Akin claims McCaskill benefited from stimulus

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republican challenger Todd Akin went on the offensive against Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri’s Senate race on Monday, claiming that her husband’s businesses profited from a federal stimulus act provision that helped finance low-income housing.

Akin began running a TV ad claiming “the stimulus made McCaskill rich.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Akin said the 2009 stimulus law funded a federal program for low-income housing that directed about $1 million to corporations affiliated with McCaskill’s husband. He stopped short of accusing McCaskill of a conflict of interest, but he suggested she knew of the funding — pointing to McCaskill’s own statements that she reviewed the bill “line by line.”