underway in syria and iraq today. one woman's determination to die with dignity resparks a national debate. an exclusive look inside north korea all of that straight ahead on "al jazeera america." keep it here. today on "power politics" here come the collintons: this is all about whether you show up. >> they are trying to help democrats keep control of the senate. >> can i get a selfy? >> and in many states, they are building up ious for hillary in 2016. on the republican side, get ready for jeb bush. >> one thing about florida is, it's a purple state. >> in focus, the georgia senate race, the key issue, outsourcing jobs. >> i am proud of it. this is a part of american business, part of any business. >> three weeks until the november elections and now, the

biggest names in american politics are fully engaged in the mid-term campaigns. this week, former president bill clinton returned to arkansas to try to help democrats, including embattled incumbent senate mark pryor. clinton urged voters not to cast a protest vote and he quoted the state song. >> you are in my heart, and you will always be. arkansas, you run deep in me. vote your heart. don't vote for what they tell you you have to be against. vote for what you know you should be for. vote for mark pryor. >> clinton is also beginning to appear in television ads. his first is in kentucky where democratic secretary of state alison grimes is running for the senate against mitch mcconnell. >> i choose alison because she will work with people in both parties to do what's right now. >> meanwhile, hillary clinton just announced the busy mid-term effort, herself. she will help democrats in half

a dozen states including louisiana, kentucky, massachusetts, illinois, iowa and new hampshire. those last two are the first states to vote in the 2016 collatic presidential nomination contest. on the republican side, former florida governor jeb bush is raising money and campaigning for dozens of g.o.p. mid-term candidates. in colorado, starring in senate campaign ads aimed at latino voters [speaking spanish.]. >> he said it's vital to elect a leader like cory gardner. cory gardner running for senate on the republican side. joining us from los angeles, al jazeera's michael shor. what does bill clinton bring to voters in arkansas and kentucky that david prior and alison grimes can't deliver? >> first of all, nobody has ever seen a politician. nobody alive has seen a politician like bill clinton listen can and waving him campaigning there. you know that when he gets on the stump for prior and for

grimes. he gets people out, and of course, you look back at the gore-lieberman campaign of 2000 and is a many people are looking back saying why didn't they use bill clinton? when you see bill clinton out there, in arkansas, where he is beloved, it beloved, it's an important part of campaigning in that state. i think democrats, even democrats who have to move to the center look toward bill clinton as somebody who can maybe get out the vote and getting the numbers as you know, is going to be really important in both of those states. >> how crucial is it for hillary clinton as she is out there to prove she can move the needle for democrats in louisiana and other races where she is planning to appear? >> what's crucial, david, is which direction she moves the needle because the needle could go in the other direction. there are some people that find her distasteful in those parts of the country. even arkansas where she was the first lady. she is known well in arkansas. again, she was a carpet bagger who came in from illinois who

went to yale and so there was soo am distaste for her. she does have sway with women voters. where mary landreiux is struggling. it will be interesting to see her in iowa where she will be out there stumping for bruce brael, the congressman against joni ernst against a female candidate in iowa. it will be interesting to see. >> on the republican side, jeb bush has again aggressive. there are some reports from his family jeb is leaning toward a presidential race. what is the signifcancer in the interim of the ious he is picking up around the country? >> you know, david, it's interesting. when a bush runs the field clears. as we saw with george w. bush in 2000, when he announced in '99 that he was going to seek the

presidency, dan quail who had been his father's vice president had all of the bush organization behind him. they all scattered, jail dropped out of the race. the same thing could happen here. there is, in fact, a bush machine on thevan side. people not just have ious to cash with the former governor but with the former presidents. it also would not be great news for marko rubio because florida would -- the florida republicans would come in line behind jeb bush. i think it is getting his name out there, flexing his hispanic ties in his state and around the country as we saw with that ad for cory gardner in colorado. it's not a question of ious. it's if you run we are here. >> they have been to be careful about the news they make because of the candidacies coming in 016. i want to play a bill clinton remark and get your reaction. watch. >> great thing about not being president any more is you can just say whatever you want.

unless your wife might run for something. and then you can say whatever you want as long as you don't make any headlines. >> michael, is it possible for bill clinton not to make headlines? >> it isn't but he made the wrong ones in 2008 in south carolina. he is saying i just don't want to do that. >> al jazeera michael shure, we appreciate it. staying with presidential politics, bill clinton is not the only one trying to avoid news making news. so is hillary. a canadian journalist asked here? she supports the keystone pipeline? >> i can't talk about it because i was in the office that has primary responsibility for making the decision. i don't want to inject myself in to what is a continuing process or to in any way undermine my successor. >> but that hasn't stopped clinton from undermining her successor john kerry and her

former boss, president obama, on other issues like syria. in the 2014 mid-term money chase, senate democrats have now out raised the republican counterparts by nearly $40 million. according to disclosure reports, campaign committee has hauled in $111 million compared to 82.6 for the national republican senate committee. as a result, through election day, the democratic party reserved more television ad time than republicans in several key senate campaigns. a north carolina, the democratic advantages 20s 4.9 million to $19 million worth of ads. in colorado, it's $19 million to 15.7 million. in iowa, 14.5 million to $13.4 million work of ads. the democratic spending advantage helps explain why the party has pledged a million dollars to the south dakota senate race. most of the money will be spent on negative ads against republican candidate mike brown. >> that's because the latest

poles show him ahead of democratic senate candidate rick by land but falling back into an even race with independent candidate pressler, a former republican senator has advertised he would not caucus with either party. i will not answer to extremists in either party. as an independent, i will be accountable only to you. >> if pressler wins arepublican don't pick up the senate seat, their decline becomes -- climb becomes steeper. republicans face a problem in kansas. pat roberts up against a challenge from greg orman on the right. this week, they had a debate and it underscored their differences on healthcare. we had a stenl that is market driven. >> any senators who tells you see he is going to repeal the affordable care act is ignoring

the reality that president obama will simply veto the bill. >> orman said he would work with both parties to change the incentives in the healthcare system. >> appeal seems to res on ate with kansas voters. they say orman is slightly ahead. another highly competitive race is incomed, another battle that could determine which party controls the senate. incumbent mark eudall, the democratic candidate is trying to leverage voter concerns about women's rights. many ads hammered cory gardner about his efforts to outlaw abortion. here was the question this week to eudall from the denver post debate moderator. >> mr. eudall, your campaign has been so focused on women's issues that you have been dubbed mark uterus. a neutral political observer said any image of you as a bi-polar walk across the aisle guy has been significantly diminishedartisan walk across t

aisle guy has been significantly diminish diminished. how do you keep your composure after that? here is the eudall. >> reproductive rights are important to coloradoans. if congressman gardner hadn't built his career on reproductsive choices, we wouldn't have this discussion today. >> women's rights are a big issue in the new hampshire" senate race. jean shahene is trying to find off a challenge from scott brown. after the latest attacks, brown is responding with this. >> you may have seen that senator shahene calls into question my support for quim's healthcare. i want you to know the facts. i am pro-choice. i support continued funding for planned parenthood and i believe women should have access to contraception. >> underscoring what strategists call one of the cardinal rules of politics and that is respond quickly to attack ads. the rule was also followed this week in north carolina, republican senate candidate tom 'til is, the state house speaker

hammered kay hagan on military issues so hagan quickly went on the air with this: >> speaker 'til is should be ashamed for running an ad that said i would let our soldiers soldiers die any vain. >> that's outrageous. north carolina's military family is nigh family. my husband served and i have two nephews on active duty. >> pretty good response. in georgia, the top issue in that senate race now involves job creation. court documents came out this week revealing republican senate candidate david perdue, the former ceo of dollar general acknowledged he spent most of his career moving jobs overseas. when asked how he defends it, he doubled down. >> defend it? i am proud of it. this is a part of american business, any business. outsourcing is the procurement of products and services to help your business run. people do that all day. >> but not all u.s. businesses seek out the weaker labor standards and lack of worker protection overseas. a democrat michelle nunn has

been tightening this race has turned his remarks and his testimony into a campaign ad. >> david perdue admitted he spent most of his career outsourcing jobs overseas to places like china and mexico. david perdue, he's not for you. >> a tough ad. in several mid-term races, candidates are trying to leverage public fears about isil attacking the u.s. homeland. arizona republican congressional candidate wendy rogers released an ad that used the clip from the isil video of foley's beheading. a national republican group is running this arizona ad. >> evil forces around the world want to harm americans every day. it's their entry into our country through arizona's backyard. >> in arkansas, listen to what tom cotton said about isil on a telephone townhall. >> they could infiltrate our southern border and attack us

right here in places like arkansas. >> federal officials have repeatedly said there is no evidence isil has taken any steps to try to infiltrate the southern border. experts say the only thing infiltrating arkansas these days are political celebrities like bill clinton. this week, the political world learned mark pryor who enlisted clinton's help is something of a social media afficianado. >> can i get a selfy? right? let's do it. right there. there. we got it. thank you. >> here is what the photo looked like for all tracking pryor's selfy skills. just ahead, the senate race and the last frontier to go down to the end of the wire, we are heading to alaska where it could play big at the polls. plus. >> it's hard to en claim we have a democracy any more in our country. >> a experienced sit down with robert f. kennedy, jr.

>> robert kennedy jr., >> american democracy is rooted in wilderness... >> his fathers lasting influence >> my father considered this part of our heritage... >> coping with tradgedy >> the enemy of any productive life is self pity... >> defending the environment >> global warming is gravest threat... >> every saturday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera, only on al jazeera america

>> i'm ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. we are ment to be your first choice for the news.

. >> on a little more than three weeks to go before the mid-term elections, we are looking at toss-up races of the republicans need six seats to take control of the senate and bury president obama's legislative agenda, his final two years in. alaskan's democratic incumbent is one of the senator's in the hot seat. he is facing a tough challenge from republican candidate dan sullivan. al jazeera's allen shoveler spent a week in alaska and joins us now. alan? >> david, there will be a lot of attention too that senate race

placing out in alaska depending upon what's happened, how the voting has gone in the lower 48 earlier in the day. by the time we get around to counting alaskan ballots, this could be a moot point or a very important seat in that battle for control in the u.s. senate how important? well, both parties, both candidates and campaigns have chipped in $43 million at this point. so you can tell that they understand it. >> it's a seat to go after and a seat to defend. david, i think you would like this guy. i spent a great backyard chat with michael kerr a, a long-time writer and political observer in anchorage. he said alaskans are very aware they could be in the spotlight. >> there is some interest in the idea that we could be the swing state or we might be able to decide things and the fact that because of the way the elections work up here, i think 20 to 25% of the votes will not be counted on election night. they will be for various reasons not coming until later. people say we are going to nolex

night. we are not unless it's a very one-sided election. >> it could be another week or so? >> yeah. >> or more. >> we may have to wait a bit to find out how beggage wins, elected by about 4,000 votes in a close race six years ago. dan sullivan, the republican challenger trying to win his first elective office and both men and backers are waged a relentless advertising war. we will take a closer look at that ad war next week. more issues as you mentioned, david, up in alaska. healthcare, it's really expensive here how much is it costing this restaurant owner? and are people paying attention to the healthcare messages in the senate race advertising? pot is on the ballot, alaska, the next target in the nationwide push by one marijuana advocacy group tore legalization and there are lots of pot smokers in this state. >> mezzew has a pretty good shot 59 passing. it is a concern, though, in some of the smaller villages where leaders have the power to ban

alcohol completely but won't have that same power to ban marijuana fully. minimum wage workers, they could get a pay raise in alaska but in a state with 4 or so people right at the bottom of the wage scale and so many living a sub cystentions existence in the wilderness, just how important is it? remember, this is a place where the state pays you every year just to be an alaskan. another ballot mezzew about the potential pebble mine, one of the biggest mines in north america, the local fishing industry and environmental groups have fought it for years. alaska angels will vote on whether the state legislature will have the final say, yes or no on this huge project. so, a lot happening here, david. but as you mentioned, the senate race is the one really drawing the attention. we will be checking it out, all five from alaska next week. >> alan action a lot of senate races and house races, there is this anti-washington sentiment cutting deeply. are you feeling that? did you feel any of that when you were up in alaska?

>> 0, absolutely at this point, dan sullivan doing everything he can to link mark begich with the obama administration an especially with obamacare. we washed mark begich atacam pain rally at a retirement homemaking a very specific point of separating himself from the obama administration pointing out times the occasional times when he is actually disagreed with him and highlighting them, so absolutely, the anti-d.c. thing is very noufsh cadillac. i expect it will have an impact on that race. something to consider, too, david, there are about twice as many registered republicans as there are democrats in the state of alaska, but the undeclared voters and the independent voters far outnumber the combined democrats and republicans. so there is a whole lot of votes sort of sloshing around in the middle there. >> that's what both candidates are going to be going after. >> alan schauffler. see more of his report in prime

time on "al jazeera america." alan, thank you. for many voters across the united states, there are longstanding concerns about pollution and global warming. one of the leaders of the environmental movement is robert kennedy, jr. he began activism from a young age thanks in part to the late bobby kennedy. we had a chance to sit down with robert, jr., this week? >> also, my father had a very big influence on us because he put us out in the wilderness so much and he taught us how to white water kayak when we were very young. he would take us fishing. he encouraged me and my interests in animals and wildlife. he took us mountain climbing and camping and took us to some of the most beautiful national packs and to do white water on the salmon river and the snake and colorado, little colorado, the green. at that was a time when people weren't doing that kind of thing. and but he wanted to show us

this wilderness and say, this is part of your heritage. this is american democracy is rooted in welderness. >> that's what the great american historian said, in america, our democratic institutions are rooted in these vast tracts wilderness. my father considered this part of our heritage and our purple mountains majesty. he saw the destruction of those things, the short cited destruction by industry as an attack on american values and sovereignty. >> interesting to hear about the kennedy family trips. robert kennedy, jr., said american values are now under greatertac than ever because of the recent supreme court decisions, citizens united which allows corporate money and influence in u.s. politics. >> that really has unleashed the tsunami of money from big oil and carbon and the pharmaceutical industry back into our politicalprice process so it's hard to even claim that we have a democracy any more in

our country. it's are a, you know, a corporate kleptocracy, plutocracy, governed by the aristocracy which is the system we are -- our european ancestors fled europe to come to america to escape. >> kennedy believes a political sea change will come to america eventually. catch our full half hour with interview with him next saturday at 5:00 p.m. eastern right here on talk to al jazeera. politics today, we turn to the presidential election in brazil. this past weekend incumbent jim marusef won most of the gates but not enough to. many are upset about stadiums for the 2014world cup and olympic games while social services and education are being cut. mosh from soul palo. >> in a country where more than half of the people say they are not satisfied with the

government but where unemployment remains at record lows,bone both candidates will draw out their different visions for the country. >> continuity with change. some change with continuity as well. so both of them are very close in their platforms, their political platforms. although it looks more like a fiscal conservative and the other looks more as the social program. the message from those who didn't vote was just as loud tennessee of millions of people who decided to vote for nobody. >> when power politics returns, the sound that became more

popular than the man who shouted it. look with at the dean screen 10 years later. then there is this. >> you are a nut job. you deserve whatever falls from the sky. i wan congressman steve king channels his inner jimmie kimmel.

welcome back, everybody. the 2014 mid-term elections have included some creative and intriguing campaigns aimed at encouraging other americans. entertainers explaining why they are turning out? >> i am sophie a turning up for women's rights. >> for deforestation. >> what's up? it's littlejohn. i am turning out for the legalization of marijuana. >> the video is already a viral hit as rock the vote intended. short circuited, howard dean 10 years ago is now an issue in a florida congressional race. >> remember this guy?

gwen gram mvp proposed government run healthcare and wanted seniors to pay more for medicare. good once again, what were you thinking? >> trying to beat congressman steve sutherland. their campaign is one of the most competitive in the house. do you the stretch, most campaigns switched from attack efforts to get out the vote mode to energize core supporters. the strategy usually involves a candidate softening his rough edges and trying to seem as likeable as possible. mitch mcconnell provided a lesson in how not to do this when he called into a kentucky sports radio show and got asked a string of policy questions. >> do you believe in global warming? >> it is not a "yes" or "no" question. i am not a scientist. i know there are scientists who think it's a problem and scientists who think it isn't a problem. >> it was actually a lot more screaming in that interview. on the flip side, there is iowa

republican congressman steve king. in wreent years, he has questioned the president's birth certificate and we believed an obama impeachment. he irritates democrats and an otherwise fellow republicans but he borrowed a gag and read out loud the angriest tweet. i hate sdpiedz you and the world hates you, too. i wasn't a fan. your garbage. cheers. well, you are a nut job and deserve whatever falls from the sky. >> you are a sad excuse for a human being. i have been saying that for years. >> self deprecating humor is likeable indeed. well done. all of our viewers, early voting in many states have now begun.

check with your local election board for details. i am david shuster on behalf of all of us at "power politics," thanks for watching. ♪. >> this is "al jazeera america" live from new york city. i am richelle carey. here are today's top stories. screening is underway at one u.s. air port in an effort to stop the spread of ebola from west africa. all exhausted medical workers say they desperately need more help f a fierce battle for control of kobane rages on with isil gaining ground on the syrian border town. one woman's quest to end her life raises a question of dying with dignity in the united states.