvania, pushing back against Obama campaign adviser David Plouffe's suggestion that GOP efforts in the state were a "desperate ploy" to find an alternative path to 270 electoral votes. But Toomey noted that in 2010, Republicans swept statewide offices in Pennsylvania, and he predicted a similar electorate for Tuesday's presidential vote. "If you take a look at what happened the last time Pennsylvanians went to the polls, which is 2010, Republicans swept," Toomey told CNN on "Starting Point." "I won a statewide office....

As I wrote in an earlier post, partisan control of the U.S. Senate probably turns on the Missouri contest between unpopular Democrat incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill and unpopular Republican Rep. Todd Akin. Voters get it that McCaskill looks after whatever is best for the Obama Administration instead of her own constituents, but many remain alienated by Akin’s support for abortion restrictions for a pregnancy that resulted from a rape. The final poll on the contest by Public Policy Polling shows that Akin has pulled within four points of McCaskill, 48%-44%, leaving McCaskill short of a majority. The only other senate...

ST. LOUIS • Congressman Todd Akin has dramatically narrowed the lead of Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri’s nationally watched Senate race, according to a new poll. But the poll — commissioned by the Post-Dispatch, News 4 and the Kansas City Star — also indicates that Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment in August continues to affect the race. McCaskill still enjoys a significant gender gap, and three-quarters of her supporters call Akin’s comment “somewhat” or “very” important to their decision. The results show McCaskill leading with 45 percentage points to Akin’s 43 points among likely voters. That’s within the poll’s 4-point margin...

Public Policy Polling says Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill hold a narrow 4-point lead over Rep. Todd Akin in the 2012 campaign's closing days. She's at 48%, Akin at 44% in a poll of 835 likely voters Nov. 2 and Nov. 3. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.4%.

Missouri Republican Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin was arrested at least eight times in the 1980s at anti-abortion protests, according to newly obtained records. That is four arrests in addition to four the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last month based on a review of its contemporaneous coverage of protests. The four additional arrests each appear to have occurred outside a women's health clinic in Ballwin, Missouri in St. Louis County between 1985 and 1987. "Right Wing Watch," a project of People For the American Way, a nonprofit group critical of Akin's ties to what it calls radical elements of the...

Polls showing him gaining on McCaskill has led to an infusion of funds for campaign ads on Akin's behalf Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) is showing signs of a newfound strength on the campaign trail — making multiple new ad buys as polling shows him gaining on Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). Akin and groups supporting him are making a $1.75 million investment in campaign ads this week, according to his campaign, allowing him to air a wider variety of ads than the incumbent Senator for the first time in the entire race. That influx of cash has wider implications than just...

Todd Akin, the Republican candidate in the closely watched U.S. Senate race in Missouri, released a new advertisement on Thursday featuring a woman who says she was raped and had an abortion but supports Akin's anti-abortion stand. The TV commercial comes in the closing days of a campaign that has drawn national attention because of Akin's remark in August that women's bodies could ward off pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape." Akin, a six-term U.S. congressman from the St. Louis area, was heavily criticized by Democrats and lost support from some leading Republicans because of his remark. A poll by...

Now Or Never Political Action Committee will spend $800,000 on television ads for Republican Todd Akin, who is campaigning against incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, The Hill reports. The group’s ad asks voters who “don’t agree with everything he says” to back Akin anyway, and it focuses on winning Senate control and defeating McCaskill. “In the Senate, Akin will vote for Romney’s policies to get Americans working again,” according to the ad. “Claire McCaskill would fight Romney every step of the way. To avoid Washington gridlock and get this country back to work, our best choice is Todd Akin.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Former presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Missouri voters can send a powerful signal to "the moneyed Republican establishment" by electing congressman Todd Akin over Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin said today in Lee's Summit that he'll match his Democratic rival, Claire McCaskill, in TV ad spending in the race's final week. At a stop in Lee's Summit, Akin said he no longer will be outspent 9:1 or 10:1 as he has in recent weeks. "That ratio is going to change now," Akin said. "We have enough money to be able to do more advertising." Akin is spending Tuesday and Wednesday in the KC area in what aides said would be his final visit to the area this campaign. At noon Tuesday, Akin and former...

The transcript of the Todd Akin ad above is hard hitting. I've added links so you can review the facts: It's been revealed, Claire McCaskill's husband was caught cutting business deals in the Senate dining room, selling tax credits tied to Obama's stimulus money, money Claire McCaskill voted for. McCaskill uses her position and power to cash in. It's no surprise that McCaskill thinks she's above the law, she didn't pay her taxes but voted to raise ours. The arrogance and corruption of Claire McCaskill. Dealing herself in. Selling us out. Just last week, the National Legal and Policy Center...

(CNN) - Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill's 84-year-old mother, Betty Anne Ward McCaskill, died on Monday, the senator from Missouri said in a statement on Monday. "For some time, mom's health has not been good, and our family takes comfort that she is now at rest," McCaskill wrote. "People all over the state have asked about her, and their prayers and concern have been greatly appreciated."

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Democratic Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill holds a slim lead of 2 percentage points over Republican challenger Todd Akin - essentially a deadlock - in a race being closely watched following Akin's controversial comments on "legitimate rape," a poll released on Saturday showed. McCaskill had been seen as one of the most vulnerable incumbent Democrats but has led Akin in most polls since he said in August that women could biologically defend themselves against pregnancy caused by "legitimate rape." Akin said later he misspoke when he made the remark, which led to widespread rebukes even from...

WARNING: this post is going to be oh-so-very-triggery for victims of rape and sexual assault. I am not kidding. Dear certain conservative politicians:Hi! I’m a rapist. I’m one of those men who likes to force myself on women without their consent or desire and then batter them sexually. The details of how I do this are not particularly important at the moment — although I love when you try to make distinctions about “forcible rape” or “legitimate rape” because that gives me all sorts of wiggle room — but I will tell you one of the details about why I do...

A new poll shows the Missouri Senate race is too close to predict a winner. The News 4, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star poll shows Senator Claire McCaskill with a 2 percent lead over Congressman Todd Akin, at 45 and 43 percent, respectively. With a margin of error at plus or minus four points, and eight percent still undecided, the two remain in a statistical dead heat. Click here to download and view full poll results. Watch News 4 at 10 p.m. for more analysis, and reactions from both campaigns.

An analysis of public records by the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has found more than $20 million in federal stimulus funds benefitting real estate projects financially tied to Joseph Shepard, husband of Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill. Earlier this month, the Associated Press published an analysis , stating, "businesses affiliated with the husband of Senator Claire McCaskill have received almost $40 million in federal subsidies for low-income housing developments during her first five years in office..." The NLPC analysis released today showed more than $20 million in financial benefits from the federal stimulus law to real estate projects associated...

After a USA Today/Gallup poll showed women in swing states thought abortion the top election issue, CNN hyped the news and cast a wary eye toward "controversial" Republican positions as the possible catalysts. Five days later, however, Gallup reported that, nationally, abortion is near the bottom of importance among voters. CNN hosts Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper led their October 18 shows with the swing state poll, and anchor Carol Costello touted it the next morning. Costello wondered if "controversial" statements by certain Republicans were to blame for women suddenly treating abortion with utmost importance. "And that has more than...

A spokeswoman for Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill’s re-election campaign told The Daily Caller that the senator and her husband first learned the criminal background of the man speaking out McCaskill’s husband’s business dealings from The New York Times. McCaskill spokeswoman Caitlin Legacki told TheDC on Friday that she thinks McCaskill and her husband Joseph Shepard discovered Craig Woods’ criminal background “[w]hen the New York Times told me in June that he’s a felon.” TheDC reported Thursday that Woods, a former employee of Shepard’s, alleged in a 2011 audiotape that Shepard used the U.S. Senate dining room to cut business...