Todd Akin earned the ire of Republican Party leaders and others over his comments on "legitimate rape." He apologized for the comment but never recovered politically, losing the nationally watched Mo. Senate race to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.(Photo: Don Shrubshell, AP)
WASHINGTON -- After vowing not to spend any money on behalf of Todd
Akin's U.S. Senate bid, national Republicans pumped $760,000 into the
Show-Me State just a few days before voters went to the polls.
New
campaign finance filings show that the National Republican Senatorial
Committee sent $360,000 to the Missouri Republican Party's federal
campaign committee on Nov. 1. And the NRSC - which is charged with
electing GOP candidates to the Senate - sent another $400,000 on Nov. 2.
The
state party reported paying almost exactly that amount - $756,000 - to
Strategic Media Placement, an Ohio firm that Akin had used to buy his TV
ad time, on Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. The state party's FEC report shows the
funds were for "W. Todd Akin."
That cash infusion came despite a
complete disavowal of Akin by top party leaders -including Senate GOP
leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, and NRSC Chairman John Cornyn, of
Texas.
"We have no plans" to devote any money to the Missouri
race, Cornyn said in a September interview. "I just think that this is
not a winnable race," he added.
Akin earned the ire of party
leaders after he said that women who are victims of "legitimate rape"
rarely get pregnant because their bodies have a way to prevent that from
happening. He apologized for the comment but never recovered, losing
the nationally watched race to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.
At
the very end of that contest, the Missouri Republican Party launched a
major TV ad blitz on the teetering candidate's behalf. At the time,
officials at the state party declined to say where they got the money to
fund the nearly $700,000 blitz, and the NRSC similarly declined
comment.
But the new filings show that the NRSC gave the state
party enough to cover the tab. It's not clear if officials in Washington
said how that money should be spent.
An NRSC spokesman did not
immediately respond to an e-mail and voicemail requesting comment. And a
spokesman for the Missouri GOP also did not respond to a voicemail on
Thursday.
By Deirdre Shesgreen, Gannett Washington Bureau