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Nov. 6, 2012 U.S. Senate |
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Plurality: 427,966 votes (15.70 percentage points). MO Secretary of State
Notes: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) won re-election, defeating U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (R), whose remark about "legitimate rape" torpedoed his campaign, and stamped this as one of the more memorable Senate races in recent years. Also on the ballot was Jonathan Dine (L), who was as well the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate in 2010. In the Aug. 7 primaries, McCaskill was unopposed. Three main candidates vied to challenge McCaskill, who was seen as vulnerable: Akin, businessman John Brunner and former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman. Akin was serving his sixth term in Congress representing MO-2 (southern and western suburbs of St. Louis); he was first elected in 2000 after serving 12 years in the Missouri House. Akin's campaign manager, his son, noted that he was outspent 5 to 1 in the primary. When the votes were tallied, Akin finished atop the field of eight candidates, garnering 217,468 votes (36.05%) to 180,821 (29.97%) for Brunner, and 176,189 (29.21% for Steelman; the others were all in low single digits. [In her book Plenty Ladylike: A Memoir (2015) and an excerpt that ran in Politico ("How I Helped Todd Akin Win—So I Could Beat Him Later"), Sen. McCaskill described how her campaign developed and implemented a strategy to help tip the balance to Akin, whom the campaign saw as the weakest of the three. The idea was to paint Akin as "too conservative" to "get him nominated and start disqualifying him with independent voters at the same time." McCaskill wrote, "Never before had I been so engaged and so committed to another's race."] The sagacity of McCaskill's strategy soon became apparent. In an interview with Charles Jaco on FOX2 KTVI-TV (St. Louis) on Aug. 19, Akin, in response to a question about abortion in cases of rape, stated, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down...(>)" The remark set of a furor, but Akin remained in the race despite calls for him to withdraw by the Aug. 21 deadline. In an Aug. 21 ad ("Forgiveness"), he apologized stating, "I used the wrong words in the wrong way and for that I apologize (>)." In an Aug. 29 ad ("Six Seconds - Six Years"), he tried to move beyond the incident, saying, "My six-second mistake is well known, but Claire McCaskill's six-year record is something you should know (>)." Nonetheless, Akin's candidacy would not and could not recover from such a statement, which provided a perfect cudgel for McCaskill and Democrats to make the case that he was an extremist on this and other issues. The candidates engaged in two debates: Sept. 21 - McCaskill, Akin and Dine at the Missouri Press Association convention in Columbia (>). Oct. 18 - McCaskill and Akin, hosted by KSDK-TV and the Clayton Chamber of Commerce at Clayton High School in St. Louis (>). According to Open Secrets (>), the McCaskill campaign spent $21.3 million compared to $6.2 million for th Akin campaign. The top two spending outside groups were both on the Democratic side; the DSCC invested $3.9 million and Majority PAC $3.7 million, including significant amounts spent in the primary. Campaign Managers: Claire McCaskill: Adrianne Marsh (2011) Deputy campaign manager on Bennet for Colorado, Apr.-Nov. 2010. Senior communications advisor to Sen. Bennet, Jan.-Apr. 2010. Communications director for Sen. McCaskill, Dec. 2008-Dec. 2009. Took leave to serve as Florida deputy communications director/spokeswoman on Obama for America, June-Nov. 2008. Communications director to Sen. McCaskill, Jan. 2007-June 2008. Communications director on McCaskill for Missouri, Mar.-Dec. 2006. Press secretary to Rep. Bart Stupak (MI), Jan. 2005-Mar. 2006. Press secretary for the 2004 Michigan Coordinated Campaign; communications director for the Michigan Democratic Party. Public relations coordinator for the Oakland-Livingston Human Services Agency, Jan. 2001-Dec. 2003. Organizer on U.S. Rep. Lynn Rivers' 2000 re-election campaign and worked with Michigan Victory 2000. B.S. in political science from Eastern Michigan University, 2000, where she was student body president. Originally from Linden. Todd Akin: Perry Akin (Feb. 2012) Project manager at John Deere, June 2010-Jan. 2012. Operations officer (Aug. 2007-Aug. 2008) and engineer platoon commander (Nov. 2005-Aug. 2007) in the U.S. Marine Corps. M.B.A. from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, 2010; B.S. in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, 2003. initial campaign manager: Karl Hansen (to Dec. 2011) See also: Sen. Claire McCaskill. "How I Helped Todd Akin Win—So I Could Beat Him Later." Politico, Aug. 11, 2015. Jim Geraghty. "The Epic Denial of the Akin Campaign." National Review, Aug. 23, 2012. George Zornick. "Akin Fiasco Gets Rove to Admit, Again, Why Crossroads Exists." The Nation, Aug. 21, 2012. Albert Samaha. "Akin's Campaign Regroups After Exodus." Riverfront Times, Jan. 5, 2012. Scott Wong and David Catanese. "Dems hope McCaskill endures flap." Politico, Mar. 18, 2011. Iowa State University Archives of Women's Political Communication: Claire McCaskill ToddAkinTube |
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