Rep. Todd Akin (R) Elected 2000, 3d term
Born:	July 5, 1947, New York, NY
Home:	Town and Country
Education:	Worcester Polytech Inst. (MA), B.S. 1971, Covenant Theological Seminary (MO), M. Div. 1985
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Lulli)
Elected  Office:	MO House of Reps., 1988-2000.
Military Career:	Army Reserves 1972-80.
Professional Career:	Marketing Mgr., IBM, 1974-78; Mgmt. Dir., Laclede Steel, 1977-80; Instructor, Maryville U.
DC Office	117 CHOB20515, 202-225-2561; Fax: 202-225-2563; Web site: www.house.gov/akin
State Offices	St. Charles, 636-949-6826; St. Louis, 314-590-0029.
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Just as the U.S. population's geographic center has moved west from the St. Louis area to rural Phelps County, so the center of metropolitan St. Louis area continues to move farther west from the Gateway Arch on the Mississippi River. The fulcrum point now is in St. Louis County, established in 1876 when the city, tired of paying for dusty back roads, separated itself from the sticks. There were then about 350,000 people in the city and 31,000 in the county. In 2004, the city had 343,000 and St. Louis County 1,009,000. By the 1960s, the center of office employment had moved from downtown across the county line to Clayton; now, the focus is fast moving out the Daniel Boone Expressway (U.S. 40) to Chesterfield, west of the I-270 ring road.

The 2d Congressional District of Missouri is made up of central and western St. Louis County, most of St. Charles County northwest across the Missouri River and rural Lincoln County to the north. In the center of St. Louis County, along the Daniel Boone Expressway, are the long-settled suburbs of Kirkwood, most of high-income Town and Country and Ladue, fast-growing Chesterfield and, to the south, Sunset Hills--all Republican areas, even more so in the newer family-oriented subdivisions than in the leafy precincts of the old rich. St. Charles County, where the supply of available land and affordable housing has become tight, now casts more votes than the city of St. Louis and is the most Republican suburban county in Missouri; the county council added a statement to its marriage licenses that the recipients are a man and a woman. This is a Republican district that voted 60% for George W. Bush in 2004.

The congressman from the 2d District is Todd Akin, a Republican first elected in 2000. He continues to live in his boyhood home, a 50-year-old farmhouse that rests in what has become an upscale neighborhood in Town and Country. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and got a divinity degree at Covenant Seminary. After service as an Army combat engineer, he worked for IBM in the Boston area and then at Laclede Steel in Alton, Illinois, the same company where his father once worked. He was elected to the state House in 1988. During the next 12 years, as part of the Republican minority, he passed few bills. Undaunted, he took to the courts, filing one lawsuit to stop a tax increase for education improvements and another to stop riverboat gambling on barges moored in artificial ponds; the former case failed but the latter succeeded, forcing the gambling industry to spend millions on a referendum that changed the law in its favor. Akin is an avid student of American history and the Constitution, on which he lectures at various public and private institutions. While a state legislator, he sold standardized tests to parents who home school their children; he and his wife have home schooled their six children. State House reporters noted that he sometimes played gospel tunes on his guitar in the Capitol late at night.

When Congressman Jim Talent announced in early 1999 that he was running for governor, Akin ran for the House. He started off as the underdog to Gene McNary, the former Bush administration INS commissioner and well known from his 15 years as St. Louis County Executive, and as a three-time loser in statewide races between 1972 and 1984. A third candidate, former state Senate Minority Leader Franc Flotron, ran as a conservative. Akin called himself "a conservative with a soft edge," who tries to work as a team player. He emphasized that he had never voted to raise taxes, and he had strong support from religious conservatives; he may have benefited from staying above the personal attacks. In a low-turnout, rainy day Republican primary, Akin rallied his committed cadre to win the five-candidate contest by 56 votes. In the general election against state Senator Ted House, Akin focused on their differences on taxes. House depicted Akin as a narrow ideologue who was an ineffective legislator. House, whose TV ads did not identify himself as a Democrat, cited a report by a liberal activist group that Akin had written a supportive letter read at a militia rally in 1995 that focused on the right to bear arms; Akin responded that he had turned down an invitation to speak. Akin carried St. Louis County 57%-40% and won overall 55%-42%.

In the House, Akin has one of the most strongly conservative voting records. On the Armed Services Committee he emphasized what he said was the essential role played by special operation forces in fighting terrorism. With Dana Rohrabacher, he passed in the House a bill to promote development of the commercial human space flight industry, to encourage entrepreneurship especially in suborbital rockets. On the Republicans' education bill, he opposed mandatory school testing because he was concerned about excessive federal involvement. After a federal appeals court in California ruled that the reference to "one nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional, Akin passed in the House a bill that would strip the lower courts of jurisdiction over challenges to the Pledge. He sponsored the Parents' Right to Know Act, which bars funding to family planning projects that provide contraceptive drugs and devices to minors before getting parental consent. He burned some bridges with Republican leaders when he voted against the Medicare/prescription drug bill; he worried that it would be a "budget buster" and would attract more illegal immigrants.

Back home, Akin was the only member of the delegation who did not support the redistricting plan even though the changes made what had been a competitive district a decade before significantly more Republican. Akin has been easily reelected.

Committees

• Armed Services (18th of 34 R): Tactical Air & Land Forces; Terrorism, Unconventional Threats & Capabilities.
• Science (13th of 24 R): Energy; Research.
• Small Business (6th of 18 R): Regulatory Reform & Oversight (Chmn.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	0	0	0	0	70	78	95	100	94	100	--
2003	5	--	13	10	--	76	90	92	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	31%	--	68%		0%	--	95%
Social	5%	--	87%		0%	--	91%
Foreign	23%	--	71%		4%	--	93%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Todd Akin (R)	228,725	65%	$702,232
	George Weber (D)	115,366	33%
	Other	5,776	2%
2004 primary	Todd Akin (R)	unopposed
2002 general	Todd Akin (R)	167,057	67%	$586,796
	John Hogan (D)	77,223	31%
	Other	4,548	2%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (55%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 215,123 (60%) Kerry (D) 142,824 (40%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 179,633 (59%) Gore (D) 119,907 (39%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Second District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 9
• District Size: 1,288 square miles
• Population in 2000: 621,690; 91.7% urban; 8.4% rural
• Median Household Income: $61,416; 3.6% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 17.5% blue collar; 71.3% white collar; 11.2% gray collar; 13.5% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 93.2% White, 2.2% Black, 2.0% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.9% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 1.4% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 26.7% German, 12.7% Irish, 8.2% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.