This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 23, 2012 - U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has canceled all of her campaign events for the rest of the week to be with her critically ill mother.
A campaign spokesman confirmed an Associated Press report that Betty Anne McCaskill, 84, is in intensive care at a St. Louis area hospital. The senator and other family members are with her.
Claire McCaskill had been in the midst of a rural campaign tour as she seeks re-election against Republican Todd Akin, a congressman from Wildwood. McCaskill's latest local campaign event was Monday morning in Festus.
Betty Anne McCaskill has been ill for months. Her daughter had missed the state Democratic Party's convention in June when her mother took a serious turn.
Betty Anne McCaskill was a fixture during her daughter’s first U.S. Senate campaign in 2006, often traveling with her in the campaign RV and providing some of the sharpest quips during campaign events.
Betty Anne McCaskill soon was a feature in McCaskill’s TV ads. In 2009, at the height of the controversy over the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare,'' Betty McCaskill joined her daughter at some of the heated public events, including a raucous town hall that packed a gymnasium in Hillsboro.
For this campaign, Betty Anne McCaskill provided the voice over for one of her daughter’s early campaign spots, in which Betty Anne McCaskill talks about the senator’s efforts to fix problems at Arlington National Cemetery that had resulted in some mismarked and mishandled graves.
Betty Anne McCaskill did attend a campaign event with her daughter in May at a St. Louis coffee shop.
The senator has often noted that her mother was the first woman elected to the Columbia, Mo. City Council.
