Missouri U.S. Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Todd Akin has remained steadfast in staying in the race as the GOP nominee despite calls from party leaders all the way up to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney who have asked him to step aside following his comments about rape and pregnancy last month in an interview on FOX2.
Now, in a profile by The National Journal, Akin's wife Lulli has stepped into the fray this time.
Lulli Akin said that efforts to push her husband out of the race threaten to replace elections “by the people and for the people” with “tyranny, a top-down approach.” She added, “Party bosses dictating who is allowed to advance through the party and make all the decisions—it’s just like 1776 in that way.”
She cited colonists who “rose up and said, ‘Not in my home, you don’t come and rape my daughters and my … wife. But that is where we are again. There has been a freedom of elections, not tyranny of selections since way back. Why are we going to roll over and let them steamroll us, be it Democrats or Republicans or whomever?”
Candidate Akin told the publication his wife's description was “a little more grandiose than the way I would say it,” but did not appear to distance himself from the comparison.
Candidates have until September 25 to file a court order to get off the ballot, but as The St. Louis Beacon has reported, the practical deadline is more like September 21. Such a move could still be challenged in court by any of Missouri's local election authorities, the paper reported.
