change campaign committee co-founder adam green. a look at health care as a campaign issue with the cato institute's michael tanner. we will talk with "the hill" reporter sean miller. this is "washington journal." [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] host: six more days until the 2010 midterm congressional elections. as we have been doing this past week, "washington journal" will continue to focus on the political landscape and a look at some of the 1000-plus candidates. earlier this week we just had republicans calling in. we had just independences -- independents. this morning we want to hear

from democrats only on a campaign 2010. what is motivating you to get to the polls? how'd you feel about the chances? what is going on with your local races. you can see the lines/geographic location. please, allow 30 days between your calls. send us an e-mail at c-span.org or you can send us a tweaked -- tweet. we will begin taking the calls in just a few minutes. here is the front page of "the hill" newspaper and we will talk about this more in depth with sean miller. they conducted their final poll. there had line --

-- their headline -- they are showing a long term democratic congressman, including budget chairman john spratt. he is 10 points down according to their poll. 14-term congressman from pennsylvania, kanjorski. alan boyd in florida, down. jim marshall from georgia down in the polls. colorado's john salazar, three terms, he is also down. those are some of the seats. there are some surprises in this poll. we will look at it later on in the program more in depth. this is richard wolf's article in "usa today." it kind of encapsulates what is going on right now and the campaign.

the battle focused on a handful of tossup races.

again, that is richard wolf's article in "usa today" this morning. democrats only for the first 45 minutes. what is motivating you and going on in your mind for campaign 2010. let's start with keith in the lakes city, south carolina. are you with us? please, go ahead with your comments. caller: how are you doing this morning? i am doing fine. i am calling in regarding the 2010 midterm elections. i will be voting democrat this year because i believe that when

he someone who is going to represent the american people and our values. i understand we had an economic crisis nearly two years ago and people have to realize that it takes time for change to come. we cannot expect things in one or two years. i believe that president barack obama and the democrat majority of the ones that can lead this country in the right direction. host: is this election to you about president obama? caller: no, it is not. it is about the american future. host: dallas, good morning to you. caller: how are you doing? i was calling in about the 2010 midterm election and what is motivating -- motivating me is the republicans in tea party. it really makes no sense. they are trying to put all of this pressure on president obama like he created this problem.

two years. they say it took bush eight years to miss the economy. that is what is motivating me and all of these radical, crazy jobs out here. that will make me get to the polls. host: you are the second caller to mention president obama. in your view is this election referendum on president obama? caller: it really is. it has nothing to do what he is trying to come in and do. it is all about the color of his skin, which anybody who has any kind of common sense would know that and basically see what is happening out here. host: you think it is about the color of his skin? caller: exactly. the tea party got out here. you never see them when george bush was out here running up the debt and putting pressure. as soon as he got into office, that is the first time -- when he started doing the health care, it is obamacare.

it is called health care. if they had any type of common sense, they would see that. host: leeway in chicago. good morning. campaign 2010. caller: yes, it is about obama's agenda. but just moving forward. as the previous caller said, i want to know where were the tea party candidates when george bush was doing all of the damage that he did. it takes time to move forward. if nothing happens in a day. you have to give this man a chance. for someone like mitch mcconnell to say his number one goal is to stop all, reelected and his agenda, it shows me these people are not for the country. host: leroy, isn't it his job? caller: to stop the president from moving the country forward? is that what you are asking me? his job is to help of the

country to move forward. if that involves him compromising, compromising always gets things done. but if someone says i will block everything you do, i don't care if the country goes down in flames, my job is to block everything you do. host: what do you do in chicago? caller: a truck driver. host: are you working? are you listening was satellite radio? caller: yes, i am. thank you for listening. host: who will you vote for for mayor? caller: i don't know who i am going to vote for for mayor. i don't know. host: thank you for calling in. appreciate it. robert, bellevue, washington. good morning to you. caller: the reason i called is that i was hoping that people would recognize basically what this whole thing is about is the .act that we've got a class war

if they keep to the simple term, they will understand what direction you have to take themselves. it is big business actually holding the card for hostage and holding all of the money back until they get all the tax relief. the middle-class people, they are being stirred up like the -- it is being held hostage by big business. they can make this election look like it is about anything -- but it is strictly about a class war problem. host: what do you think about the all mail-in voting system in washington?

caller: i like it. host: have you voted already? caller: about a week ago. host: a lot of attention being paid to senator murray. you have pretty high level visitors coming out. caller: yes, because she really recognizes that big business -- about the tax for the upper class. big business is doing fine. they are holding a lot of money back to make sure she said there are no jobs. they will put the brakes on until they get what they want as far as tax relief. host: the president is coming out, vice president, campaigning for senator murray and her campaign. all of that money, all that attention, she is one or two points up? caller: yes. it is kind of like polls and

that sort of thing. i think you will find of the end that she will be successful because i know that it is a pretty educated area. we do have a lot of big business like boeing and microsoft and stuff like that. but an educated group of people like here in the bay area, they are aware of the class things going on. host: from "politico" this morning, democrats' game plan, divide and conquer.

by the way, the current makeup of the house and senate. in the house, 255 democrats, 178 republicans, two vacancies currently, one in new york and indiana. in the senate, 57 democrats, 41 republicans, and two independents. you have to reach 218 to have a

majority in the house and obviously 50 + 1 in the senate. robert in davenport, iowa. caller: i am voting and encouraging everyone else to vote. my wife pointed out the other day in the newspaper, a joke or a cartoon, showing a republican as an elephant and he was scratching -- praying, we can only keep quiet for a few more days and we will be put to get back in and do what we have been doing when bush was in there. you have to go back wedbush got into office, the economy was fine, we had a surplus. he got in and ran up this gigantic $1.20 trillion deficit and it is the same analysis -- he has not added to it 1 ounce. the thing is, they want to get

back in because they can run the minimum wage down to $2 an hour. to clean up the homes and so forth. they want to get back in and as he said put the country back into reverse because i heard them say on tv today that they tea bagers were going to go out and check people's credentials as to whether or not they have the right to vote. who is checking their credentials? that they are not plain old klan coming out there doing voter intimidation. they were crying and complaining about two black panthers in the last election that were out there. to make, if they are, in our neighborhoods pulling this stuff and tried to get people from voting i think more black young men and young women need to turn out and check those tea

baggers and check of their credentials. host: are you voting for the governor for reelection or terry bransack. caller: i am voting age straight democratic ticket. those have an attitude that they want everything and once they have everything you might have a little bit to try to survive and they want to take that, too. host: liz, texas. good morning to you. democrats only. caller: my thoughts are this basically. i am a democrat and i always have been and will be. it is absolute fear of what i am seeing and hearing on television. when i think of this rally at the rand paul rally at this other night, it makes me absolutely want to throw up, returns -- regurgitate. people with guns going to rallies, intimidation, the rich

getting richer, holding out, waiting for tax cuts. talking about stalemate, thank god there is a veto because otherwise i don't know what we would do. the case of the total sweep of the house and senate. i am hopeful that as people begin to see the craziness that is going on and the ads and so on and so forth, that they are beginning to realize the insanity going on and their risk of our constitution, of our founding fathers. we have that constitution for a reason. host: dorothy, brooklyn, new york, good morning. caller: i am excited voting this time. i always vote democrat. i am a democrat for years. but my motivation was from day one when i heard jim demint say

health care was obama's waterloo, you have the rush limbaugh saying the same thing, you have the republicans from the same page and to top it off now, mitch mcconnell is so happy that he is going to take back the senate that he is going to block everything. i got laid off in 1999 and i watched my company went from 2000 people to under 200. i will not call the name of the company bought -- but our jobs or outsourced. i worked for the stock market for over 38 years and i watched foreign companies coming in, saying we made too much money as americans. i never got a raise -- in 1999 got laid off the same time. all of my friends are still being laid off although we don't do nothing in that company. host: from "the hill" newspaper.

rangel likely to represent himself at trial. linden in alabama. good morning to you. go ahead with your comments, please. caller: good morning. i am calling concerning the office of the president's --

president. it is a sad day when we can this respect the office of president. to assassinate the reputation of the office of president. host: do you think that has happened in the past? caller: i think it is happened in the past and happening right now with this governor saying shoved it. if you are not talking to president obama -- host: talking about the democratic candidate for governor in rhode island. caller: yes, rhode island. it is sad. when we have to have -- have candidates tearing down the office of president. host: told me, detroit. democrats only. campaign 2010. caller: i just want to say, i hope that the people wakeup, the democrats, young and old because this is class warfare what is happening.

host: what do you mean when you say class warfare? caller: it is the rich versus the middle-class and the poor. what i see happening is that the middle-class will cease to exist if we sit there and allowed the republicans to take over the house. it is what it is. that is all pretty much wanted to say. host: the front page of "the new york times." for democrats, financial edge in the campaign.

this is quite a long article. it goes into almost a full-page jump in. but it is in "the new york times" in case you're interested in seeing it for yourself. of the front page of "the washington post," a big profile of john bain. here is the jump page. which kicked out of leadership, boehner has made a comeback. i will just read the selected parts of it.

it goes on in this article to say that boehner feels a certain kinship with the outsider candidate to remind him of

himself 20 years ago. he was in charge of connections with outside groups and k street. played a key fund-raising role when he distributed corporate tax the nation's two other republicans on the house floor. he later apologized and helped pass a rule forbidding

distributing donations on the floor. here is the conclusion of this profile of john boehner. boehner is not close friends with any of the other elected republican leaders, including house minority whip eric kanter -- cantor.

last year it drew a modest crowd and john boehner pleaded with those in attendance to recruit more donors. this year he had no such trouble. when he arrived for the dinner, the ball on was packed. this is writing in "the washington post" this morning. philadelphia, mark. the democrats' only this morning. thanks for holding. you are on the air. caller: good morning, peter. personally right now i think the midterms here, i think the dem'' goose is cooked, too late to turn around. but i think moving forward but the democrats have to do, if you saw the show about the 99 ears, they have to figure out a way to help non-union private sector and for use. they have done enough to help the school teachers, state and municipal police, uaw, bailout of the auto companies, they have

to figure out a way to help non- union employees, that they can't find work. they can't ignore the 95% of the work force that is not union and doesn't work in the state and local government. host: are you excited about representative sestak and his chances? caller: you know what? it has gone back and forth. it seems like right now sestak's ads are not showing up as much as toomey, and toomey released recent -- recently some banning ads against sestak. i have a feeling toomey is starting to edge forward. it was a dead heat t but dead heatoomey is gaining some momentum. ethel tweets in --

linda from wisconsin. determines, dedicated, the manic democrats will deliver in november. phyllis, are you with us? caller: i totally disagree with the man from pennsylvania. this election is not lost for democrats. that's what the media wants us to think. but early bolting is showing that democrats are just as enthused as ever and my message to democrats who think that the election is lost and why bother to go vote -- you are just killing yourself. this election can be won. in fact, i heard last night that the key to keeping the congress is the black vote in the south. so i would like to encourage all black people, men and women, in

the south, to get out and vote and take a friend, take all of your friends with you. host: are you active in politics? caller: it is not over -- host: are you a volunteer in politics? caller: i am not. but i pay very, very close attention to it. i have watched "washington journal" for three decades. pardon? host: it is pretty good because we have only been on for 15 years. caller: well, i watched you ever since you were in. host: who is your congressman and springfield? caller: it is venezuela or something like that. host: what about for senate, rob portman and mr. fish, i believe, it is. phyllis is gone. monte, san diego. caller: first of all, i have

been watching c-span forever also. and i remember earlier on when anyone would make a grammatical error, eventually somebody would say something and we would not get back to the topic of the day or anything for 45 minutes. so i just wanted to shout to edwin newman. i just switched from independent to democrat after decades because of the last crisis in 2001, democrats stood up. they held their nose and they voted for legislation that they hated but they thought was best for the country. republicans this time have sat

back and kept loans from small businesses, etc.. and they are just not helping. and california is a great example. republicans put up a goldman sachs member for governor, board member, someone who outsourced jobs for senator and my congressman was a defense contractor, took over irenic -- ironically for randy duke cunningham. it should be obvious to all what is going on here, it is corporations. host: why do you think barbara boxer is still under 50% and carly fiorina is within a couple points?

caller: i guess because barbara boxer has been there for a long time. but still, barbara boxer is a great representative for us. she does what we want. so, i think she will pull it out. host: what do you do in san diego? caller: i am a care giver. host: how long have you lived out there? caller: since 1964. host: almost a native. mary, south carolina. you are on the air. caller: this is mary from south carolina. in my state we have a governor's race, senate race and congressman's race, and of course, jim demint and joe wilson and nikki haley and i am praying every day that they don't win. i have been calling all over to try to make sure i can help get the votes out for the democrats

because it is ridiculous. host: what are you hearing when you make the calls? are you hearing enthusiasm? caller: yes. i have gotten every young person that just turned 18 this year to go and get registered. it is a hard state as far as being a blue state, but i am hoping what all of the staff -- scandal that has been going on with our previous government -- well, he is governor right now, sanford. i am hoping some way that we can change the dynamics in the state. that's about it. host: will leave from tuscaloosa, alabama. -- willile. go ahead with your comment. turn down your tv. willie? caller: here i am.

i just want to say that the democrats will not lose the election. host: why not? caller: i got no reason to be democrat or republican. i'm not gonna get laid off. i just know we're not gonna lose. host: would you support nancy pelosi again for speaker? caller: yes, i would. host: south carolina, another mary. are you with us? caller: columbia is here. host: where you from? caller: columbia, south carolina. host: my first name is mary. -- what is your name? chemical or first name is mary.

i have been involved with politics. we just had a debate. host: we just covered that. caller: he is going to win. and my name comment is, as i was telling you before, it is i am really so ashamed of the republican party and the way that they have let the tea party who they know are wrong, all of those candidates, rand paul, o'donnell, the one in nevada, none of these people are qualified to be running for any office. and the fact -- as far as it is about money, sharron angle, where did she get $14 million from? nobody knew who she was, what she stood for. all of a sudden they are getting bought. the republicans are not going to get in, but if they could get in, are they going to be bought?

the democrats will win. we will support our candidates because they are the right way for our country to be put forward. all of the sudden saying we are going in the wrong direction. we have been in the wrong direction under george bush. they did nothing for eight years. got us into these wars that were false wars and now that the president is trying to get us out of this mess, within 32 days, organizations saying they are grass roots. they're not grass roots. host: thank you. from "politico," nrsc bets big on carly fiorina of. gop is pouring $3 million into the race. bumping that much money this late in the campaign is enough

to cause a double take. the nearly $8 million expenditure in california the most the committee publicly committed to any state this year and the most ever in california. minneapolis, sheila, you are on the air. democrats only. what are your thoughts? caller: i say i am going to vote. i have always been a democrat but i am so sick and tired of hearing the tea party republican conglomerate get together and think that they can deceive all of the people that they are deceiving. i have been sitting on my hands being patient all of this time. i am just so stupid up to vote is ridiculous. -- souped up.

chicago, robert, you are on c- span. caller: good morning. i have been trying to get on for a decade. host: welcome. caller: my first time getting loans and opened up democrats only. my call is -- i watched the healthcare debate from the beginning to the ending and i saw what created the tea party. the republicans created the tea party because they were trying to stop the health care from passing. they did not succeed. now they have to deal with the tea party because the tea party is blocking them. i see what is happening. the whole thing is about to stop obama. that is what the whole story is about. john boehner and the man in the -- in the city -- host: mitch mcconnell. caller: the only thing the is

concerned about the stopping obama, the whole thing. not only the democrats -- some of the republicans of that got common sense and picking about what will happen to this country if they take back over. host: sean in akron, ohio. good morning. caller: i am a lifelong democrat and i will be honest, what motivates me to get to the polls, i am not. i sit on my hands -- again, as a lifelong democrat, i am from the working man, i am a union member. but i just looked where we have the health care premium adjustment, it comes at the end of october, my health care premiums are going up 30%. i am struggling to make my rented -- or my house payment -- every month. now a 30% increase. i am sitting at home.

the question is, what motivates me is right now there is nothing motivating me. in ohio we have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in ohio. i am in danger of losing my job and i don't know what i am going to do when i lose my job. i am sitting on my hands. i don't think are in going out. i am not motivated to go out and vote democratic. host: what kind of work you do? caller: i and and telecommunications industry. host: how is business? caller: it is not good. a lot of people, the great dot coms boost and it was a big boost for telecom industry when clinton was president. but right now it slowed down. people cutback and all of the industries that online, they have cut back, and it has got very tight.

host: were you the busiest it in 2008. caller: you know, i had mixed feelings in 2008. i voted for obama because i give him the benefit of the doubt that he was going to come in and clean out some things, getting the economy moving and really what i see at the end of the day is a huge stimulus package my grandchildren will have to pay for and right now -- two years later, i thought i would be seeing some results. and my fellow union members, we don't see much change in the industry and in a lot of other industries. ohio, we are getting crushed. we are losing jobs and industries are leaving ohio. it really is scary for me. i am 60 years old -- i thought i would be retiring in two or three years. it host: brian from michigan. you are on c-span.

caller: good morning to you. i just had a thing to say to the gentleman and ohio. be of good cheer. i am 62 and started voting in 1970. all good democrats have to come to the aid of their party. people in michigan have to get out there but it's to vote for governor. we need to vote for a democratic congressman because we already know what the republicans are going to do. they have done it. host: if you could, would you vote for jennifer granholm for a third term? caller: i would vote for her for president. i know she is disliked because she is not a natural born citizen. but she is a lot better than the republicans. she just got caught on a ship that was sinking and all she did do was rearranged deck chairs. host: annie in fort wayne, indiana. caller: first thing i want to

say is they need to leave nancy pelosi alone because she has more balls than all of the men in washington put together. fox and cnn, they need to see -- toned down because cnn is getting isfox. they are leaning -- i don't under state why they say the left media is portraying this and that. it in my opinion, there is more right wing than anything. it is not left enough. host: you've got quite a rates in fort wayne. i know it is an empty seat. caller: isn't it something? host: dr. hayhurst is the democratic nominee. who is the republican nominee? caller: i think that have three or four but i am not voting for them. host: what you did in fort wayne? caller: i am unemployed like 85% of americans.

host: what did you do? caller: i was a union rep. i have a bachelor's degree in labor relations and i worked for a union. but i don't have a job now. host: thank you for coming in this morning. "the wall street journal," federal reserve set to embark on another round of monetary stimulus next week. despite doubts about the wisdom and efficacy about the policy among economists and some of the fed's own decision makers, the fed is likely to unveil a program of u.s. treasury bond purchases worth what a few hundred billion dollars over several months. they have another story about a physician panel. it has to do with health care. physician panel describes the

fees -- prescribes the fees paid by medicare.

the article goes on, a big full- page on the drum. in case you are interested, that is from "the wall street journal." last call from democrats only about campaign 2010. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you doing? thank you. i think the question is what motivates you. host: jester comments on campaign 2010, whenever you want them to be -- just your comments. caller: my comments are against the tea party was created by the hatred for obama, hatred for

democrats. it seems like even hatred for poor people. when you see the people on tv, it is like most of them have to be under the $250,000 mark. what are you screaming about? you got a tax cut. most of those people have to be unemployed like the rest of us. you are screaming for the republicans and they are -- they are on the corp. side. they are talking about giving tax cuts to people who are richer than us. it tells you these people are supporting anything that is against black people, poor people, people less fortunate than us. this whole country has been ran by corporations all up in to this point. we voted clinton, beautiful. we voted in president barack obama, beautiful. john kennedy, beautiful. but bush, and now you want sarah palin. come on, people. host: that ends our first segment for this morning. coming up next, we will talk

with adam green who is the co- founder of the progressive change campaign committee. we will be talking about his group's activities in campaign 2010. we will be right back. >> c-span's local content vehicles are travelling the country visiting congressional districts to look at the most closely contested house races in this year's midterm elections. >> this evening, here at the historic smith theater in parkersburg, voters in west virginia's first congressional district will have their first opportunity to see the candidates on the same stage. >> i want to see washington take a different direction. to begin that journey, my first vote will be to replace colosio as speaker with a leader who can create jobs in the private sector, to reduce the size of government and it here to the competition and principles. >> i am pro-life, pro-gun, and

committed to fiscal responsibility. i believe washington has gotten it wrong, especially in these past two administrations, when it comes to dealing with this enormous and today we call the federal government. >> there are two candidates for first boston . democrat mikeolilverio, state senator, and republican david mckinley. this is a seat that was held many years by a democrat. he was defeated in the primary by might oliverio. he is a native of morgantown and his government roots go way back. wvu and body president, was elected a legislature, ran for secretary of state before but lost. he has been hovering around there and always had aspirations for higher office. david mckinley is from wheeling, west virginia. he has been involved in politics often on all his life. he was of the legislature a couple of different times.

former republican party chairman. he has run for governor before and not successful in his attempts. so, he has been there as well. when the mood of the country evolve the way it did, mccandless saw this as an opportunity to get into the race and has run an aggressive campaign. the first congressional district covers the northern portion of west virginia. northern panhandle, north central part of the state, and it runs along the ohio river. west virginia is predominantly democratic state. registration is two to one. in each of the congressional districts, roughly two to one democratic. but it is also a very conservative state. so there are many democrats who are, some would say democrats in name only or are conservative democrats. >> the big issues for me are obama healthcare, which is very unpopular. cap and trade, which is very unpopular in this state. a big government, which is very unpopular in this state.

>> the economy, fixing the out of control debt and bring in jobs back to an area. >> doing away with the tax cuts is going to really hurts a lot of people. >> jobs, especially obamacare health care bill. jobs are really important now. politicians really need to focus on it. i think it got lost from 2008 until now. >> i don't want a salesman. i don't want somebody who spouts bumper stickers. i want somebody who can work with the others, even if he doesn't necessarily have the same views. >> when you actually compare oliverio and mckinley, you might not like this, but they are probably closer on a lot of things that you might have in some races across the country. clearly david mccann is a conservative republican and he wears it proudly.

oliverio is a conservative democrat. they are probably a bit closer of some of the big issues than the campaigns would have you believe. there aren't nuances, for example, the health care bill where one wants to get rid of it, the other says i don't like big government, but i want to fix it. they are both against cap and trade, which is a huge issue in west virginia. there you have agreement. again, they would have a new wants to fight but they would both vote against cap and trade. even though they are from different parties and have differences in this campaign, philosophically they actually have some similarities. you might think that nancy pelosi like a lot of places is running for office in west virginia. >> i am not going to support nancy pelosi and he is. that is the most important vote in congress, is who is going to be the speaker. i am voting for john boehner and he is voting for nancy pelosi. >> david mckinley has run many ads that the lines might

oliverio with nancy pelosi. a ligns mike oliverio with nancy pelosi. that has dominated the discussion for much of the campaign. >> we are making it very clear that i am not looking for congress to get in step with the leaders. i am running for congress for them to get in step of the people of west virginia. been a tremendous amount of ads. when you get to the last couple of weeks, every commercial is an ad for mckinley or oliverio. the campaign has got a fairly nasty the past couple of weeks because the polls indicate this is a close race. i am sure each of the candidates figures that a percent or half a percent is vital. mike oliverio telp an interesting story to the press, saying earlier in the campaign he ran politician -- positive

ads about his self and his lead evaporated. as of both candidates have been extremely aggressive the last couple of weeks and the charges have been flying back and forth in the final days. the this has really been historic in west virginia. we tend not to throw out incumbents. this year the longtime incumbent defeated in the primary, senator byrd dies in june and releasing this pent-up opportunity for republicans and democrats. the national trends -- we have an intense close senate race which we have not had in years and two out of three intends and close congressional races. we have not had that in west virginia for a while. so this is one of our more interesting political season's we have had in some time. >> leading up to the november 2 midterm elections, we are travelling the country and visiting congressional districts were some of the most closely contested house races are taking place.

for more information on what the local content vehicles are up to this election season, visit our website, c-span.org/lcv. >> "washington journal" continues. host: continuing our look at politics and campaign 2010, we are joined by adam green, co- founder of the progressive change campaign committee. mr. green, what is that committee? guest: we formed the 2009, are acronym is pccc, advocate for progressive policies and elect progressives to congress. this year we are active in about 15 campaigns, really working hard to get out the vote for progressive candidates like was fine gold and alan grayson. host: who else are you working for?

guest: paul hodes'open sea -- now she is up seven points. she has been running on a great progressive populist message. there are others. we are active with the race in pennsylvania. host: you label it a progressive? guest: yes. i do not agree with james carville that often, and he was on a panel and he said who was really running on an old progressive platform is joe sestak. and jack conway's senate race in kentucky. going on offense with things like predict -- protecting social security. host: one of the surprise races has been the chairman of the house progressive caucus out in arizona. he is in a bit of trouble, according to a lot of news reports. guest: we have raised about

$40,000 for him in the last couple of weeks. people giving $3, $4, $10. we made about 40,000 phone calls in his district helping him identified keep voters who can get out to vote on election day. about 15 people in the universe we are helping. a couple of weeks ago president obama had a "rolling stone" interview, saying progressives, don't take your ball and go home. we are not taking our ball and go home, but we are prioritizing purpose of candidates and make sure we take our army of 400,000 people and mobilize them. the website called calloutthevote.com. the brainchild of my co-founder. to make 500,000 calls by election day. we will probably hit that tonight, making calls for jack conway. host: what are progressive issues? guest: basically we have been

campaigning on economic populism issues. the big one last year, what attracted most people to our group, the public option. when our group got involved in that issue, over 80% of democratic voters, over 70% of the independent voters and squarely 50% of republican voters according to a poll wanted the public option. this is both a policy winner and political winner. unfortunately it did not pass and that is partly responsible for the press turnout. taking on wall street hard and making sure issues like tax cuts go to middle-class and actually to fight against tax cuts for the super wealthy. the common theme is the little guy on economic issues. host: we want to put the numbers up on the screen as we continue our conversation over politics. numbers are on the screen, /political affiliation --

allow 30 days between your calls. a lot of republicans are using health care, and it seems successfully, as a battering ram against democrats. what makes you guest: if you want to win a fight, you have to be willing to engage and pick a fight. democrats have not been the book to make the case on health care. there was a poll that came out a couple of weeks ago that showed that while people are not too enchanted about the health care bill is because they did not think it went far enough. unfortunately, there is conventional wisdom here in d.c. that is different from what people are feeling in the rest of the country. we are finding that the public option actually attracts

independent and republican voters. be willing to take on the insurance companies and that will be a winner. host: is nancy pelosi a progressive? guest: in her heart, i think she is. i believe she needs to be tougher. there are key issues where members of congress all i say we do not have the votes. i do not believe that is the case. are you willing to schedule a vote and allow people to shut up or put up? president obama won the state of maine. now they are threatening to filibuster if there is a public option? if there is never a vote, if

people say, led the fight sizzle, that disempowers activists. our hope is that nancy pelosi and democrats, that the lesson that they learned is that they have to fight harder for these types of issues. host: would it be fair to say that in some sense the two-party movements is an economic populist movement? guest: i think there definitely is a strain of economic populism in the movement, which has been channeled by corporations like freedom works, americans for prosperity. i think it is not coincidental that these people are agitated about government spending and wall street spending and a bailout. they never protest wall street. that is largely because it is

big companies running these rallies. i would urge people to vote in their economic interests this year. host: the progressive campaign committee has a television ad running on tv. >> after 50 years in politics, senator grassley's ideas are over and many things he says are just an embarrassment to iowa. >> i have lived under the public tent, taking from the taxpayer. >> the senate is constipated. >> people always say i had the ability to turn them on. >> it is time for someone new.

in these times, roxanne conlin will fight for iowans and make you proud. host: that was obviously an anti-charles grassley ad. that race is not really on anyone's radar because he is so far ahead, according to the polls. why would you spend money on that race? guest: my question is why the democratic party did not care that ad in august. when you have someone like chuck grassley who says stuff like that, who is so out of touch, especially in a cheap media market, there is no excuse for democrats not to make a

statement. conlin helped to prompt the federal law now making it illegal to fire women for being pregnant. we need to support people like that. we think people like curt deserve some support. we are going to have a big ad buy in iowa around jon stewart's rally. we want young people to see those ads. we think if they see that they will not be voting for chuck grassley. thousands of people have gone to our website to help keep an ad on tv, allowing us to announce

that we are going to be a good to put it up on cable stations aimed at women. host: adam green is our guest, a member of the progressive change campaign committee. stephen in bridgeport, west virginia. go ahead. caller: i wanted to point out, over the past two years, west virginia has given gifts of legislation to president obama and his progressive agenda. they have had the equivalent of the cap and trade bill. they passed several bills that have surrendered the sovereign tree of the state to the federal government'. for instance, the epa recently over road west virginia permits to shut down one of the major mines in west virginia because

of a bill that surrendered their sovereignty. all of these laws passed or don bryant -- partly to senator byrd passing away. i think he was partly involved in the coordination of these efforts. host: stephen, wrap it up. caller: the democratically controlled congress, said that, in west -- senate, in west virginia, mr. mansion, oliverio signed these bills over, giving power to the federal government. they are just going to continue to do that. host: adam green, any comment?

guest: i do not have much to say about local west virginia law. you mentioned that mine. it was a travesty. i imagine there is an increased role for the government to play there if they do not crack down on these corporations who will take advantage of their workers. host: paul, louisville. democrat. good morning. caller: kudos to your organization, i plan on joining. two quick questions. back in july, august, i read about rand paul not following rules of the ama. he created a group of his own and said that he did not want to take the test that other doctors take.

my second question is, is there any type of law that will cost truth in lending, advertising? corporations now have the power to do all this advertising but people do not know the truth of the advertisements they are putting out. guest: on your first point, jack conway, the progressive running against rand paul brought that issue up in a debate. basically, a self diagnosed doctor. he made sure that people knew about that. on the second one, truth in ads, different organizations have different versions of the truth. tv stations tend to be hesitant about stepping in the middle there. at a minimum, we need disclosure. nancy pelosi was right.

we are seeing our democracy corrupted and corroded right now with these corporations being able to take a race that was not competitive, where a republican was raising no money and no grass roots support, suddenly dumping a million dollars into their coffers and nobody knows if it was one billionaire funding it because they want more oil permits. we need to pass the fair elections now act. that would combine public financing with obama-style people donations. a candidate would get a chunk of money from the government and any small dollar donations would be matched four-to-one. it would save hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare costs. host: where does the money for the progressive change committee campaign come from?

guest: from people like you, thank you for joining. we have raised over $2 million this past cycle. over 160,000 contributions. the average contribution tends to be in the $10 to $20 range. we are thankful for that support. that allows us to be independent. in fights like the public option, we can hold people accountable, joe lieberman, for example, and there is no corporate benefactor there to tell us that our funding is pulled. host: so there is no deep pocket progressive backer who started this organization? guest: definitely. we are a register of the federal pact. host: greg indiana and norbert,

new york. -- greg in norwick, new york. caller: i really like what the progressives have to say it but how did they let the conversation be controlled by people like glenn beck? i have not voted both -- i have voted both ways. i voted for ross perot and george bush. it is about the person. this election cycle, because of the nastiness, i am going to poll democrats all the way down.

it is funny that we always hear about george soros. nobody mentions the couch brothers. i do not know why the republicans are so loud and the progressives are so quiet. guest: thank you. given that you are so pumped up, i would encourage you to go to our program and make some calls for some of the progressive candidate. if you want to have a voice, help us out. we have definitely seen an evolution in the past two years. keith coleman was basically the only progressive voice on cable news. in the past year we have had a couple of more personalities join the cast at msnbc. it is not a completely liberal network, but just these hours in

the morning. there are some things that we can change, some things that we cannot, but there is a role in the political environment for groups out powers -- like ours to expand the scope of the conversation. again, that ad that you saw in iowa, that was reported on by newspapers and it changes the conversation. when we are calling out someone like ben nelson for taking millions of dollars from insurance companies and then opposing the public option, he actually had to air response ads. we need to be bold. hopefully, you can even get involved in our cause. host: next phone call. south dakota.

caller: i have a couple of comments. every state, progressive, california, new york, massachusetts, keep going down the line, progressives have taken over the political system. they are absolutely devastated. they are broke. the taxpayer will have to end up bailing them out. progressivism is destroying our country. confusene, let's not progressive with democrats. i am from the state of new jersey. it is a very democratic state in general, but honestly, the politics are very machine oriented and i would say corrupt, like new york. you have these machine environments thriving on backroom deals and does not rely

on people power. what we are trying to do is allow the boys of everyday people heard and have that reflected in politics. when you have politicians who do not raise small dollar donations but are instead dependent on corporate benefactors, they often do not do things in the public interest. south dakota. i spent a year out there working for tim johnson in 2002. democrats lost big that year across the country. but tim johnson won that year. this was a defining moment for my political thinking. he was down in the polls, and big agriculture corporations came in and started to attack him in every daily newspaper. i will never forget a press conference in a room full of

cowboy hats. we are all republicans and we are all supporting tim johnson because he is fighting for our economic interests. i realized that year, that even in a deep red state, like south dakota, where there are cultural division issues, if we can focus on economic issues that are good for everyone, we will be okay. make the fight and people will be on your side. you have to represent the people. host: a viewer tweets in -- john in venice, florida. hello. caller: i am a c-span junkie. i listen to you every morning.

i used to live in madison, wisconsin. it is very much a progressive city. i have worked with the jimmy carter's daughter. as a matter of fact, i will be going to a forum tonight. i suggest strongly that all democrats who are progressive are moderates. get out and vote. host: who are you supporting in the senate race in florida? caller: meek. host: he is way down in the polls.

caller: it is going to be difficult but it is all based on turnout. it is extremely important for people to get out and vote. i use a touch-tone phone to get onto the internet. can i give my e-mail address? host: if you would like to. caller: venice@internetspeech.com. host: ok. i think you might live to regret that. any comments?

guest: i am sure the local organizers of your meeting are happy about their national attention. i am not going to try to spin florida. i would vote for meek if i was voted down there. it is a mess, and it is expensive. we have to prioritize the races. there is a reason why we have raised $140,000 for and cluster in nebraska. it is much easier for us to raise money for her. we have not gotten involved in california, florida. we are still and a growing organization. $100,000 would not help those candidates very much. host: wendell on the independent line. go ahead. caller: the crown jewel of the

progressive movement should be an anti-war program. we should work to end our military bases around the world. we should stop funding wars. we should stop arming the world through secret programs in the state department. that money can be used for single payer, social security preservation, education, which will improve our lives. i would also like to see a national, individual progressive party. what i see in the obama administration is, in many areas, the rubber-stamp of the bush corporate and more provision policies. guest: our focus is engaging in the primaries. ann custer, who did she beat in

the campaign? joe lieberman's campaign chief. to bat for somebac democrats, but they lost, unfortunately. essentially, we want to take over parts of the democratic party first before we get to a third party. on the military stuff, framing it around budget issues is smart. there is probably a lot of fat in the budget that we should be cutting. we need democrats to put that sort of thing on the table and have an intellectual discussion about them, not taking the

offense off the table and cutting social security. host: peter in brooklyn. you are on with adam green. caller: good morning. i have a number of questions. unions are supposed to be not for profit. everybody, including nancy pelosi, seems to complain about the fact that we need disclosure on big business but the unions seem to have more money than big business to invest in local races. not only are the unions investing all their money, but they are also incorporating foreign nationals, such as illegal aliens in the construction industry, who help to canvassed democratic members. i want to know why there are no investigations into this.

guest: if you are asking me a legal question, i do not know. two aspects, money and disclosure. if the afl-cio asks you to put out an ad, you know where it is coming from, you know who is coming from, you know their membership. if there is a corporate ad with some innocuous-sounding name, usually funded by some billionaire, that is a threat to our democracy. the disclosure issue is more relevant, particularly in this election year. unions do not have more money. citizens united, what it allowed was for corporations to open up their entire corporate treasury. we need to take on.

again, it is a combination of the disclosed and fair elections act. host: you mentioned you worked for senator tim johnson. what else is in your political pedigree? guest: i was a communications director for the new jersey democratic party, press secretary for john kerry in 2004. it was after 2004 that i made the evolution from being a democratic party activist to be more of a progressive party movement. i think there is just more of a people movement out there. we want to mobilize people from within. we believe we are actually helping to elect more democrats, urging them to become populists. host: what is your affiliation with george washington university? guest: i have been teaching a class on the internet and politics.

some really bright folks. folks who work on media spaces. it has been really fun. host: john in minnesota. independent line. caller: you were mentioning ed schultz, raddow maddow. they held --rachel maddow. they held it with the communist party. it has been on the website but they changed it a little bit. yes, really. how about you all? are you with the socialist

party, too? guest: are you trying to give me a softball question? obviously, no. anybody can put a rally promo on their website. it does not mean they are organizing a rally. the people organizing the rally were mainstream groups like the naacp, other various unions. my personal preference is not to hold big rallies in washington, d.c. i think it is less efficient spending two months planning a rally than it is to do a quick, nimble, surgical efforts that make an impact in real time. it is the difference of sending direct mail and mobilizing people over direct e-mail. that is the sort of thing that we do at the pccc. we find it is more effective to engage people in their home

states. host: next phone call. go ahead. caller: i have two questions i want you to answer. i am wondering why the democrats nationally have not run ads concerning all of the unemployment benefits and how republicans are not helping in that situation. have you and other progressive pressed democratic leadership to change the way they caucus? all committee chairman's have to be willing to support the democratic block form, otherwise you should not be committee chair. we had a lot of chairman who had their own agenda, not of the democratic party.

a lot of these people, they did not have their hearts for the democrats. guest: case in point, joe lieberman. john mccain threaten to kill the entire health care bill in 2009 but he was still a committee chairman. along with our friends at democracy america, we organized hundreds of thousands of people to petition harry reid and other leaders to say, take away his party leadership if he does not support the public option. we were pleased to be joined by alan grayson to deliver this petition. we are trying to get democratic leaders to understand they have to be willing to pick fights like that. of course, the response is we

need his vote. then forced him to vote your way. if you tell him from the start that you need his vote, and so he can do anything he wants, he will stand you in the back everytime. as well, the blue dog democrats. we need to hold these democrats accountable on some of these important issues supported by the majority of the public. host: what is your strategy in these last few weeks before the campaign? guest: we are making hundreds of thousands of phone calls. we have seen a marked increase in the number of calls we have been able to generate as more and more people sign up. we are making about 20,000 calls -- were making about 20,000 calls a couple of weeks ago. we did 60,000 the other night for alan grayson. we are really trying to speak to some of these voters who may or

may not vote, making sure there are some progressives on the ballot. we will also be active at the election talking about what happened. democratic states have a choice. some seats will be lost. did they fight to hard, were they to progressive? or maybe proper lesson, they did not fight hard enough. they did not even begin fighting. we will be working hard to make sure that these types of people win. host: from where are those calls made, are they robocalls, are they made her land lines, does it include text messages? guest: people can sign up at calloutthevote.com and they can

sign up. we have something called a predictive dialers. basically, we make a ton of phone calls and only patched through to people who are volunteering where people pick up. there are not hours wasted on answering machines and busy signals. the efficiency approves -- improves as more and more people volunteer. for whatever amount of time that you have, your phone rings, you speak to a voter, you read a script, it is very efficient. host: so these are people across the country in their homes? guest: they could be in pajamas, in their suit, about to cook dinner. it is all about mobilizing regular people to make a difference. host: what was that website? guest: calloutthevote.com.

if there is one thing that the c-span viewers know how to do, it is making phone calls. if you cannot get through on the show, we will love to have you as part of our effort. host: adam green, thank you for being on this morning. a lot of politics left. here is a campaign uptake. >> six days before the election. two competitive races. reid wilson is with us from the hot line. let's begin with the colorado senate race. it is one of the most expensive and it is a dead heat between the two candidates. >> that is right. we are seeing polls showing the candidates tied at 46. this is not even a margin of error question. this is a really interesting

race. we have senator michael bennett who was appointed a couple of years ago after ken salazar took over at the interior department, running against can block, the more conservative candidate in the primary. -- ken buck, the more conservative candidate in the primary. outside groups have contributed a lot of money to buck to make it a competitive race. outside groups have spent $25 million on this contest for him. both candidates have been arguing about the economy, the direction of the country, but one thing that is interesting about ken buck, like other tea party candidates, and he has embraced some socialist issues. he is talking about abortion, gay rights. he said homosexuality was a

choice. he embraced senator jim i hough, a noted global warming expected, saying that his points made a lot of sense. that is a very interesting tacked to take where the environment moves so many voters in colorado. buck has embraced the social issues more than either tea party candidates. that has not heard him at the polls yet, but it is a pure tossup. >> election night, what districts should our viewers be watching to see who comes ahead? >> there are three keys to call run of politics. democrats have to run up a big score in denver and boulder, the two most liberal areas in the state. they need to come out with a

significant margin in order to damp down the republican base in the colorado springs area. that will give republicans a boost. the swing era that will likely go for buck by a reasonable margin over michael bennett is the western side of the state where the rocky mountains begin. if that. goes too much for ken buck, michael bennett will not be able to make up the margin. but if he keeps it close, i think you will see michael bennett come back for a full term. >> what do you see about resources, money, last high- profile people coming out? >> we have not seen a lot of high-profile people coming. former president clinton campaigned for michael bennett's

omanoff., ramnof his approval ratings are not so good in colorado. joe biden has not been out there. i do not think you will see many high-profile circuits in this race. what you will see is unbelievable amounts of money coming from both sides. one thing that michael bennett can rely on is his own fortune. he has donated about $700,000 of his own money to keep his ads running on tv. onto alaska. do we know who will be the winner on election night? >> this is a bizarre race.

we have lisa murkowski, joe miller, and scott mcadams, a democrat that is so obscure, some top democrats here did not even know who he was after the elections. this is an interesting race. the oscar board of elections is currently in accord with the democratic and republican parties, both objecting to a decision to provide voters with a list of qualified right-in candidates that they can list -- bring into the polling place. if you want to vote for the summer caskey but you are not sure how to spell her name, -- lisa murkowski, but you are not sure how to spell her name, you can bring the ballot in and write it in. right now, it looks like she is the head of joe miller. looks like the momentum is on

her side. >> if you had to predict today, who wins the race? >> i think lisa marie caskey may wind. -- rakowski --murkowski will win. people will be sitting there with magnifying glasses looking get everyone's right-in ballot. >> thank you. those three candidates square off in a debate. c-span will be covering it. go to our website, c-span.org/ politics for more information. host: we are back with michael tanner of the cato institute. our topic is campaign 2010, republicans and health care. in the gop's package to america, they write this about health

care -- pledged to america, they write this about health care -- if the republicans to take over one or both of the houses of congress, what options do they have when it comes to health care, attention repeal, replace, reform? guest: to be realistic, the chances to repeal the health care bill are fairly slim. the reality is, regardless of what they could pass in the house, they would run into a democratic filibuster in the set, even if they had a majority -- in the senate, even if they had a majority. no one believes that the republicans will be able to get enough votes to override a veto. there is something the republicans can do to bring this to a grinding halt. they can defund large portions

of the bill. they could not allow the irs to hire additional agents in order to force the individual mandates. they could cut off subsidies, cut off funding for the exchanges that are being set up in the state, additional medicaid funding. they could do a lot to throw sand in the gears of this thing and slow it down. finally, they can go after the unpopular aspects of it. even democrats are on record having concerned. kent conrad of north dakota has called the long term care portion of the bill a fiscal time bomb that is going to explode the dead in the out years. so they could possibly think about repealing that, going after the requirement that small businesses provide 1099's in the case that they go over $600 of transactions in the course of the year.

finally, to perhaps take a shot at the individual and employer mandates, which are some of the most unpopular aspects of the bill. host: how would they look at the employer mandate? what is one way they could do that? guest: certainly, right now, you could start widening your number of employees, postponed its implementation. massachusetts imposed a employer mandate that never really went into effect. every year the legislature simply postponed it until it was done away with as part of r omneycare. or they could simply try for an outright repeal. lots of small businesses may support repealing that employer mandate. host: politically, could that go through both houses, what with the president do, if that happened? guest: i think the president

would veto anything that would undermine his signature achievement. it would probably not be done in a couple of years. it would certainly put democrats on the spot. those democrats who voted against the health care bill originally and then switched to ensure its passage, almost all of them are trailing right now. those democrats who opposed the bill seem to be in much better shape. host: recent associated press gfk poll, likely voters on health care law. 50%ay36% say change it to do mo. -- 15% say leave it where it is. 10% say change it to do less. 37% say repeal it. guest: we have seen polls with

an even higher repeal number. it is basically a cry of wheat to not like it, rather than any specific provision. i think the public understands this is doing nothing for their cost, insurance premiums are going up. they are now mandated to buy a government-designed package. businesses are going to be dropping insurance or will be forced to buy more expensive insurance. i think there is a great deal of dissatisfaction from all parts of the political spectrum. host: there was a great debate on medicare part the one that came in in the bush , theistration -- part d one that came in and the bush of ministration. guest: -- bush administration.

guest: i would say that is true. john mccain wanted to make it more of a means test, targeting low income seniors. the prescription drug benefit is irresponsible. it will add tens of trillions of dollars to the unfunded liabilities in medicare. this program is going broke and basically we crammed a few more people onto the lifeboat. host: how difficult would it be to shift public opinion? guest: before it was passed, all we heard was if we passed it, it would get more popular. it hasn't. if you check public opinion polls since the passage, support for the bill has been pretty constant. opposition has stayed 10, 15

points ahead of support. host: republicans say they want to come up with common sense solutions to health care. what does that mean? guest: there want to make it possible for people to buy health insurance across state lines. if you live in maryland, you want to buy health insurance in virginia, it is illegal for you to do so. even if you found a cheaper policy. new jersey has some of the highest insurance costs in the nation. you cannot go on line and find an insurance plan in iowa and buy into that system. republicans want to legalize that. host: whose advantages it to keep it among states? guest: the insurance companies. in many ways, this was the insurance company bailout of

2010. subsidy for people to buy insurance company products, mandates that people have to buy their products. the prohibition was put in place to reduce competition among companies. 1300 companies nationwide. about 500 of them are nonprofit but people cannot choose from all 1300 of them. host: michael tanner of the cato institute is our guest. we are talking about campaign 2010. daniel. defiance, ohio. republican line. caller: here is a very easy way to kill the health care bill and not have to worry about any veto or anything the democrats can do. take a look at the u.s. supreme court decision poultry versus the united states. it was passed by a 9-0 decision. all of them are democrats in the

1930's. they stated in no uncertain terms that the congress does not and never has had the authority under the commerce act to require any citizen to purchase anything. guest: unfortunately, there have been court cases since then, wicker v. tillman to expand the powers cause. a farmer was growing wheat, feeding it to its own animals, then the roosevelt administration said you could not grow that week. if everyone grew their own way and did not buy it, it would affect the price on the interstate market, so we can prohibit you from doing that. the supreme court upheld that. that said, the ability to make someone buy a product, going from something that is commerce

to non-commerce, requiring action, that is not allowed. there are several cases around the nation, one in florida, one appear in virginia, several others, that are challenging that unlimited commerce clause policy. host: sarasota. barbara. independent line. caller: first of all, i have to laugh at you republicans. i am an rn. i was born and raised in city chicago. i was trained and retired from cook county. my son got a cancer diagnosis at 35, hodgkin's disease. he is in remission now but he required a stem cell transplants on top of chemo.

his job was billed $750,000. we know for the rest of his life he will be subject to the cancer returning. no one will touch him for a policy and he will lose everything he has got if he has a return and he does not have insurance. guest: first of all, i am not a republican. let me make that clear. the second part, pre-existing conditions are some of the toughest cases in insurance reform, but there are ways to handle that without creating a giant government program the way the new health-care program does. we should be fully funding state high risk pools which provide a way for individuals to buy into insurance, the with the high- risk drivers can. even more important than that, there is the way that

individuals can create a system where they will not lose their insurance every time they lose their job. we need to give people personal, portable insurance that belongs to them. then if you lose your job, like your son did, that he could keep the insurance he had, and that would travel with him his whole life, then he would not have the problem of this pre-existing condition. host: jim tweets in -- guest: there are 1300 insurance companies nationwide. it is a shame when one or two companies control 90% of the market. in north dakota, one company has 94% of the market. president obama talked about that, and he is right.

we need more competition. someone in north dakota should be able to buy insurance in minnesota, florida. they should be able to pick from all 1300 insurance companies. that is the kind of competition that we have with other goods and services and it has driven down prices. host: gym in georgia. democrat. caller: thank you to c-span. it is a great resource. -- jim in georgia. regarding health care, number one, i am amazed. president obama was the first president to do anything successful about health care. i am also amazed at the silence of the various minority organizations around the country, like the naacp,

standing by, and they have a vested interest in changing health care. number two, how are right-wing radicals and others able to change the dynamic in just 18 months? i am amazed at how they weren't able to pull that off. no. 3, apparently the obama administration underestimated the power and intention of large london -- lobby groups against the middle-class. he is also the first black president dedicated to uplift the lower two-thirds of our population. guest: in terms of large corporations, they do not always come down on the side of free market or the political side that you think. for example, the pharmaceutical

industry was one of the biggest lobbyists in favor of this. they spent millions of promoting this health care bill. the insurance industry likes a lot of parts of this bill and supported the individual mandates. as far as minorities go, it is a good question if this bill is going to hurt them. the government's chief actuary suggests a number of hospitals and the closing as a result of this bill. particularly, those in the inner cities. minorities could end up her out of this bill. host: york, south carolina. go ahead, matthew. caller: one of my problems with health care is it requires me to buy or i will face a fine. we are in the middle of a recession. you can blame the recession on whoever you want to.

but we are in the middle of a recession and now we will be required to buy health insurance? i called earlier and a young man hung up on may because he asked me my affiliation and i tried to explain that i was a republican but i would probably be voting independent. so thank you, c-span. guest: and does not start until 2014. then it is phased in over 14 years. 1% of your income in the first year, 2.5% in the third year of the mandate and thereafter. the problem is, it does not just affect you if you do not have health insurance. it basically mandates that you have a particular package of

health insurance benefits that you may not want, or could be more than you want to pay, but you must by that policy that includes all those benefits. so you cannot keep the interest that you have today, despite what the president said. -- insurance and that you have today, despite what the president said. host: you began talking about the irs. could you explain how we could stop the health care bill through the irs? guest: this penalty for not having the government-designed health care package is enforced by the irs. it is a tax penalty. that is one of the interesting things in these court cases. originally, the congress said that this would not be a tax, but when they got to court, in order to have it held up constitutionally, it was a tax.

either way, it is enforced by the irs. that will require thousands of new irs agents, as many as 13,000. it is probably less than that, in reality, but a republican congress could refuse to allocate the money for these new agents, which would make it difficult to enforce this mandate. host: chris, you are next. caller: thank you for c-span. mr. tanner, i am a big follower of the cato institute. the scenario i want to pose this morning -- are we not seeing a natural shift of people in america? i think people believe it is a natural shift into a new

paradox -- host: where is this natural shift going? caller: i think more to a republican, conservative shift. guest: i think there is a natural pendulum in politics, and it is certainly moving in the more conservative direction in this election cycle. in many ways, it was a mistake to consider the bush of ministration to be a conservative administration. -- administration to be a conservative administration. they created the entitlement programs, and they recorded record deficits. in many ways, a big spending, big government administration. now they are finding an even bigger government administration in washington and they are going to throw that one out, too. host: sue in new jersey writes

in -- guest: certainly, gridlock is a problem. on the other hand, if you do not want to make the situation worse. i believe this health care bill makes things worse. we know that this will increase total health-care spending in the country and it will drive up health insurance premiums. we are already seeing that occur as people are opening up their health insurance bills this fall, premiums going up, in part because of regulations being put in place. the first thing is to do no harm, stop the damage we are doing, and then we need a national conversation on how we are going to restrain the growth of health-care spending in the

country and thereby expand access to care. host: billy42 -- guest: the vast majority of our funding is from individuals. we get a small amount from corporations. we get little corporate money host: what about the koch brothers? guest: they actually set up the institute of 27 or 28 years ago. they gave us the seed money. they still contribute a tiny portion of the cato institute budget, but it is a small fraction of our total budget right now. host: on our republican line is john from illinois. caller: you know, the idea of

the exchange across the country. i am an insurance broker and over the years the reason that different parts of the country had maybe cheaper insurance or more expensive insurance is not because of the fact that health care is magically done differently, it is because the costs are lower in certain sections. and if you are going to have an exchange, as you can not exactly anticipate or expect that you will have a savings for everybody because it is where you buy your health insurance is what the cost is. for example, in illinois -- in chicago, you ended up having a higher cost than you had downstate. so even within your own state you had vast differences in cost. host: john, would you be supportive of selling across state lines?

caller: it won't make a difference. it will make any difference because if you think about it, the reason new jersey is higher is because the costs in new jersey are higher. guest: certainly there are geographical differences in cost but it is also higher in new jersey because the rules that applies to new jersey insurance. for example, there are dozens of benefits mandated into a new jersey insurance policy that are not necessarily included in every other state. in california, for example, every policy in the state has to cover acupuncture. in vitro fertilization is required, or you have to cover drug and alcohol rehab therapy. adding as much as 10% to 15% of the cost of the insurance policy. not every state includes a those regulations so it -- so you should be able to, if you do not want to include that, go to one place where you don't have to buy that. host: illinois, you are on with

michael tanner. guest: how would you implement insurance across state lines -- caller: how would you implement the insurance across state lines? i am concerned if i bought iowa insurance and i had problems, there are so many policies -- every state has their own policies. there are so many insurance companies out there. would my doctorate still file for me if i have insurance, if i have a problem, how will i manage that? guest: that is a good question. there will certainly be technical issues and of all. you have to recognize that business is right now can buy across state lines. if you work for a small business, that you live in virginia and you work for a small business in maryland, you can get your insurance for that small business, and maryland

policy, even though you live in virginia. but if you wanted to go on your own, notting it through your ness and you wanted to go to maryland did by the policy, you could not. it happens now and we are able to make it work. we also have been able to make it work and other insurance markets that are not health insurance. so, i think we can overcome the technical issues. the reality is most people are not going to go across country to buy their health insurance. but the fact that they could will force insurance companies to lower their administrative costs, become more competitive, and also put a damper on state legislators who want to add in all of the expense of mandates, that they know they can drive people out of the insurance market in their state. host: looking ahead, if the house were to go to the republican side, some of the incoming chairman of the affected committees include david camp from michigan taking over ways and means. they obviously have a big role

in health care. joe barton taking over energy and commerce. do you keep an eye on these chairs and tried to ascertain which way they will go? guest: dave the camp has taken a leading role in health care debate. he has -- was at president obama's televised summit. he has been fairly outspoken and certainly an opponent of the health care bill and an advocate of many of the reforms that could make a difference. some of the others are more establishment, go along, get along. joe barton is more of an energy guy. has not really been involved. i look at someone more like a paul ryan if you really want someone who is an innovator on not just health care but a lot of entitlement issues like medicare and medicaid reform. i think he is going to be a tremendous influence in the next congress. host: he was the former budget share -- chair.

kings mountain, north carolina. sherry on the republican line. caller: my question is with the new health care, what actions will be taken to ensure that individuals will get the coverage even if they have pre- existing conditions? what actions will be taken to make sure that big corporations such as, my husband's employer, we had to go into the website for the insurance company and make sure that we put in our numbers to get discounts for the insurance. he just seems to think that maybe there is a possibility that they are trying to profile their employees as well as their families. guest: to some degree, you want insurance companies to profile people. you want them to be charging to

some degree based on risk. that is what insurance is designed to do to some degree. you can't drive your car into a tree and then pick up the phone and by your auto insurance. it is a little late at that point. you want to get people in short when they are still young and healthy and keep them in short the whole time. that means you have to make health insurance affordable for young, healthy people. the problem with the health care bill we just passed is it subsidizes older and sicker people at the expense of younger, help the people. if you are old and sank, you will probably see your insurance premiums coming down under this bill, but if you are young and healthy your premiums are going to go through their roof. depending on what steady you want to look at, and where between 17% increase as much as 75% increase in your health insurance premiums for the young and healthy. the subsidies are backwards, if you will, in this bill.

host: c-span junkie tweets in. guest: well, i think to a large extent it is true. if you are thinking -- talking about the political parties. i think both sides are dominated by special interest. what we really need to do is not worry about corporations, what we really need to worry about our free market and it is not necessarily the same thing as being pro-business. businesses are all too happy to make regulations work for them and against their opponents. markets, on the other hand, work to the benefit of everybody. host: the next call for michael tanner from the cato institute. the democrats' line. caller: i have a couple of questions. when you say the republicans want to make it so you can buy insurance across state lines, well, would that mean of the federal government would abolish all of the insurance

commissioners in every state? i was an insurance agent here in oregon, and the insurance commissioner has a lot to do with what company can come into the state. like the previous caller said, it is all regulated by where you live. guest: it would certainly reduce the power of state insurance commissioners, which is why they don't like the plan. you sort of have a classic bootlegger and baptist coalition. prohibition was driven by the bootleggers who like to keep alcohol illegal because they made money and the baptists who wanted to outlaw drinking. you have the same situation here, the regulators who wanted to continue to regulate insurance and the insurance companies who did not want to face competition so they were happy to make a deal. the reality is insurance commissioners would continue to regulate insurance and their state. people would not necessarily be able to be bound by the regulations, they could vote with their feet.

host: the state line issue certainly seems to ignite a lot of callers and the motion. guest: i am surprised. it would seem to be common sense. you can buy all sorts of products anywhere in the country. why should health insurance be something where you are limited to your state. it would strike me as classic violation of interstate commerce. host: besides that, how else would you, if you could, change the health care law? guest: i think we need to move away from the idea of employer- provided insurance plan. it makes no sense you get your health insurance at work. you don't get your homeowner's policy there for your auto insurance at work. it means that if you lose your job, you will lose health insurance, which is a terrible thing. what we need to do is move to a system where you have individual insurance, where you own it -- it belongs to you, not your job, and you can take it with your whole life. and where to do this we will have to change the tax code to

give people the same tax breaks for buying their own health insurance at the currently get for getting employer-provided health insurance. it is a big change in the system but it would benefit workers a great deal. host: if the law were to stay in place and republicans take over one of the houses and they pass legislation that may be changes a state line issue or changes the employer issue, is that something that potentially the president could support and that could be worked into the current health-care law? guest: i think it is going to be very difficult to work things like that into the health care law. the current health care bill is such an enormous house of cards. if you make any changeup, the whole thing could collapse down on itself. it is kind of this -- thing that was pieced together as much to get votes rather than have a coherent health care system. i think it is going to make it very difficult to compromise. i know president obama said he wanted to be the last president to ever talk about health care reform. i think that is one prediction

that will not come to -- true. host: jason, manassas, virginia. independent line. caller: i am calling -- how i hear you talking about the scale of the economy across the nation. what happened to the 10th amendment and keeping small and local stuff? that is beside what i called for. i listened to you again on my way in and i hear you talking about, if you had something happen to you, like a crashed car that hit a tree. i and 45 -- if i had a heart attack, god forbid i should not be insured. you should tell the truth that this bill tells the insurance company to put 85% of every

dollar spent exactly to health care -- not administration, not buildings and stuff like that. medicare spends 94% of every dollar it receives on actual medical care. host: all right, thanks, jason. guest: there is a provision called minimum loss which requires insurance -- insurance to spend a certain percentage of their premiums on health care. it people point out, as the caller did, that medicare spends a lot more of each dollar premiums or government funding on actual benefits. in many cases the and the strait of costs do good things. for example, medicare has an extremely high fraud rate in large part because it is a check writing machine. someone send in a bill and medicare send out a check. the insurance company's administrative costs in many way go to protect against fraud.

insurance companies do a lot of managed care, making sure that the prescription to get over here matches with a prescription you get over there and no country indications. those things all at 2 administrative costs. insurance companies' profits are not very high as industries go, between 3% to 5% which is a lot less than other industry sectors. host: massachusetts, only a few minutes left. caller: grandmother said it best. a stitch in time saves nine, people don't have health insurance they wait until they are on their deathbed to get medical care. if everybody has insurance, they get it treated quickly and it saves millions of dollars. that is why mandatory care eventually will save money. as far as the state line issue goes, in my state we are a very consumer-friendly or consumer- aware state. we don't want sleazy health

insurance is from alabama and mississippi and texas ripping off our citizens. we don't want to let them in to protect the public. this election is about the middle class americans versus the big multinational corporations. no more complicated than that. guest: preventive care definitely make people healthier. but if you look at the academic literature there is relatively little suggestion out there that it really saves money. it is sort of a shotgun approach that spends money on people who were not going to get sick in the park -- first place of people got sick anyway. not necessarily a cost saver, it just makes people healthier. i am all in favor of preventive care, a good thing. in terms of the second point, he does not have to buy health insurance from alabama but isn't it paternalistic to tell people will want to buy a cheaper policy that they can't because somehow the government knows better about what insurance benefits they should have?

host: a history question. having just a little bit of trouble with the computer. a tweet that came in. is it true employer-based health-care benefits came as a response to wage freezes during world war ii to attract employees? guest: exactly right. in world war ii you had two problems -- labor shortage because the men were at the front, and you had wage price controls, which then businesses could not compete for the remaining workers by wages of a started offering fringe benefits, among them, health insurance. what happened, though, in 1953, the irs came in and declared that the health insurance would be a tax-free benefit. that means the degree you get health insurance instead of wages, you don't have to pay taxes on that. you have to pay taxes on the wages and not on the insurance. that creates an incentive to bid

up the insurance at work rather than taking a pay raise and going out and buying on your own. that is why talk about giving people the same tax breaks for buying it on their own as they are currently getting through their employer. host: michael tanner, a senior fellow at the cato institute. thank you for talk about campaign 2010 healthcare and republicans. coming up next, 45 minutes left in "washington journal" this morning. here is the front page of "the hill." their last pre-election poll is out. here is the headline. we will be right back with sean miller of "the hill" newspaper, the campaign report. but first, a news update. >> the commerce department says orders for durable goods rose just over 3% last month, faster than economists had forecast but when the transportation sector is excluded, orders actually fell 0.8%. economists had been expecting

them to rise. dow jones industrial average futures are down on the news. back on the campaign trail in new poll shows pennsylvania attorney general tom corbett building a solid lead in his bid for the governor's office. franklin and marshall college poll shows the republican supported by 47% of likely bovid -- voters, to 32% for the democratic rival. buying for the governor office that now term limited democrat ed rendell is finishing his maximum second term. politico reports house republican conference chairman mike pence of indiana is considering stepping down from his post in the gop leadership in preparation for a possible bid for president or governor in 2012. he believes it will be inappropriate to stay in the gop conference post unless he can stay through 2012. but a spokesman for him says the indiana congressman's sole focus now remains on winning back the majority in congress. representative pence was the winner of the presidential straw

poll at last month's values boater some. members of congress are questioning a training program that sends government workers to harvard at it -- at a cost of $18,000 per employee, more than twice what the average public university charges for tuition and fees for an entire year. senator charles grassley brought the practice to light, saying it is hard to see how the expense can be justified. those are just some of the latest headlines from c-span radio. >> political pollster scott rasmussen talk about the potential of becoming a viable third political party. an interview saturday night on "afterwords" on c-span2. for a complete schedule or to what previous programs go to booktv.org. >> time to give the camera rolling for this year's studentscam, but video documentary competition for middle and high school students.

make a five minutes to 8 minute video on the same "washington, d.c., through my lands." deadline is january 20, 2011. for complete details go to studentscam.org. >> but just days until election day, a lucky races and candidates on c-span with debates every night and go online to view archived debates at the c-span video library. visit our politics page for twitter fees, upcoming event coverage, campaign ads and other resources. this week and see the jon s tweart rally. this weekend campaign event, debates, interviews, and opening phone lines for your comments about the campaign. follow c-span's election covers right through election day. >> "washington journal" continues. >> sean miller of "the hill"

newspaper, here is your front page this morning. how do you know this? guest: we have been doing polling in 42 senate and house races. we have had the majority of the republicans up in these races so we are looking at some of the races we pulled, and in addition to the ones that are just too far gone where we see democrats with a massive deficits -- host: who is too far gone? guest: who is too far gone? one of the guys we pulled who is not probably coming back, he runs the illinois district across the mississippi river. we found him down against a republican bobby shilling by double digits -- host: why? guest: it is puzzling because he did not have an opponent in 2008. it is district is a safe democratic territory. it is an illinois, the president's home state. but it is hard hit by the economy. when i was there in 2008 -- the

economy was tough and it stayed that way. now we see sort of the industrial midwest, the visceral reaction to members of congress. host: what about the senate race in an illinois? guest: the senate race and a illinois is really going to come down to turnout. in 2008 we saw really high african-american turnout in illinois and that really helped the democratic ticket there. now they are under this cloud of rod blagojevich's administration and the end of that. and it has been a nasty race between mark kirk and alexi giannouilis -- mark kirk because of the military record and his opponent, because of the bank loans. host: we are talking specifically about the house but

sean miller can talk about nearly all the races in the country. if you want to talk about a specific race he could start dialing in in just a minute. you have six relatively long term democratic congressman and your hair, going, going. let's go would budget chairman john spratt of republicans have been after for several terms but they have not really gotten that close. what does your polling say? guest: we got him down 10 points against republican mike will be neat. -- mulvaney. that race is always a target for republicans. the reaction there is the budget that was never passed. the republicans have been able to hit him as the budget committee chairman saying, all america's financial woes are the congressman's response ability. and congressman spratt does not lend themselves to the new media age.

he likes to explain himself, he is very eloquent, but in this era of sound bites we see it is easy for a congressman to go down, especially in south carolina. really a battle of sound bites. telling people to turn off the glenn beck, and that is a sound bite that step. host: the side story is gop tsunami ready to sweep this out. it is the part of that? guest: we saw the largest deficit for democrats in the south. chet edwards, who is down more than double digits to bill forest in texas. alan boyd having a tough race against keith sutherland in florida. jim marshall down considerably to austin stock in georgia. these are guys who survived a previous republican waves. looks like democrats currently -- they are on pace to lose a

dozen of those. host: paul kanjorski, a democrat in pennsylvania. his opponent ran a pretty good race. he was fairly controversial for his positions on illegal immigration, some of the laws adopted. he has kept a relatively low profile this cycle. what that has done is allowed him to really ride the wave of anti-income and anger. host: chet edwards, a democrat, texas, 10 terms. guest: the friend of veterans. spent his career fighting for veterans minutes and writes -- host: and a conservative democrat. guest: yes, these are blue dog democrats. recently these are guys on the front lines of the rebirth of the conservative movement.

host: de know if chet edwards voted for the health care bill? guest: he did not vote for the health care bill. this is a bill he came out against. alan boyd, on the other hand, would have for all three democratic priorities. he still find themselves in a position where he is losing his base. host: you show chet edwards down by 12 points. guest: it has come down to the economy. and texas is not hurting as badly as the rest of the country, but folks who are feeling anxiety. years inn't think congress is a qualification for the job anymore. they see it as in fact counterproductive. host: a race that has been really closely watched is the out large south dakota seat. representative stephanie sandlin running against cristi nome, the

republican. you have the democratic incumbents up. jacob -- guest: she went into the offense. cristi nome, said house majority leader, 1 month figure. she was looking at a tough race. she was running contrast adds. that put her back into a situation where she has a bit of an edge. host: finally, before we go to calls, another at large seat right above south dakota. in north dakota. earl pomeroy. guest: he is within the margin of error but he is up a point of one republican rick burke. at this point, he is at 45. congressional wisdom, if you are a democrat and at 45 or below,

pack your bags. but i think he has a chance to pull this out. talking about a lot of specific races and campaign 2010. brandy, democrat from charlotte, north carolina. brandy, you got to turn down that volume. we will put you on hold. we will come back to you if you stay on the line but you've got to get the volume down. peter, a memphis, tennessee. independent line. caller: i have a question on the polling. what i wanted to know is these holdings, do they really considered the minorities like black and hispanic? because everything i have heard during this election is pulling republicans. even msnbc, surprising, all four republicans.

seem to consider both from marty is -- minorities. guest: that is an excellent question. our polling is picking up a lot more white voters because they are saying they are more likely to vote in the midterm elections. not necessarily that our polls are only attempting to sample white voters but it comes down to, we are asking likely voters of their views on the congressional race and their views of the president and what not so just comes down that typically in a midterm election, the electorate is skewed to older and white heard voters. -- or a wider electorate, for that matter. host: in fact, in the newspaper

it tells how the poll was conducted. very quickly, over four weeks the from poll before "the hill" in 42 key toss of braces that will be critical in determining control of the house of representatives. accomplished by a team led by mark penn will help readers obtain unique insight into the thinking of voters who will decide which party will likely control the next congress. go to thehill.com and you can find out exactly how many people were contacted, etc.. brandon, are you with us in charlotte? caller: thank you very much for allowing me to speak. i read "the hill" every day. i am a registered democrat in north carolina who will be voting for the gop candidate. north carolina democrats are

really run the state to the ground. the state has been under democratic control since the past hundred 12 years. a lot of corruption, fraud and waste, and i am black and i am voting for richard -- and many other gop candidates, and i am proud of it. and i think it is time for voters to stop just looking at the party and looked at their issues and the public record and service record and see what the candidates have actually done. in north carolina, i have to say the democrats have not done a good job running the state. host: sean miller? guest: brandy certainly is not alone when she says she is voting for senator -- elin marshall, the person running for senate, really has not been able to catch fire. she has been on the periphery of

the national story line. this is a seat democrats thought they could pick up this cycle. looking at north carolina and louisiana as vulnerable republican incumbents. but it has been a candidacy that does not necessarily caught a lot of attention. that said, -- elaine marshall is a well-known figure but it might not be hurt year. a profile of the wisconsin state that dave obey has held for a lot of years. guest: that is a situation where he has been ready for a challenge. and it seems like his family called time, said we fought the good fight for years and years and we are going to sit that one else. the democrat has stepped up,

state senator. she has been behind even in our polling and john duffy is ahead in this may be one of the trophy seats the republicans get this cycle. caller: good morning. host: who is the other one? caller: gabrielle deede host: your congresswoman in tucson? are you voting for? caller: no, i am not. host: you voted for the republican? who is the republican? caller: jesse kelly, i believe his name. host: are you voting for john mccain for senate. caller: yes, i am. host: two senate seats. kind of surprised people.

guest: he told a district that was cut for a latino politicians. he is someone who fits the district very well. on the other hand, he got into some trouble after the state legislature passed the 1070, the controversial anti illegal immigration law. he called for a boycott for the state and it did not sit well -- well with a lot of constituents and now he is in trouble, running against a young woman who is a rocket scientist, the republican candidate, and she has got a lot of attention recently because the seed is a trophy for arizona republicans. gabbi gifford is a tough race against jesse kelly. former marine. he ran into trouble, endorsed by an anti-illegal immigration group that had backed jd hayworth against john mccain. some old quote surfaced from

mccain spokesman saying how they were supported by skinheads and the neo nazis. the people of the event -- and their people vehemently denied this and is at the edges looked for a change in immigration law. host: another race that has been closely watched is indiana ninth district in southern indiana. it congressman barren hill running for reelection not against mike this time. guest: he must have been saying, time for a change, but still in a tough race at the same time. we have him up. two points up on todd young, republican state lawmaker. he may be able to pull this race out. it comes down to win races are this close, individual candidates and congressman -- he knows his district.

he has lost before and i am sure he learned a lot. he is one of those incumbents in see coming back. host: leonard boswell, iowa, longtime democratic congressman. thought to be in trouble. your poll has him up. guest: still under 50, but he is a beloved figure. he has been around a long time. it usually sings the national anthem at democratic events. he is well known. looks like he got out in front and started campaigning hard. and his opponent never really caught on to folks. host: jim marshall, george. running anti-nancy pelosi adds. and way down. guest: some of the southern

democrats are really in a catch- 22. they want to run away from the national party, the president, and speaker pelosi, but they want something they can take to their base and say turn out to and georgette is looking like one of the state where the democratic base does not seem motivated. and he should be up against nation -- nathan deal came back with baggage -- for governor, right. it looks like democrats have not been able to get excitement. host: why did you go to the university in ottawa in canada. guest: it has a good journalism school -- and i am canadian. my wife is from boston, though. host: democrat. caller: how are you gentlemen?

do not underestimate african americans this year. i was very offended saying -- when you said you are only polling white districts. we died for the right to vote. african-americans should be very offended by comments like this. we died -- we shed blood. i lived in birmingham alabama and we have an agenda on our ballot this year that we are coming out in droves to vote for. i do not know if you polled and alabama but we have a gambling measure that we lobbied against hard. african americans are coming out in droves to vote for this bill because we do want gambling in alabama. you need to start pulling in black areas. i was very offended by this, and because we died -- host: we got the point so let me get a response from john miller. guest: certainly did not mean to suggest that that there is any

sort of racial reason for and not voting in the midterms. it is demographics more than anything. in the case of alabama, they ran into trouble recently where some state lawmakers were rounded up in a vote buying scheme because they were trying to push through gambling legislation. that has not really reverberated and a lot of the congressional races. a tough race against martha rob i in net income received. there are still tough races for democrats. arthur davis made a run down there, gubernatorial nomination in the bid to become the first african-american gubernatorial nominee in alabama. there is obviously a lot of action down there on the democrat from. host: there was kind of a fund political ad being run by somebody running for commissioner of agriculture in alabama on the republican side.

i can't think of his name. any idea how he is doing? guest: i think he was shooting at -- i have to say i have not caught up on his race. host: denise in michigan. caller: i am an independent in michigan and my specific question is regarding word -- voter turnout. we have a term limit to the governor and as you know our state is doing very poorly economically and a republican candidate is taking it away. my question specifically for mr. miller is, what does he think regarding the independent voter turnout because poles can say one thing but the physical turnout for someone is quite different. i am just stunned at california, jerry brown is even leading given the fact of their economic situation. host: who are you going to vote

for for governor? caller: i will vote for rick snyder. host: the republican. caller: yes. guest: independent voters are motivated to vote and they will really be the deciding factor in this race. independent voters are the fastest-growing electorate out there. they are motivated to vote. sort of disgusted by both parties. they are preferring republican candidates. we broke this down by income. if you are and independent the new reported that you were making under $50,000, then it you were more likely to favor the democratic candidate. anywhere from $50,000 to over $100,000, you were more likely

to favor republicans. independent voters this cycle are leaning toward the republicans. host: three:tweets in -- do you know anything about that? guest: jerry mcnerney do well against his republican challenger. a competitive district in california. basically from the san francisco suburbs into the valley, a lot of farm country. a longtime republican opted not to run for his old seat. he actually ran in a nearby district and lost the primary. but mcnerney as a chance of coming back but it is a tough district, though. host: baron held's district.

paul from indiana. caller: you guys still my thunder. i was going to ask you about that race. i see it just within the margin of error. guest: i think it is certainly possible. for anyone to be writing their prediction that at -- in stone at this point, i think it is a little premature. what we can say is baron hill ran tough races before. todd young does not necessarily have the same experience. does baron hill have the campaign infrastructure to make sure he has the 2 percent margin on election day? that is basically the advantage he has over todd young. todd young has the advantage of some republican energy in indiana. it seems like dan coats is on

par to take that seat back from democrats and he is leading in that senate race. you have an energetic republican governor, mitch daniels, all campaigning around the state for state house and state senate republican candidate. advantages on either side but our polling shows baron hill up. host: agnes, sarasota, florida. caller: i love c-span. i am a registered independent but i sent in my absence ballot for the democratic ticket because i do not approve of industry holding back on employment until president obama is shagged out of office. i also object to having tuesday voting. it should be on the weekend so more people are free to voice

their opinion. guest: tuesday voting good it is the tradition. i don't know if they will change that one. host: as a canadian -- reading that toronto elected a conservative, or "the financial times" calls him a right wing mayor, a la tea party. a surprise in toronto. guest: i can't speak specifically to that race. it just seems like the general mood of folks -- canada's economy has not been hit as hard as the united states but folks are still anxious about the future and it looks like they are willing to go in a different direction. host: asheville, north carolina. jackie on the democrats' line. caller: i wanted it remembered

if richard burr wins, he did it with the help of dccc. the day of marshal's has been funeral they backed a less experienced candidate and forced her into a run off with him to spend money, run off against another democrat. once elaine won the runoff, the dccc refused to back her. so richard burr has them to thank if he wins. guest: they did pick the wrong horse in that primary. back a former state lawmaker who was an iraq war that and had ca che.

marshall has been in state politics for a long time. how they have -- how dccc has chosen to spend its money, democratic consultants have sniped at them as well that they are protecting the some of their members and not necessarily all of them. they are not really playing offense in any of these states. elaine marshall can rise and fall on her own merit. host: according to "the new york times" this morning, ron kline's race in south florida looks expensive. how does he stand? that is a bit of a swing state -- or district. guest: he is up against alan west, and iraq war vet. he left the military after he was found to have fired a

pistol to a who did it detainee to extract information so he was quite controversial the first time he ran. this is another great match. he was quite controversial and he did not win, and quite considerably outspent. now what west has been able to do is become a real figure in the conservative movement. he has been able to raise money through a lot of fund raising through direct mail. it will be a real slugfest. it has already had a bunch of -- a few mishaps. florida democratic party sent a mailer with west's social security number, his real social security number. then you have the democrats accusing them of being associated with -- him of being associated with an outlaw biker gang, which he denies. it real interesting race. host: kensington, maryland. tommy on the republican line.

caller: sean, this may be an obscure phrase but looking at the republicans, you talk about the republicans making a move back into the northeast and getting some representatives and senators, do you know anything about the rhode island first, the state legislature, a former national guard, helicopter pilot, i think he is running against the mayor of providence. i am wondering if you can tell me anything about that race. guest: this is patrick kennedy's old seat. the democrats are actually showing some concern. the president was up their fund- raising for the mayor of providence, raising money for the dccc as well. rhode island it has been one of these states that has been a democratic stronghold, party machine stronghold. patrick kennedy decided after his father passed away, he wanted to step out of politics.

this will be one to watch. host: south dakota. aubrey, independent line. caller: ag slid from north dakota. my family moved up here from texas and i was trying to get information on the race between, or it and bird but i cannot find anything other than the race was close and that wanted to know if you could let me know what is going on. host: who are you supporting? you are calling on the independent line. caller: i really appreciate years, and health care and cap and trade. wary about climate change -- worried about climate change. host: what about the senate

race? is it your governor, tom hogan, the republican and polls show him way up for the dorgan seat? cole argues supporting? caller: you know, i think dorgan did a really good for north dakota. when i talk to people, i think he is involved but the public and listening to people. i know there is the tea party movement appear, but that -- i don't agree with any of that. host: why did you move to north dakota from texas, just in time for winter? guest: -- caller: for the oil and gas. host: thank you for calling in. guest: that race is interesting

because you see congressmen pomeroy running an ad featuring george w. bush, and he is a democrat. he followed it up with this straight camera tv ad where he says he is not nancy pelosi or barack obama. he has tried to put differences between himself and the national party and that would really be the only way he could win. host: for a while he was way down. guest: it looked as if he was going to make a run for the senate but then the governor john hogan stepped up and he is a juggernaut. since then his poll numbers have seesawed and now that looks like he has a bit of an edge. host: we have about eight

minutes left in starting shortly is a congressional oversight panel on tarp, chaired by the senator from delaware. lakeland, florida. dennis, a democrat. caller: good morning. i really enjoy c-span and i listen to it every morning. i have two questions. the first question is, what are your thoughts on the florida governor's race. i second question is about cellphone polling. i know your polls probably don't take into account that probably half of the people or around that have the cellphone. host: florida governor, and if you are not a polling expert i will not make the answer the second one. guest: i will take the first question first. the florida governor's race was one that the democrats thought that this would be an easy pick up after rick scott won the nomination, upsetting the attorney general. rick scott came out of business backgrounds so he fits the kind

of -- work snyder, a businessman, making a first run at politics persona. on the other hand, scott has medicare fraud case in his background where he took the fifth a number of times while he was testimony. alex sink looked like she had a comfortable lead, that she could ride it out and give democrats' advantage in the redistricting, which is what they were most concerned about going into the post census. but one of the debates -- not last night, but the night before, alex sink was caught receiving a two-sentence text message sent up by a staff member through the makeup artist during the break, and that was a bit of an embarrassment for her and observers down their caution

that, but the other hand, she is up in the polls but it is democratic turn out really going to be there on election day? the second question about cellphone, that is a challenge for pulling. -- polling. a lot of folks cannot have a land line but we are increasingly able to contact people who have cellphone. host: before we leave florida, alan grayson's seed. guest: he raised a lot of headlines this cycle for running an ad against his opponent where he dubbed him caliban -- taliban dan, one of the more memorable ads. however, it looks like he is in the real trouble. a lightning rod for conservatives. webster has been able to raise a

lot of money. so it looks like alan grace and's days in congress may be numbered. host: fort worth, texas. caller: chet edwards in district 17 continues to get reelected because he brings home the pork and he is supposedly a big supporter of the military but he is nothing more than eight nancy pelosi lieutenant. whenever there is a big vote and she needs it, he is there. but if he can get cover and they don't need his vote, then he votes conservative position. we figure he has been writing the military too long. he thinks he is in the calgary. so he is going down. guest: chet edwards is in a tough position. the caller may be right.

his days in congress may certainly be numbered. as for his support but the veterans -- it is interesting it has not helped him overcome -- not has been an issue people have cared about. they are more focused on the economy. it looks like he may be suffering over the wider angst with the democratic brand in general. host: elizabeth, macon, georgia. a democrat. caller: i want to know what are the chances with jim marshall and austin stop and my second question is, did you say you were a canadian citizen and you are running polls for american policy? host: sean miller is a reporter for "the hill" and the

newspaper contract it with a polling firm and if you go to their website you consider pulling methodology. sean miller as a reporter has been covering the campaign. he is not the pollster and it is fair to say you have no connection to the poll, you just see the results. guest: i look at the numbers and try to go from there. as for congressman marshall in georgia, down 13 points. host: he is running anti-pelosi as and saying he voted against health care. still down 13 points. guest: and austin scott may have run into personal stuff -- his divorce case looks like it will be more of an issue after the erection. so that type of personal baggage does not look like it will come up. host: does he have the mother in law situation?

guest: i don't know the exact details. but it does not look like it will play out politically. with only a week ago, anyone looking at a 13-point deficit under 45%, it is time to pack up. host: winston, oregon. jeff, independent line. caller: thank you for c-span, where we get the pulse of the american citizen. i hate to call it a third party, but i would like to see states men and patriots up in d.c. instead of all of the -- both parties, i don't have any use for. they fight like cats and dogs but we are in build middle of a world depression. they need to correct that. i would like -- you know, the tea party talking about a caucus, which they can revolt against the