Brown, Akin React To Romney Comments

By Julie Sobel  //  September 18, 2012 | 5:32 p.m.

Earlier, we flagged two GOP Senate candidates who sought some distance from Mitt Romney's secretly taped comments at a fundraiser. Here are two other interesting Senate candidate reactions: Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown and Missouri GOP Senate nominee Todd Akin.

Brown, in an email to The Hill:

"That's not the way I view the world. As someone who grew up in tough circumstances, I know that being on public assistance is not a spot that anyone wants to be in. Too many people today who want to work are being forced into public assistance for lack of jobs."

For Brown, any distance he can get from his state's former governor is good distance: A Suffolk University/WHDH-TV poll released Tuesday showed Romney losing Massachusetts to Obama by over 30 points.

Akin's campaign declined to weigh in on what Romney said -- a decision that seemed to hint at Akin's own abandonment by essentially the entire GOP establishment (including Romney) in the midst of the controversy after he made his comments on "legitimate" rape rarely leading to pregnancy. "I am not going to join the media in piling on when a fellow Republican makes an inelegant statement," said Akin senior adviser Rick Tyler in an email to the Huffington Post. In the days after Akin's rape comment, he had characterized it as using the "wrong words." Incidentally, Akin is now one week away from the absolute last chance deadline to get off the ballot -- September 25 -- and he continues to show no indication that he'll do so.

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