Republican senators to hold Akin fundraiser, keeping alive hope to win chamber

Republicans continue to reach out to embattled Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, this time with a much needed fundraiser, despite Democrats promising re-election attacks on supporters.

Sens. Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham, S.C., and Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn, Okla., will be honorary hosts of a Washington fundraiser next week for Akin.

The event suggests donations from $2,500 to $100 a person and is scheduled for Wednesday, as reported first by Politico.

Democrats and Republicans called for Akin to quit the race after he made controversial remarks last month about rape. Akin apologized but has continued his campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Republicans have long targeted McCaskill and her liberal voting record for defeat, in their attempt to retake control of the Senate.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee expressed support Wednesday for Akin, calling him "a far more preferable candidate." However, committee Chairman Texas Sen. John Cornyn made clear the next day that he has no plans to put money into a race his thinks Akin will lose.

In addition, Republican Super PAC American Crossroads pulled $3.6 million after Akin's rape comment.

Akin faced additional criticism late this week.

He said Friday that he had been arrested during an anti-abortion protest about two decades ago but didn't provide details of where or when the event occurred. And he accused McCaskill of not being "ladylike" in their Sept. 21 debate.

Last month, Akin told a TV interviewer asking about his opposition to abortion that women's bodies have ways of averting pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape." Akin has apologized repeatedly and rejected calls from top Republicans -- including presidential nominee Mitt Romney -- to quit the race.

Former Missouri Republican Sen. Kit Bond also appears to be supporting Akin again.

"Todd's comments were unacceptable but he's apologized," Bond said this week, after joining with other Missouri Republicans in asking Akin to step aside. "It is time to focus on the national stakes in this election."  

Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, among the lawmakers signing the letter, also has given his support again to Akin, saying despite differences "he and I agree the Senate majority must change."

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Warren faces question over law license in latest accusation to roil Senate race

In the latest charge to roil the tense Massachusetts Senate race, Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren was accused this week of potentially practicing law in Massachusetts without a license. 

Cornell law professor and legal blogger William Jacobsen made the claim on his Legal Insurrection website. He said Warren's legal practice is listed as the Bay State but no records show her having a license to practice law there. 

Jacobsen says he found no law license under Warren’s last name or her maiden name, Herring, during an exhaustive search of state records. Jacobsen said he also confirmed with a clerk at the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers that Warren has never applied for a license.

Even so, it remains unclear whether Warren has violated any laws.

Issues about Warren’s legal practices began surfacing last week in her first debate with Republican Sen. Scott Brown – one that punctuated what has become a  hard-hitting, razor-close race. An average of polls by the RealClearPolitics website has Warren leading by less than 2 percentage points.

Brown -- who on Thursday repeatedly referred to Warren as "professor" during the candidates’ first debate -- reminded viewers that Warren in 2009 represented Travelers Insurance Co. before the Supreme Court in an asbestos-related case.

Warren had to have had an active state bar license when applying to try cases before the high court, according to the Supreme Court. So the more questionable issue appears to be whether Warren practiced state-level law from her Harvard office without a Massachusetts license.

Warren was paid $212,000 for three years of work in a case that involved thousands of asbestos victims and was “notable because Warren, who has gained fame for defending consumers against big business, was in this case working on behalf of a big business,” The Boston Globe wrote.

In addition, Warren, as a Harvard Law professor in 1995, attempted to help the LTV steel conglomerate avoid paying $140 million in benefits to retired coal miners, The Boston Herald reported Tuesday. Warren wrote a petition to the Supreme Court challenging a lower court ruling for the miners. The high court never took up the case, but Warren was paid roughly $10,000, according to documents obtained by the newspaper.

The Warren campaign had not responded to requests to verify whether the candidate has a license in Massachusetts or elsewhere.

Jacobsen writes that Warren listed in a 2008 resume that she has a license to practice law in Texas and New Jersey. Texas records show the license is inactive, but doesn’t indicate when it became inactive. And Warren reportedly cancelled her New Jersey license on Sept. 11 of this year.

Jacobsen also said he must make a written request in New Jersey to learn whether Warren's license was active during the Travelers case because the computer records show only the current status.

"It is unclear whether during the years she represented Travelers and others whether Warren was actively licensed anywhere," Jacobsen wrote in his blog.

The questions about Warren’s legal licenses follow repeated ones about whether she exaggerated her background in using her Native American ancestry to get law professor jobs at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

A genealogist says his research shows Warren is one-thirty-second Native American.

Brown posted an ad Monday that revisits the questions about whether Warren used the Native American status for professional gain.

On Tuesday, Warren released a new, 30-second ad countering the attacks. 

“I never asked for and never got any benefit because of my heritage,” Warren says in the ad. “The people who hired me said they didn’t even know about it. Scott Brown can keep attacking my family, but I’m going to keep fighting for yours.”

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Nelson widens lead on Mack in Florida, lessening Republicans’ hopes for Senate control

The Florida race for U.S. Senate seat appears to be turning into a voters’ choice for the most acceptable candidate when deciding between two unpopular choices and perhaps a missed opportunity for Republicans.

In their quest to regain control of the Senate, Republicans took early aim at two-term Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson, portraying him as a Washington insider who was past his prime.

However, GOP Rep. Connie Mack IV has failed to capitalize on those advantages and has fallen behind in recent polls.

Mack trail Nelson by 7 percentage points, according to a Sept. 4 poll by Democrat-leaning Public Policy Polling. The poll also gave Nelson a favorability rating of 35 percent compared to 27 percent for Mack. The 69-year-old Nelson was leading by 2 percentage points, according to a July poll by the firm.

In addition, a poll released this week by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research shows Nelson leading Mack 48 percent to 40 percent, a three-point gain compared to the nonpartisan firm’s July poll.

The Mack campaign says the polls show Nelson’s campaign has stalled and that he cannot reach the all-important 50 percent, despite “a month of spending millions of dollars running perhaps the most obnoxiously negative personal smear campaigns” in the history of Florida politics.

“The people of Florida … want and deserve a senator who will stand with them and fight for them – not a 40-year,  career politician who tells them one thing and then votes like a lock-step liberal with Barack Obama,” Mack campaign manager Jeff Cohen said Friday.

Perhaps the most positive number out of the recent polls was the percentage of undecided voters in the Mason-Dixon telephone survey of 800 registered voters – an unusually high 11 percent.

While Republicans are trying to ride the anti-incumbent wave that helped them in 2010 win control of the House, Democrats have publicized Mack’s incidents of road rage and fights to portray him as too volatile for public office.

Democrats hold 23 of the 33 Senate seats up for grabs in November. They also have a 51-47 majority and votes from two independent senators, which mean Republicans would need a net gain of at least four seats on Election Day.

The Nelson campaign says the 45-year-old Mack -- the son of a senator, great-grandson of a baseball legend and husband of the widow of the late Sonny Bono –trails despite huge financial support from outside money.

 “What’s interesting is this comes after there have been $9.2 million in false and negative TV ads against Nelson from outside groups and super PACs tied to the Koch brothers, Karl Rove and undisclosed corporate dollars behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s political attack arm,” said the campaign, according to The Orlando Sentinel. 

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