September 25, 2012 11:00 PM UTC

Remember Todd Akin?

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Bloomberg News reports from the Show-Me State as the last deadline for embattled GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin to withdraw and be replaced on the ballot passes today:

Missouri Republican Todd Akin is moving forward with his go-it-alone U.S. Senate bid, which got a little less lonely when former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich raised money for him in suburban St. Louis.

Akin has shown no signs that he’ll give in to Republican leaders’ urging that he abandon efforts to unseat Senator Claire McCaskill, a first-term Democrat. Today is the last day he could get a court order to withdraw…

Gingrich, a former House speaker who also headlined a $500- a-plate fundraiser for Akin at an Italian restaurant that drew about 45 people, said other Republicans must “in good conscience” follow his lead and back Akin.

“If Todd and the people of Missouri prove it’s a close race, what’s the moral case for not backing the Republican nominee?” the former speaker said. “My expectation would be that in the crunch, in October, Governor Romney is going to be for the entire ticket, and he’s going to be for Todd Akin.” [Pols emphasis]

Gingrich predicted that by mid-October Republicans will support Akin’s effort and that McCaskill will spend “an avalanche of money” on the race after today’s deadline for him to exit the race.

And Politico reports:

With Akin declaring on Tuesday that he’s staying in the race, [Sen. Jim] DeMint’s PAC is polling its donors to ask if they should dump precious resources behind a conservative congressman who has been abandoned by much of his party. And DeMint officials are making their pitch in terms favorable to Akin, calling him a “true conservative who is more interested in joining the fight than the club” and whose election could determine the balance of power in the Senate.

In a memo to donors Tuesday morning, Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, said “circumstances have changed” since the uproar immediately following Akin’s damaging remarks about rape. Akin is staying in the race, and Hoskins says it’s still “winnable.”

You may recall that South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint was an important backer of 2010 Colorado GOP U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck–both before and after Buck’s primary victory over establishment favorite Jane Norton. Of course, Buck was never the subject of a partywide call to exit his race. But apparently this too can be overcome!

A poll follows: is Newt Gingrich right in asserting that Akin may be back in the fold soon? Will Mitt Romney and the rest of the GOP support Akin again before it’s all said and done?

Any Republican men willing to poll their wives on this?

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