Missouri primary: McCaskill and Democrats helped Republican Todd Akin to Senate nomination

By The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Democratic outside groups, pouring in over $1 million during Missouri’s Republican Senate primary, got the guy they wanted: Rep. Todd Akin, who Tuesday upset two other Republicans to take the GOP nomination.

Recent polls have shown McCaskill trailing all three Republicans in head-to-head matchups, but Akin has the smallest edge. She is betting voters will see the six-term congressman — who gave “thanks to God our creator” in his victory speech and has been endorsed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian — as too conservative.

Late in the primary, McCaskill hit TV and radio airwaves “criticizing” Akin, seen at right, as too conservative, a thinly veiled attempt to boost his chances in a primary where the GOP’s right wing would have a disproportionate impact. The radio ad was paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Though Akin did not have direct support from outside groups, he may have benefitted from the last-man-standing effect: Of all the outside groups targeting ads at GOP candidates that have been reported to the Federal Election Commission, 88 percent focused on attacking Akin’s opponents: businessman John Brunner and former state treasurer Sarah Steelman. The biggest outside group has been Majority PAC, a  super PAC devoted to maintaining the Democrats’ edge in the Senate. Majority PAC spent nearly $1.2 million in independent expenditures opposing the frontrunner Brunner, widely viewed as the biggest threat to McCaskill because he had the most centrist credentials of the GOP frontrunners as well as a personal fortune to invest in the race. A super PAC formed by Steelman supporters chipped in about $500,000 in anti-Brunner ads.

Overall, the race has attracted the fourth most independent expenditures of any Senate race in the country, according to Sunlight’s Follow the Unlimited Money tracker, more than $3.7 million, a number certain to go up as November approaches, as McCaskill is a top GOP target. And that figure doesn’t include spending that’s not reported to the Federal Election Commission for television ads but for which we are beginning to see partial returns.

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The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group is part of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based organization that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable.