Tagged: election 2012

While the tables may be turning for U.S. Rep. Todd Akin as he regains some GOP support in his race for the U.S. Senate, the Democratic Party has filed ethics complaints against the congressman.  At Thursday's campaign stop in Columbia, the congressman remained positive about his campaign but vague about his definition of earmarks.

The complaints -- filed Wednesday -- allege Akin reversed his stance on earmarks to receive money from a Super PAC. Akin says he has never changed his position.

Political endorsements and the promise of PAC dollars have come streaming back to Rep. Todd Akin, who’s challenging incumbent Senator Clair McCaskill for the U.S. Senate seat in Missouri.

Republican leaders stampeded away from Akin this summer after he said that so-called “legitimate rape” rarely caused pregnancy. They demanded he step aside. Now that the deadline for Akin doing that has passed, the tide has changed.

All of the sudden, this race has gone full tilt.

Fourth Congressional District Democrat candidate Teresa Hensley hosted a forum on Medicare for seniors in Columbia Wednesday. She focused primarily on her disapproval of Republican Vice President Candidate Paul Ryan’s Medicare budget, and the health care reform act. Hensley says privatizing Medicare is unrealistic for seniors.

“What we’re talking about is giving a senior a voucher for them to go find their own health care, to talk to their own insurance companies to find their own health insurance,” Hensley says.

As the deadline to register to vote for the November election approaches, a report shows Boone County had the lowest voter turnout in the state in August’s primary election. According to statistics from the secretary of state, only 16.7 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in August, compared  to 23.2 percent statewide.

John Petrocik, Chair of the MU Political Science Department, says the turn out in the primaries here tends to be pretty low.