Gingrich: Akin win could rebuke GOP establishment

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Former presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Missouri voters can send a powerful signal to "the moneyed Republican establishment" by electing congressman Todd Akin over Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Gingrich joined Akin for a rally at Kansas City's historic Union Station that drew about 100 supporters and nearly as many protesters, many carrying signs referencing Akin's remark about "legitimate rape" that prompted top national Republicans to abandon his campaign. McCaskill was to campaign later Wednesday in St. Louis ? her first events since her mother died Monday.

Cheers mixed with jeers as Gingrich and Akin spoke in Kansas City, highlighting the intensity of a campaign that has remained in the national spotlight and could help determine party control of the U.S. Senate. Republicans need a net gain of four Senate seats in Tuesday's election ? or just three, if Republican Mitt Romney defeats President Barack Obama and gives a GOP vice president the power to break tie votes in the Senate ? to retake the chamber's majority from Democrats.

"No single Senate race in the country will send a more powerful signal than the election of Todd Akin," Gingrich said at the rally, first noting the potential for Republican control of the chamber. But Gingrich said there was an equally strong point to be made within the GOP.

"There is no other race in the country that will send a bigger signal to the moneyed Republican establishment that it is votes that matter and citizens that matter," Gingrich said to his most enthusiastic applause. "When people of a state make a choice, they deserve to be respected for their right to choose the candidate they want, not the candidate Washington dictates."

Akin won a closely contested GOP primary Aug. 7. But Romney and other top Republicans urged him to quit the Senate race after he remarked in a TV interview that aired Aug. 19 that women's bodies have ways of avoiding pregnancy in "legitimate rape." Akin apologized and instead forged ahead with his campaign ? even as some deep-pocketed groups that aid Republicans dropped plans to spend millions of dollars on advertising in Missouri. McCaskill has significantly outspent Akin, though Akin plans a $1 million TV ad push in attempt to nearly match McCaskill ads during the final week before the election.

Akin's campaign theme has highlighted McCaskill's support for Obama's policies on health care and government spending while noting that low-income housing firms affiliated with McCaskill's husband, Joseph Shepard, have received tens of millions of dollars of federal subsidies. That's "your taxpayer dollars that are going to her family business," Akin said Wednesday.

McCaskill has countered by portraying Akin as extreme, citing not only his "legitimate rape" remark but his opposition to the federal government's role in issuing student loans and setting a minimum wage, among other things.

Among the protesters at Wednesday's rally in Kansas City was Neil Harris, a retired college teacher and McCaskill supporter who held a sign saying, "Todd and Newt (equals) Hypocritical Mass." Harris referred to Akin as "an idiot."

"His 13th century doctrine on women shutting down the possibility of pregnancy after rape seems to be far from reality," Harris said.

Akin supporter Kiley Chaney, a union bricklayer who drove an hour from rural Garden City to attend the rally, acknowledged that Akin had "made some blunders in the campaign." But Chaney said he was more concerned with McCaskill's ties to Obama and the large national debt.

"She's going to be a yes woman for Obama," said Chaney, later adding: "It's not fashionable to be for Akin, but I'm going to vote against McCaskill."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gingrich-akin-win-could-rebuke-gop-establishment-150424690--election.html

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