it is part of the american character to give of oneself to something bigger than oneself. it is who we are. it is true in the patriots of the space program, the patriots who serve in our military, who served in the homes. my sister is in her 70's. she has eight children. they are all married with kids of their own, except the youngest. the youngest, jeffrey, was born with down's syndrome. he is about 43 right now. her husband passed away a few years ago. she is at home with jeffrey, and she has devoted the last 43 years of her life to making sure that jeffrey's life is as full and complete as can possibly be. a hero to me.

i think of the single moms across the country who are scrimping and saving right now. so they can have a good meal on the table at the end of the day for their children. i think of the men and women who are working two jobs right now and perhaps a mom working the day shift and a dad working the night shifts so they rarely see each other. why? so their kids will be able to have those clothes that other kids at school have. i think of the number of couples across america that will not have christmas this year, but instead, are going to scrimp and save so they can give their kids a better christmas. we are a generous people who are known cafaro large harvests and our willingness to give to

others and improved -- for our large harvests and our willingness to give to others and improve their lives. you can see what needs to be done. i am counting on you to be able to see the importance in this race and to be able to make the right choice. i know that as americans, you have full hearts. there was a fictional football team on t.a.r.p. a few years ago called "friday night lights" and the athletes as they would go off on the playing field, they would touch a sign that said, "clear eyes come awful hard, can't lose -- clear our eyes, full hearts, a can't lose." i need your help. [cheers]

one more thing i want to mention to you, you with full hearts and clear eyes can see what is happening across the country right now. on the eastern coast of our nation, a lot of people are in during very difficult times. and our hearts and our prayers go to them as we start to think about how tough is going to be there. i don't and there has been a hurricane in ohio and a long time. but there have been some hurricanes that have caused a lot of damage across this country. i would like to ask you today to think about making a contribution to the red cross or another relief agency, to be of help in any way that you can imagine to help those that are

in harm's way. [applause] we have faced these kinds of challenges before. and as we have, it is easy to see how americans come together. this looks like another time when we need to come together all across the country, even here in ohio. i know our victory centers are making collections of items being sent to the red cross. you can do this from your internet account. the people of the atlantic coast are counting on ohio. the people of our entire nation are counting on ohio.

my guess is, if ohio votes me in as president, i will be the next president of the united states. [cheers and applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] ♪

javaugh ♪

♪

♪ by stephen c. mitt romney here again on -- at avon lake at 8:00 p.m. tonight. both president obama and mitt romney have campaign events and through tomorrow.

both candidates happened drop off their schedules and it is threatening to alter the outcome of the election. the federal courts will continue to be closed tomorrow. the house and senate will come in for a pro-forma sessions with no legislation scheduled. fema headquarters held a conference call about the storm. mr. fugate said it has enough money for an initial response to the storm. this is half an hour. >> thank you. good afternoon, everyone. thank you for dialing in today. two main administrators, craig

fugate and dr. rick knab. each of them will have opening comments and then we will take questions. please limit yourself to one question and no follow-ups. with that, let me turkish -- turned over to the administrator. >> good afternoon. as hurricane sandy keeps approaching and moving closer to the coast, we are going to be rapidly moving from preparing to support response operations. we have been moving commodities, bottled waters, meals, blankets, cots, and volunteer agencies moving their supplies in. today we have been looking at generator needs. we already had a pretty considerable number of generators and route to the area.

these are the larger generators, the type you need to run critical facilities, as well as high water generators you need for water generation or hospitals. we have been looking at additional generators that are going to be leased and brought in and coordinating this with the u.s. army of engineers to respond to generator call requests. as the storm comes ashore, we will move into response, as soon as weather conditions permit. this will slow down, and there will be the time where the storm is still impacting areas, and that will have an impact on how quickly we can begin response recovery operations. >> think you. good afternoon, everyone. -- thank you. landfall expected some time tonight.

it is a little bit difficult in situations where a system is tilted and cheered and in the process of beginning to lose its tropical characteristics, but to get a handle on the forward motion of the low-lel center. it does appear based on the aircraft data and satellite imagery the system is speeding up as a move towards the coast. that's speed up has been the overall scheme of things temporary because we're still forecasting that the system will slow down, especially by tomorrow over the mid-atlantic area and the inland with the circulation center, but still this huge overall storage system will continue to bring strong winds, elevated water levels, both before as we've

seen during the day today, and after the circulation comes ashore. we are still anticipating it will make the transition to a post-cyclical cyclone later tonight. it is hard to pinpoint at this time. in any event, we still think it is the overall best course of action to have used these a local wfo units from start to finish so we do not ever have to deal with the switch over from what would have been hurricane and tropical storm warnings to the wfo warnings midstream because it will be awhile before these warnings, coastal and inland, will be able to come down. it will be a long duration event, and we are expecting wind-wise, hurricane force gusts over a good portion of the coastline.

this will be up through the massachusetts coast line and everywhere in between. the tropical storm force ordeal force winds will occur at the coast and happen and penetrate inland and last in some areas of to as long as tuesday night and wednesday morning. the storm surge still going with the same general picture. for-8 feet above ground level in many places from the northern the large but to connecticut long island sound. we still have the area in the middle here, long island sound, new york city where we could see 6-eleven be combined surge in tied in some spots. the storm surge unit has been watching the water values all

day and everything seems to be coming up in the areas we generally anticipated. it appears to be on its way to coming to fruition generally in the rainfall could be measured in terms of feet. hopefully not more than 1 foot, but certainly could be more than a foot in some places. several inches in many spots. that could lead -- that will be coastal areas the and inland over the next few to several days that could lead to the flash flooding on short-time skills and potentially river flooding. there is also the snow component. up to 2-3 feet of snow in the mountain areas. virginia along the appalachian chain between kentucky, virginia, tennessee, and north carolina. will the hazard event. time is running out for preparation and many areas, especially coastal as conditions deteriorate before landfall later tonight. that is a summary of what i have. back to you. >> with that, we will moving to questions.

please limit yourself to one question with no follow-ups. we want to get through as many questions as we can. >> to ask a question, please press start then one. -- star then one. >> for dr. knabb, given the storm has bred up quite a bit -- has sped up quite a bit, and looking at early evening, 6:00, 7:00 landfall, what does that mean in terms of the storm surge specifically in long island sound, new york harbor area, and in general, will it change the overall impacts of the next several days of the storm? will it mean it will leave a little earlier are not really?

-- or not really? >> in terms of the localized details of the timing of peak surge relative to high tide, the time of passage for landfall of the low level center could have some positive results in some areas where it takes the peaks surged out and another area that might make it more aligned. because the circulation is so large and these large systems so capable of pushing so much water, it is not like a hurricane with a tight court type of situation where the timing of landfall is really correlated highly but the timing of the peak surge. anywhere along the coast line

in thinking a couple or few hours difference of landfall will change the overall difference. it will be a long term erasion event. the magnitude of this we would not want to pinpoint any change just get. we think the pink -- but we think the peak volumes will be. but it will take tuesday into wednesday for the onshore flow to stop and to get back to normal. >> thank you. >> bloomberg news. >> if you could talk a little bit about i know in 2004 due experienced for hurricanes -- you experienced a four hurricanes within six weeks. just before, roughly similar situation before another presidential election. could you compare and contrast what you faced -- would you please now compared to what you faced then? >> we were anticipating based on the storms there could be impacts that will linger into next week and have impacts on the federal election. we have been working on making sure we have their proper support any actions that may be required and in the areas that

may be declared. we are going through policy to make sure that is all in place. this really goes back to the overall thing you need to have. it needs to be safe and secure. focus on power restoration, infrastructure back up, but we do look at the support states. this will be led by the states. so we will be in a support role, but from the experience of 2004 and other disasters that occurred during federal elections, we are providing the information needed to picture we are responsive to states' request. >> thank you. next question. >> a minister, this question is -- mr. fugate, this question is

for you. the seven states and district of columbia that have received emergency declarations, what will they get? >> right now direct federal assistance. meaning they can start releasing the distribution of commodities, generators or other products that are there. we are ready to support additional request for assistance, which would be more financial reimbursing for the cost of the response or damages occurred. sure we can release product to we have right now in the northeast 600,000 liters ofwe have roughly 490,000 meals. we a more stop coming in. this is what the met has, but -- this is not just what fema has or is doing, but we're working

with red cross andthers that ha m woing with the supplsector. the initial assistance, the federaassistance directly provided to the stage. additional assistance will be provided by the governor's request and the impact each state will occur during the storm. >> thank you. wall street journal. for line is open. -- your line is open. >> could you give us an update as to how much money isn't the disaster relief fund presently, and given everything about the size and strength of the storm, do you believe in that is there? >> we went in with almost 1 billion in the balance. limitingseen the factors for response activities. nor do we see in the limiting factors for the existing disasters we are responding to. the concern will be recovery rebuilding efforts, that that would require any additional funding.

as it is right now, the amount of money going into the fiscal year, the continuing resolution means we have enough funds for the response to the disaster. >> think you. >> nicole killion. -- thank you. do you foresee anything that might impact next tuesday, whether it is linked ring clean up, another storm system out there? this from a forecasting standpoint. >> it is really too early to say what will be the impact of the storm. will be here to support the

governor's team in the supervisor of elections or secretaries of state as they determine what impact and assistance they may need. right now until we know what the impacts are, hard to say what that may be. >> abc news. your line is open. >> if you can doctor this, please. -- answer this, please. -- dr., if you can answer this please. we're trying to figure out how far inland the surge will go and three different places. new york city, atlantic city, and long island. >> that's hazard is the one that is handled particularly at the local level for very good reasons. it is such a result of depth of the water just offshore, the shape of the coastline, the terrain adjacent to the water, and that is handled at a very local level. now, if you look at new york city, and indeed the administrator will want to comment, the evacuated zone -- they evacuated zone a for the reason that the storm surge was

not want to penetrate beyond areas in the zone. and it gives you an idea of the use of information regarding storm surge that are then taken by the local emergency management to figure out how far inland the water wouldevery little specific area is -- the water would penetrate. every little specific area is handled differently. you can go 3 miles down the road and it goes just over the road. 3 miles further down the road in canada several blocks inland. it depends on the local effects.

>> i think dr. knabb really cover that. what we're planning for based on the estimate of storm surge and then in real time is where we're at in the tide cycles. the emergency managers will base the evacuation decisions based on that impact. the actual forecast for what the estimates are will be done in conjunction with the weather service's offices and they can give you a better idea of what is happening in the tide cycles. question. this is to the director. i have been hearing conflicting things about the movement of this storm. some people say it is pretty typical for an atlantic tropical storm hurricane. others say it is pretty unusual. i was wondering what the record and science say about the but secular course this storm is taking.

-- of the particular course the storm is taking. >> what makes every storm unique is a combination of things, the time of year, strength of the structure in magnitude and size. sandy is unique in a number of ways. it is certainly not common for a system to come in at this strength. but if you look back in history, tropical cyclones have come up the east coast many times in the past. the whole east coast is vulnerable to storm surges and hurricanes. look at isabel in 2003 that came in a little bit further south and had all the storm surge. it has taken a different path, going it in a different direction than this one is. every storm is unique. this is not 100 percent unprecedented, but certainly not common to have a system of this magnitude coming from this direction at this time of year, and what makes this nearly unprecedented and very unusual is the transition to oppose best tropical cyclone and all the different hazards you have in one time.

>> i think this is the only time i know of with the hurricane as strong and getting snow and west virginia. the combination of the winter process upstream with the tropical storm is certainly unprecedented to get the amount of snow we're still expecting and west virginia. take a think you, sir. -- >> thank you, sir. >> this is for mr. fugate. i know you a put teams in place and commodities in place, but in terms of the mutt response, what are the things that worry you?

>> people that did not evacuate and coast guard having to go out to rescue them. and also, the overall impacts of the storm surge, particularly in the more populated areas. a monitoring very closely new york city in the subway system and the overall impacts for the power system and how widespread that is. >> thank you. >> congressional quarterly, your line is open. >> question for the administrator. i was hoping to look collaborate on whether you're been able to send out more alerts and any successes? >> with these types of storms, you get a lot of this that will be carried out through the traditional media. using a lot more traditional media and facebook and twitter. there is a higher degree of awareness for what the impact will be. the real success would be after

words if we would see a change in the outcome. did more people he the official evacuation orders and protective measures that local officials have been measuring? >> operator, and a question. -- next question. >> given the amount of time it will take for the storm to one fall, how soon do you see being able to transition to this disaster aid status, and given the size of the storm, are you confident you have the assets you need from one virginia to new england?

>> i think the conditions will probably start dissipating on the southern side of the track. they have a window that is probably able to deal with more extreme weather than utility crews. coast guard did a hit or -- did a heroic rescue at sea. they are really prepared to go out of the adverse weather. power restoration, that will really depend upon the wins. and some of the areas, it could be later wednesday or thursday before conditions improve. as far as overall supply, we of debasing upon this is not just -- we have been basing this upon not just fema, but the total effort of the family. a big part of that is private- sector. we are participating with our

national business operation center. a lot of the leading retailers and distribution systems to look at where they are at. i think we're in a good position based upon the initial response, but we still have more things in route, and dissipating date to accommodate three, and day for -- anticipating the day two, day 3, and day four as we get a better idea of the things we need to bring resources and and not go with what we averted pre-stage. -- we have pre-staged. >> hello, and then you for taking my question. -- thank you for taking my question. this is for the doctor. >> we essentially have a nor'easter meeting a cyclone. on top of that, a full moon. how you need is this, and how much does the fact that we are -- heil unique is this, and how much does the fact that we are going to have a full moon affect the storm surge? >> good question. the moon effects that

astronomical tides, and the timing of this event relative to that is adding it may be a foot or two to the astronomical tide, depending on what place your talking about. so at the overall water level, combined surge in tide would be a little bit less of a different time of month, but this is overwhelmingly going to be a water wise -- rise as a result of the storm itself. take a big year. -- >> thank you, sir. next question. >> you mentioned that you were having a general, sir -- council look over things regarding the election. could you elaborate on that again? >> having gone through this with the elections when i was in florida, one of the challenges was a lot of the polling stations had been severely damaged. we were having to do temporary facilities. it was not that the mets did it

-- it was not that fema did it, but whether or not we would reimbursed for it. in 2004 much of the things that were extraordinary for, the met was able to provide -- fema was able to provide reimbursement. those are the big things we wanted to make sure that everyone have the guidance out there, and if there were questions coming up, to get those out quickly so we could be responsive. >> thank you. >> eli lake, newsweek magazine. >> it has been recorded george w. bush tapped you or once you -- wanted you to be the fema director when you were in florida after mike brown. is that true, and to you write your own -- do you write your own tweets? >> yes, that is why there is this piping's. -- that is why there are

misspellings in there. as far as the rest of this that goes, i work for the present right now, and that is my focus. -- i work for the president right now, and that is my focus. what happened previously, we can talk about that later offline. >> thank you. >> next question. wall street journal, your line is open. >> i wanted to ask whether there is a consolidated effort on how many people are being told to evacuate or have evaporated, and -- evaluated -- that have evaluated, and -- evacuated, and a number of states that would involve. the second question on the coastal storm surges. if you could share more perspective on how long this could last, and a bit of time we have those kinds of a large

swath of coast line? >> i do not have that in front of me. each state has been doing their own evacuations. we have been looking at what they would need to support that. we will have public affairs get with the states to see if there's a rough idea of the total number of people that were ordered to evacuate. as far as who is actually of actuated, that is something that -- who is actually evacuated, is more difficult. we may look at this after the storm. i will turn it over to dr. knabb. >> regarding the region overall -- and the duration over all of elevated water levels, it is going to beat a couple days or maybe even more than that, maybe into wednesday for many areas. the water level started coming up earlier today and could take into wednesday, wednesday night for the southerly flow behind the system to completely shut down to allow the water levels to go completely back to normal. but the peak surge where the search and tied will combine to get near the values that we're

talking about in public advisory, that is going to be increased tonight and overnight and into tomorrow and then maybe start coming down a little bit, but it will take a while for water levels to come back to normal. variety of events in the past, on the kinetic coast and elsewhere. elsewhere. >> time for one last question. >> your line is open. what you will be doing in terms of immediate air emergency response and then speak to the coast guard about people having

to evacuate people and what you're doing to help communities that have been flooded in the coming weeks. take a safety first. not only are we dealing with coastal flooding, but inland flooding. -- >> safety first. first thing is search and rescue. the assistance will be based upon the needs. the first question is, are they going to need housing assistance? we have already looked at the availability of housing stock, rental properties if we have the housing commission. we are anticipating what the needs are, though we will not impact. we are preparing with flight safety, immediate needs, housing, and then moving to recovery. i just want to close -- we focus a lot as the storm is coming ashore on the impacts. in the aftermath of the storm, a lot of people lose their lives after the storm. just because the storm has passed, does that leave the

storm is safe. unfortunately accidents have been a leading cause of death in the aftermath of the storm, so we want people to keep that message going. 3.6 billion is the total for the relief fund, that includes money carried over from last year and apportionment of the continuing resolution. we have the funds to respond and continue response and recovery and previous disasters, and we will assess the impacts to determine any additional funding needs based on the impact of hurricane sandy. >> thank you everyone for joining us. to call to get the latest updates, please go to www.weather.gov.

fema.gov. for readiness tips and post- disaster tips, ready.gov. thank you so much. >> that was a fema conference call from about 2:30 p.m. this afternoon. this is a live look at the station in washington d.c. where you can see how hurricane sandy is affecting the nation's capital right now. the house and senate will hold a pro-forma sessions to our with no legislative business schedule. the federal government, the federal courts, and the train system will remain closed. tonight, a republican presidential candidate mitt romney speaks to supporters in avon lake, ohio. he attended a rally there earlier today before canceling the rest of his campaign events because of the storm.

you can see his comments at 8:00 p.m. eastern tonight. and vice president joe biden was also in ohio or earlier today. he campaigned in youngstown with former president bill clinton. this was after president obama also canceled all of his campaign events because of the storm. president obama won an ohio four years ago. you can see them tonight at 8:35 p.m. eastern also 1 c-span. -- also on c-span. >> not too long ago no one would have agreed to carry around a tracking device, but now we all carry around the cell phones, which can be tracked. a lot of us use g mail and all of our e-mail is stored on a server. >> we were looking into cyber

and cyber security and cyber war. the pentagon had declared cyberspace as a new domain of war. we realized maybe one in a thousand people really understood what cyberspace was. and the degree and double the of the vulnerability. -- end of the death of the vulnerabilities. the platonic idea is that everybody from my mom and dad to congress and people around the country can understand, so maybe start the process of coming up with ways to defend cyberspace better. >> the cyberspace vulnerability tonight on the communicators on c-span [applause] -- on c-span2.

>> and now a discussion of the money that president obama and mitt romney are expected to raise in the final days of their campaigns. will hear about the effect that citizens united has hide in years past. from "washington journal", this is 40 minutes. host: do we know all we know about how much money has been raced and how much they're spending as we head into election day? guest: we got reports as of the 17th day of october. that's the last report we'll get. when they spend money, especially when these outside organizations spend money, they'll have to report every 24 hours now what they spent. so we'll see more but the big picture is pretty well defined host: both the campaigns are expected to raise $1 billion each. what does it say about the

election? guest: it says their close. -- it is very competitive. they are both close. it says people are engaged so they've been able to raise that kind of money. also the president's campaign in 2008 got to about $1 billion. it's not inprecedented but for both of them to be there it is. host: there are the campaigns themselves but the other groups as well. guest: yeah the campaigns are different. the obama campaign has been successful racing about $630 million so far while the romney campaign is somewhat less under $400 million. but the political parties the rep cab can national committee has raced more than the dem -- the republican national committee has raised more than

the democratic national committee. but you can see team blue and red which represent it is campaigns plus the parties plus the new feature this year which is these outside spending organizations that have played an important role especially for the romney campaign. and if you go down to the bottom or click the link you can see how that breaks down for those three kind of organizations. and the outside groups supporting romney's candidacy have out spent obama groups by three to one. that is what has made the difference and equal liesed the financial process this year. so both about $1 billion already. host: we're looking at the website opensecrets dot org. >> here are the numbers to call --

host: we're talking with bob biersack. other organize shagse it is "washington post" among them are tracking the money and following where it's coming from and how it's being spent. and they break it down by the campaigns, also the committees, the dnc and r.n.c. and super pac's. but there is undies closed -- undisclosed money. guest: these are primarily what we're calling social really fair organize shagses. -- social welfare organizations. they register under the tax code 501 c 4. the organizations that are primarily about educating people about issues or policy options and things like that but they're allowed to do some political activity. it can't be the main thing they're about.

but they are permitted to be in politics. and now because ofthe decisions from 2010 that are so famous they can be more specific in the way they're involved. the things that define the elections are -- because they're mainly about enl indicating people have been able to do that -- educating people and not mainly about elections, they have been able to do that without disclosing the sources of the money that they've gotten. so tense or hundreds of millions of dollars being spent without us knowing where it actually came from. host: let's go to our democrats line. caller: what i would like to say about this money, i feel like this money is basically it's generations of money which a lot of elderly white people have built up over time when the system was discriminatory. now they have come out and decided to buy an election. this money is not taxed or

nothing. they need to start taxing this money at 90%. if the rich people don't want to pay more taxes, they want to take the tax money because taxes are lower and use it in the election. i think it should be taxed at 90% like in the 30's and 40's. host: i was going to ask him if he donated money to a campaign. we'll ask our callers that. talk to us ability small money -- about small money and large money. guest: that is another deminches this campaign. -- another difference in this campaign. the obama campaign beginning in 2,000 ailingt but continuing -- in 2008 and continuing this year has relied on smull contributions from individual people. it's a lot easy crer to do that this year as the technology changes it's pretty straightforward to go to a website and put in a cred card number. so the campaigns have followed that and that was successful for

the obama campaign and continues to be this year. you can raise big contributions too. it's important to remember that direct contributions to the candidate are still limits. -- still limited. only $2500 per election so $5,000 per candidate. and there are prohibitions on who can give money to the candidates. corporations,unions are not permitted to make contributions. that's been the law for more than 40 years and it still is. they're about to spend their own money independently of the campaign if they want to but they can't make contributions. presidential candidates raise money at the national level. -- a maximum levels. there are a loft of wealthy individuals who support them. so the obama campaign stands out in that respect a little bit. the caller is making another point which is that the money in this race this year has been much more focused in many respects on a small number of

individual people. the attention in this spending is focused on a small number of people who have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the process. i think the number that gets you to a majority of the money -- about 60% of the outside money has been raced from about 200 individuals. so the number of people you could fit on an airplane have been an important group in funding these outside efforts this year. and that's different and i think we need to watch to see whether those financial resources can become more important in elections. that's a question whether this has been effective or annoying for citizens in the battleground states. i live in virginia and it's unrelenting the television advertising and that's true around the country. how effective it is, whether it makes a difference in the election is a different question. but it's true a small number of

people played very prominent roles this year. host: let's look at a list of those names. but "washington post" list their names. you can see their names here and the amount of money they've thrown into super pac's. we also are seeing some questions about what kind of game changer super pac's were and the "new york times" has this story. even obama is in the tv ad race sfite the pax. and it says maybe the super pac's weren't so super after all. sfite warnings from president -- despite repeated warnings from president obama and his party that a flood of --

guest: as we can see it's this grouping of campaigns and these groups that matter and there the finances are about equal t. obama campaign has been clever in taking advantage of one aspect of this as candidates are favered as opposed to other groups and spaces can only cause -- stations cannot only charge campaigns the lowest rate for advertising. that means they have to charge them the rate they give to their best customers who advertise regularly. so campaigns get a better price than the outside groups or party organization when they're buying ad time. so that translates into the difference in the amount of ads you see and the amount of money spent. and that helps host: let's hear from laura in

akron, ohio. caller: i understand that when they accept credit cards, i can they do not require the 3 digit code on the back. somebody must have caused that -- caught that because it made the news. do you have any knowledge of that? guest: foreign nationals are not permitted to make contributions in american collections. it would be illegal if this were happening. the campaigns themselves are responsible for making sure that the donations they get are from allowable sources. the way in which they had checked credit card contributions or other contributions is up to them. there's no federal law that dictates how that has to happen. at the end of the day, it's their responsibility to make sure they are not getting its

foreign money. in 2008 this question came up before, for the obama campaign. they do have procedures in place to monitor that. the federal election commission audited that campaign in 2008 and did not find a problem. so different organizations have different strategies, but they all must make sure that no foreign nationals are contributing. host: pat is on the independent line in vienna. -- in indiana. caller: we have spending caps on major sports and would make everything so transparent for everything within the country, yet how can we allow foreign entities to contribute to our presidential elections? corporations should not even be able to contribute to elections either. it should be who is the best person qualified and love for country.

guest: we understand these big numbers. it feels like somehow that the money and the votes are really closely related, so a person with the most money will win. they usually do, but probably for other reasons. money cannot buy you love. it cannot necessarily buy you votes. almost every time a challenger needs an incumbent in a congressional race, order spends less than the incumbent they defeated. you have to have enough money to be visible so people can evaluate you and see you and hear your message. other things are important for voters as well. they make their judgments

individually. so the money is important. it is necessary in some respects, but it's not enough. and it is not just a competition for dollars. at the end of the day, it's a competition for votes. host: how much of the campaigns use individual reflection for -- individual contributors as a reflection for their ground game? we have looked at people who give smaller donations versus higher end. >> what we saw in 2008, which was phenomenal, people made pointed dollar contributions and continued coming back. something would energize them in the campaign and they would contribute again, because they were still well under the limit. that means you could have a continuing flow of revenue. and it means the support is more locked in. those people have a vested interest in the process and are

surely going. -- surely going to vote. the role of small money is hopeful in this process, that this campaign has shown us, but you really can be viable and effective with a fairly big reliance on small contributions. that may democratize the process. it may spread out the ability to have influence in financial ways that we have not really expected and it's more hopeful than these two and did people. host: we can see inhost: we cane washington post and the individuals that may give candidates up to $2,500 per election, a primary or the general. it shows us that president obama's campaign has raised more money from donors giving $200 or less. this is the high end, over $2,000. that is larger than the midrange, so it is peaking repair and then going down and coming back up after 2000. the romney campaign has raised more money from donors giving

over $2,000. when we look at the rnc, the committee, both committees have raised more money from donors giving $5,000 or less. so there are some smaller donors for the committee's. >> the romney model is the more common model for presidential campaigns. usually you find people around the country who are influential and wealthy and have lots of friends and you encourage them to give contributions in bundles, to collect unlimited contributions from their associates and friends and businesses and that will generate significant amounts of money. it's been a bit of a problem for the romney campaign this year. once you've got a $5,000, you are finished with that person, then you have to find a new one. you cannot go back over and over to the same people, the way the obama campaign as for those giving $20 or $50.

that means you constantly need to spread the effort. this is the first time really, since 1972, that this campaign has been completely privately financed. there was public money in the presidential campaign from 1976 through 2004 for both candidates and for the matt cain campaign even in 2008. so it's a different world and there's a lot more fund-raising going on these days than before. host: now on the democratic line, margot,. caller: thanks for taking my call. when i look at the campaigns, it seems to me the republicans have more rich on their side, so it seems like the rich against poor. it and how the campaigns operate?

like it is the rich against poor? i am more inclined to vote for someone who has everybody's best interest at heart. i don't understand why others don't think that way. i think president obama has my best interest at heart as well as the rich. they just don't see it. guest: i think both campaigns are interested in getting as broad as support as they possibly can. it moves back and forth between the parties. in 2004, there were large contributions that were allowed for some outside organizations that were active in that campaign as well. most of them were democrats. there were mostly supporting the kerrey campaign. -- kerry campaign. so it shipped back and forth. the important question, the important challenge and a problem is how much these really small numbers of people,, to include they have on the process, how much they can

control what types of messages are sent, if what the voters here, what type of choices are able to be made by elected officials either in congress or the white house? the range of options is narrowed by who is likely to support you. that is something we are looking at closely at opensecrets.org and something we will have to walk down the road. we will see how it works. host: opensecrets.org is from the center for responsive politics and its tracks money in politics. here's a question on twitter -- guest: what they are doing is called joint fund-raising, so they're making that contribution at one time and a big portion of it goes to the party organization. in national committees are allowed to accept up to $30,800 from each person each year.

state parties can acceptance thousand dollars per year from people. and there's an overall limit on how much you as a person can give in an election cycle. you cannot just keep passing these around without any limits, but the limits are much bigger for parties than for the campaigns. so they get together and take this one check for one pavement and split it up among those there for organizations. so the campaigns are really only directly getting $5,000 of that money, but they can be pretty confident it's all being spent on behalf of that presidential candidates. host: let's hear from tom in texas, a republican. caller: thanks for taking my call. the democrats and your guests aboard providing the billions and billions of unlimited and unregulated dollars spent every year campaigning for democrats and producing reliably, consistently bogus, false attack ads against republican's by these virulence militant

leftists super pacs like abc, nbc, cbs, pbs, npr, cnn, the new york times? the million dollars from the new york times that they spend every year to produce this product and pay its employees is enough, don't you? host: are you calling the media outlets super pacs? caller: definitely, they are political lobbying groups. guest: the first amendment to the constitution as a provision that talks about the press. so there has always been in the rules about financing campaigns an exemption for news organizations. there are no restrictions on what people can write in newspapers or can express on television. they are very careful to separate their editorial opinions and the editorial pages and their own perspectives from the news.

that is their profession. it encourages them to be as objective as they can. so everybody is free to judge those messages as they come from the media and there are lots of them in very different forms in this era than there have been in the past. but there's an exemption in the constitution that allows them to spend money that way without any restrictions. host: let's look at the latest campaign finance numbers. bob, how significant is the money in this last month versus the money of prior months?

guest: now it ships a little bit from advertising on television, from general messages, to the kinds of things that mobilize voters. focusing on the ground, getting out and going door-to-door in the important neighborhoods and calling and mailing to the people you have already a identified as your supporters, to try to make sure if they will get out and vote on election day. that becomes the message now. the rules of gatt trade are expensive as well. having people in place and having the technology that allows you to know which doors to knock on and which phones to call. that is where it is shifting now. neither one of these candidates will win or lose because they had too little money. they have an extraordinary campaign, very sophisticated,

very elaborate. they have been able to do pretty much whatever they needed to do, they think, in their own minds, to communicate with voters. so it's not really going to be a matter of money. we watch it and follow it intently sometimes because i think it is a measure of how things are going. the romney campaign has been pretty effective in raising money lately and throughout the general election. in some ways it is not surprising. this is different from what we have seen for almost 40 years. so we're learning as we go. but the money will be a focus now mobilizing people to get out and vote early and then to vote on. election. host: the new york times looks at the money raised and spent over the last month.

let's go to jill in jasper, georgia, independent line. caller: i just wanted to say i worked for a place called the tides foundation. we took in money from aarp, progressive insurance, coca- cola, epa, even tax money, out of country money, and we laundered it, said it up through the ranks. and your list of donors to obama is not correct. tides needs to be audited. it is a funny name for laundering money. i've got a list he would not believe of people that donate money, like the brazilian billion that went to brazil to be funneled back. it's on and on. they need to be audited, seriously. host: you say you work for a company that launders money? caller: it's in louisiana.

i stopped working there. i've got paperwork and everything i'd like to publish. i would like to give it to craig and let him deal with it. it's the most corrupt place i worked in my life. people ought to check into it. it is a shady doings down there. guest: it's pretty clear in a law that you're not allowed to make a contribution in the name of another person. no one can give money to someone else and say "make this contribution and claim that it's yours, but i will pay for it." if that happens, there are ways in which you as an individual citizen can file a complaint with the federal elections commission and they will look into those kinds of things. but it's absolutely not permitted to do what you are describing, which is to make a contribution in the name of another and certainly not from overseas. host: becky in new york, a democratic caller, good morning -- vicki. are you with us?

amanda is on our independent line in texas. caller: i understand there are things going out in other states that are not true, cd's, the movie they made, as proven not to be true. the cd's going out to people in florida. i noticed there is only nine latter-day saints church in the united states. do you think romney is trying to influence through his religious beliefs? host: so you're talking about an anti-obama movie? caller: yes, it has been sent out. and i notice there's only nine latter-day saints trenches in

the u.s. that romney the longstalk lane. host: do you want to comment on the money in campaign 2012? caller: some states will not allow his turkish to be built in their state. host: she brought up religion, so let's talk about the role of churches, parishes, synagogues can play in the campaign and whether they are allowed to contribute. guest: they're not contributing directly to the campaigns, just like a corporation could not contribute. so we're not seeing money come directly from religious organizations. but certainly people's beliefs, people's attitudes toward important political issues are sometimes if shaped by their religious beliefs. and they have been important to populations -- they have been

important population, people you can rely on in the election, since they are older and have certain religious beliefs. but they cannot play a financial goal. host: john is a democrat. caller: i just wanted to say that bush, romney, and the republicans have set up this tax structure which helps these companies take our jobs overseas for cheaper labor. and the internet will also suck up a lot of jobs in the coming future. you can have a job almost anywhere, so all the tax money but being received, i believe, is going to go to corporations who are going to invest it in prisons, to house people cheaply, and to make sure they

don't have to pay social security and welfare, because everybody will be in jail. host: since we are talking abou what campaigns are spending money, are you hearing a lot of ads on the radio or seeing them on tv? caller: i am. they set things to fall under this president make him look bad because it had already been in the process and they knew he could not stop it. then they would change it back into a police state once they get back in and put everybody in jail and take everybody's houses and stuff. host: let's look at the battleground states. the new york times shows where money is being spent on advertisements.

you can see the key battleground states in the darkest color is where the spending is happening. a lot of negative ads. 91% of the ads supporting romney are negative and 85% of the ones supporting obama are as well. guest: negative messages can work in campaigns, they can resonate with people. especially for candidates you have not shaped an opinion about yet. at that point, those kinds of messages, if they have some grains of truth in them, then they can be effective. at the very end of the campaign, the same thing is true.

i grew up in and i spoke with my sister last night on the phone. she was trying to find out if she voted early that maybe they would stop calling. it's unrelenting. it's not just on television. now it is shifting to the mailbox and the telephone. they really are focus completely on making sure they identify all their supporters and get them to the polls one way or another either on election day or in many states involved early, so they are doing that. we will find out how sophisticated these organizations are. it certainly is possible who to possible who votes early. if they put it in their database, maybe because of a stop to those people. i did think it was funny that she would think of that. host: bob biersack, we're talking about the influence of money on campaign 2012. to's go to oklahoma city hear from steve, a democrat. caller: hi. i have been hearing a lot of the discussion regarding the

presidential aspects of things. from what i have seen in the news, it sounds like there's a lot of money going into the congressional races. i want to know how that relates to the whole pool of money you are discussing broaden your scope from the presidential end of things to congressional races. when you go to vote, when you look down nancy mitt romney, think george bush. he has the same for policy people that got us into. into-- when you look down and see mitt romney, think george bush. guest: the makeup of the senate in particular, the control of the senate is in question, it's possible the republicans, if they win four seats or five seats, they will have control of the next congress and that could make a big difference. there are small number states and some of them have small

populations, like montana and other places around the country where it's relatively cheap to be involved in a big way on television or in other ways of communicating with a relatively small number of voters. so there's a lot of focus on those senate races. and this weekend i spent time looking at some house races. there are about 60 across the country that are up for grabs it. they are pretty close. the campaigns are raising a lot of money in those districts. certainly, more than $1 million for each candidate and often more than $2 million or $3 million. it was noteworthy that these outside groups in many of these districts, in 15 or so of these 60 closest house races, more money has been spent by the outside groups that has been spent by the candidates combined. in almost half of those races, in about 30 cases, more money spent for particular candidate by outside groups than that candidate has spent on their own.

so they're playing a big role in these elections, that's right. ultimately, now we've seen outside money go past $1 billion as well. we keep using this billion dollars and it seems to be everywhere. it's kind of hard to get your head around $1 billion represents, but a great deal of that money, a significant portion of it is going to the house and senate campaigns around the country. it may play a bigger role there than it does in the presidential. host: here's a u.s. news story about fund-raising for the candidates for house and senate.

looking at republicans versus democrats, in that graphic. guest: in the house, the republicans now have an advantage because many more incumbents are republican. incumbents are always able to raise money faster generally than their challengers or sometimes even candidates in open seat races. it's not surprising the republicans raised more. there are a number of viable democratic challengers. about 60 districts around the country that are really competitive. in those races, the money is fairly equally divided. host: dennis in milwaukee, wisconsin, democratic line. caller: i find it funny that no matter how many times he has

told people that it is against a lot to get outside money from other countries, some people keep calling and saying it is being done, which i don't think either campaign would allow. that's all i've got to say. guest: those are always complicated questions. we are talking about millions and millions of contributions. and many of them don't have to be specifically identified and reported. if you don't give more than $200 to a candidate, then your specific information is not disclosed to the federal elections committee, so we cannot see it. a large portion of someone's money, it is coming in those small amounts, then it's natural to wonder where that money is coming from. so i guess i understand why these rumors or uncertainty about that process exists, but i think you're right.

it is a big risk. is no question about the legality. it's absolutely prohibited. ultimately, the campaign is responsible for making sure it does not happen. the downside risk, the consequences, if there really was a problem, are so big that it's hard to imagine any major campaign would take that kind of risk. host: lake placid, florida, richard on our independent line. caller: good morning. the caller from wisconsin has to be very naive. with billions of dollars that have come from outside the country during the 1990's with clinton in power, billions were coming from china. it went into the democratic national committee and they have to pay back some of it. janet reno refused to investigate. the way they do it today is through the non-government organizations like tides is one of them, apollo, acorn.

president obama helped to organize acorn. guest: there were some cases in the 1990's. it is often individuals who are bundling contributions, influential people getting their friends and colleagues together to make contributions, and sometimes, i think, naively, people who are foreign nationals think they can gain some influence, and get some leverage in the government may be why being important donors. we have seen that in a few races over time, were these individual people might break a law that way. alternately, when it is discovered, and it usually is, one way or another someone will check into this -- often it is journalists that go to contributions from a single address, lots of them, or from people whose occupations look

like they should not really have that kind of funds to contribute to a candidate, they go to them and ask what happened. often they will tell you the truth. the truth is someone is giving the money to make contributions. it happens from time to time. it certainly happened during the clinton years. but i don't think it is a common problem and is not on a scale that you suggest. we're not talking about billions of dollars in any of those cases. it's really thousands or in the worst case, hundreds of thousands. the fact that it is notorious, but you know about them, is in some ways encouraging, because it means the transparency process that we have is working the way it should, that it's possible for people to find this out, and to monitor the process. it is in everybody's interest, in the opponent's interest, to make sure my opponent is following the rules just the way i am, so they look very closely. while there are some incentives

and some ways in which bad actors can get involved in the process, i don't think it's a big problem. host: a final question, is this the end of public financing as we see all this money coming into the campaigns? guest: absolutely, and with the program exists today. we will not see president of public funding in the same way ever again. the real question is whether congress wants to go back and look at that process and is either should be some kind of subsidy going fort. -- going forward. host: bob biersack, senior center for responsive politics. you can also look to opensecrets.org frustration about the campaigns. thanks for your time. guest: my pleasure. >> scott keeter curtis hubbard.

rick palacio. tonight mitt romney speaks at avon lake, ohio. you can see his comments tonight and a hot eastern on sees fit. joe biden was also in ohio earlier today. he campaigned in youngstown, where bill clinton. this was after obama canceled his advance because of the hurricane. you can see the vice president tonight at 8:35 eastern on c-

span. now i looked at iowa, from this morning's "washington journal." it is 40 minutes. host: next, a look at the battleground state of iowa with a senior political writer, michael over. mike glover. iowa democratic chairman sue dvorsky, to look at democratic strategy is in that battleground state. we have not suffered the steps of the recession that other parts of the country have. the economy is less worse than in other places because the farm economy is darned good this year.

commodity prices are up. land prices are up, and that has helped drive the economy in the right direction. there is not a lot of uncertainty in iowa. host: what are the top issues? guest: it depends on what group you are talking to. on the republican side, and talking about social issues. that is increasingly driving republican policies in the state. they care a lot about social issues, those kinds of personal issues that drive voters, and that drives the republican electorate. the democratic side, the things that drive them are there is a desire to retain a democratic presence. it's more of a pragmatic issue on the democratic side. host: how many electoral votes

this i'll have. guest: 6 and it went democratic. host: give us demographics of the voters. hoop are we talking about? first, let's look at eastern iowa, davenport and the surrounding area, a couple hundred thousand people, it is a swing county. democratic. it will depend on turnout. if you go to the northwest corner -- corridor of the state, that is a role, very

republican area. -- a rural. an area that is more or less evangelical christians, and they're not excited about mitt romney. they are republicans. he does not energized them. we will see what the turnout looks like in northwest iowa. those two areas, if we want the turnout in posted areas, it's very heavy in the quad cities, but good news the democrats. it's very heavy in northwest iowa, but good for republicans. the central part of the states, including des moines, that democratic. we will watch the turnout. democrats have to come out of here with $10,000 plurality of voters in that county, the democratic part of the state. we will see what kind of "margin call, obama has here. host: voting systems in your

state, how do you vote? guest: i voted two weeks ago. we have early voting and starts three weeks before the election. you can vote early. about one-third of the total votes cast will be cast before election day. a lot of the stuff that's happening right now in terms of trying to influence voters is wasted, because a lot of people have already voted. you can vote in your present before the election and then we have -- we vote in precincts across the state in every corner of the state by machine. host: if there were any issues and a recount was necessary, how does that work in iowa? guest: we do have a procedure for a recount. if an election is within 2 percentage points, it's an

automatic recount. you can petition for a recount if it if it is a little larger than that. so there's a possibility of a recount. we have never had that and it's never decided an election, but there are procedures in place to have a recount. we anticipate this election will be close enough for that could be an issue. host: the senate and house races, paint as a picture in your state of house races are shaping up? guest: the house races are interesting. we have two very interesting house races. there's been redistricting. we have had a couple incumbent members of the house. they are running against each other in a new third district in the central part of the state. so you have an incumbent republican and an incumbent democrat running against each other.

every poll i've seen shows it's a very competitive race. it will come down to a wider. it will come down to the wire. in the western part of the state, an incumbent is being challenged by kristen bell sack. -- vilsack. it is a republican-leaning district, but she's a pretty strong candidate of, so that will be an interesting race. in the other two, we have to incumbent democrats who look like they are probably going to win another term in congress. so we have to be interesting races anti a bill that look like they're shaping up to be pretty much as expected. host: mike glover, senior political writer at the associated press. we have a phone line for iowa residents. republicans can join us by calling -- as well as democrats -- and independents --

the des moines register came out with its endorsement on the weekend and got a lot of attention. guest:it endorse mitt romney. i tend to downplay newspaper endorsements. i will voters are traditionally very, very independent and make their own decisions. newspaper endorsements in this state don't have a lot of impact on the outcome of an election. the des moines register is a large newspaper, the largest in the state, but i don't think that endorsement will make a lot of difference in the election. host: why do you think it got so much attention? tell us how it went back in 2008 and how this is a shift? guest: i think it was more of a focus on issues. i think the newspaper does look

at issues, does look at the candidates' stands on issues, and does make a decision based on what they think will be the best for the long-term good of the state. however, voters in the state are very, very independent. they pride themselves on making their own decisions. newspaper endorsements traditionally don't make a lot of difference. i go back to a four years ago, the des moines register in the democratic primary endorsed hillary clinton just before the primary and barack obama buried her in the primary. host: it endorse mitt romney during the prime area we are talking about the battleground states of iowa. carolas on the -- carol is on the democratic line. caller: i want to ask the gentleman what was his response when the man came out talking

about the rape issue and our people in iowa taking that in, whether they even big about the fact that their daughters could be put in harm's way with somebody making a broad statement like that? guest: well, i think voters in the state take those kind of issues very seriously. i think that any comment about that will have an effect on the campaign. this is a state where something like 80% of iowa residents are regular turn to attendees. about 80% of the state is injured somewhere or other on sunday mornings. so these type of issues tend to resonate with them. they have different views about them, but they care about them.

so those issues have a lot of impact in iowa. i think that iowa voters tend to react on a gut level to those type of issues, but they do react. int: let's hear from marked des moines on our independent line. -- from marc. caller: i've been watching the election closely and i would like to hear the politicians talk more about the issues instead of bad mouthing each other. i don't think it's very presidential for obama to come across that way on tv. i will just wait for a response. thank you. guest: well, the candidates would say that talking about the negatives of their opponent is talking about issues that affect voters. but it has been a very even campaign. a very hard-fought campaign and a campaign where neither side is willing to give up an inch.

i think what you will find, as we move into this new television-internet era is the candidates will not give an inch and they will not step back from attacking each other. you are going to find the candidates feel that they cannot let their opponent get an edge by beating up on them and they're not responding. so you are finding both candidates in this election, and i think in the past couple elections, feel like they have to weigh in and bury their opponent in-television -- in negative television ads. i recall being on a campaign to a couple years ago and we went to the site of the lincoln douglas debates, which was held throughout illinois. there were held in parks throughout the central part of

the state mainly. they would all happen on sundays and people would come out at noon after church and lincoln would have an hour to give his position and then an hour for douglas and then lincoln would have an hour for rebuttal and then douglas would have an hour. if so they with and the entire afternoon having a picnic lunch at the park talking about issues. i kind of twist that would happen, but i cannot imagine any television network in america is going to put up with a for your hours of candidates talking about issues. so i think we are reduced because of the way we depend on the media, reduced in the way we talk about issues. we are reduced in the way we can talk about it. part of it, it is a product of the media age in which we live and the way people have figured

out how they can use that media. i don't think it's positive, i don't think it's good, but it is what people have concluded they have to do. host: let's look at an ad that president obama's campaign is running in battleground states including iowa. [video clip] >> which do you believe, what mitt romney tv ads say about women or what mitt romney himself says? >> do i believe the supreme court should overturn roe v. wade? yes. it would be my preference that they reverse roe v. wade. it can and hopefully will be reversed. planned parenthood, we are going to get rid of that. cut off funding to planned parenthood. >> no matter what mitt romney does say, we know what he will do. >> i am barack obama and i approve this message. host: how much our ads like that one resonating in iowa? guest: that's a really big deal in iowa. barack obama, if you look at the polling data, he has built a pretty significant lead among

women voters. these are issues women care a lot about. barack obama is directly addressing them, directly saying, if you want your rights as a woman to plan your own life, your rights as a woman, to table to assert yourself, you better vote for me, because mitt romney will rein in those rights. that issue resonates very strongly around iowa. women voters can make a difference in this election. if you look at polling, the polling among male voters is pretty even. among women voters, barack obama has a pretty strong lead. this election in iowa and in many other states, i think, is going to be a turn out game -- who can get their voters to the polls on election day. barack obama, to say, i have a lead with women voters, so let's make sure we get them out on election day and let's give them a reason to show up.

this is what he thinks is the reason women will show up and vote for employer. host: a story in the quad city times -- iowa is the focus of our conversation right now with my glover, a senior writer for the associated press. let's hear from david on our independent line in texas. caller: hello. i believe obama has no problem. this is the media just keeping the news going. i am in texas.

i am over 60. out of my whole family there are two of us that have landlines. i get maybe 8 or so calls per month on my machine. being in texas, hardly any true christian is going to vote for romney, who is a mormon. he has no chance. host: let's get a response. are you seeing any of those concerns in iowa? guest: i can tell you this. i'm over 60 as well, so i understand that. we are getting phone calls in iowa. the issue of romney's religion is an issue i raised with him when he ran a pull your years

ago and its initial history sensitive about man does not like to talk about. iowa republicans are dominated by evangelical christians. they are a bit leery of mormons. they don't understand it it. they don't like to talk about it. no one will say i am not excited about mitt romney because he's a mormon, but they are aware of it. so that is an issue. it goes more to not whether someone will support mitt romney or not support mitt romney but the enthusiasm level they will bring to the campaign. that diminishes it just a bit. so that's an issue. if you look at how the campaign plays out, i think that will be one of the major deciding factors in this election, which i think is very close. and that is the enthusiasm level that each candidate can bring to the game.

can mitt romney excite republican -- the republican base, which is largely evangelical christians in iowa? can barack obama excite the democratic base? he has a challenge to excite voters in certain parts of the state. i think he has an edge because the democratic race is kind of desperate to hold on to a presidency -- the democratic base. i feel the republicans are having trouble exciting their base. host: jim is on the line. caller: i'm calling from dubuque, iowa. i'm in the first district and we have seen a huge shift over the last six months with the

enthusiasm you described, the gap between republicans and democrats. there's two things i'm really interested in hearing from you about. with all the polling on social issues at stake in this election, which includes women's choice and the pro-life issue, or religious liberties. what i can tell you what we're seeing in the first district is a huge surge in women, especially catholic women who are changing their minds about voting like they did in 2008. i'm also interested in finding out if you can expand a little bit on the logic behind the des moines register for the first time in 40 years supporting a republican candidate. thank you. guest: thank you. by the way, i will be in dubuque taking our grandkids to the water park, so i will enjoy your lovely city. i don't know why? the des moines register decided

the way they did. but this is an election that i think has energized women voters. i don't think it is a blanket issue. i don't think women voters will be energized to vote one way or the other. but i think women voters are energized. women voters on both sides of all issues that affect women understand that there is a pretty stark choice in this election and that they understand. they need understand they need to vote. i feel both candidates have convinced women this is an election they will be affected. the things that affect women will be affected by which candidate wins this election, in other words. there will be real concrete change. so they are energized. typically, i would say, in most elections that would favor democrats, because women tend to vote more democratic than men do. if we will see how it plays out.

host: the front page of the des moines register from a few days ago attracted attention because of the way it portrays president obama and the way it portrayed governor romney, showing president obama in one light and governor romney in another. tell us about the fallout from this. guest: had i been the photo editor of the newspaper, i would not have picked those photographs. i felt those photographs gave a message. if you look at the front page, you got a feeling the newspaper was trying to present a positive image of romney and of a negative image of obama. everybody i've spoken to has given me the same kind of feedback. it was a mistake for the newspaper to do that, a poor choice of gore made that decision. host: how much of the candidates visiting your state,, are the candidates visiting your state? how much attention is iowa

getting on the ground? guest: all the attention we can handle. both candidates are here routinely several times a week, both of them, along with surrogates and along with their. running their there's not a single day that goes by in the state where we don't have a visit from a candidate, running mate, or significance forget. both candidates have made iowa a focal point. there are about nine states that are swing states right now. this is where i think the dynamic of this election lies. mitt romney has to win all nine of them to get to 273. he's behind in seven, including iowa. so they are fighting in this very small set of battleground states, because they will be the ones to decide the election.

right now mitt romney has a talent, because he has to win all those swing states, i think. host: let's listen to governor romney recently talking about jobs. [video clip] >> when we do those five things, this economy will. come will. we will create 12 million new jobs in four years. we will see rising take-home pay. if we will get america oppose the economy growing at 4% per year, more than double this year's rate. after all the false promises of recovery and all the waiting, we will finally see help for america's middle class. host: that was mitt romney in iowa on friday. let's hear from richard in milwaukee, wisconsin on the democratic line. caller: good morning, c-span, and good morning mr. glover. i have a question on the associated press. where do you get your polling from? at work we have 90 people and last week we took our own polling. that was in a secret ballot.

everybody said that they never got calls in the last 30 days, calls from anybody. so we took our own secret ballot. obama comes out with 77 people. so that is my question. thank you. guest: well, thank you. by the way, i will be in milwaukee a couple weeks after the election. it's one of my favorite cities. so i enjoy taking a call from up here. if we do bowling and we have a polling firm contract with that does are pulling. -- our polling. we have a sample of 700 people nationwide, so not everybody gets a phone call. our polling is done in conjunction with other news organizations. but we don't do as much poling as other news organizations do, because our feeling is that if you spend a lot of money on pulling a, you are not spending a lot of money on other things such as actually covering the

news. as a news organization, we think our resources are to be spent on going out talking to people, listening to candidates, talking about what they're saying on the campaign trail, and reflecting that. so we put less emphasis on poland and other news organizations, something i support. -- less emphasis on polling. host: independence day on twitter writes -- our guest mike glover officially retired from the associated press in may, continues to write extensively for the wire service. he has interviewed almost every major presidential candidate over 30 years. the new york times has a focus on battleground states from this weekend. it says --

how significant is this not just in terms of the number of votes but in terms of symbolism? guest: i don't think you can underestimate that. you have to understand that when barack obama ran for the democratic nomination for president, was running against hillary clinton. at the beginning of the campaign, the assumption was hillary clinton would be the nominee. she's the wife of a former president, she's better known, while barack obama was a freshman senator, a long shot. so the assumption was hillary clinton would be the nominee. when barack obama came to iowa, he worked obama hard. i bumped into him at the check- in desk of the holiday inn. he said, "you're mike glover, we have an interview set up. let's go in the bar and do the

interview now," so we did. i did the interview there. a couple years later i got an invitation to the white house holiday reception for the press corps at the white house. i remember looking around the white house and taking he has come a long way from that are in sioux city iowa. barack obama understands that iowa put him on the path to that nomination. had he not won in iowa, against an opponent who was supposed to defeat him, he would not be where he is today. i'll what has a special place for them. he keeps in touch with people here. i think he understands that iowa has put him on the path where he is today. host: dan is in michigan. hi. caller: john harris.

on the polling how accurate do you think that pulling is, like the one gentleman talked about? how do you think iowa people think about a candidate that flip-flops on a lot of issues, changes his mind, to go back and forth? how do you think that affects voters in iowa? i would like to say god bless america, c-span, and everybody had a good day. guest: that you very much, and my wife is from michigan. we get back at least twice a year. i will voters tend to punish candida -- iowa voters punished candidate who are not consistent. they understand issues. they follow things closet. iowa voters more than any state

follow the elections closely and tend to understand where the candidates are on issues and they tend to make decisions based on what the candidates are on issues. i have seen a damaging thing that a candidate to do is change positions on a significant issue in the middle of the campaign. voters see that, they talk about it, they understand it, and they tend to not like it. in iowa, if you are a candidate, pick an emotional issue like abortion, if you are anti-abortion or pro-troy's, voters recognize that and will make decisions based on that. one thing they will do on both sides of the issue is if you change that position in the middle of a campaign, they will punish you for it. flipping stance on issue is not something that is healthy iowa

politics. host: thank you so much, mike glover. >> the u.s. capitol. federal courts have announced they will remain closed tomorrow because of the store, along with the d.c. metro train system. both the house and senate will go ahead with their short pro- forma sessions with no legislative business scheduled. >> republican rodney davis is running for illinois' third earth -- 13th house district. this is an hour. >> we had a coin toss earlier before the candidates came out.

david gill won the toss. what is the number-one thing you would like to accomplish as a legislator? >> first off, i would like to find out who made eric lose his voice. the first thing i want to accomplish is i want to attack our national debt. it is $16 trillion right now. the fact of the matter is, that is a $50,000 a share for every man, woman, and child in america right now. i have three kids. their share of the debt is $50,000. it is immoral. that is what we have to do in washington. we have to have leaders in washington who are willing to go out there, make tough decisions, worked in a bipartisan manner,

to attack the problems in this country. that is why i am running. that is why i need your vote. we need to begin to control spending and attack the debt. what will happen is we will be able to stop borrowing $3 billion a day. and imagine what we to do with $3 billion a day. preservebe able to programs and strengthen programs like medicare, social security, and we prioritize the way washington spends money. >> candidate gill. >> i would like to thank everybody for being here. and i would like to thank all of the sponsoring institutions. it is important. there are many reasons i am running. my wife, we have six children between us.

department advocate just a few blocks away from here. a fair part of my day is spent saving lives and bringing people back from the brink. i want to go to washington now to help bring this nation back there ha bn twma people t many people, and it is justot right. i am somebody who ows struggle. my father, when he was a young man, he did not have time so we did not have anything extra going up. -- growing up. i'd bused tables and washed dishes. i am somebody who knows how to roll up his sleeves and get to work. a lot of politicians talk about politicians -- small business people. i am a small businessman.

unlike my opponent, i have never been on a public payroll. i have never taken marching ders from a politician. i am proud that we do not take a single penny from wall street and large corporations that brought the economy to its knees five years ago. i think the corporate dominance of our politics and government is strangling our democracy. we need to push against that. we can do that when we elect people in washington who have the men and women in mind and not exxon mobile. [applause] >> i want to remind the audience to hold your applause until afterwards. thank you, though. we get a 32nd rebuttal by candidate davis.

>> i cannot reiterate how serious the issues are in washington right now that we need to address. my opponent consistently talks about not taking corporate money and attacks me when he knows corporate money is not involved in our campaigns. unfortunately, some of those same wall street banks and corporate pacs he continues to talk about just funded his campaign today to begin attacking me once more. >> thank you. let's go to our second question. >> this question is a follow up to what you just said. given the money outside groups have contributed to both you and your opponent's campaign and have spent on ads, what assurance can you give to people

that you will have their interest first and foremost upon election? you have the first response. >> this question is something i have talked about in great length. it is restoring our democracy. my opponent has taking large checks -- taken large checks from exxon mobile, etc. my campaign refuses to do that. i also would emphasize my independence that i put country's first. i defeated the democratic party in the primary. i was not the hand-picked candidate. i had very different experiences with regards to the primary. i was selected in the process of about 31,000 voters, going out on a warm, march day. my opponent was handpicked by insiders who signed a confidentiality agreement after that day. at the age of six, i discovered

a passion within my heart to serve men and women. i decided to become a doctor. it is the same passion that drives me to take this seat in washington. i see people suffer and die in our health-care system because we have corporate politicians in washington from both parties. we need to push back against that. >> with so much money pouring out from outside resources, how can you assure people you put them first? >> it is because of how i raced. i was raised. i want to say hello to my dad. i love you, dad. when i was growing up, working in a small business, i learned how decisions in washington and

springfield can adversely affect or positively affect the way he operates a business. affects the ability to hire, to create jobs. i learned appreciation for public policy because of those conversations. upon graduation 20 years ago, i decided to go into public service. i am proud of the public service i have provided constituents in the 19th congressional district. that is what we are talking about in this campaign. it is because of that experience that i believe there -- i want to go in and make the tough decisions necessary and be comfortable telling nancy pelosi no, just like john boehner no.

the only pledge i will make is to save the constituents of the 13th congressional district in the 14 counties that make up that district. independence. it is experience. it allowed me to sit around this table and work republicans and democrats to tackle the tough issues that make the real changes we need in washington today. i do not think anyone in this room would disagree that we have to grow our economy. the only way we will do that is on the backs of small businesses. to create the jobs necessary for the college graduates. >> final statement? >> i find it interesting you mentioned john boehner. he will be headlining a fund- raising effort for my opponent. again, we need people who are strictly for people.

it is exactly your example of when we turn our government to corporations. you get a prescription drug world of sam agrees even though uncle sam as 50 million medicare lives of power. we blew $2 trillion for that. our tax dollars we give to oil companies, these guys give checks to exxon mobile. >> our next question, we had numerous questions submitted by the students. we will get to the number one question later on here. the next question is a top question from the students. >> i want to thank both of you for participating in this debate. one of the top questions the students e-mailed be about to ask is when it comes to reducing the deficit, there are two ways to reduce it. cuts and revenues. what would you cut, are the cut enough?

>> it is not about real -- increasing our revenues. it is about growing the economy. we must extend our current tax rates personally. the job creators in this country, they tell me we need certainty. they do not understand what their tax bill will look like next year. let's give them so they can invest in inventory, and people. when that happens, that is how the economy grows. that is how jobs are created. that is how jobs will be available when students graduate in may. if we do not grow this economy and some of the plants my opponent has put forward will lead to job losses. his tax plan to raise taxes on those making too much as $50,000 and above, the revenue will fund

11 days of government operations. it will cost illinois alone 30,000 jobs. college students in bloomington, let alone the other eight universities and colleges in this district, cannot afford $30,000 -- 30,000 jobs leaving illinois. those are opportunities they will not have. >> candid gill. are cut enough? >> they are not. you do not need a degree in math. the rigid there are two state -- two ways och -- there are two ways to reduce the deficit. i have listened to weeks to- commercials -- to negative commercials. i have no interest on raising taxes on everybody. i think millionaires and

billionaires should pay their fair share. i would never vote to raise taxes on those making less than to under $50,000 a year. corporations should pay their fair share. they are paying zero or a negative tax rate. i worked in a field for a year after my degree in math. i understand the difference ways in which one can do a study. you can redo that study and windup showing no job loss. we need to cut spending. we have a priorities problem in this country. we have politicians owned by wall street and big corporations. we need to stop giving out tax dollars to companies making record profits on us as we are paying $4 a gallon at the gas pump. we need to exit from afghanistan and put the money that is currently being spent to their

into -- spent there int. we should follow the suggestions of the joint chiefs of staff. nobody knows better than those gentlemen. cutting the military spending by $0.50 trillion is another area. we need to do both raise revenues and cut spending. >> candid davis. >> thank you for reminding me you did say you would raise taxes on the middle class and you did it to help form your health care plan. your health care plan goes beyond obamacare. this is a plan that will actually require 2% income tax increase on all americans. he will increase taxes. on all americans. let's talk about some of the

cuts we need to make. let's start by assuring that we -- not have any more swinger >> time. another question that is a top student question. would you support obamacare and what would you do differently, if anything? >> i have been in congress. had i been in congress in 2010, i would have voted against it. the private health insurance, it puts a surtax on everybody with health insurance of 20% to 40%. i would have preferred to see a public auction -- option. that said, i was pleased this summer when the supreme court did not throw the thing out the

window. there are wonder things in obamacare we should preserve. keeping your children on the policy until they are 26. especially in this day and age when it is hard to find jobs. the inability of insurance companies to exclude people because of pre-existing conditions. that is a wonderful thing. in the emergency department, i see senior citizens fall into that hole. those are good things. on balance, it is good obamacare was left intact. i believe we can do even better. we can do better not by taxing people more, but by enrolling people -- more people into medicare. uncle sam is not in health care to make money. he does it while taking care of the sickest in our society. we can do even better than what has been done so far. >> candidate davis, what would you do differently? >> i support replacing

obamacare. i urge everybody to go to my web site and see our health care plan. a true market-based cut costs for all americans and still provide that safety net for those uninsured, under insured. i am flabbergasted that david office, and he once said the first and he wants to do in washington is to stand up and pass hr 676. that is named "medicare for all." that is further from the truth. it costs $1.70 trillion a year and creates a whole bureaucracy that will take away our ability to choose where and when to seek medical treatment. i have a history because my wife is a 13-year: cancer survivor. she was diagnosed four months. because we have the ability to

get away from the primary care physician that was misdiagnosing her, we found crumbs disease. -- chromes disease. she got better after the surgery. a few weeks ago, she celebrated her 13th year of lasting the therapy treatment. this is what i value in health care. it is medical choice. the plan that david wants takes away from us our ability to choose our own medical destiny. it takes away our ability to put the doctor and patient relationship first. i will fight to ensure that that happens. >> it is the private health insurance companies that keep you from seeing the doctor you want to see. uncle sam lest people get a

second or third or fourth opinion. the private health insurance, because they need to mexico buys -- maximize investor return. i would ask mr. davis is, he had federal hunt -- federal health care at the time of his wife's illness. king god she is alive. i would ask that he offers that to all americans. >> thank you very much. >> this is for candidate davis first. if elected, one of the first pieces of legislation you will have the chance to vote on is a new foreign bill. what would you do in reverse -- in regard to the program and foreign subsidies? >> i want to say thank you to david for reminding me that is what we have in our health care

plan. i would love to see the benefits planned nationwide to all consumers, to everyone. that is what our health plan does. it talks about selling insurance across state lines. so we can still preserve our ability to choose where and when to seek medical treatment. they have not passed a comprehensive foreign bill this year. during a year where we have had one of the worst droughts in our generation. what we have to do in that farm bill is to build a safety net so farmers have the insurance they need. they do not have certainty now. they will not be able to project and spend money on new equipment, new inventory, seeds, fertilizer, what have you. when you talk about the program, what we need to do is to ensure

to work to get people off of this. we have to do that by growing the economy. not by implementing laws like obamacare. is estimated it will cost 800,000 jobs nationwide. in the new york times -- "the new york times" estimated obamacare will cost america six to 2000 doctors. -- 62,000 doctors. >> it represents this inability of the parties to work together. it is the importance of sending someone such as myself who did not bowed down before democratic party pressure. i stood up to them and succeeded in the primary things to 31,000 ordinary men and women. it points to twhat we have seen

wi this tea par-dominated use of representatives. the senate democrats were willing to step ou there, they were willing to make cuts to the stam publicans saidhey would not come off. the democrats did and house republicans refused to. farmers do nd certainty. we saw it with the drought this year. the disaster. i saw what was happeninto the co and the car farmers talk about what their needs are. king -- the farmers talk about what their needs are. weav in governmento take those big trucks from exxon mobile and simicompanies. we have ordinary men and women who are only interested in ordinary men and women. we mention this hr 676, medicare

for all. a big lie on tv about me, for weeks and weeks, commercial to commercial, i listened to seniors who are scared because of this deceitful wife saying i want to get rid of medicare. nothing is further from the truth. i was with a group of $20,000 to advocate for expanding and improving medicare for all. i think it is shameful to run those commercials. >> 30 seconds. >> the plan you have advocated for calls medicare for all during your previous runs for congress and during your time advocating for a national health-care system, hr 676. it is the furthest thing from medicare as we know it today. it will create a new bureaucracy. it will cost $1.70 trillion a year and take away ability to

seek treatment where and when. it is not what the medicare system of today is like. >> our next question is for candidate gill. do you see a role for federal government in education or should it be with the states? >> a lot of the decisions regarding education should be made at the state level. and local level. when i was going to school, an uncle sam would put up 30% of the funding. now it is down under 10%. creasy the impact of the education system in this country failing. we need to invest ourselves again. we have a priority problems in this country. we put two wars on a credit card. we put a gift on prescription companies. kids to congress people. we need to engage in those tax

cuts who benefit the rich in our society. there are kids going to school who had far less access to pell grants than i did. we need to put our money into that. this is one of the highest priorities we have to have. our future is at stake if we do not have an educated public. especially if we try to compete with a global economy. >> if mitt romney gets elected, he suggests putting education funding back toward the states. is there a role of federal government in education? >> there is a role. post secondary education is the key to that. anybody elected to the seat past to make education a priority. increasing the amount of pell

grants available to the students, i want to make sure we have access to federal student loan programs so students can afford to go to college and get that trading when we talk about education funding, let's also bring it down to elementary and secondary education. when the federal government funds about 5%, it seems 95% of rules and regulations they have to follow. what we need to end -- do is ensure when control is put forth so they made the decisions on how to educate students. on how best to ensure how teachers are teaching. they need to make sure they are the ones that have the priorities in mind for those students in towns all over the

district. i am a public school graduate. i am proud of the public education. it taught me well. many of my teachers may be here tonight. the -- we need to ensure that they have the ability to make the changes necessary so those students learn at the level they are expected to. >> 30 seconds. >> i am proud to be recommended by the education association endorsed by the illinois federation of teachers because of my willingness to make education a high priority. this discussion of pell grants calls into question something i have been wondering about with regards to my opponent for five months now. the rhine budget calls for a 45% additional reduction in pell grants. i have asked mr. davis if he supports the rhine budget. i have heard he supports some parts. do you support that cut in pell

grants? >> no. [applause] >> this question is the number one most often asked question by the students. >> will you do anything to reduce the cost of college, make education more financially accessible? how? >> we read prioritize how washington spends money. we will goal line by line, every single agency, to ensure we bring that money to pay our national debt because we have to put america on a repayment plan. we stopped spending and day.owing $3 billion a yea we will be able to do a lot of good things in america.

and still ensure students have access -- to federal loans comparable to what the interest rates are in the average community in this country. it is essential we allow affordable education for our students in this country. i have a daughter. my 16-year-old niece, they are about to go to college. what is going to happen is by my family will have to figure out how to pay for that education. we will make those decisions as a family. we have to have the options available. i intend to make sure they are there. >> congressman gill. >> not a congressman yet. [laughter]

i find it interesting. to cut taxes from somewhere if you are not willing to raise taxes on the millionaires and billionaires. to say you would not cut pell grants, as paul ryan wants to, yet it is important to understand where these two campaigns come from. this is an insider against an outsider. mr. davis had a fund-raiser over in missouri recently with a friend of paul ryan's. these people are helping him. the u.s. chamber of commerce, they are helping him. they are not doing it out of the goodness of their hard. they expect something in return should he get to washington d.c. to stand up for a budget that proposes. appeare we need education more accessible and more affordable. pell grants should be far more

readily available to young people such as yourself. being that 75% of my funding comes from people just like you, ordinary citizens, an average donation of $61, the proof is in the pudding. that is why i am going to washington to work on your behalf to make sure you can get to college to graduate and to work to create jobs with in this economy. that we do not have to graduate with a mountain of debt. >> the hypocrisy. this is the same day my opponent took money from nancy manyi's group, funded by donations you accuse me of excepting. insider versus outsider. most of the average citizens -- most of your contributions are coming from outside. california, new york, other

states. most of the group's funded you on the back level. the stimulus bill. >> time. this is for candidate gill. would you support federal legislation that would allow concealed -- at public universities. if not, would you think illinois should pass such a law for public universities in the state of illinois? >> i would. since i still have a minute and a half to go, i will say mr. davis, you do not know where my individual donors who gave less than $200 live. i would not be telling a crowd you do. , would youman davi

support it? >> yes. getting back to responding -- [laughter] i agree i do not know where they are. i do know where your large contributors are that you would be beholden to in washington. they are from new york, california, florida, and what is happening is these are the same people who have been involved in working toward hr 676, a national health-care system that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars -- jobs and every american the ability to choose when and where to seek treatment. >> my large contributors make up such a much smaller fraction of the money in my campaign than your large contributors do.

8% of your money come from small contributions, less than $200. far more than that comes from everyday, ordinary american citizens. in my campaign. >> pertaining to state rights, we have gay marriage issues, abortion issues, out where do you stand on the 10th amendment, how far do states' rights go? >> states' rights should be a priority. that is what our system of government is. republican form of government that we have. the education issue. only talk about local control, even down to the school district level, we need to make sure the federal government does not have their hands in requiring more than what is necessary to achieve the goals. that is something that is a vast difference between david and me. it is our view of government and government role in everyday

society. i believe in a smaller, limited government that allows the states and local entities to thrive and shine without unfunded mandates and decisions made in washington that will affect the way things operate here in illinois. that is the public policy agenda i learned from my dad growing up watching him, my mom, running their small business. how decisions made in washington can adversely affect their ability to create jobs and how many politicians we have seen over the years who say, we need new jobs and we need to grow our economic. government has to stop getting in the way so we can create those jobs and grow this economy and get this unemployment rate down. >> how much these states' rights go? >> states' rights are important. there needs to be balanced. occasionally, there is a time problem. i find it interesting to hear

your discussion nine days ago in springfield that you ask for uncle sam to get involved by amending our constitution of all things and making it sto define between one man and one woman. that is uncalled for. when there are taxes on people keeping them from voting down south, it was inappropriate for -- it was appropriate for the government to get involved. i think there is a place for all uncle sam. >> subsidies -- natural gas is

also being discussed. how would you vote on energy issues? >> i think energy is of extreme importance. drives our economy. we need to focus on renewable resources with regards to the investment of the federal government and the government that stays out of the way with respect to the private market otherwise. we have our tax dollars going -- the money you sent into the federal government -- going acts on mobile. instead of sending money there, halis to be invested in green energies. we have a tremendous swing belt that runs to this district. there are people who would love to get their work if they have

subsidies available. building the giant blades for those wind farms. they got governmental assistance. i would like to see us invest in that fashion. >> yes or no? >> yes. >> yes. >> two minutes. >> does it start again? all right. [laughter] it is not mathematical reality to think we can run the america on -- our supplies are going down. they are going down because of the burdens and regulatory environments shutting down power plants. what we have to do is look at my energy plan. it is an all of the above approach. we have to ensure that we put more plants in action.

more nuclear facilities so america continues to lead economically. if we put ourselves at an economic disadvantage because we are meeting emissions targets that are already doing better than most industrialized we hold let's make sure anybody else accountable in the world. start worrying about the american energy and american economy. the pipeline, that is thousands of jobs that can be created right now in america with a signature from president obama. that needs to happen. let's make sure we maximize our missions controls, we utilize natural gas, and we look at expanding our nuclear options here in this country. >> 30 seconds.

>> renewals can take care of -- i do not claim renewable can take care of all our energies at this time. we need to take a big step forward. we find ourselves unable to when we have people beholden to oil and gas companies. i think this issue is of the utmost importance, especially with the young people in this room, because climate change is very real. i am a man of science to understand the reality of it. man's activities have put us where we are today. we need to take action now. >> given recent legislation to stop online privacy, where do you both stand on regulation of the internet? >> as limited as possible from the federal government level. i have more time. [laughter] the same people who support

david's campaign are the ones who got the biggest payback when president obama was elected for a stimulus bill. it did not work. you hear a lot of talk about subsidies to oil companies. they do not amount to anything close to what we do to bring energy companies. we have $80 billion right now to help us in the renewable energy sector. what happened? cylinder, --the cost for job from that stimulus bill is $6.70 million. it costs -- funny you mention the internet -- it cost $18 million just to put the internet side on so people in america can trap the stimulus money. you may want to change your major to computer science.

if you can get a contract like that to build a web site. >> what would you do about federal regulation about the internet? this is also one of the top student questions. >> i would agree with mr. davis. as limited as possible. >> do you want to take any more time? >> no. >> hang on, i have another 30 seconds. [applause] the stimulus bill. i provide its constituents -- part of my job is to track stimulus funding on at $18 million website. i went there and saw how much money they spend on the obama administration and the stimulus bill david said was working. $531 million. you know what? in the 19th congressional district of illinois.

that stimulus bill did not work at all. that was a failure. we are still paying interest on it. >> time. the 13th congressional district, if nothing happens, is scheduled to have a large number -- number -- what would you propose to do to deal with the ever increasing debt of the u.s. postal service? >> a large part of the debt related to the postal service is due to the fact that career politicians in washington d.c. set up a scheme by which the postal service had to find 75 years into the future with respect to retirement. and future pension costs and health care costs. i am doing that. that would go a long way to restoring the solvency of the postal office. it is endorsed by numerous postal workers throughout the

district. i will stand up for them when i get to washington d.c. >> i do not know when people become the career politician. what has to happen when we talk about overall spending in washington, we have to ensure the we look at where federal dollars are going. that is what i talk about every single day. i talk about making sure we send people to washington who will be able to delve into every single aspect of the budget, make the cuts where necessary, make the tough decisions that need to be made in washington. you need somebody willing to go there and do that. i am willing to do that. it will take that type of leadership. my history, a bipartisan manner, i have got endorsements from

several democratic mayors in this district. i did not walk into the communities and aske, are you a republican? there are no democrats and republican solutions. there are just right solutions. that is what i intend to work for. i have a work history to prove it. >> i would say i am sick and tired of saying career politicians in washington d.c. not standing of ordinary men and women. i have run previously with the principle that all men are created equal and the ordinary students in millinery need a voice in washington d.c. they do not need lobbyists. they need someone to standup for them. >> our next question pertains to dodd-frank and financial regulations. do you support dodd-frank? if so, what other options would you prefer? >> dodd-frank needs to be

changed. it is offensive when you go to just down the road and a dedicate entire floor to regulators. just regulatory agencies take up office space on an entire floor. the federal government has to ensure we make things match in a more concurrent manner. within a regulatory environment. right here in bloomington, providing thousands of jobs. many of you may work at state farm. it provides thousands of jobs. they have to dedicate an entire floor to the regulatory environment in this country. that is why i support the act that makes sure if we go into the regulatory environment, we do a cost-benefit analysis if there is $100 million or more to impact americans. that is something that has to be done. i am somebody who looks forward

to the details. when we see over -- the regulatory environment, i see my job as to introduce a bill every single time to clarify that to make sure it does not cost american jobs. >> dodd-frank is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough. it does not restore the wall between investor banks and savings and loans. it does not go far enough because of the wall street bank money that flows into congress. you have too many of these guys to take too much of that money. we see it on a daily basis. with respect to investment 8 -- bankers, there is a couple in chicago. we pass laws in the state to change the way in which campaigns are financed. with investor bait -- investor bankers, having the money, they

would be limited to a certain amount. it took place when mr. davis as part of his public service was executive director of the illinois republican party. he found a way to transfer that money to 20 different counties in central illinois. then have that money funneled back up to the parties. you know that is not true. what you describe is not accurate. you talk about a negative campaign. you created an ad. i cannot stand hypocrisy anymore when you talk about john boehner when you just had a fund-raiser in chicago with nancy pelosi. you just had a congressman down. who are you beholden to?

nancy pelosi? those who sponsor hr 676? >> given our involvement in a number of military situations throughout the world, what, if anything, would you change about our military policy? gill. >> as indicated earlier, we should be out of afghanistan already. it is mission accomplished there. osama bin laden is dead. the situation got confused with regards to what the situation was. have we should recognize syria is a far more complex situation than what you are reading about. it is really devolving into a holy war between suny and shia -- sunni and shia. we have far too much war in this country. i do not think syria or libya or

iran today is a situation that calls for putting the lives of young men and american women on the line. i support the sanctions taking place in iran. i encourage ongoing trepidation in terms of getting involved in military action in syria. >> i believe america is a beacon of freedom. we need to make at -- taking advantage of our place in the world to ensure we use all diplomatic relations before going into a country. i describe the doctrine that says just that. what we have to do is make sure we listen to the general government. we are on a path to pull out of afghanistan. we pulled out of iraq. i believe that will continue until 2014. we will see our troops come home. we need to ensure we have a strong military to be able to

keep the peace because what we saw a few weeks ago, it does not get enough and media attention. we saw an attack on american sovereign soil. when the al qaeda flag flew over the burned out embassies and consulates across the other side of the world, we did not see enough attention paid. terrorist groups like al qaeda of view of the flag over our soil as a symbolic victory against who they call the great satan, the united states of america. we need to keep peace through strength, or the next time they come at us, we may not be able to respond. we need to make sure we respond to terrorist organizations like al qaeda where ever they are in the world and ensure that safety iscitizens' paramount to our success. >> i would reiterate i would abide by what the joint chiefs of staff have to say with regard

to military funding. we need to take our $16 trillion deficit seriously. my opponents refusal to talk about the corporations to millionaires and billionaires, that blows another dollars trillion to our deficit. this is an ideal place where cuts are available and cuts are demanded by people. >> final question before we get to closing statements. it will be asked by our student body president. >> currently, congress has the lowest approval rating in history. many feel because of -- it is because of his partisan politics. what d.c. for us coming together to get things done? >> we have to have bipartisan solutions so we can move changes forward in washington d.c.. how do we do that? we send people like me who have a proven record of working in a bipartisan way to get things done. that is what i said.

many in this district are democratic mayors and they support me. that is the way i will operate in washington. to be able to find those we can work with. we will be able to have leaders go in and lobby, be a person ready to make changes. go get more votes for what will affect the 13th district in the most positive way. when we do that, we will see much more bipartisanship, congeniality, and i will follow in working in a bipartisan way to make sure we do not see

partisanation we see now. >> there are many ways to do that. we got some republican en there.a the i look forward to working with them and run against the guy who takes money from the coal industry. a process i thought was settled decades ago, now we are fighting back. i look forward to opening up the trade agreement. we have congress people there who understand we have lost more than 1 million jobs in this country because of bowling down before the powers that be that got rich because of the free- trade agreement. i look forward to working to health care reform. i understand it is not just an issue of morality or help.

it is an issue of wealth. these congress people fell to recognize the ought to take the 20% to 40% back. we should not be throwing them away on the health insurance industry run by people like william maguire. he retired in 2006. he received a gift of $1.60 billion. that is money that came out of people's pockets. it is obscene. when you do the arithmetic, he received $100,000 a day every day to treat himself every day for 45 years. we have people suffering in this country. we do not have jobs. it is that type of disparity between the people at the top who are paying off the congress people and the regular working people who i stand for. that is what i look forward to

working toward in washington d.c., fixing those things, whether it be with republican or democrat i work with. >> it is ironic that many of the same organizations david just discussed our funding nancy pelosi's democratic campaign committee. funds that he uses to attack me. the hypocrisy has to stop. it will not give us the environment we need to make real changes in washington. i am proud to be supported by many great organizations. the air traffic controllers, machined metal contractors, folks to realize my plants, my jobs plan, would give people the jobs they need. >> we appreciate the candidates for coming up here on stage. i know the moderates would appreciate you guys. we will start with rodney

davis. >> i want to talk about my vision. my vision for the future is a small, more responsible government. it should balance its checkbook, just like every family has to do in the 13th district. the government should stay out of the way of the doctor-patient relationship. the government that gives us small businesses the opportunity to succeed, and have jobs available for when students graduate from college. the problems in our country, they are not partisan. there are no republican and democrat solutions to these problems. indeed be solved by leaders who are willing to work together in both sides of the aisle. those issues that are important to families, important to all of you. i will do that. i believe we can tackle many of these issues if we work in a bipartisan way and we have leadership.

my personal and professional life has been dedicated to serving my family, community, and my state. i simply ask for your vote and your support so i can take our successes to washington and serve the families of this district for the next two years. i also want to mention my journey to being a candidate. i walked in where i was an undergrad candidate. i saw an acquaintance of mine standing in the doorway. i asked him, what are you doing? i did not know him well. i coached his son in baseball. he said, i am here because i believe in you. he gave me a boost of confidence that i needed that day. he did not know that. i said, thank you.

unfortunately, he died in a tragic accident over the summer. he left his wife and two kids at home. i want to urge everybody in this room, do something unexpected, show up, be the voice of confidence. you may never know the impact it has on the individual. [applause] >> i listened to the short list of organized labor that has endorsed your campaign. i endorsed by the nurses and teachers at all workers, the carpenters, the bus drivers, the list goes on. the civil service workers. i am running to help people that mitt romney and rodney davis ignored. people like single moms who taught their kids into bed before they go off to work their second job.

people like senior citizens who work hard all their life. they do not have enough money for all their prescriptions and pick up blood pressure pills every other day and have a stroke. people like construction workers who have been out of work for so long. they are wondering how they will pay their bills. that is who i am running for. the college students who are burning midnight oil studding through the night trying to get good grades and they know they are coming out of school with a bad chance of finding a job and with 100 percent chance of having a mountain of debt. people who cannot afford high- priced washington lobbyists. i am not part of the system. they need to know they ought -- someone is fighting for them in washington d.c. you mentioned hypocrisy and nancy pelosi. as i indicated, i defeated nancy pelosi in the primary. i do not owe nancy pelosi a

thing. senior moms and senior citizens and construction workers, with regards to hypocrisy, i will stop telling the truth about you when you stop telling lies about me. hopefully all these working people stand up with me. i think everyone for being here and i humbly ask you for your vote that day. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> we appreciate both the candidates for coming out. we appreciate the audience for holding your applause until the end. yocan go head to give gulf canada it's a round of applause. -- both of t