The second Missouri Senatorial debate was held at CHS Thursday night in the auditorium. Representing the Republicans was Todd Akin, and Claire McCaskill represented the Democrats.
During the debate, McCaskill tried to emphasize herself as a moderate Democrat. Akin tried to make himself sound good, while pointing out flaws in McCaskill’s arguments.
The debate was televised by KSDK and was covered on the radio by KWMU, the local NPR affiliate of St. Louis.
The panel featured Meredith McMahon, a CHS senior. McMahon is co-Editor in Chief on the Globe.
After the debate, both candidates had agreed to come to the spin room and take questions from the media. However, Akin did not come, sending Rick Tyler, one of his campaign advisers, to come instead. Tyler also served as an adviser to Newt Gingrich, who ran for president, losing in the primary to Mitt Romney.
Tyler compared Akin to Gingrich.
He said they both provide voters with, “clarity of message, conviction, [they] know why they’re running and know what they want to do when they get into office, being able to communicate things in a very simple way so that people understand what the choice is all about. I think I see those things with Newt, my former boss, and Todd Akin.”
One thing McCaskill discussed in the spin room was her second amendment policies.
“I support the second amendment . . . I was raised in rural Missouri and we always had mushroom soup in the cabinet because my mom had to put it on whatever my dad shot so that we could eat it,” she said. “The stuff he shot usually didn’t taste that good. I am never going to take a vote that would take away from the right to bear arms. . . At the end of the day we need strong law enforcement and we need to protect people’s second amendment rights.”
CHS teacher Kurtis Werner, Debra Weins and Justin Sweiwell put on a watching party for students interested in the debate. One student who attended was Abbie Kohmetscher, a junior.
“I thought the debate was actually quite evenly matched, and I think Todd Akin, based on his recent performances was improved, and Claire McCaskill remained quite strong on her opinions,” Kohmetscher said.
Photo by Olivia MacDougal.
