My question: Can the Missouri GOP replace Akins without his consent?

[bluestateguy]

Can they brush him aside even if he does not drop out? Is there a way to do that?

I know they can disavow him, as the Democrats recently did in Tennessee and the Democrats did in South Carolina in 2010 (Alvin Greene, remember). But in each case they stayed on the ballot, as they were duly nominated by the voters and did not voluntarily drop out.

[proud patriot]

1. he won the primary

[karynnj]

2. It seems it his choice

There is a huge difference with Greene. It was never thought that we could defeat DeMint. They are risking a seat we thought they would win.

[uponit7771]

3. Nope and he's sending out fundraising emails as we type...Hope he stays in and kicks dust

[BlueStreak]

8. Maybe we should send him some money

to give him the support he deserves, you know.

[pnwmom]

4. They're publicly repudiated him and withdrawn all financial and other support.

He's a goner, unfortunately. Too bad this didn't happen later.

[AlinPA]

10. What about the GOP voters in MO? Why would they drop support for him? He is still a republican.

[LynneSin]

11. The GOP will support him diligently. But Missouri is a notorious swing state

and those undecideds are going to have a difficult time voting for someone who thinks so little of women that he could justify rape being an ok thing to do.

If this happened in a solid red state it wouldn't matter.

[AlinPA]

13. With the country so intensely polarized, undecideds are hard to find.

[xmas74]

20. Not in Missouri.

Most of the state is actually undecided. But most of the undecideds tend to vote Repub because of promises of lower taxes. (Really-ask them around here. It's rarely about abortion, gay rights, etc. Those are the initial offerings but in the end they always come around to the money.)

Right now Akin is public enemy number 1 in Missouri. It's all over the news statewide and there is no positive spin on it. They've sold him out and Claire is now receiving more endorsements.

KC, St Louis, and Columbia are solid blue. Joplin, Springfield, and Cape Girardeau are solidly red. The rest of the state is undecided, with the more rural areas going red for national campaigns and quite often a bit more blue on very local. College towns besides Columbia are the split areas-they tend to poll shades of purple and many are undecided.

[pnwmom]

19. They've already announced they're cutting off funding. Do you think they're

just bluffing?

[TomClash]

5. He's done

Since this afternoon . . .

[HooptieWagon]

6. No, party cant remove him from ballot forcibly.

Perhaps if there was a rule regarding candidacy he broke, then SoS could remove him in theory.... but I doubt Missouri has a rule against stupidity.

GOP did all they could in yanking all party and PAC funding. Rest is up to him. He could defy party and hope to survive on grass-roots donations, but that has a low percentage of success.

[Panasonic]

16. Akins can no longer fundraise out of a paperbag

But he might just loan a couple million to himself to keep his Senate race afloat - after all, who gets a shot to a Senate seat this often?

[xmas74]

21. Secretary of State is Robin Carnahan,

daughter or Mel and Jean, sister of Russ. She's from a hard-core Dem family. They're legacies in Missouri.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Carnahan

(You might remember her father, Mel. He was the governor of Missouri who was running for the US Senate against Ashcroft. His plane crashed and he was killed just a few weeks before the 2000 election. He still won against Ashcroft. It was a beautiful thing.)

[RagAss]

7. The voters love him and he is up big in the race and will win IMO.

[AlinPA]

9. Agree. i can't see GOP voters dropping him. He is mainstream GOP.

[xmas74]

22. No, they don't love him here.

There was only one poll taken and that was right after he won his primary. Nothing has happened since he made a number of comments, the latest being the comment about rape.

There are many conservatives in Missouri pleading with him to quit the race. We've heard them all over the local news all day today.

[arely staircase]

12. surely not

the results were the will of the voters, goofy as they may be.

[customerserviceguy]

14. Why would we want that to happen?

I think we should DU every poll on the subject, and make damned sure this asshat stays in. McCaskill will skewer him!

[David__77]

15. No. They can only recommend voting for someone else.

But I can't see why they would do that. So many Republicans want to criminalize abortion in cases of rape - it's not as if it's an oddball position as Republicans go. In fact, I cannot see how those who actually believe abortion is murder could see it any differently without being terribly hypocritical. This isn't Alvin Greene, it's an elected federal official that had serious GOP backing. That one comment could cause the GOP elite to crap their pants is telling.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. No, with a link to further explain.

According to their laws he has to step down on his own. At least from all that I've read.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/20/712521/sorry-missouri-republicans-youre-probably-stuck-with-todd-akin-as-your-senate-candidate/

[spanone]

18. the people have spoken....

[turtlerescue1]

23. Heard via media that the guy he beat out to be the one runnning against McCaskill-

John S???????? may find his name on the ballot. Dunno' Only heard that once.