Democrats are moving forward with a plan to ty Todd Akin to House Republicans this fall. The DCCC is targeting 20 Republicans including Paul Ryan in their home districts.
Talking Points Memo reported:
TAMPA, Fla. — As Republicans work to keep Todd Akin off the agenda at their convention here, Democrats are working hard to keep the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri and his views on “legitimate rape” in the minds of voters across the country.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is going forward with a new campaign aimed at tying Akin to House Republicans on the ballot this fall. Twenty Republicans (including Paul Ryan) will be targeted in their districts with DCCC robocalls that use Akin and the GOP’s draft platform — which calls for a total ban on abortion and is silent on any exceptions to that ban — to make the case that the GOP is far outside the mainstream on women’s issues.
Putting Akin close to the House GOP isn’t a tough sell. Akin was one of the many Republicans who co-sponsored legislation that originally rewrote the existing rape exception in the ban on federal abortion funding to only cover “forcible rape,” a move that abortion rights groups said would severely weaken the exception.
Even Mitt Romney has acknowledged that the Akin affair has “cast a shadow” over the GOP in recent days, despite calls from Romney and others in the party for Akin to leave the Missouri race.
Polls show Romney trailing President Obama badly on women’s issues, and the DCCC is banking on the fact that the Akin effect goes all the way down the ballot.