Chris McDaniel

St. Louis Public Radio’s Chris McDaniel joins Jo Mannies and Jason Rosenbaum from the St. Louis Beacon to discuss a few political issues.

On today’s Halloween-themed podcast: We start off by giving our impressions of last week's debate Senate debate, and discuss Akin and his campaign's "dog" comments. We then turn to another debate: the gubernatorial debate that isn't really a debate. And finally, we close out with Jason discussing the state legislative races.

The U.S. Senate race in Missouri has drawn national attention with Republican Congressman Todd Akin vying to unseat Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill. Most recently, Akin garnered national ire for saying McCaskill is like a dog that fetches taxes and regulations from D.C. and brings them back to Missouri.

Akin defended that analogy on Monday.

On Thursday night, the two Missouri senate candidates from the two major parties shook hands in front of a crowd of hundreds of potential voters. Meanwhile, the Libertarian candidate listened to the debate on the radio as he drove back to Kansas City for work in the morning.

Jonathan Dine was not invited to the debate, but drove to St. Louis anyway to meet with members of the media. On St. Louis on the Air on Wednesday, Dine expressed his frustration over being excluded from the debate.

Incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill and Republican challenger Todd Akin squared off in their final debate of the campaign last night. Those hoping for a slugfest were probably disappointed.

In fact, Akin’s previous “legitimate rape” comment largely went ignored, and the two candidates didn’t cover much new ground.

They mostly stuck to the talking points they’ve used on the campaign trail – McCaskill portrayed herself as a moderate.