good question. i think that what we were trying to say in the essay is -- essay is the facts of equality that is driving, not the idea of income equality. that the driving issue in this election should be the economic well-being for working people and the stagnation that most people are facing in their wages and their difficulty in making ends meet is a very real issue. and it sometimes gets talk about . it's not really the abstract idea. it's the fact that you have the economy improving, but not for working people, but for the wealthy and c.e.o.'s and corporations. >> so are the candidates that you are supporting talking about

this issue at the right level? >> we believe the issue should be driven home harder, that that's a really stark contrast this year between democrats and republicans and the candidates we're supporting. . d that's when we do our work that's almost exclusively what we focus on is the economic -- what this election means for the economic prospects for working people. >> let me turn to melanie. >> you recently sort of compared the message that republicans and democrats are conveying to mobilize their base and get that to the polls. you did say democrats needed to do a better job. i'm wondering if you had to give them a grade, democrats versus republicans, what would that grade be and why and what can democrats maybe learn from what republicans are doing?

>> that's a great question. what i was talking about was that i think -- and of course anything is going to be a generalization. there are candidates who have taken different approaches. but republicans from the outset have had a strategy that has used their advertising to really motivate their base, and to aim people to - inciting want to vote in the election. what i was trying to convey is a lot of the work that democrats have done in this election has been aimed at persuading undecided voters and that has been on one issue here, another issue there. ut it may not have added up to as full throat and appeal to the base of the democratic party,

.hich is working people and especially as we go into this last month of the election, we would hope that they would make that contrast more fully. >> mike, i just want to follow what you were saying. the concontrast is important for these candidates to make. we hear that allot from president obama, the idea of making a contrast. one of the polls keep mphasizing is the -- americans are so disturbed by the gridlock that washington has taken politics. there is a lack of confidence that -- do you find that in the polling that you're doing, the candidates that you're supporting are having trouble to conveying that, that there might be solutions in washington? >> i think that what we find is

are a whole host of issues that have credibility, like raising the minimum wage that's happening right now. it may not be happening in federal gridlock, but it's happening harn the country. people can see that there are actions being taken that are going to improve their lives. and the contrast that we're talking about is for people to -- for working people to there is one side that is basically about attacking their standard of living and another that's about defending and improving their standard of living, and that contrast is really what we're .alking about

the cynicism that you're talking about is very real, and it's out there. and if it weren't out there, then i think you'd see very ifferent results for the elections right now. >> just just to follow up, if state saying the e-- moving ahead or have already, how dot candidates who are trying to come back to washington, how do they say gridlock is going to be changed because so many analysts are saying no mat matter what happens in november, that gridlock is going to return in january? >> i think what we do is convey and agendas that the republicans have shown that they want to advance will be

extremely harmful to working the e and that right now is of gridlock that we see nothing compared to what we're going to see if you have an entirely republican congress social en going after security and medicare and fights that really will injure working people versus what we have now. >> i want to follow up on something you said earlier. democrats and republicans who the a.f.l.c.i.o. report, are you supporting republican candidates and if so, where? at ere are to be honest igher levels there are the candidates that we support.

we're talking about senate and governor are democrats, but at the local level -- and i can't speak offhand to the names of them, that are the republican candidates but the main thing is at the federal and state governors we've seen a real hard turn to the right by the republican party and they are bent on opposing policies like the minimum page, opposing policies that will help working people. and instead are about protecting privileges of and the wealthy. >> so at that level, governor, senate, u.s. senate and house races it's democrat? >> right. >> following up on the point

about gridlock and the fact you think it would be worse if republicans control the senate. is that a motivating factor for voters for potential democratic voters this election cycle? are you featuring that in your ads or messages at all? >> what we're featuring is not gridlock but the agenda that the republicans want to bring to washington. and you're going to see, you know, the policy discussion move even further to the right if the republicans are successful in taking the senate. >> ok. i think you said recently that didn't seem to be the prospect of a g.o.p. controlled senate, didn't seem to be a motivating factor for voters. >> i think if i understand the in ion, i think that it's

solation in sort of washington that is not much of a motivateor as draug the contrast -- drawing the contrast between what is going to happen this -- in people's daily lives if one .arty or the other is elected we're obviously not making the argument about republican control as much as we are about what the individual candidate stands for. >> michael, at the white house one of the things that we see allot with president obama is his effort to raise money, but also the candidates maybe reservations about how to campaign in october with them in front of these key states. is it a deficit for the party or from the a.f.l. perspective that

the head of the party is perhaps unwell comed or there's some reservation about how they can go on the campaign with some of these candidates to try to get that message out? >> i think one of the things that was known going into this race was that when we're talking that it was ate, heavily tilted away from states that president obama a-- was popular in and so that is not a surprising result. you know, the -- everything president has had the same kind kind has been in the same of position in their administration. i think that again the candidates are all very tightly

close right now and if they can get across an economic message have a good chance of winning. >> the wisdom is the house stays in republican hands, the senate is in play, agree or disagree? >> agree. >> do you see any scenario in which the democrats can recapture the house? a limit.k that there's i don't think that's impossible but i think right now the attention is on the senate. >> met knee trottman. >> i want to move to the politics and have you talk about the states we were focusing on, the battle ground states, why and what are some of the issues in those states? >> sure.

the way the a.f.l.c.i.o. works s that we are almost exclusively focused on -- sroots activism and that and person to person contact and build on the labor movement that exist in each place in each location. so we are obviously going to be putting more effort -- able to put more effort into states like michigan, alaska, iowa, colorado than in some of the other states. and i think what we're seeing is that in a state like michigan, for example, economic issues ve played a really important role.

and you have a race that the -- the senate race that the republicans would have hoped would be closer than it is. gary peters is doing fairly well in this environment. where the governor's race -- he's pulled within a couple points of snyder. think it's remarkable that mark beggage is still in -- is still very close in such a red state, but he's done it in part by owning the economic message that we're talking about. >> let me turn to alexis. >> so i was thinking about this idea you were talking about

trying to ramp up turnout. before the election the president decided not to do this before the election based on some of the appeals he got from the democratic candidates from the senate in some states. how is this going to affect the president in his decision making? how will it affect the anticipation to get the lat -- latino population involved. what do you expect to see knew? >> well, i think it's a really good and often asked question. theink two things, one that latino community is not twun dimensional one

and to sim phi the question into -- sim phi -- sim phi the question into -- sim phi -- that this is an issue that, one, that voters have the same concerns about their economic well-being or having just as hard of times making ends meet and can be -- appeal to on -- still have the same economic stakes. the republican party has done itself no favers

n this regard in coming out in such hostile way against migration reform of any kind and that's not lost in the latino community or lost if the republicans take control then the prospects for comprehensive immigration reform pretty much die. the second thing, i think may be even more important though, is that the afl-cio has been for comprehensive immigration for a long while you know, and we're going to continue to fight that fight. .t's going to go on these are people's lives and just speculating on this political implications can obscure the fact that this is

something that's going to matter and doesn't disappear the day after the election. >> just to follow up, can you describe what afl is doing to reach out to latino voters? do you have spanish outreach and advertising? have you tried to adjust the message after the president's decision to defer in just the way you described? >> absolutely. and we're finding that that has .esonance and if we're focused on those issues there's a way of meeting people where they are. >> pellet me follow up on that point. >> sure. >> you've been at at the afl-cio for a long time. as political director, how do you know when your message is resonating and impacting with voters? what works? what doesn't? well, we're doing a great

and as poling -- polling i think you know very data driven and are extremely nsitive to different ways of monitoring opinion, whether it's n polling or doing analysis of itter or social media or x analysis of the social media and we can -- we're able to onstruct a pretty robust feedback system that gets us information about whether or not our messages are moving people or not. we ost of the things that

do are -- i mean we're in an obviously different position from campaigns. mean our position is that we're an organization of working family dvancing working issues and what we're out there testing is whether or not those issues are resonating with people. >> we have about five minutes left. >> ok. speaking of testing. one of the things the afl-cio appears to be testing is the new campaign the koch sisters -- they are not cam paning nor are hey related to the being air koch brothers. can you explain who these women

are and why they're doing this, what they're trying to convey? >> sure. what they're trying to convey is who i'm och brothers sure most of your audience knows in laying an outside role really tilting the playing field n public -- politics this year as they did in 2012. and so we just thought that given the profile that they've developed that having koch sisters who are em-- emblematic of the people who are being hurt by the koch brothers' policies and who have very different mainstream values was a way of

holding up a light to the differences between the world the koch brothers want us to live in and the one most of the rest of america wants. >> and reaching out to women. >> right. >> and can you describe how important women are going to be in the midterms. >> i think women will be very important to the midterms, as they are in all elections. we hope that they choose -- make their decisions based on economic issues. >> real quickly, thiss week wee saw the attorney general eric holder announce his resignation when a successor is confirmed. want to ask you why the names is the potential labor secretary this t's your reaction to

potential changeover there? >> we have a great deal of respect for secretary perez. we think he's been doing a and would obviously think highly of him. >> can't have a political conversation without talking about money. this is much earlier this year at the afl-cio meeting in houston. i got you to say that labor is planning -- organized labor will likely spend more than $300 million on the midterm election. do you still see that as being true and how do you -- how do your resources compare versus the other side? >> sure. what i actually said in houston s that if you go to the many

sites that monitor political spending that that's what the foundation had said we had spent in 2012. and i don't because of how decentralized we are, i can't tell you what the amount of money is going to be for this year. of nk whatever the amount money is, if you're going to the sign up for america responsive politics website you'll see we're outspent 15 or more to one and that we are going to win because we work hard and because we're having person to person conversations and not winning the tv ad war. -- afl-cio flicio

indors a democratic candidate in the primary? >> maybe. >> would that be unusual? >> it would not be unusual at all. >> michael, my pleasure of the afl-cio political director. thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you. >> we continue the conversation with melanie trotman of the wall street journal. let me begin with you in the role of labor overall. how influential will organized labor be in this midterm election? is very organized labor influential. so what they're strong out is that door knocking, that kind of engagement. they've incorporated technology, social media. 2012 was the first time that campaign finance law allowed

them to knock on doors of people who weren't their members. so they'll use that strategy again. you know, the afl-cio specifically, they're important as well since they are a federation that represents the vast majority of unions in this country. -- work with their union, so democrats need them and they need democrats to accomplish what they're trying to accomplish. >> despite the fact that their membership is declining? >> yes. right now they're trying to engage workers or people who are looking for work out side of the labor movement. they really changed their strategy to say we're not speaking for unions. it's not about us. it's about working people. i think that has had some effectiveness.

you've got the fight for 15 protest at mcdonald's and other fast food restaurants. ese peopler aren't -- aren't union members. they're fighting for wages and they're wrapping in a bigger part of the population but still struggling and in a bind and needing very much for this election to turn out the way that they want it to. >> finish this sentence. the state of the midterm elections for the democrat and for organized labor is what. >> incredibly tight and it seems to be much more favorable towards republicans at this point. >> why? > well, most of the analysts what they're suggesting is that in these races where the deal is really tight, republicans seem to be doing better with the surging in the polling. they're actually making gains and that democratic candidates

have not dropped -- have not dropped but they have not seen big gains. that means as michael was describing the fight for independent voters or those who are undecided, if the momentum is going republicans way at the end -- and we'll know that soon, within a few weeks we'll know that since we're so close, if republicans are getting the .urge of undecideds the democrats have plateaued. i was taking my cues from michael who does not seem to be the data driven guy to tell you great things in the data. it gives you a sense of how difficult it is. >> what was your takeaway today? >> you know my takeaway was that michael mentioned there are races that are closer than we thought they'd be. that's not really ideal for organized labor and for

democrats. it sounded like it's not as bad as we thought it would be scenario. and i do think there's concern among labor officials that the democrats aren't hitting home this economic message or at least many democrats, the message isn't resonating with voters. >> do you agree? >> i think that's true. and also i think there's concern among the democrats that involve foreign policy in the news that the candidates are having trouble getting traction with the american public. the economic message is not being covered in the same way. >> thank you for being here. both of ottman, to you, appreciate your time today. >> thanks, steve. >> democratic congressman of maryland will be speaking

tomorrow. as house minorityity whip he will be seeking. that event will be live at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. ow until election day c-span 2014 campaign coverage is bringing you over 100 debates between the candidates. here's a look at one in pennsylvania. >> so the governor has called tensions of crisis. do you believe the legislate hasn't been able to come to terms on some kind of pension plan? do you think it's a crisis, why or why not? >> i'm not sure where this crisis problem issue. we have a problem. if we don't do something about

it, it will become a crisis. we need to make sure what we do what the governor said we will do, which is to adequately fund our pension system. we have not done that over the past 10 plus years. governors past and present have not done that. if we keep up with that pattern, if we keep up with that pattern, we will have a huge crisis because just like a credit card bill, the balance goes up every year we do not fully pay off our debt. we have not been paying off our debt over the past 10 plus years and therefore that balance has been going up. we have got to stop doing that. it's not just talking about plan design. i think act 120 gave us a new plan we could actually work with in terms of design of employees moving forward. we need to pay that bill that we didn't pay for the past 10 years, we haven't paid adequately. if we find a way to do that that doesn't burden the taxpayers, we are going to have a solution to this promise. what i promise is i'm