Todd Akin campaign keeps fundraising numbers under wraps

A spokesman for Todd Akin’s U.S. Senate campaign said Tuesday that the Republican mailed his third-quarter campaign finance report by midnight Monday, as required under federal law.

Senior campaign adviser Rick Tyler declined to release the amount that Akin raised during the quarter. He said the campaign would release those figures soon.

“We bundled it up and mailed it,” Tyler said of the report.

Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill reported Monday that she had raised $5.8 million during the quarter, which is a record for Senate candidates in Missouri and may be a record for any statewide Missouri candidate. Her campaign said the senator’s fundraising surged in August following Akin’s remarks about “legitimate” rape.

Akin had said he has topped $1 million in online donations. He started an aggressive online effort after some Republican groups pulled their support because of his comments about women and rape. He later apologized for the remarks.

But Tyler said he is optimistic about the contributions the Akin campaign has generated.

“I think we’re holding our own,” Tyler said. “We are doing what everyone said we couldn’t, and that is to make Missouri a competitive race, and it is a competitive race, and we’re going to win it.”

On Tuesday, Akin learned that Rand PAC, the political committee of Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, is spending $100,000 to oppose McCaskill, according to a federal campaign filing.

That brings third-party help for Akin to around $550,000. That’s still far short of $2.7 million from outside groups helping McCaskill.