Businesses affiliated with the husband of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill received almost $40 million of federal subsidies for low-income housing developments during her first five years in office.
But McCaskill's campaign said Tuesday that none of that money made it to the family's bank accounts.
McCaskill's Republican challenger, Todd Akin, claims the federal payments represent a "conflict of interest" — an assertion McCaskill calls "unfair and distorted."
McCaskill's financial reports show her husband, Joseph Shepard, earned between $400,000 and $2.6 million in income from businesses that received federal housing subsidies from 2007 through 2011.
McCaskill says many of those housing contracts existed before she won election in 2006, and the businesses also derived income from non-government sources. Her campaign says the federal payments went to operate and maintain the facilities.
