Monday, September 3, 2012

Should Republicans Donate To Todd Akin's Senate Campaign


The Free Will Mother wrote to me with a dilemma: she is being asked to donate money to a number of Republican candidates, including MO Senate candidate Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin. At least one of the Akin appeals came from the Tea Party, so someone besides the earstwhile Akin is out there raising money for him. But should Republicans support him when the RNC and most national conservatives have essentially written Akin off?

First of all, I agree that a brain-dead Todd Akin is superior to a fully engaged Clare McCaskill.
 
I also think that, after my/our thunderous denunciations of Akin, it's too early to greenlight donations to him. The drop-dead date for him to withdraw from the race is 9/25. I don't think anyone should donate money to him until after that date. If he really is a great/smart guy who slipped up one time (not the case, as he has a list of gaffes as long as my arm, but let's assume that he is great/smart), then he should be able to recover from his "shut the whole thing down" comment without the help of anyone outside of MO. My feeling is he made this mess and he needs to clean it up. Ideally, he will see the light sometime in the next three weeks; will realize he is hurting, not helping; and will head back to the House.
 
If 9/26 rolls around, and he's still neck and neck with McCaskill, then, yeah, I say send him some $$, especially if the RNC follows through on his threat to starve him of funds.
 
I have a funny feeling, tho', that the polls on 9/24 will be: 40% McCaskill, 30% Akin & 30% unnamed GOP savior, giving Akin a reason to stay in and giving the GOP reason to support an independent who is really running as the Republican (this happened in the last CO governors race when the GOP nominee flamed out immediately after winning the nomination and Tom Tancredo nearly won running as a late-added third party candidate). If that happens, I say send your $$ to the unnamed GOP savior.

There's also the matter of other candidates running for Senate who also have a shot, but don't have a sure thing to piss away like Akin. I'm thinking of people like Linda McMahon in CT, Josh Mandel in OH (who is running against the odious Sherrod Brown), Connie Mack in FL, and the guy running to defeat fake moderate Jim Tester in MT. Before activists start donating to Akin, I would like to see them max out on these folks first as (1) they need the help; (2) they are demonstrably superior to Akin.

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