Lawmakers are required to file financial disclosure reports so voters know all of their sources of income and potential conflicts of interest. Rep. Todd Akin, however, left off his report income he gets from a Missouri state pension, an issue now surfacing in his Senate bid.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri congressman Todd Akin has amended a decade's worth of federal financial reports to add nearly $130,000 in state pension income that he received over that time.
Akin's campaign provided The Associated Press with a copy of the updated personal financial disclosure reports Thursday after being asked why he had not listed his retirement benefits. Akin's office released a letter dated Tuesday to the House clerk in which the Republican congressman described the lack of information about his pension payments as an "unintentional oversight."
Akin and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, whom he is challenging in the Nov. 6 election, both receive pensions from their prior service in state government, as do three other members of Missouri's congressional delegation. Yet Akin was the only one of them who had not reported his pension payments.
His amended report shows Akin received $15,138 in annual pension payments last year and has received a total of $129,109 from his state pension since 2002. Akin is due a state pension because he served 12 years in the state House before winning election to Congress in 2000.
McCaskill, who previously served as Missouri auditor and a state House member, reported a pension payment of $40,031 last year. That was the most among Missouri's congressional delegation. Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, a former secretary of state, reported a state pension payment of $36,721; Republican Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer reported a state pension of $12,600; and Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay reported a state pension of $8,787.
This marks the second time that Akin has amended a decade's worth of personal financial disclosure reports while running for the Senate.
In July 2011, Akin amended his reports from 2001 through 2010 to show his stake in properties owned by family partnerships in the St. Louis and Cape Cod, Mass., areas. A spokesman said at the time that Akin did not originally think the items needed disclosure because he has no controlling interest and received no money from the properties, but he later listed them based on an advisory opinion he sought from the House Ethics Committee.
Akin included those properties on the annual report he filed this May, valuing his share of the Massachusetts property between $250,001 and $500,000 and his share of the two St. Louis area properties between $15,001 and $50,000 each. The financial reporting forms categorize assets by dollar-value ranges, instead of requiring a precise figure.
