The Todd Akin campaign has placed a large ad buy for the final six days of the election with the help of the Missouri Republican Party, The Daily Caller has learned.
Senior campaign adviser Rick Tyler said that the campaign placed a $300,000 ad buy on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, the Missouri GOP made a $386,000 coordinated ad buy with the Akin campaign.
Total, Tyler says they will have close to $1.3 million worth of ads running for the final six days of the campaign, with the intent of expanding that figure even more.
That would put their spending on parity with Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill’s campaign, which has been outspending Akin for the duration of the campaign. McCaskill holds a financial advantage, having out-raised Akin by about six to one in the third quarter.
The size of the ad buy from the Missouri GOP, an entity that reported just $375,000 cash on hand for its final pre-general, has caused some to question whether national Republicans are putting money into the race in the final days. Two big national Republican organizations, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and American Crossroads pulled their resources out of the race after Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment in August caused an uproar.
The NRSC declined to comment.
“The NRSC is refusing to say whether they provided several hundred thousand dollars to the Missouri Republican Party to support Todd Akin,” said Guy Cecil, Executive Director of the DSCC. “It is not only wrong that the NRSC would provide funding to support a dangerous extremist like Todd Akin, it is underhanded and dishonest that they would refuse to admit it to try and spare candidates like Scott Brown and Dean Heller any grief. The NRSC knows full well that they don’t have to disclose this spending until after the election, and are purposely misleading the media and voters until then.”
Polls show the race tight — a poll conducted by Mason-Dixon for News 4, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Kansas City Star found Akin trailing incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill by a mere two points, 43 percent to 45 percent.