This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 26, 2012 - U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., returned to the campaign trail on Saturday to help kick off “get out the vote” efforts that will dominate the final days leading up to the Nov. 6 election.
Meanwhile, her Republican rival – U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Wildwood – has launched a new attack ad targeting the senator’s husband. Akin also is bringing in U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., on Monday in hopes of attracting more support and campaign money.
Akin and McCaskill are both campaigning in the area this weekend. Her stops were in Warson Woods and University City, while Akin was in St. Charles and Troy, Mo.
McCaskill’s campaign announced new ads and held press conference calls this past week – but without her – while she joined relatives at the side of her mother, who is in intensive care at a St. Louis area hospital. McCaskill plans to stay close to home, aides say, until her 84-year-old mother improves.
McCaskill targets voters, Medicare
(UPDATE) At her campaign field office in Warson Woods, McCaskill shook hands with volunteers headed out to go door to door. She told reporters that her campaigncontinues to emphasize her differences with Akin, whom she calls “an extreme candidate who wants to privatize Medicare and Social Security, end federal student loans and abolish the minimum wage.”
Her message: "This is about a person whose views are so extreme, most of his party won't support him."
McCaskill said her family has become well-acquainted with Medicare during her mother's illness. The senator praised how the program has handled her mother's care and observed that she couldn't imagine how an ill and elderly person could handle disputes with private insurance, as McCaskill said would be the case if Akin and fellow Republicans got their way.
"Congressman Akin thinks Medicare is unconstitutional and wants to privatize it,'' McCaskill said.
Her mother, Betty Anne McCaskill, is suffering from "acute cardio-renal failure,'' her daughter said and almost died on Tuesday. "She's in and out of consciousness, and I will tell that one of the times ... that she had a moment of being alert, she asked if the election was tomorrow. I said, 'No, mom.' And so I'm convinced she's hanging on because she wants to make sure that this one turns out the way she wants it to turn out."
Absence of presidential campaigns
McCaskill acknowledged that, with no major presence from the presidential campaigns, it's up to her and other statewide candidates in both parties to set up get-out-the-vote operations.
"We have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of volunteers all over the state that are out today doing the important work of encouraging people to vote," McCaskill said.
"It has been very difficult to locate enough resources to do the kind the kind of ground game that we're doing. That has been a lot of pressure," she continued. "My friends running in other states (with robust presidential campaigns) don't have to worry about the coordinated campaign expenses. In Missouri, that has been my responsibility -- essentially my responsibility alone."
Missourians haven't seen the presidential ad campaign that "has made Barack Obama the leader in all of the polls in places like Iowa, that aren't that different from Missouri," McCaskill said.
She lamented that fact, as well as a lack of a campaign presence by Republican rival Mitt Romney. McCaskill contended that the presidential focus on less than a dozen swing states is contributing to polarization in other parts of the country, where voters aren't hearing the messages of Obama or Romney.
After this presidential election, "maybe we'll get more Americans on the bandwagon so that we'll do away with the Electoral College," said McCaskill. She contended that a presidential contest based solely on the popular vote would lead to more vigorous campaigning in non-swing states.
As for her race, McCaskill said she wouldn't be "distracted'' by any polls but observed that the Post-Dispatch poll -- which gives her a two-point lead -- was conducted by the same firm whose pre-primary poll turned out to be very inaccurate. (End update)
Get-out-the-vote efforts targeted
Even without the personal reasons, McCaskill would likely now be focusing more on St. Louis and other urban areas – where most Missouri’s Democratic voters live. Traditionally, Democratic statewide candidates concentrate on revving up that base during the final days before the election.
Meanwhile, Akin is following the GOP playbook of shifting from rural Missouri to the Republican-leaning suburbs. On Wednesday, he was in Jefferson County. Friday night, he was to appear at an event in St. Charles County.
On Monday, he is to campaign in Republican-leaning south St. Louis County with Inhofe, with the pair expected to focus on national defense and energy. They are to stop at McArthur’s Bakery for a roundtable on energy – a key issue for Akin – and then to tour Essex Industries, a supplier for the defense and aerospace industry.
Akin also is expected to continue his attacks against McCaskill, whom he accuses of being too supportive of federal spending and too close to President Barack Obama.
Those close to Akin also say he’s about to air more TV ads during the campaign’s final week; Akin’s media buys lately have been modest, compared to McCaskill’s ad spending, as he has sought to conserve cash.
Akin continues attack on McCaskill's husband
Akin's newest ad is his harshest. In it, he alleges improprieties by McCaskill’s husband, businessman Joseph Shepard. Akin claims that even more federal money went to companies in which Shepard was an investor than he originally thought.
“How many scandalous ways is Claire McCaskill getting taxpayer money?” asked Akin senior advisor Rick Tyler in a statement. “Claire McCaskill took $60 million in six years, while one in six Missourians was in poverty. Her husband was also apparently cutting business deals in the Senate dining room. And Missourians remember that McCaskill failed to pay $300,000 in property taxes on her private airplane. This is simply stunning and Missourians should vote out Claire McCaskill.”
Akin first made these allegations a week ago when he repeated assertions by a former Shepard employee that Shepard made business deals in the Senate dining room. The employee, who was convicted of two felonies, provided no evidence and claims no first-hand knowledge.
The ad also increases to $60 million the amount of stimulus money that went to companies with ties to Shepard, by citing $20 million that Missouri awarded in tax credits for low-income housing. Akin earlier had highlighted $40 million awarded by federal agencies for low-income housing subsidies for apartments in housing complexes where Shepard had been an investor.
Shepard is an investor in hundreds of companies that build low-income housing. The companies get federal housing subsidies that cover the difference between what the poor tenant pays in rent and the market-rate rent.
Some companies also got federal tax credits for the projects. The credits were put into the federal stimulus bill and directed to the state; the Missouri Housing Development Commission decided which projects got the credits.
McCaskill’s financial disclosure report, which is required to list a general range for Shepard’s income, states that he received less than $3 million since 2007 from all the companies involved in low-income housing. McCaskill's campaign has maintained that most of that income came from non-subsidized housing units in the same complexes.
Her campaign has repeatedly emphasized that the stimulus money went to the housing projects, not to Shepard. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which doles out many of the low-income housing subsidies, has made the same point.
McCaskill communications director Caitlin Legacki called Akin’s ad “a desperate, 11th-hour attack from a failing campaign. It's bad enough that Todd Akin would attack Claire's family; it's worse that he is now basing his entire campaign on a series of lies. Todd Akin's attacks have been proven false and he knows it."
McCaskill has been outspending Akin dramatically on TV ads. She also has received indirect assistance from several national Democratic groups and SuperPACs, which also are running TV attack ads against Akin.
Akin consultant Tyler contends that their internal polls have shown that attacks against McCaskill's husband reduce her edge by about five percentage points among those polled.
