The Missouri Senate race between Todd Akin (R) and Claire McCaskill (D) continues to make news with ever more astonishing statements from Akin, followed by McCaskill’s responses. Not long ago, he made waves with women of all political stripes with his offensive “legitimate rape” comment. This time Akin’s facing a challenge from a different direction.
On September 26th, the Missouri Democratic Party filed ethics complaints against Todd Akin. The complaints allege that Akin is guilty of coordinating with a Super PAC in order to garner campaign money. As Stephen Colbert has so comedically demonstrated several times this year, super PACS are legally prohibited from coordinating with political candidates, even as they amass unlimited contributions.
It may come as no surprise to conscious Missourians that Akin is facing ethics charges. This is, after all, the same Todd Akin who may have broken Missouri election laws (in progress), has a long documented history of being one of the worst offenders regarding earmarks, but a recent history of being against them, and seems to have gone all in with his party’s war on women. Last year, he faced local scrutiny after it was discovered that he voted multiple times in the wrong town. Not exactly a paragon of ethical behavior.
The ethics complaints come after local news broke a story in early September regarding Todd Akin’s disappearing political ads, allegedly due to an inability to pay for them. At the time, Akin’s campaign disputed the story, but these new ethics charges may lend credibility to the claim.
With Todd Akin still in the race and yet another deadline gone by, the question is now whether and how these ethics charges will affect his already failing campaign. I look forward to hearing what Claire McCaskill has to say on the subject.