Akin gains backers in GOP

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - His spot on the ballot now guaranteed, Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin began rebuilding support Wednesday among fellow Republicans who shunned him after a remark about "legitimate rape," while Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill honed an election strategy that will use Akin's own words to portray him as an extremist.

Akin won a pair of high-profile Republican endorsements Wednesday from former presidential candidate Rick Santorum and tea party favorite Sen. Jim DeMint. Perhaps just as important, the National Republican Senatorial Committee - which had pulled millions of dollars of planned advertising after Akin's remark - said Wednesday that it hopes Akin wins and cracked open the possibility of again getting involved in the Missouri campaign.

While Akin attempts to shore up support among the GOP base, McCaskill is incorporating Akin's rape comments into a strategy courting politically independent voters and more moderate Republicans. In the coming days, for example, she plans to roll out a "Republicans for Claire" initiative featuring individuals such as Kansas City businessman Warren Erdman, who once served as chief of staff to former GOP Sen. Kit Bond.

McCaskill's goal is "to help folks realize that this election is about more than just party identification," said McCaskill spokeswoman Caitlin Legacki. "It's about a clear choice between Claire - who is a moderate, independent senator for Missouri - and Todd Akin, who is not just too extreme for Missouri, but in a lot of ways too extreme for his own party."

While McCaskill highlights a middle-of-the-pack ranking on a conservative to liberal scale, Akin is attempting to shift the focus away from his own remarks to McCaskill's ties to President Obama and her support for his stimulus act and health-care overhaul.

"For Akin, the strategy is to try to bring all the Republicans back home - to try to remind Republican voters that he's their candidate and the alternative is electing Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, that many of them don't like," said Peverill Squire, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Akin got off to a good start on that Wednesday, a day after the deadline passed for Missouri candidates to get a court order to withdraw from the Nov. 6 ballot.

Santorum and DeMint issued a joint endorsement describing Akin as a "principled conservative" and describing Missouri as a key battleground in efforts to gain the four seats necessary to win control of the Senate.