JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – There are 644 days until Election Day, 2016, but already, Democrats in Missouri are hoping to define a Republican candidate for governor as the next Todd Akin, the former Republican U.S. Senate candidate who earned national infamy for his comments about “legitimate rape.”

Over the weekend, former House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, one of two Republican candidates running for governor next year, spoke at the Educational Policy Conference in St. Louis. She was joined by conservative icons like Phyllis Schlafly and Michelle Bachmann.

Hanaway – as noted Tuesday by Salon  – said that it is the culture of “sexual permissiveness” led by Democrats that is the real “war on women,” not conservatives who support anti-abortion policies.

“Their culture of permissiveness towards sexual activity is the real war on women,” she said, claiming that it has “led to record levels of out of wedlock births,” “impoverished women,” and child pornography.

“If you pursue this course that sexual permissiveness is to be valued, which is the liberal framework and that you should protect sexual permissiveness through abortions and other things, you lead to a conclusion where every sexual preference is acceptable,” she continued.

The Salon article was quickly passed around to reporters by the Democratic Governors Association with the note, “from the people who brought you Todd Akin.”

Her primary opponent, state Auditor Tom Schweich, has previously criticized long and strenuous primaries, in part because of the financial candidates and the party, as well as the fact that it gives candidates more opportunities to step in it politically, providing fodder for their likely Democratic general election rivals, in this case, Attorney General Chris Koster.

Neither Schweich’s nor Hanaway’s campaign responded to a request for comment on Tuesday.