I ran against Todd Akin in 2010
It was 10 am on March 31, 2010, the filing deadline in Missouri to run for Congress. My wife and I kept looking at the Secretary of State’s website to see if someone would step forward to be the Democratic nominee in the 2nd District to run against Todd Akin.
At 10:30 am, no one had filed, we headed for Jefferson City to file, just in case no else would. No one filed as a Democrat, and when 5 pm arrived, I had immediately secured a win in the Democratic primary and the opportunity to run for Congress against Todd Akin.
Akin had succeeded in winning virtually every election he had entered, and doing it all under the radar. He had a quiet but intensely committed core of supporters: the religious right, who believed that they were right about everything. After winning a close Republican primary for the seat in 2000, because his supporters were more willing than his competitors to brave the rain, he has had one landslide after another. When I ran in 2010, I became another in a long list of low-profile (or “no-name”) candidates to run against him.
Obviously, I didn’t agree with Akin about almost anything, whether political or in many cases ethical. Akin was part of the Republican firewall in the House of Representatives that joined with Democratic Blue Dogs to fight most of President Obama’s progressive proposals. But Akin was truly a backbencher. The legislation that he introduced, other than co-sponsoring anti-choice and other items in the Republican litany, were the renaming of post offices for Iraq veterans and trying to ensure that “under God” would remain in the Pledge of Allegiance.
But within his small circle of intense supporters, he said some true whoppers. This was all available on-line in 2010. Among them were:
“Finally, however, America is waking up! Patriots across America are mobilizing, and Heaven is bombarded with the prayers of Saints who sense our national peril. Once again America calls for true sons and daughters. May the Divine Author of our lives and liberties give us strength — He was always our great hope and He must be again.”
and
“Now, in short two years, our country is being destroyed by a one party rule of self-identified socialists, known communists, and other miscellaneous liberals. National security is compromised and the economy is plundered. Private enterprise is managed by Czars. Job creation is almost at a standstill. Red tape and taxes are the solution to every problem. Socialized medicine has been approved and threatens to destroy our Healthcare as well as our Federal Budget. The rate of federal spending will soon destroy our economy and Obama leadership’s incompetence is eclipsed only by its voracious appetite for centralized power.”
[Both quotes are from Akin's 2010 front page]
I was aware of these statements, but I chose not to attack him on his prior gaffes, or should I say, beliefs. His previous statements made his August 19, 2012 uninformed and indelicate comment about rape just a further example of how scary he could be. It was just another example of “Akin-speak.” But my campaign did not focus on him; rather it was an experiment in running a campaign that hopefully would set an example for how politics could be.
I looked at my candidacy as a unique opportunity. My goals were essentially two:
- To diminish the role of money in politics by simply taking no contributions. No money; not even three dollars. I funded the campaign with my own money, using about the cost of sending one student to a top-level college for one year (about $50,000, or less than 
1 percent of what some Congressional candidates spent). I did not fear that I could be bought by small contributions; I just opposed them, because I strongly believe in public funding of elections, which creates a level playing field for all candidates. In part, I communicated my wishes regarding contributions with a web-page button that said, “Don’t nate.”
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