drawn maps to republican-drawn maps. host: this starting in 1996 where you see a lot of red and showing the margins of victory. that changes over time, that brings us to 2012. guest: it's important because when you have all that purple on the map, when there are so many competitives parts of the country, all you have to do -- when there are so few competitive districts, you're sort of locked into a small problem. like being down three points with a minute left versus the whole second half. host: ask what federal legislation controls how congressional districts are set up. >> a very ancient piece of legislation makes it so that

congressional districts go in one person and then daub one represented districts. you could pass legislation that requires multiple representative districts. there are pieces going back to the 60s which set the number of congressional districts which is today 435. >> just like bill clinton said, the federal government keeps shooting themselves in the foot by not passing bills. you've got to remember -- i'm a black military man. i see that the republican party is mostly white and the majority -- in a presidential race, you see more of the white voted this time for mitt romney. they were showing you they are not going to vote against their best interests because the republican party don't have nobody who could galvanize the

black vote and hispanic vote and asian vote. as long as republican party got people like rush limbaugh representing them and it's like the -- host: i they sentiment really speaks to why the democrats have a big demographic problem. the growing white shirt population is at a disadvantage -- there are more conservative white people than liberal white people, there are liberal white people and there's a floor there for them. and if they can't make inroads among nonwhite voters, it's tough to win a state like colorado or virginia where african-americans represent about 20% of the electorate. host: ryan in tennessee. republican line. >> yes. i want to talk about how the

democrats keep crying about gerrymander but in a state like georgia does this person know in the 1980s there were really no safe republican distributes. when democrats controlled gerrymandering they didn't create any republican districts. when republicans gerrymander they are merciful about the democrats in the safe distributes. like mississippi, there were zero safe republican districts. like in ohio, a 12-4 map in favor of republicans is unfair. i would agree. but i don't like this idea of purposely mixing rural and urban areas and parts of different counties and distributes. i think that disenfranchises voters and it's a way for people trying to change the system in an unprecedented ways. i think districts should remain compact but should be fair. think republicans trying to draw

a 10-3 state where romney won -- i think that's going too far and things need to be reformed a little bit. guest: in georgia, i think that's a nice illustration of why gerrymandering is more potent than it used to be. if you look at a map of the 1960 presidential election, you would see in a state like georgia, the democrats were winning every year. the reason why you couldn't draw republican districts in georgia was because there weren't any tab drawn. there weren't many opportunities. as the country has polarized it's become impossible to not draw -- you want to make your district safer. the reason why georgia and have democrat districts is because of the voting rights act. a republican in mississippi if

they didn't have the voting rights act, would easily turn that state into a uniformly republican congressional delegation. it would be easy. no question. so there are rules that are constraining the extent republicans can build uniformly republican congressional delegations. it doesn't make sense to make these districts that sweep the country side. that's one of those cry toor i can't that are used in drawing congressional districts. if you added partisan balance, we could have something like what the caller suggests where we have districts that are compact but are a lot closer to accurately representing the two parties in the staidwide delegation. host: wants to know if citizens have ever attempted to protest against the redrawing of districts. guest: thereby endless

litigation on redistricting matters. georgia was a very important case a long time ago when the dealts tried to draw districts that didn't represent every person. in terms of today's congressional districts there have been lawsuits in texas, flea. they are happening all over the country. it's difficult to get courts to rule against partisan gerrymandering. the court cares about racial gerrymandering but it won't invalidate a congressional district map solely on the ground that it's unfair to one side on the basis of party. host: our guest writes for the "new york times." how often do you post or how do you decide what to write about? guest: this time of year with an election coming up, i'm writing all the time. i'm following the new polling, particularly folks on the

senate, which is very competitive this year. and we do a lot of big picture stuff about stuff like this piece on the house, also demographic change and the big sort of structural underlying forces affecting the partisan balance. host: as far as the senate, what do you think about the prospects of the gop controlling it? >> it's a tight race. the republicans have lots of opportunity to retake the senate. they are favored in three democratic held states and they have a lot of options to get the next three they need. what's interesting, the democrats are holding on in a lot of states like iowa, colorado, michigan. they seem to have the advantage in north carolina. if they can hold on to all those states, they will suddenly have very plausible path to victory. what remains competitive -- the sheering of the opportunities makes the republicans the advantage. the democrats still have a pathway to victory.

this isn't like 2012 where obama built that big lead. host: the most interesting senate race going on? >> north carolina. host: tell us about north carolina. why is it most interesting? >> you have ka haguan in a tilt red state that was very competitive in the last presidential election. the story of the election is democrating winning in -- when i think or all the big national phenomenon, then you have a pretty dynamic race where the republicans nominated someone who is a pretty credible candidate on paper but yet as the republican speaker of the state -- that is affecting the

republicans opportunities. but their policies have rubbed people the wrong way and it's unclear whether they can capitalize on a -- host: you mentioned alaska. guest: alaska is another state where a democratic incumbent is representing a red state. alformer anchorage mayor is facing a new anchorage mayor. there have been only a couple of polls. this is a state where 2/3 of communities aren't accessible by road and people have a regular telephone use pattern -- it is extremely plausible this election -- we realized in the east coming down to alaska, we have no idea what's going to

happen. host: neil, independent line. >> can your guest talk about districts that are -- if they are in rural parts of the country or on the ex-urban -- they have parts that are urban but parts becoming suburb. for example jim ger lack's district in pennsylvania and riker's district in washington state. guest: i used to be in riker's congressional district. those are examples of districts that were drawn to protect vulnerable republican incumbents. as a result of redistricting they were given a whole lot of country side. those districts i'm not sure whether those are the ones that should be held up as great examples of how a fair congressional map should be drawn. as these areas grow, you would

see districts turn ex-urban nz the lines are drawn appropriately. host: charles, republican line. >> good morning. i heard him say a little bit -- he talked about democratic pathway to victory and how it still exists: if you look at the presidency, you can see the democrats have destroyed their way to victory. our president has failed on every aspect, everything he's attempted. and what he's done is he has successfully changed the attention, taken it from him and put it on congress and he makes several speeches where he says that congress isn't getting anything done. nothing in our constitution

requires congress to pass an x amount of laws or pass legislation that's not good for our country. for instance the healthcare law. it was passed by democrats. none of them took the time to read the law. in my opinion, i've got somebody representing me in congress and he's not taking time to read legislation, then he's not representing me. he's representation his own interests. healthcare has fallen on its face. guest: a lot of people are disappointed in president obama's performance. the approval ratings are many the low 40s. despite that, this doesn't look like a blowout. in 2006 george w. bush's approval ratings weren't that much worse. the democrats won 30 house seats, picked up a bunch of governor's races. that election does not look the

same way. >> host: another caller from valencia. guest: isn't our government largely a fraud? one of the founding principles is that we're a representative republican. mr. koen mentioned that in 1911 house of representatives was capped at 435. the constitution says one rep for every 30,000 people. one rep for 40,000, we have tyranny. since 1911 when we were 125 million people, we had 435 reps. we're now over 300 million and we have 435. so we've had ever-diminishing representations. we've over twice as many federal judges as we have representatives. so what's happened is, both executive branch and the judiciary have leaked fraud over

the legislature. the house of representatives was supposed to be the life blood of the people. we have no representation anymore. it's now one rep for almost 800,000 people. guest: the country has become more lower case d democratic over the last two centuries. the presidency is also democratic. in terms of the large number of people for congressional district is 700,000, i'm not sure whether people are all that much better represented with districts that are 700,000 people -- i don't think it's realistic to expect ha the country has has a legislative assembly of 10,000. i think it's great that having more congressional districts has a down side.

you would see lots of congressional districts in the most urban areas where democrats would win more than 90% of the vote. it's possible to draw a fair set of districts if partisan balance is your criteria. i'm not sure it would be possible if you had 10,000 congressional districts. >> i had a question for the speaker. how come we haven't had a constitutional congress since 1,900 or about -- 1900 or about so? >> the constitution makes it difficult to change the state of the union. if you try to start a constitutional convention, wasn't of the big fears is that it would be a runway convention where any part of the constitution would be up for debate. you might not have a convention

littled to say we're going to work out congressional representation. in theory, everything could be up for revision and would be difficult to control. host: from north carolina here is deborah. >> good morning. host: you're on. go ahead. >> i'm just calling to let you know that the world has been separated so long that it's time for a change. when we go -- this is going to end up is no democrats or republicans. thank you. host: okay. a call from delores from maryland. democrats line. go ahead. make sure you turn your television down. but go ahead. go ahead, delores. >> good morning. i just wanted to make a comment that when i heard the other caller talking about the president's failure, it's not taking into account the fact

that all of his promises that he put forward he put through in proposal, that congress will not even consider. they will not pass his proposals. so if you talk about the failures, the failure of congress, the republican-led congress to actually put forth the president's proposals so that he can get something done because we all vote in september, change from republican to democrats, we'll see more of his promises come through because at least they'll listen to his proposals on the congressional floor. only when help does a mandate can he get any of his ideas through for the country. that's it. thank you. guest: as long as republicans control the house, which i think is quite likely for the foreseeable future, democrat ts have to get used to the idea that when their president proposes policy initiatives, the

republicans aren't going to accept a majority of them. i'm not on the ground over at the capitol. i'm not in the white house. i don't know how well the president's aides do. whether people like it or not. that's what's necessary. host: you talked about races in the senate. are there any standout races in the house? >> there are a few that are worthying about. colorado six congressional district which is a presidential battleground in denver, mic kaufman is a democratic challenger. scott sutherland is in a very difficult race for reelection where he barely won. it's a republican terrain but where dealts have a -- it's a

nice test of can democrats get these people back in the right circumstance? nick in west virginia is another example of the few democrats left who's occupying deep red republican country but where perhaps a local democrat can still win. he won in 2012. this is where democrats have suffered their big losses over the last decade. another good one is kirk patrick in arizona the second congressional district. host: our guest writes about these washingtonext journal, a round table discussion on the strategy of both political parties. we'll talk to a democratic strategist and a republican strategist. and james from american university will assess resident strategy to combat the terror

group, isis. we will take your phone calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. at 7:00ton journal" a.m. on c-span. in his weekly address, president obama discussed the administration's efforts to degrade terrorist groups such as isis. u.s. house candidate andy tobin gave the republican response. he talked about government regulations and the impact on the economy. >> as commander in chief, my highest priority is the security of the american people. i made it clear that those who threaten the united states will find no safe haven. thanks to our military and counterterrorism professionals, we took out osama bin laden, much of al qaeda's leadership in afghanistan and pakistan, and leaders of al qaeda affiliates in yemen and somalia. we have prevented terrorist attacks, saved american lives, and made our homeland more

secure. today the terrorist threat is more diffused from al qaeda affiliates and other extremists, like isil in syria and iraq. as i said in this week, we have not identified specific plots but is leaders have repeatedly threatened the united states. if left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond the middle east, including to the united states. so we are staying vigilant. we are moving ahead with our strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist organization. to meet a threat like this, we have to be smart and we have to use our power wisely. we have to avoid the mistakes of the past. an american military power is unmatched, but this can't be america's fight alone. the best way to defeat a group like isil is not by sending a large number of combat forces to

wage a ground war in the heart of the middle east. it would only risk fueling extremism even more. what is needed now is targeted, relentless counterterrorism campaign against isil that combines american air power, contributions from allies and partners, and more support to forces that are fighting these terrorists on the ground. that is exactly what we are doing. we are moving ahead with our campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists, and we are prepared to take action against isil in syria as well. the additional american forces i have ordered to iraq will help iraqi and kurdish forces with the training, intelligence, and equipment they need to take the fight to these terrorists on the ground. we are working with congress to expand our efforts to train and equip the syrian opposition. we will continue to strengthen our defenses at home. we will keep providing the humanitarian relief to help iraqi civilians who have been driven from their homes and who remain in extreme danger. because we are leading the right way, more nations are joining our coalition. this week arab nations agreed to

strengthen their support for the new iraqi government and to do their part in the fight against isil, including aspects of the military campaign. saudi arabia will join the effort to help train and equip moderate syrian forces. retired general john allen, who during the iraq war work with sunnis in iraq as they fought to reclaim their committees from terrorists, will serve as our special envoy to help build and coordinate our growing coalition. today every american can be proud of our men and women in uniform who are serving. when our airstrikes help break the siege of the iraqi town, one kurdish fighter on the town said it would have been absolutely impossible without the american planes. one resident of that city said, "thank you, america." today we are showing the world the best of american leadership. we will protect our people. we will stand with partners who defend their countries and rally other nations to meet a common threat.

here at home, 13 years after our country was attacked, we continue to stand tall and proud because we are americans and we do not give in to fear. we carry on and we will never waver in defense of the country we love. >> i'm andy tobin. i serve as speaker of the house. i'm the republican candidate for arizona's first congressional district. before i begin, we have had terrible flooding in our state this week and several arizonans have lost their lives. our hearts go out to their families. i want to thank our first responders. their service inspires us always. day after day, the powers that be in washington, d.c. try to bury us in more regulations and more havoc. this has got to stop.

not just here, but everywhere. people are working harder, only to have washington take away more of their money and more of their freedom. how do we restore the balance of power for hard-working taxpayers? one thing we can do is we can go after over-regulation. in rural arizona, the epa's mandates threaten to shut down the navajo generating station. the coal power plant is vital to our state's economy. these mandates will mean higher water prices and electricity prices for all arizona residents. they also threaten the viability of this plant, putting hundreds of jobs in jeopardy. instead of perpetuating a war on coal, washington should be protecting these jobs and supporting american energy. second, we need to repeal obamacare. i run a small business. i have seen firsthand the rate increases, and the way this law is crushing businesses and pushing people into part-time work. it is also costing our seniors money. they don't have the doctors they have relied on for years. let's start over. let's focus on ideas of lower cost and put the patient back in charge.

third, we need to get ourselves out of all this debt. it is a drag on our economy and investments, and it is not something we should be passing on to our kids. not too long ago, our state was one of many caught in the grip of this great recession and budget crisis. working together, we can turn things around. we cut government by 25%, balanced the state budget, we passed the largest tax cut in arizona's history, saving taxpayers millions of dollars. now we are building a better future for our children and their children. you know how we got it done? by finding common ground. recognizing that arizona will only recover if we all recover together. that is why the gridlock in washington is so disappointing. you have republicans making a good-faith effort, bringing real ideas to the table to help our economy. but senate democrats will not give them a vote. they did not even pass their own bill to help us deal with the

crisis at our border. more worried about losing the senate majority than the concerns of the american people. service is what led me to run for public office. it was installed in me as the son of a police officer. to get america back on track, we need to put people first. be their voice, especially for parts of the country like rural arizona, that have been forgotten by washington, d.c. thank you for listening to me. may god bless arizona and united states of america. on newsmakers, democratic congressman steny hoyer of maryland is our guest as house talks aboutp, he how congress and may deal with issisent obama's plan for and upcoming midterm elections. watching the interview tomorrow here on c-span. we are excited to

announce it is a launch week for the student documentary contest. $100,000 in cash prizes. me is the's the brightest ever -- the three branches and eu. we want you to know how a law, policy, or action has affected eu in your life or community. the compensation is open to students in grades 6-12. contestants are asked to produce a seven minute video supporting the chosen topic. and to include some c-span programming. 100,000 dollars and cash prizes will go to 150 students and the grand prize winner with the best overall entry will win $5,000. the deadline is jay where he 20th and winners will be --

january 20, 2015 and the went will be announced in march. >> "the communicators" is the next with congresswoman anna energyas a member of the and commerce committee she tells my net mutuality, and the rules governing the internet. retiring senator talks about and later,n-policy former president bill clinton and george w. bush launch the presidential leadership scholars program. c-span, created a by cable companies 35 years ago and brought as a public service. >> joining us this week on

"beading gators," congresswoman anna eshoo -- "communicators," congressman and eshoo. earlier this week, anna] nancy i came out in favor of classifying broadband as title 2. do you support that? >> going back to 2010, i spoke about what i thought the sec should do to be on firmer -- fc should do to bec on firmer legal ground and appointed to title 2. discussions, we had about it. about net neutrality. people in our country feel very strongly about the internet. not only how they use it, but how they think about it. the access to it, that it be free and open, and