>> hi, everyone. this is aljazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler in new york. deadly forecast, alarming new predictions good the spread of ebola. health works you at risk. why safety measures to fight ebola might not be good enough. isil closes in on baghdad. are airstrikes really working? minimum wage, a battle over pay in alaska. and plus, how immigration could affect the balance of power in washington.

we are learning more tonight about just how lethal the ebola outbreak is, and how much worse it could get. the world health organization says that by december, west africa could see as many as 10,000 new infections every week. and right now, it's about 1,000 a week. >> that's right, john, the death rate in the current outbreak has risen to 70% now. it's currently sweeping across west africa, but nowhere more severe than in liberia. health workers are particularly at risk because they can be infected from the bodily fluids of the patients or the deceased. this is ground zero. working for the red cross in liberia's capital of monrovia.

his job is to remove the bodies of those killed by ebola. the red cross shows him doing his gauges work. he takes bodies from the streets and inside of the homes and takes them to a site. >site. he says he picks upper around 15 bodies a day. but before he does anything, he puts on his personal protective equipment, also known as cpe. and then he uses the buddy system to make sure that no part of his body is exposed or left uncovered. >> if i reach for my leg, i'll be infected. >> but after all of that, friday says it's actually taking off the suit that's the most dangerous part. >> you can't be too careful. >> and he must be careful, because the world health organization says there have been more than 8900 ebola cases and more than 4400 deaths.

that's just what has been reported, and it's about to get worse. by this december, the w.h.o. expects 5-10 cases in a week, just in guinea, liberia and sierra leone. >> the goal now is to take all of the different pieces of the ebola treatment centers, to the deployments and engagements, to make sure that we have the capacity in place at the time. >> of all the places, ebola has hit liberia the hardest. 95 healthcare workers have died among the 2300 deaths in the country. and though it's prevalent, the virus is still new. > >> with that aid, friday says that he's confident that more people can beat the disease

that has already taken so many lives. >> healthcare workers have threatened to strike, citing poor pay and poor conditions, but the health minister is trying to secure a pay raise. meanwhile, there are only six treatment centers, half of which are run by doctors without borders. thank you very much, and more americans are getting ready to battle ebola in west africa. the army's first airborne division received training in kentucky, and they will soon head to liberia. 350 u.s. troops are already on the ground in west africa. and the pentagon said the scope of the mission could grow. matthew served in the military for six years, and he was deployed in iraq and now he works as a paramedic to help veterans in disasters around the world. matt, thank you for being with us, and so what specific training are you folks getting? >> well, in the military right

now, training to talk about, and what procedures you use, and realizing that this is a very slow, methodical process that you have to a go through whenever you're working in a contaminated area. there's something rampant about this, and worrying protection, and going into the communities. right now, there are no plans to have a majority of any of the u.s. soldiers treat infected patients, so the work is going to be support, logistics and intelligence gathering. >> how long did it take to bring them up to speed? >> this is unprecedented. this has never happened before. and i don't think that anyone in a u.s. military combat unit would have thought they would be deployed. >> so how do they choose who is best-suited for this type of work. >> the army has a cycle, it's a five year process. and whoever is sort of on tap

to be deployed next, i imagine that's who they were going to work with next. the units are trammed in combat. and they're at the highest level of all of the units. >> so it's not easy to parachute into a situation like this, and not always are american troops welcomed with open arms. how do the troops on the ground sort of try to disarm people, or having thoughts that these are not the right guys to come in? >> there's going to be a large component that's public health message related, and a joint and cooperative operation with the local health ministry. it has to be a joint operation. i don't think there's any way for the u.s. military to go when this alone. there are great organizations on the ground, doctors without borders are working right now, using local partners to accomplish the work that they're doing, and there of been contexts and there of been failures in guinea. there were eight healthcare

workers killed because there were confusing messages as to why they were in the village, they were stoned to death and had their throats slit. and nobody wants that to happen again. working with foreign populations, getting language training and moving in, and doing the best they can to communicate the public health message. >> how do you compare it to war? how do you compare this to other situations where you participated in natural disaster relief? >> i think this is the worst case scenario that anyone can possibly imagine. you can't shoot ebola, you can't see where the hurricane or tornado has gone through. right? this is sort of an invisible deadly virus, and we don't know who has it, who doesn't have 2. and you have to assume that the majority of the people that you come in contact with are infected, you have to use universal precautions at all times, and i think that the case of the nurse in dallas, texas, that got infected, one

small slipup can lead to infection, and that's incredibly immobilizing. >> huge pressure, right? >> huge pressure. >> thank you for being here, appreciate it. some setbacks tonight for other countries battling ebola. in germany, a u.n. worker infected has died. the 56-year-old man was transported from west africa to leap seeing after getting sick. and he died despite receiving experimental drugs to treat the virus, and then in spain, workers are protesting over substandard training. over the case of an assistant nurse infected with ebola in madrid. here in the dvd, more changes, and how they will respond to ebola in the u.s. more on that with robert.

>> he addressed it. saying that ebola is scary, it's unfamiliar, and getting it right is important. but stakes are high, and changes in the protocol are on the way. officials are taking new steps to ensure the world that the world can handle ebola. >> for any hospital, anywhere in the country that has a courtroomed case of ebola, we will put a team on the ground within hours. >> the head of the cdc admitting mistakes in the case of a liberian man's death in dallas, and how it the nurse took care of him. >> what we have done in the last 48 hours, to improve infection control there, is to send a team into the field. and we have sent the cdc's most

experienced staff, people who have worked on ebola out breaks for decades. >> meanwhile, the natiol nurse's association wants more action from the credit card. it says many of its representatives are not prepared to care for ebola be patients. >> we're the ones that are going to be on the front lines, and we're the ones that are going to risk our lives to take care of these patients, and possibly be exposed to a deadly virus, and so we expect a high-level of training to do so safely. >> hoping to curb the concerns, the cdc announced it set up a rapid response team that will be sent to any u.s. hospital where a patient is diagnosed with ebola. a team will be made up with what the cdc calls world experts on treating ebola. the team will be on ground within hours to make sure that local hospitals handle the patients safely. >> every hour of the day, there's a site manager there,

who is overseeing aspects of infection control. control to make sure that equipment is put on correctly and taken off correctly. in fact, in our work to stop ebola in africa, this is the single most important position, to protect health workers. >> the cdc has new now added dozens of healthcare workers to the list of people being monitored for signs of ebola after coming into contact contact with patients in dallas. >> john, it's a tragedy already that a nigeria an national man has died in the hospital. and you add on the new news of the nurse who was treating him infected. the change of the protocol today. but the big question is, is that taking away from the fight over in west africa. is the cdc learning to stop

ebola or is a lot of concentration in the u.s. on the minimal things that have occurred so far in comparison to the thousands of it people who have already died and are infected in west africa? >> ebola is forcing hospitals to look at expert precautions, from what the staff wear to how they handle medical waste. jake ward is in dallas with more. and jake, what kind of special rules are the hospitals putting in place? >> well, john, it has been an all-out scramble across the united states to learn these new procedures, and turns out they don't just involve the taking off of the equipment, but what you do afterwards. the trick is making sure that everything on the outside of this protective layer remains on the outside. that's the point of no return. there's no going back. comes off. it's all balled up, and i'm

grabbing it only on the inside. and this is the part that can get you into trouble. at this point, i'm not allowed to take any of this off yet. i have to wash my hands and sterilize them. and put a new pair of gloves on. taking these off with sweaty hands. you can see how somebody could skip this step. now, the facemask, and now at this point, i dispose of this third pair of gloves again. and the point is that's a tedious process. and there are points where i would be attempted to skip the third glove. and remember, you're doing 24 for every ebola patient you see. here's the thing to consider. with every single patient,

you're going to generate at least airgap, three pairs of gloves, goggles, a bonnet and a respirator. all of this is biohazard waste. and it has to be sterilized or incinerated on-site before it can be shipped anywhere. john, it's really just starting to coalesce the script for how the hospitals have to handle it, and they are learning as they go. >> jake, you talk about incinerating and sterilizing waste, and how do the hospitals actually deal with that? >> well, that's a tremendous, tremendous problem. here at texas presbyterian behind me, they don't have an industrial sized auto clave, which is what you need toster lies this stuff. they won't let you take any material to an off-sight landfill unless it has been sterilized or incinerated

first. and some don't have the machine real estate to process it on-site. and we have to look at those hospitals buying new auto claves and having enough on-site to do something with it. those are rules that nobody ever thought about before. and ebola is forcing all of these new procedures onto hospitals right now. >> all right, jake ward, thank you very much. and there are developments tonight on several fronts in the battle against isil. security forces have evacuated another military base as isil fighters close in on the capital. the base is 1500 miles west of baghdad, it's now in isil's hands. and in northern baghdad. a suicide car bombing killed 25 people. it's the third day of the bombing in the region, and isil has taken credit for most of those attacks. >> on the kurdish border, 21 airstrikes in and around the city of kobane. isil fighters have been trying

to seize kobane along the turkish border for weeks. a coalition meeting was held outside of andrews air base today. leaders from 21° including president obama were there. and it's the first time that so many leaders of so many nations have it gathered since the coalition formed. they talked about the strategy of airstrikes. >> reporter: two days of meetings have ramped up here at andrews air base, with defense teams from 20 other countries and their u.s. counterparts. president barack obama spent about 90 minutes meeting with the military chiefs, and he briefly spoke about it afterwards. and he cited the siege, taking mosul back from isil fighters, and making erbil safe. but that was at the beginning of the coalition strikes. and here's what he had to say about the progress thattites ill has been making in the past few weeks. >> this is going to be a

long-term campaign. there are not quick fixes involved. as with any military effort, there will be days of progress and periods of set back. but our coalition is united behind this long-term effort. because of the numbers of foreign fighters that are being attracted and the chaos that isil has created in the region, ultimately, it will pose a threat beyond the middle east, including to the united states, europe, and foreign countries like australia. >> so the defense chiefs head back to their home countries, and there are no announcements about coalition partners doing more or changes in strategy, and in fact, the u.s. is doing about 90% of the air campaign in iraq and syria, and after this meeting, it doesn't look like that's going to change any time soon. >> still ahead, our special report, america votes 2014. and this week, the politics of immigration and delayed hopes

for reform. plus: >> like many people around the country, alaskans are debating a hike in the minimum wage this season. i'm south of anchorage, where living at the low end of the wage scale is a little bit different. that story is just ahead.

>> five states are debating minimum wage, and alaska is one of them. but it's different there. >> have you heard this before? alaska is different. it's bigger and more expensive than your state. basic geography dictates higher prices for almost everything, and higher wages for almost every job. right now, only 4,000 full-time workers make the state's minimum wage. $7.77 an hour, 70 cents higher

than the national minimum. alaska has joined other states in deciding what to give workers at the bottom of the pay scale a minimum raise. at an average register kfc, she has made the minimum, and she gets a little more now since he's working the counter. she said her pay hasn't kept up with the cost of living. >> you have to do what you have to do. >> but she could use an extra 75 cents an hour. >> yeah, that helps too. >> alaska's median household income is more than 40% higher than the u.s. average, but it's the fourth most expensive trip to live in. on our last trip, we paid $7.90 for gas. government provides 2/3 of the state's jobs, and oil changes the income formula. oil revenues support the

permanent fund, which spins off of an annual dividend payment and it goes to everybody. this year, it was $1,884 just for being an alaskan. >> how good it is it to get the dividend check? >> so nice, we're lucky to get that money and pay some bills. yeah. mostly, pay tax. >> another thing that changes the work for wages concept is all of this wide open territory. there's lots of food out here if you know how to hunt it down, but not many jobs. the village is 330 miles from average register, and a boat ride from the nearest paid road. the mayor sent a skiff over to pick us up, that's him. he takes us across the lake and delivers us to mayor, and i

asked her, how many jobs are here. >> i would say maybe four that are full-time. >> just four, and all of them pay substantially more than the minimum, 12-$14 an hour. clearly, this is a place where getting by often has less to do with paychecks, and more to do with distinctly alaskan challenges. >> this year, not everybody caught their moose, you know. >> moose may have been hard to find, but everybody got fish. the mayor shows us the salmon hung outdoors, and the whitefish in the smoker. all of it the end product of hard work nobody gets paid to do. if you want to eat this winter, go fish and hunt, can, pick berries and pack the freezer. >> cranberries? >> yeah. those are the only ones that grew this year. >> the mayor introduces us to margie, who shows us her food stash. you'll find something something like thatter in every home, she

says. subsistence with hunting and foraging is legal. and the annual food har rest is nearly 300 pounds per person. margie gently shrugs off a question about whether the village is poor. >> to me, property is not all about money. i feel like we're really reach because of all of the resources we have. >> harris, deputy secretary for five years in the obama administration, and he joins us from washington. welcome. >> good to be with you, john. >> alaska's ballot initiative will link minimum wage to the cpi index, and how unusual is that. >> well, there are a dozen states that are indexing their minimum wage to the cpi. and it's a way to make sure that the minimum wage workers don't fall behind because of

inflation, but we have not done it at the federal level, and most states have not done it. >> why do republicans oppose it? >> they don't want to see the minimum wage go up, and indexing it to the cost of living guarantees that overtime, it will go up. and democrats and worker advocates want to see the minimum wage go up up so they wt to see the minimum wage index, but they to the see the minimum wage raised first. all it does is make sure that the workers don't fall behind. but the minimum wpga at the federal level is historically a very very low level so. a lot of advocates say that you have to raise the minimum wage first, like alaska on election day, and then. >> the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and if we link it to inflation, would that be good for workers? >> i don't think so, because it would lock in historically very

low minimum wage. the minimum wage hasn't been raised in five years, and even then it wasn't at a historically high level. minimum wage workers and those earning near the minimum wage have actually seen their wages decline over the past three decades. they have seen real wages go down, and income for families have gone down, so we need to see the minimum wage go up substantially in order to give them a shot at supporting their families. >> i understand, but with both sides in different places, the workers get nothing, and as you say, the wages go down. >> that's exactly right. and that's why we have seen 2 dozen states enact minimum wages that are higher than the federal minimum wage. and we have seen cities enact minimum wages as high as $15 an

hour. and there has been a push among fast food workers to raise their wages. there has been a push on working families that their wages have stagnated as wall street has raised profits, and getting blacker and blacker, so playing out in the minimum wage ballot initiatives that are on the ballot in a couple of weeks, i think that those four ballot measures, including the fifth in illinois, the advisory will turn out like the last ten have since 2002. every minimum wage ballot initiative paxes because workers want to see minimum wages go up. >> harris, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> all weeklong, we're bringing you the biggest issues facing alaska in this midterm election. we hope that you'll join us on friday. 8:30 eastern and again at 11:30 eastern. coming up next, the crisis at the border, and no political

solution in sight. an in-depth look at the issue of immigration if our special report, america votes 2014. and plus, the super pact that wants to put an end to all of the other super pact. critics say this it's another attempt to buy an election. we're following the money.

>> it's one of america's most talked about problems. immigration, the future of 11 billion undocumented people in the u.s. washington won't deal with it before the election. with the midterms just three weeks away, how can immigration impact the balance of power? our special report, america votes 2014. >> i'm john seigenthaler in new york, and the crisis on the border has not gone away. washington has avoided taking action, voters are paying attention, and politicians may pay for it in november. and it could mean a major power shift in washington. >> reporter: often with undocumented immigrants,

something called the legal status is something that all democrats and some republicans support, but there has never been enough common ground to make a deal. that wants been the case since president bush tried and failed for immigration reform twice in 2014 and again in 2007. the obama administration's push last year managed to push a bipartisan deal in the senate but that died this year, right in the middle of the crisis on the border. over the summer, with women and children suddenlying across the southern border at a record rate, with immigration reform going nowhere fast, president obama announced that he was taking matters into his own hands. >> i'm making a new effort to fix as much as our immigration system as i can on my own, without congress. >> it the system was overwhelmed. the border patrol over worked and under prepared.

shelters overflowing with people fleeing central america. rumors about a non-existent permit to go to the u.s. was part of the problem. >> we went because of the permit. we heard that if a parent arrived with a child, they would give them permission to go into the u.s. >> while the permit rumor may have been the tipping point, the root of the crisis, the horrifying including crime and violence wracking honduras, and another problem, the waves of migrants forced to turn around. >> they were in mexico is and on the way to the u.s., and they were brought back to the shelter. some have families to meet them and pick them up, and others are staying in a shelter. they're coming off by themselves and it's a chaotic and desperate scene here. >> the number trying to cross

the border dropped to a relative trickle by july. obama administration was blamed for luring them in the first place. >> if they're going to work, it's essential that the american people have the confidence that it's being done correctly. >> human traffickers were at least partly to blame for spreading the permit worker, and as for the president, saying that he would fix the problem himself. >> america cannot wait forever. >> has decided that america has to wait longer, after the midterms. some have called president obama the deporter in chief, thing to push harder for an immigration overhaul. >> more than 60% of latino voters know somebody who is undocumented. and we are experiencing the effects of making this a

political football, which frankly has been done so by both parties at different times. >> as long as the two parties kick the football around, the millions of undocumented workers in america, people with jobs and families, people with hopes and dreams, will be left to wonder what the future holds in a land they have come to think of as home. just months after president obama called the situation on the border a humanitarian crisis, the number of unaccompanied minors, those children trying to enter the country, has dropped close to a two-year low. and most analysts say that it's a seasonal dip, and we could see the same spike in the spring again next year, and john, if we do, we will certainly see a replay of that political wrangling. the immigrant population is growing fast, in fact five times faster than the u.s.-born population. >> the u.s. remains the world's destination by far.

more people move here than anywhere else. followed by russia and germany. overall, there are more than 40 million immigrants in the u.s., or 13% of the country's population was born someplace else. that's almost as high as the peak in the easterly 1900s when europeans were pouring in. today most come from mexico and southeast asia. more than 11 million people have come here illegally. and that number has been dropping slightly in recent years. most of the country is immigrants, those who legally and illegally in just five states. california has the most, followed by new york, texas, florida and new jersey, but parts of the south have seen huge spikes. since 2000, alabama, kentucky and south carolina have had huge jumps in their immigrant population, jumping by 80% on average. tennessee saw the biggest

spike. it's a clear sign that the country is becoming more diverse in more places. >> the influx of unaccompanied children this summer have ramifications far beyond the border states. our reporters in texas, louisiana and new york give us a sense of the impact. and we start with heidi jo in dallas. >> the influx of the children over the border since june, the total never reaching feared levels. in the summer, homeland security estimated the children could be as high as 90,000. as many as 10,00 10,000 minors a month were streaming over the boarder. in september, only 2400 crossed the border. they attributed it to increased execute. and u.s. urging central

american leaders to discourage the trips north. rick perry, who dispatched 1,000 national guard to the border might disagree with the assess many. he plans to keep the national guard there until the federal government dispatches more staffing for the border control. heidi jo castro. dallas. >> i'm in new orleans. public schools are scrambling to educate the children who recently crossed the border. 1400 of them have crossed the border and federal law requires the zoos to provide an education to all children. but it could cost the taxpayers more than $25 million. and school districts are having a tough time finding bilingual teachers, with some schools offering bonuses for the position. >> i'm morgan bradford.

oareaccording to the federal government, 140000 children moved here just this year, and currently they're living with sponsors. these are kids like manuel from honduras. he met with his family for the first time in years. he tried to cross the border into texas alone, and that's where he got caught. and he spent one month in a juvenile detention center before the authorities put him on a plane to new york to be reunited with his parents. to have them more quickly decided here than anywhere else this the country. roughly 80% of the asylum cases are granted here, opposed to 50% for the national average. for manuel, he's having his detention hearing, and still awaiting the results. >> how big is immigration happening nationwide?

mike viqueira at the white house. >> reporter: good evening to you, john. immigration one of the issues that's playing in a state-by-state basis. this is a midterm three weeks from tonight where there's an overriding national issue. many issues, and immigration is just one of them. but let's take two key battle ground states and look at how it's playing differently, cutting both ways between democrats and republicans. arkansas and colorado. arkansas, tom cotton, a conservative house member, taking on democrat, mark pryor. you remember when president obama went on his push at the end of the summer, he was thinking about states like arkansas. and the goal was to fire up the base and get the base democrats to the polls but it would have fired up the wrong base in arkansas, john, and it got republicans to the polls as opposed to it democrats.

however, when president obama went back on his promise in colorado, it hurt him. and the rising and substantial already latoni population in colorado. the democrat in is in big trouble there. this is somewhat unexpected. mark udall, the conservative in cory gardener. it cuts both ways. on balance, the white house figured it was a bad idea, john, so they abandoned it. and it might help them retain the senate, but hurt them in other states like colorado. >> let's talk about the gop. can they block on the hill and not suffer the consequence? >> absolutely not. in the long-term, there's no question that it's going to hurt them, john. particularly in national elections. in the midterm, war the republicans are so fervently so anti-reform, amnesty, past

legality. that it's not going to go anywhere for them, the immigration reform advocates. but the hispanic vote is doubling by 2030, and the republican leaders have recognized this, and they have made signs, and they want to tackle a piecemeal approach in the house. look no further than eric cantor, john, he made a modest overture about allowing the young children who rove bed in the country to stay here and he was defeated by it conservative activists. they want to move forward to the president's position, and the base is handcuffing him, and they can't do it, and it's going to cost them in the long run,as early as 2016. >> wendy is a latina political strategist t. knowledge is power, and joins us tonight. wendy, welcome, good to see

you. >> good to see you, john. >> who do the latinos blame, the republicans or the deputies. >> i think that they blame both parties at this point. the white house hasn't done anything, a lot of broken promises, but republicans aren't doing much to attract latinos at this point, with the constant fear mongering. >> so latinos stay home this midterm election. >> there has been a lot of talk about latinos not going out to vote. we have some like janet and eva longoria, using her platform to motive latinos. and regardless of what party you're affiliated with, it could be the key demographic in changing the state. >> but if they stay home, what impact does that have on the election? >> it could be devastating to

incumbents, or it could be an incredibly good thing for somebody running in opposition of whoever is in the office at the moment. but i think that it sends the wrong message. talking about latinos being the sleeping enjoyment, which is often used, and then not actually showing up to the polls, what voice or representation do latinos actually have when it comes to the needs or the hews that are affecting the community? >> is the latino vote a sleeping joint in your opinion? >> i've never liked the idea of a sleeping giant. i feel like it's a constant snooze. the latino vote could be a great factor in electing the next president. in fact, lateos were crucial in electing president obama in key states. but latinos need to be politically engaged and be representative and remembered to vote and actually go vote.

>> what happens to happen for the latinos to get behind a particular political candidate? >> i think it's a lot of issue-based ideology. so we look at immigration, and various different viewpoints, buff immigration is not the only issue that impacts latinos. we have to look at the economy, jobs, education, ensuring that there's a next generation of people that are getting college degrees and obtaining jobs that are well paid and continuing to be a motivation for the country. so it's not just about immigration, but definitely looking at candidates that speak to a variety of issues. >> wha what do you say about politicians linking the isil threat to border security. >> i think it's a really great way to alien ate latino voters. if republicans continue to do that and fear monger across the

country, you alien ain't not only latinos across the border as something that units the country. latinos are by cultural and bilingual and live in two different spaces, so when you continue 20 fear monger, that's a reason why they don't particularly like your viewpoint. >> wendy, it thank you so much. >> thank you. >> coming up next, we follow the money in one closely followed senate race. senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, might be breathing a little bit easier tonight. and plus, taking big money out of politics, and why he's spending big money to do it.

>> votes 2014. >> today the democratic

senatorial campaign said that it will no longer air tv ads in kentucky. not a good idea for the candidate looking to a defeat mish mcconnell. spending $2 million there, allison grimes, and there of been tens of thousands of dollars spent by mcconnell and his supporters. last night, grimes and mcconnell faced off in a debate. and the democrat was again under fire for refusing to say how she voted in the last presidential election. >> why are you reluctant to give an answer on whether or not you voted for president obama? >> bill, there's no reluctancy, there is a matter of principle. our constitutional grants here in ken concern, the constitutional right for privacy at the ballot box, for secret ballot. you have that right. and senator mcconnell has that right. and as secretary of state the

chief of elections, i'm tasked with making sure that we're enforcing all of our election laws. >> the most recent polls show mcconnell with a 3-point lead. this election year, an interesting idea is catching on. a new group wants to remove money from politics. they say politicians are too focused on fundraising and not governing. >> we want to take your tax dollars and be hand them out to the cronies and lobbyists. >> in politics, money matters. >> it will be a great help to the campaign. >> you and your husband could max out. >> and it's being spent like never before. something that a harvard professor hopes to end. >> we're calling a mayday on this democracy. >> a new movement this year. fight big money and politics with big money. he's raising millions to help candidates to say that they

will push for public funding of campaigns. >> our government is broken and more than 09% of that link that failure to the roll of money in politics. >> to do it, he started something that he eventually wants to get rid. a political action committee, mayday, to end all super packs. >> this is the ultimate elixir to get money out of politics, going to the devil to use the devil's techniques. >> allowing them to spend as much as they want on campaigns, as long as they don't work directly with the candidate. they have been flourishing since 2010, when the supreme court struck down how much companies and rich people could spend on elections. 1300 super pacts raised nearly $1 billion. almost 60% of that came from just 100 people. folks like the casino mogul who

spent $92 million. former new york mayor, michael bloomberg, who spent $10 million. so the mayday pact is pushing back. it says that it has raised $8 million this year to back eight candidates. including democrat, rick wild in south dakota. >> but plenty are rolling their eyes. calling it a farce. >> they're spending billions to buy leaks. >> and some say that campaign reform is not a burning issue for voters. >> there are not a lot of politicians in washington ready to get money out of politics. >> some are clearly long shots. >> i don't want to spend money engaged in a third iraq ground war. >> one, run for senator in new hampshire, has already lost. but others see victory, backed my a group trying to spend to

win. >> what it is, it's a conundrum for a lot of people to use big dollar money to get big money out of politics. mayday says that the ground is really just a test to it gage interest and success. the real focus is for 2016 to get enough into congress to pass reform. which may be the ultimate test to see if they can change a system that got them elected. a congressional correspondent for time magazine, she has reported extensively on the impact of super pacts in political races, welcome. >> let me go back to kentucky for a second. spending more money on tv ads in kentucky. have they given up on this race, the senate race in kentucky? >> essentially, that's what they're saying. what they're saying, their money is going to be spent better elsewhere, and you have two new states that have entered the fray in the last

weeks. kansas and south dakota, where you have independents, mounting very strong bids that could unseat republicans or democrats that were doomed to the republicans in the past. and they're basically figuring that their money is better in those seats. and republicans have spent money in those seats, and grimes, which she was meant to do in the beginning, force mitch mcconnell to spend $64 million to defend his seat, which is to draw races from all other republicans. >> three points away, behind three points, and the democrats are pulling out? >> . >> democrats, it's just one arm of democrats, and there are tons of independent money, independent advertising that's going into the race. this is a $40 million race. on her side, and there are tens of millions still going into just one group.

which is the democratic controlled campaign committee pulling out is not going to make that much difference. it's a $100 million ♪ seat. the most expensive in history. and them pulling in $2,700,000,000 in money is not going to make a huge difference. >> let's talk about the mayday pack will it be successful in finance campaign success do you think or not? >not? certainly not this cycle. if they're setting it up for the long run, down the road, you could do campaign finance reform and that's great. but there's no desire in congress, and electing that many members to do so is going to be an enormous challenge, and it's going to take, quite frankly, decades to do. so they're lying expectations low, and there's a long game

for that. >> hope they're in for the long haul. so when it comes to money being spent on the election, which party do you think has been the most effective so far. >> i think that the democrats have been very unified in their messaging, focused and funneling their money through certain groups and pacts, and really kind of focusing all of their money in certain races and issues, and not really, except for pacts thak mayday, there's not a lot of freelancing, whereas republicans, they're kind of all over the place. you mentioned ableson, he funds online gambling and florida and all kinds of different issues, and the republican spending is really kind of parochial. it's kind of all of these issues that are very specific to ballot issues, and energy and other things, and it's all over the place. so in that sense, the democrats have been much more disciplined. >> is there a fix to campaign

finance reform? >> obviously, there is a legislative fix, and congress has been trying to pass it since feingold, which was the previous struck down by the supreme court. and unfortunately n. the last two attempts to pass that fix was -- stumbled cross the nra. and that's such a powerful lobby, it didn't work. and really, the biggest person blocking it has been mitch mcconnell, who has been one of the biggest advocates for unlimited campaign spending, and the irony, if he loses his seat, it will be because they spent so much money against him >> it would be ironic. it's good to have you on the program. and we'll talk again. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> you're watching america votes 2014, and we'll be right back.

>> america votes 2014. >> the biggest decision voters will make in the next term

leaks, whether republicans take control of both chambers. one of those states is alaska. we spent a week there talking to voters about the issues. >> reporter: john, i'm going to be talking about pot. marijuana is on the ballot in alaska. the last frontier is part of the nationwide push for legalization. there are a lot of pot smoke, in this state, and it has a pretty good chance of passing. and another initiative, the pebble mine, one of the biggest gold and copper mines in america. but fishermen and environmental groups have been fighting for years, and now alaskans will vote on whether the state legislature will have the final say on the project. and now it's a close race, and the ad war is not pretty. more than $42 million spent in the race that could swing the

balance of power to the u.s. senate. john. >> make sure that you tune in friday night for a special election report. five days in alaska. it airs 8:30 and 11:30 eastern time. that's our program, and we thank you for watching. next week, we'll focus on the issues. i'm john seigenthaler. have a good night.

on "america tonight", is it too little, too late. the c.d.c. creates an ebola response team to improve hospital safety. >> for any hospital, any hospital that has a confirmed case of ebola, we'll put a team on the ground within hours. >> this as the group is monitored for the virus gets bigger, and the expected death toll worldwide climbs. also - paying the price for