Capitol Calling

That didn’t take long.

Barely 24 hours after he entered the 2012 U.S. Senate race, former Treasurer Sarah Steelman lobbed what could be described as the first criticism at U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country.

Specifically, Steelman chastised Akin for voting for a budget deal that likely forestalled a government shutdown in April. From an e-mail just sent a few minutes ago:

This problem needs to be solved NOW. Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain are crashing under the weight of debt and we will soon be joining them if Washington doesn’t have a plan to control spending and reduce our debt. Standard and Poors, the credit rating agency has already downgraded our debt rating to a negative outlook, another warning signal and yet Congress does nothing but talk talk talk.  
 
Now Congressman Todd Akin has announced that he will run in the primary for Senate. But he voted for the weak-kneed budget compromise between the House Republicans and President Obama. I would have demanded that the Republican Party honor its campaign commitment and exact the full $100 billion in cuts ($62 billion prorated). Akin’s failure to do so showed the House Republicans to be toothless dragons as we battle over the debt limit.
 
The House should be proactive and use their leverage to vote on current cuts combined with systemic changes in the budgeting process which means passing a balanced budget amendment with a limitation on the size of government relative to the GDP (gross domestic product), and they should defund Obamacare.   

Akin told the Associated Press that the budget deal was critical to funding the Department of Defense.

Up until yesterday, Steelman was the lone challenger to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. Now it is looking like she will join Akin and possibly businessman John Brunner in the race to take on the first-term Democratic senator.

Akin starts the race with a fundraising advantage - he has over $900,000 in the bank. Steelman - who is the only candidate in the race who has run statewide so far - raised only $186,000 last quarter and has $193,527 of cash on hand.

State Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, told Jo Mannies of the St. Louis Beacon that she may run for U.S. Congress if U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country, runs for Senate:

Cunningham is considering a bid for the U.S. House seat in the 2nd congressional district — but only if Republican incumbent Todd Akin opts not to seek re-election.  He is getting Republican encouragement to run for the U.S. Senate instead.

“I would not run against Rep. Akin,”  Cunningham said. “I would only run if it’s an open seat.”

Cunningham (left) is among several Republicans interested — publicly or privately — in running for Congress in the 2nd District, should Akin move on.  Former Missouri GOP chair Ann Wagner, who is still mulling over a Senate bid herself, is also believed to be considering a 2nd District bid if it becomes an open seat.

Read the rest here.

Considering she only won in 2006 by a small margin in what was considered a very Democratic year, it isn’t all that surprising that Sen. Claire McCaskill’s bid for a second term would be pegged by observers as competitive.

But today, Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report also moved the race into the ‘toss-up’ category. From the campaign prognostication’s Web site:

There has never been any doubt that Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill would have a difficult race in her bid for a second term. She is running in a politically marginal state in year in which President Obama, who is not popular in Missouri, will lead the Democratic ticket. Over the past two weeks, McCaskill’s road to re-election has hit some turbulence largely of her own making that has only served to render the already vulnerable incumbent even more vulnerable, despite not knowing who her Republican challenger will be. McCaskill’s path to re-election has become bumpy enough to warrant a rating change from Lean Democratic to Toss Up.

It’s worth noting that Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, another political prognostication conduit, listed McCaskill’s bid for re-election as a toss-up earlier this month.

McCaskill’s re-election bid is one of seven Democratic races that the Cook Political Report views as the toss-up. It also lists two Republican races as toss-ups as well.

The Fix - one of the Washington Post’s most popular political blogs - examined what it calls “the McCaskill vacuum.”

That aforementioned term refers to the fact that no single candidate in the Missouri U.S. Senate race has emerged as the primary threat to Sen. Claire McCaskill’s re-election bid.

From the post:

Former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and former congressional candidate Ed Martin are already in the race, while Rep. Todd Akin and former Ambassador to Luxembourg Ann Wagner,who ran for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee earlier this year, are both weighing their options.

Depending on who you ask, none of the above names is the party’s ideal candidate for the seat. And given McCaskill’s problems, it would seem some other Republicans might see a golden opportunity to get to the Senate..

But former Sen. Jim Talent and Reps. Sam Graves and Jo Ann Emerson have already said they won’t run, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is likely to run for governor, and former Gov. Matt Blunt, who has worked in Washington since leaving office, has never been seriously mentioned for the post. (Plus his father, Roy, is the state’s other senator. Matt Blunt told The Fix he doesn’t “have any plans” to run — which isn’t a categorical denial but seems genuine.)

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Ed Martin, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, released a statement this morning expressing apprehension regarding President Barack Obama’s decision to intervene militarily in Libya.

As Robert Koenig reported in his article for the St. Louis Beacon, reaction to the decision to intervene has been mixed. Some lawmakers - such as U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville - have expressed support for the action. Others - such as U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis and number of left-of-center Democrats - have expressed outright wariness to the decision.

Koenig also noted there are Republicans - U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country - who are criticized Obama for not “defining the mission.” In his statement, Martin seems to fall into the category

“Our President has authorized putting our military forces at risk without explaining to the American people what the compelling national interest is in Libya beyond this vague notion of preventing humanitarian disaster,” Martin said in the statement. “How exactly is participating in the erosion of Libyan air defenses, ground forces and knocking out Libyan government installations advancing America’s interests in the region? How will our actions prevent civilian deaths?”

“In the end, our Senators and Representatives are responsible to the American people for how the lives and resources of America are spent in conflicts, just as much as the President is,” Martin added. “While the President ought to be afforded some latitude on emergent situations, a robust debate is owed to America without delay.”

Martin - along with state Treasurer Sarah Steelman - is one of two announced Republican candidates in next year’s U.S. Senate race. Akin and former Missouri Republican Party Chairwoman Ann Wagner are also mulling bids for the 2012 contest.

The Hill reports that U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and County, is not ruling out a run next year against U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri.

From the article:

Reps. Sam Graves (R) and Jo Ann Emerson (R) have both passed on challenging Sen. Claire McCaskill (D). But six-term Rep. Todd Akin (R) won’t “discount” making a run.

Republicans have been watching with some trepidation as several well-known candidates flirted with nomination bids. A contentious primary could benefit McCaskill, who admits she is the “underdog” in her reelection contest. The GOP field so far only includes attorney Ed Martin and former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman.

A new survey by Public Policy Polling shows Akin essentially tied with McCaskill, while the Democrat leads Steelman 45-42 and tops Martin, a former congressional candidate, 46-40. In a possible match up with former ambassador Ann Wagner (R), McCaskill would win 45-36, according to the survey of 612 Missouri voters. The March 2-6 poll’s margin-of-error was plus-or-minus 4 percent.

Akin told me on Saturday that he wouldn’t rule out a run against McCaskill. GOP senate candidate Ed Martin said in my St. Louis Beacon article that Akin - who won a tough primary to get into national politics - would the primary “very competitive.”