Todd Akin

Former Missouri Congressman Todd Akin roughly doubled his office payroll after losing a campaign for U.S. Senate.

Salary figures available through the online tracking site Legistorm.com show Akin paid his 14-person staff nearly $400,000 in the final quarter of 2012. That's twice as much as the $200,000 quarterly payroll that Akin averaged through the rest of the year.

Every week, St. Louis Public Radio’s Chris McDaniel joins the St. Louis Beacon’s Jo Mannies and Jason Rosenbaum to talk about the week’s politics.

On this week's episode: We discuss the conservatives on both sides of Prop. P, the court rulings while the Missouri legislature is on vacation, and Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill's new book.

Follow Chris McDaniel on Twitter: @csmcdaniel

Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter: @jmannies

According to a survey of Associated Press newspaper editors and broadcast news directors in Missouri, the top news story in the state was Republican Representative Todd Akin’s controversial and unscientific remarks about “legitimate rape.”

St. Louis Public Radio's Chris McDaniel joins the St. Louis Beacon's Jo Mannies and Jason Rosenbaum to talk about the week's politics.

On today's episode: It's a blast from the past as we start off the show by talking about Congressman Todd Akin's race (specifically his NRSC funding), then we move on to Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones' so-called Speaker Tour (or the Lt. Gov.'s Tour?), and we close it out with a discussion on the Arch Tax.

Follow Chris McDaniel on Twitter: @csmcdaniel

Republican Missouri congressman Todd Akin owes almost $270,000 after his unsuccessful challenge of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

A federal finance report available online Thursday shows Akin's committee spent about $6 million on his Senate campaign - less than a third of the $19.3 million spent by McCaskill.

Akin reported $268,830 of debt as of Nov. 26. McCaskill previously reported that she had $238,010 of debt as of that date. But it's often easer for winners than losers to raise money to pay off their campaign debts.