McCaskill, Akin making final appeal for election

Monday, November 5, 2012

By DAVID A. LIEB

Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — In their final campaign appeals Monday, Republican challenger Todd Akin claimed voter enthusiasm was on his side while Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill sought to remind voters of what she believes is the stark choice between a moderate and extremist.

McCaskill was flying around Missouri to encourage volunteers as Akin focused his get-out-the-vote efforts Monday on the St. Louis area.

Their Senate race has been among the most closely watched nationally as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the chamber. It also has been the most high profile campaign in Missouri, which has been ignored by Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney during the stretch-run of the campaign. Romney has consistently polled ahead of Obama in Missouri, though the race has been much tighter nationally and in other battleground states.

Besides the U.S. Senate race, Missourians also will be voting for a governor, four other statewide executive officials, their state legislators, various judges and local county officials. Because of redistricting after the 2010 census, Missouri will be electing just eight member of Congress instead of nine. The state lost a seat in the House because its population failed to keep pace with other faster-growing states.

Polls open Tuesday at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Election officials have forecast that 72 percent of registered voters will cast ballots, a turnout that would be slightly higher than four years ago.

McCaskill began Monday in Columbia, delivering bagels and coffee to two dozen Democratic volunteers on a gray, wet and dreary morning. She expects them to knock on thousands of doors between Monday and Tuesday.

“This is the exciting part of the campaign. The most gut-wrenching part of the campaign,” McCaskill said. “This is it.”

McCaskill, who casts herself as a moderate, called the Senate race “a campaign of contrasts.” She described Akin as “a candidate that is very extreme, whose views would hurt Missouri families, from doing away with federally backed student loans to abolishing the minimum wage to blowing up Social Security and Medicare as we know them.”

On TV, McCaskill also has been running ads highlighting Akin’s mid-August remark that women’s bodies have ways of avoiding pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.” Akin apologized repeatedly, but the remark cost him Romney’s support and the financial backing of some deep-pocketed Republican groups.

Akin has highlighted McCaskill’s support for Obama’s 2010 health care law and 2009 stimulus act. On Monday, Akin traveled around the St. Louis area to local Republican offices. In the St. Charles County town of St. Peters, Akin spent about 20 minutes speaking with volunteers, posing for pictures and thanking individuals. Akin said he has been heartened by the support he has received and confident it runs deeper than that for McCaskill and the Democratic ticket.

“They don’t have a fire and enthusiasm,” Akin said. “They don’t see their country at risk the way you do.”

Akin added: “We’ve got great enthusiasm in the St. Charles area but it’s almost matched in a whole lot of other parts of the state, too.”

Missouri’s gubernatorial candidates also were traveling around the state Monday — oftentimes appearing in the same cities as their parties’ Senate nominees, though not campaigning with them.

Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon was joined by his party’s secretary of state candidate, Rep. Jason Kander, for a campaign event at a downtown Columbia diner just a couple of blocks from where McCaskill had been campaigning. Between bites of eggs, hash browns, sausage and gravy, the governor highlighted several programs for military personnel, including the Show-Me Heroes initiative which he said had helped find work for 3,700 returning veterans.

Dewey Riehn, a 74-year-old former Marine and Army intelligence officer from Ashland, lauded Nixon’s work on behalf of former soldiers.

“We have accomplished great things in enhancing the attractiveness of our state to military retirees, to active duty people and to veterans that need assistance,” he said.

Nixon was to stress his support for new businesses later Monday during a tour of a business-development facility at Missouri State University in Springfield.

Republican gubernatorial challenger Dave Spence was campaigning Monday by encouraging Romney supporters to also vote for other Republicans instead of splitting their tickets on Tuesday. During his first campaign event of the day in St. Peters, Spence said he senses momentum going his way.

“I really feel there’s a groundswell of conservative voters out there and they’re not going to sit on the sidelines,” said Spence. He later added: “If you believe in conservative values, if you believe in pro-life values, don’t split a ticket.”

Spence planned to conclude his day with a rally in the southwest Missouri town of Cassville, which he said was a GOP tradition.

Nixon was wrapping up Monday with rally in Kansas City with others on the Democratic slate, including Kander, Treasurer Clint Zweifel and Attorney General Chris Koster.

———

Associated Press writers Jim Salter in St. Peters and Alan Scher Zagier in Columbia contributed to this report.

More like this story

connor 6 months, 2 weeks ago

A Vote For McCaskill is a Vote For Obama!!!!

He will thank you for it.

TickledPink 6 months, 2 weeks ago

And so will I.

spelchek 6 months, 2 weeks ago

How is cutting ss payroll taxes saving ss?

RobHunterJohnson 6 months, 2 weeks ago

Whats wrong with that, not a single newspaper in the state endorsed Akin, but the duggers and huckabeee!!!

BubbaD 6 months, 2 weeks ago

I suspect I'll be getting two thank-you cards from President Obama, then. I can't vote for the extremist Akin, and I can't vote for Mitt who won't reveal any policy details or his tax returns.

BubbaD 6 months, 1 week ago

I can not imagine why one would not know what President Obama's agenda will be? You can see what the President has already done and can easily form an opinion on what his inclinations would be in a second term. Mitt has no such record to inform us of his true inclinations.

JCLifer 6 months, 1 week ago

Obama will have a lot more flexibility after the election. The Russians are waiting...

BubbaD 6 months, 1 week ago

Mitt has disavowed his own actions as Governor. His campaigning has done nothing to provide anything beyond vague dogma. You can vote for a pig in a poke because you are voting against President Obama. I can not and will not vote for a pig in a poke.

BubbaD 6 months, 1 week ago

Pig in a poke refers to a confidence trick originating in the Late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce, but casts and puppies were not. The idiom pig in a poke can also simply refer to an inferior pig in a bag. The scheme entailed the sale of a suckling pig or pup in a poke (bag). The bag would actually contain a cat or dog (not particularly prized as a source of meat), which was sold to the victim in an unopened bag.

RobHunterJohnson 6 months, 1 week ago

hs I sure miss Hank, he just disappeared? We now have hs, you hang in there because I enjoy reading your posts! Just finished 4 hours at the MDP, I Know the message is out, and we will see! He does have a plan Grace! He is going Nuclear soon, it is the only solution, and we have to clean up these COAL BURNERS, because you see Grace, Global Warming is real even if Conner wants to blame it on his Cow Patties! We have to take the lead for the world to see, and stop letting China make our stuff? THAT EQUALS , JOBS FIXs the DEBT, JOBS FIX THE ECONOMY, JOBS PAY THE TAXES THAT FUND THIS COUNTRY, and allow me to earn a PAYCHECK which allows me to go forward in my life! Rob

BubbaD 6 months, 1 week ago

How predictable. You attack me every time I post. Mind your own business.

BubbaD 6 months, 1 week ago

I highly recommend you read Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Your current methodology could not convince a pit bull to eat a pork chop.

spelchek 6 months, 1 week ago

Nor does your lie about Romney not releasing his taxes convince anyone. I want to see Obama's college transcripts. I want to see what really happened in Benghazi. I want to know what really happened during Fast & Furious. I want a President who's AG isn't held in contempt by congress. What happened to your man's message about transparency?

BubbaD 6 months, 1 week ago

heh heh heh Lie? There you go again with emotional accusations lacking facts or reasoning. The fact is Mitt released incomplete returns and a real paucity of information compared to ALL recent candidates, R and D alike. You can try to spin it as a lie, but that just leaves ruts in the dirt.

spelchek 6 months, 1 week ago

A President telling the American middle class they won't see any tax increases only to have the SCOTUS say that the partisan bill he just signed into law does indeed apply new taxes to the middle class is a lie by definition. To tell me otherwise lacks "facts or reasoning" as you so wrongly put it. I'm not voting for anyone this year, I'm voting against. You are voting for, and this is very telling.

BubbaD 6 months, 1 week ago

Yes indeed. You have an opinion searching for a reason. I use reason searching for my best choice. Very telling, indeed.

JCLifer 6 months, 1 week ago

Obama told the Russians he will have more flexibility in his second term.

asb 6 months, 1 week ago

And he will. This is one of the few instances where his inexperience showed through. He should've said that line to a microphone and he should've been proud to say it. It's political reality, and one of the things the Russian leadership respected most about that meeting.