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.

There will be no repeat of the big-dollar, negative primary that plagued Missouri's Republican Senate contest when GOP leaders meet next year to select a replacement candidate for retiring Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson.

That's because there will be no primary election at all - no chance for rank-and-file Republicans or Democrats to cast their votes.

Nominees will be selected by committees of party officials from southeast Missouri. Only then will one Republican and one Democratic candidate be submitted to voters in a special election.

Updated at 2:02 with McCaskill's finances.

In spite of repeated assurances that they wouldn't support Congressman Todd Akin's senate bid after his damning comments regarding "legitimate rape," the National Republican Senatorial Committee funneled $756,000 into Akin's campaign during the days before the election.

The election is over and despite some predictions that the results would take a considerable amount of time to trickle in and may even be unknown for a few days, that was not the case.

Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill handedly won re-election, defeating Republican Congressman Todd Akin.

It's the post-election Politically Speaking special. Chris McDaniel of St. Louis Public Radio joins Jo Mannies and Jason Rosenbaum of the St. Louis Beacon to wrap up last night's races.

We go through McCaskill's decisive win over Akin (was he trounced or shellacked?) as well as all the state-wide races. We also throw in a couple Congressional seats, Missouri legislature make-up, and the ballot initiative results.

Follow Chris McDaniel on Twitter: @csmcdaniel

The U.S. Senate race in Missouri was sewed up by Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill by 10 p.m. last night.

McCaskill got nearly 58 percent of Missouri ‘s vote compared to Republican Congressman Todd Akin’s 39 percent.

Early in the campaign, pundits predicted McCaskill would not be able to hold onto her seat.

But as St. Louis Public Radio’s Maria Altman reports, it was a race filled with strange turns.

Starting with an upward battle

Claire McCaskill was one of the GOP’s top targets in their attempt to take back the U.S. Senate.