• Claire McCaskill

    Updated: MO-Sen: Rep Todd Akin Should Step Aside

    Jen Rubin over at WAPO has a couple of options for Akin’s withdrawal. And, in an update, makes it clear that the GOP and associated Super PACS are through with him.

    The dripping you hear is the slow, but eventual withdrawal of Akin’s candidacy.

    Rep Todd Akin

    Rep Todd Akin and Missouri GOP U.S. Senate Nominee

    The whole Todd Akin and “legitimate rape” flap has blown up -as it should. It is time for Rep. Todd Akin to immediately step aside from his U.S. Senate nomination by the Republican Party.

    Representative Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senator from Missouri, became nationally notorious yesterday for saying something stupid. In the course of explaining why he believes abortion should be illegal even when pregnancies result from rape, he said that in cases of “legitimate rape” the victim’s body has defense mechanisms that usually prevent pregnancy.

    Give the man points for concision, at least: His remarks combined several mistakes with brutal efficiency. There is no evidence for Akin’s biological claim. The frequency with which rape results in pregnancy has no bearing on whether abortion should be allowed when it does. And while it is not completely clear what point Akin was trying to make with the phrase, “legitimate rape” should not appear in any good one.

    Todd Akin is a weak candidate and Senator Claire McCaskill deserves a strong opponent. While the U.S. Senate partisan control is important, it is more important that the Missouri Republican Party not be represented by some “nut job” like Akin.

    It is time for Akin to step aside and if he does not do so voluntarily, the Missouri Republican Party should strip him of the nomination.

    Here are his original comments in the video below:

    [youtube]http://youtu.be/fdisTOKom5I[/youtube]

  • Claire McCaskill,  Todd Akin

    MO-Sen: Rep Todd Akin Should Step Aside

    Rep Todd Akin

    Rep Todd Akin and Missouri GOP U.S. Senate Nominee

    The whole Todd Akin and “legitimate rape” flap has blown up -as it should. It is time for Rep. Todd Akin to immediately step aside from his U.S. Senate nomination by the Republican Party.

    Representative Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senator from Missouri, became nationally notorious yesterday for saying something stupid. In the course of explaining why he believes abortion should be illegal even when pregnancies result from rape, he said that in cases of “legitimate rape” the victim’s body has defense mechanisms that usually prevent pregnancy.

    Give the man points for concision, at least: His remarks combined several mistakes with brutal efficiency. There is no evidence for Akin’s biological claim. The frequency with which rape results in pregnancy has no bearing on whether abortion should be allowed when it does. And while it is not completely clear what point Akin was trying to make with the phrase, “legitimate rape” should not appear in any good one.

    Todd Akin is a weak candidate and Senator Claire McCaskill deserves a strong opponent. While the U.S. Senate partisan control is important, it is more important that the Missouri Republican Party not be represented by some “nut job” like Akin.

    It is time for Akin to step aside and if he does not do so voluntarily, the Missouri Republican Party should strip him of the nomination.

    Here are his original comments in the video below:

    [youtube]http://youtu.be/fdisTOKom5I[/youtube]

  • Claire McCaskill,  Polling,  Sarah Steelman,  Todd Akin

    MO-Sen: McCaskill 43% Vs. Steelman 42%, McCaskill 45% Vs. Akin 43%

    According to the latest PPP Poll.

    Claire McCaskill’s approval rating has slipped a hair since PPP last polled Missouri in May, but she retains similarly slim leads over her two most likely opponents for a second Senate term, and both are still pretty unknown to voters.

    43% approve of McCaskill’s work in Washington, down from 46% four months ago. The same 47% disapprove. Among the 87 senators on which PPP has polled, only one of the 23 Democrats on the ballot next year has a worse standing—Nebraska’s Ben Nelson.

    But for now at least, McCaskill leads three Republicans running to replace her. She tops former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman, 43-42, down from 45-42 in the previous poll. McCaskill also edges Rep. Todd Akin, 45-43, versus 46-45 in May. And she leads businessman John Brunner, 46-37, up from 47-41.

    McCaskill benefits from the anonymity of these Republicans vying for the nomination. Three-quarters have no opinion of Brunner, and over half are not familiar with the other two. None of them is seen positively by voters either. Steelman is best off, with 23% seeing her favorably and 25% unfavorably, followed by Akin’s 18-26 and Brunner’s 7-19.

    Senator Claire McCaskill is in trouble. American Crossroads (Karl Rove’s Super PAC) is already hitting her hard with ads and a website.

    How about this billboard:

    The Republican Party should pick up this seat in 2012.

  • Claire McCaskill,  Ed Martin,  Sarah Steelman,  Todd Akin,  U.S. Senate 2012

    Mo-Sen Poll Watch: Claire McCaskill 46% Vs. Todd Akin 45%

    According to the latest PPP Poll.

    Job Approval Vs. Disapproval:

    • Senator Claire McCaskill – 46% Vs. 47%

    Approval Vs. Disapproval Vs. Not sure:

    • Todd Akin – 18% Vs. 21% Vs. 61%
    • John Brunner – 8% Vs. 19% Vs. 73%
    • Blaine Luetkemeye – 14% Vs. 22% Vs. 64%
    • Ed Martin – 11% Vs. 20% Vs. 70%
    • Sarah Steelman – 26% Vs. 22% Vs. 52%

    General election Head to Head:

    • McCaskill – 46% Vs. Akin – 45%
    • McCaskill – 47% Vs. Brunner – 41%
    • McCaskill – 45% Vs. Luetkemeye – 42%
    • McCaskill – 46% Vs. Martin – 39%
    • McCaskill – 45% Vs. Steelman – 42%

    Missouri Senator Clair McCaskill is vulnerable in 2012 and the GOP is counting on picking up her seat. The latest PPP Poll does nothing to give her campaign any optimism.

    These margins don’t exactly look comfortable for McCaskill and a look inside the numbers suggests they’re likely to get worse. There are a good deal more undecided Republicans than Democrats in all of these match ups- 5% more undecided GOP voters against Steelman, 6% more against Akin, 10% more against Luetkemeyer, 11% more against Brunner, and 12% more against Martin. If those folks end up coming ‘home’ you’re looking at each of the Republican picking up another 2-4 points on the margin.

    Why are there so many more Republican undecideds? The crop of GOP candidates continues to be mostly unknown to voters in the state. None of them reaches 50% name recognition. Steelman is the best known with 48% of voters having an opinion about her, 26% positive and 22% negative. She’s followed by 39% who know Akin (18/21), 36% who know Luetkemeyer (14/22), 31% who know Martin (11/20), and 27% who know Brunner (8/19).

    The state of this race remains the same- McCaskill is one of the most vulnerable incumbents up for reelection next year. But the bad news cycles she endured over the last few months seemed like they had the potential to shift this race to one where she was favored to lose. In that sense the continued toss up status of the contest is good news for her.

    Good news for McCaskill?

    I suppopse she could be behind but with her airplane woes and the lack of GOP hit ads means that worst is yet to come.

    This race will NOT be a toss-up but a GOP gain.

  • Claire McCaskill,  Michael J. Fox

    Mo-Sen GAFFE: Sen. Claire McCaskill Now Joking About the Recession

    Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) discusses the recession’s “silver lining” with Georgetown University College Democrats on March 28, 2011.

    As if the Senators private airplane problems weren’t enough.

    Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has been in the news lately for her failure to pay taxes on an airplane. McCaskill is not known as the most congenial member of the Senate. And every now and then her lack of tact comes out in public. A GOP operative passes on this clip of her speaking to a Georgetown Law School audience:

    Well, it’s not “really good news” but just a “silver lining” that the recession has brought down emissions.

    Aside from that gaffe (which she realizes along the way), there is something significant here. What she is saying that the recession did an even “better” job of bringing down emissions than cap-and-trade would have. Um, isn’t that the problem with cap-and-trade? Critics complain its’s going to increase costs and thereby suppress economic activity, and those emissions in the process. Now, McCaskill seems to agree.

    I guess Senator McCaskill should call Michael J. Fox for some help.

  • Claire McCaskill,  U.S. Senate 2012

    Mo-Sen Video: An Ad Sen Claire McCaskill Won’t Run in 2012

    Claire McCaskill claims that she has “Paid every dime” of her taxes

    Senator Claire McCaskill is just a big HYPOCRITE. And, she won’t be running THIS ad either.

    More than six years ago, Claire McCaskill was embroiled in another fight over the political use of airplanes — except in that case, she was raising the issue against her opponent.

    During the crescendo of her primary challenge to Gov. Bob Holden in July 2004, then-state auditor McCaskill ran an ad showing an airplane circling around the outline of Missouri, slamming the governor for “taking over 300 taxpayer funded trips on the state airplane.”

    According to the Associated Press, McCaskill pointed to news accounts that reported Holden flying to events like the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in St. Louis and to a public speaking specialist in Kansas City as evidence as the “kind of things that make taxpayers raise their eyebrows.”

    “I don’t believe you would see Gov. McCaskill getting on a plane and heading to ball games saying that’s official state business,” said McCaskill spokesman Glenn Campbell at the time.  (McCaskill went on to upend Holden in the primary, but lose to Gov. Matt Blunt in the general election.)

    McCaskill revealed Monday she owed $287,273 in back taxes for her private plane, just days after POLITICO uncovered that the first-term Democrat billed taxpayers for a political trip.

    I say put a fork in McCaskill – She’s Done.

  • Ann Wagner,  Claire McCaskill,  Ed Martin,  Sarah Steelman,  Todd Akin,  U.S. Senate 2012

    MO-Sen GOP Poll Watch: Steelman 31% Akin 24% Martin 9% Wagner 2%

    Sen. Claire McCaskill (top), D-Mo., faces challenges from Republicans (bottom, from left) Ann Wagner, Ed Martin and Sarah Steelman

    According to the lastest PPP Poll.

    Sarah Steelman is the early top choice of Missouri Republicans to be their candidate for the Senate next year, although with most of the candidates including herself largely unknown at this point there is plenty of time for that to change.

    The Poll:

    • Sarah Steelman – 31%
    • Todd Akin – 24%
    • Ed Martin – 9%
    • Ann Wagner – 2%

    Without GOP Rep. Todd Akin in the race:

    • Sarah Steelman – 37%
    • Todd Martin – 18%
    • Ann Wagner – 11%

    But, most Missouri voters don’t really know about these candidates, so take these numbers with a grain of salt.

    We’re not seeing any big ideological fissures yet in these numbers. Steelman leads Akin by 14 points with moderates but she also has a 13 point advantage with those voters describing themselves as ‘very conservative.’ Her lead is narrower with ‘somewhat conservative’ voters who give her only a one point edge on Akin. It’s a similar story when Akin’s out- then Steelman’s up 26 points on Martin with the ‘very conservative’ wing and 24 points with the moderates, but only 9 points with folks who call themselves ‘somewhat conservative.’ For whatever reason she’s doing better with moderates and the far right than the center right.

    It’s too early to make a whole lot of these numbers though given that 56% of voters don’t know enough about Steelman to have formed an opinion and that just rises to 61% for Akin, 75% for Martin, and 81% for Wagner.

    The full poll is here (PDF).

  • Claire McCaskill

    MO-Sen: Complaint Filed with Senate Select Committee on Ethics Against Senator Claire McCaskill

    Missouri Democrat U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill

    It is the private airplane flap again where she paid her own company or her husband’s company with taxpayer funds for a political trip.

    Missouri Republicans have filed a complaint against Sen. Claire McCaskill with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, calling for an investigation into whether the Missouri Democrat improperly used taxpayer funding to cover the cost of at least one airplane trip to a political event.

    McCaskill, who is up for reelection in 2012, paid more than $88,000 to the Treasury Department last week after a POLITICO report that she had used taxpayer funds from her Senate office account to repay nearly 90 flights on a private plane that she co-owned with her husband and other investors.

    While McCaskill and her aides adamantly denied any ethical violations despite the payment to Treasury, POLITICO later reported that at least one of the flights was purely political in nature.

    On Saturday, March 3, 2007, McCaskill flew from St. Louis to Hannibal, Mo., and back, for the local Democratic Party’s annual Hannibal Days. McCaskill billed taxpayers $1,220.44 for the trip, according to public records. McCaskill aides have acknowledged that the event was only political in nature, not an official function for a senator. Congressional ethics rules and federal law bar the use of taxpayer funds to cover the cost of political events.

    Lloyd Smith, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, said he had filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee urging the panel to look into the trips.

    “The rule is pretty clear. There is a way you can use a private aircraft,” Smith told reporters during a Tuesday conference call. “It’s obvious there’s been thousands and thousands of taxpayer dollars going to a private entity. How much does she benefit from that vis-a-vis making money on the aircraft is not something that we know.”

    Smith added: “[McCaskill] only sent the money back to the government once the curtain was pulled aside and you can see she used taxpayer dollars for political purposes.”

    The Senator is calling this a mistake but the fact is that she did not look into the matter or reimburse money to the government until she was called on the issue. This will be the source of campaign television ads in which even Michael J. Fox won’t be able to bail out the good Senator McCaskill.

  • Ann Wagner,  Claire McCaskill,  Polling,  Sarah Steelman,  U.S. Senate 2012

    MO-Sen Poll Watch: McCaskill 45% Vs. Steelman 42%

    Looks like a possible GOP pick-up according to the latest PPP poll.

    Job Approval Vs. Disapproval

    • Senator McCaskill 46% Vs. 45%

    Favorable Vs. Unfavorable

    • Todd Akin 20% Vs. 24%
    • Ed Martin 12% Vs. 22%
    • Sarah Steelman 22% Vs. 22%
    • Ann Wagner 8% Vs. 18%

    Heads Up:

    • McCaskill 45% Vs Akin 44%
    • McCaskill 46% Vs. Martin 40%
    • McCaskill 45% Vs. Steelman 42%
    • McCaskill 45% Vs Wagner 36%

    Missouri is the “Show Me” state with which the GOP wishes to recapture the U.S Senate majority. And, it would certainly be sweet to avenge Claire McCaskill’s bruising win six years ago when she shamelessly used Michael J Fox shaking and baking on “stem cell” televison commercials. Remember?

    Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill is certainly vulnerable and is below the magical 50% in job approval.

    PPP’s 2nd poll on the 2012 US Senate race in Missouri finds pretty much the same thing as the first one. Voters are closely divided on Claire McCaskill’s job performance and she polls in the mid-40s against all of her prospective Republican opponents. She does have small leads over them that are largely attributable to their lack of name recognition.

    46% of Missouri voters approve of the job McCaskill is doing to 45% who disapprove. Her reviews are almost completely polarized along party lines with 85% of Democrats happy with the job she’s doing while 80% of Republicans give her poor marks. The thing of greatest concern for McCaskill should be where she stands with independents- just 36% think she’s doing a good job with 51% dissenting.

    Unless the Republicans nominate a nut job as their candidate (which they won’t), this will be a close race leaning toward a GOP pick up.

    The entire poll is here.