from the steamboat institute's annual freedom conference in colorado, this is 45 minutes. >> all right. thank you, everyone, for being here. every year, i look forward to coming to steamboat. this is my third or fourth year to get to be here. it's an honor to be here. this is an event and an organization devoted to educating americans about the principles of our founding, but having a friendly conversation here is one thing. as we mind, all too often, winning tough policy battles when pitted against the liberal ideologues is another matter. we must not only have the right information, we must be prepared to communicate them effectively. digital media presents an exciting venue to connect directly with policy influences and voters alike. increasingly mainstream, digital

media equips us with the tools to persuade, influence and win. so it's an exceptional opportunity to have two seasoned professionals here who have been engaged in online battles and have won in national policy fights. together they publish an e-mail called write social daily that delivers an overview of the top news of the day with a conservative yet funny bent. if you don't get right social daily already, you can subscribe through their e-mail. their creative genius comes partly from their extensive experience. erica currently manages heritage's vast social media presence, which leads on many issues of the day. previously, she was a political reporter, a digital strategist for the house republican conference and a communications director in the u.s. house. eric is one of the original leaders of the conservative movement on line.

he founded right online, a long standing conference that serves as a counterweight to the net root nations. today he serves as senior vice president at the franklin center for government and public integrity. perhaps eric's proudest accomplishment, though was being named by keith overman as the number 2 worst person in the world. a truly exceptional accomplishment. so take a moment to look up from facebook and please join me in welcoming, erica and eric. [applause] ♪[music] >> thank you, allen, for that wonderful introduction. it's always a fun one when you're out at a bar to get a call from your parents, saying the neighbors just called and said you're the second-worst person in the world. we're so proud of you.

i'll fix this microphone for taller people. thank you so much. thank you to the steamboat institute for having us out. our colleague, bill murphy, was going to be joining us. unfortunately he had a personal situation arise and was unable to make it. but don't worry. erica and i are twice as fun. i'm with the franklin center, as allen mentioned, pleased to be joined by erica anderson. as allen pointed out, go to rightsocial.com. we wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't ask you all to follow along. just really quickly, how many of you are on facebook? that's very good. how many of you are on twitter? how many of you have a blog? how many of you are on youtube?

have your own channel? how many of you have a kid or a grand kid who shows you how to do things on your computer? the point we want to make is ultimately how everyone in this room can make a difference. so if you're afraid of technology, don't be. there's so many things we can do to help you. there's so many things that aren't that high of a bar that can allow you to have a huge impact. that's what we're going to talk a little bit about today. if you want to learn how to use these tools, it's always harder to delve in and teach those kind of things here, so we've got a stack of business cards. we both have associates at our offices who can get on the phone and walk you through signing up. but our goal today is to talk a little bit about some case studies that show the impact of

online tools and how it's transforming our polical landscape and talk about effective strategies that everyone can get involved in. so with that, i want to talk about a major challenge that we face as a nation with the rapid decline in the mainstream media. however, from our perspective, this is a huge opportunity. this is a study conducted by the american journalism review that shows a 30% loss in the number of reporters covering state-level politics from 2003 to 2009, as mainstream media is bleeding profits and laying off reporters left and right. they can't afford to support journalists who can tell us what is happening at our state capitols. the biggest threats occur when nobody is paying attention. it's at the local school board meetings where the media doesn't bother to show up and report on it, in those committee hearings where nobody is there to tell us what decisions are being made. the ironic thing about this study, in 2009, they ran out of money to continue the study. the largest point here is that old media is dying. of course it still has a lot of sway. it can't be ignored.

but when you look at radio, newspapers, tv, they're on the decline. and digital tools, all of the resources we have available online, are vastly increasing in influence. we're facing a major paradigm shift. the way we consume and use information has fundamentally changed. never before have we had so many tools at our disposal. studies show a major loss of trust by the public in mainstream media institutions. people don't trust what's being reported on tv or in their newspaper anymore. what people do trust is what they hear from their friends. that is where people are getting their information now and it's a very self-selecting media environment. we decide who we follow on facebook. we decide who we follow on twitter. and so the connections that you have, you have the ability to influence them. and in fact, i think a responsibility to make sure that we get the right information out to the public and in an effective way.

i think the other aspect of this is, when you look at old media, tv, radio, print, you could get angry, write a letter to the editor, but they would decide if they published it or not. you could call talk radio but there's a producer deciding whether or not your call makes it through. you can call the tv station and tell them to cover a story, but it's them who decide. there's nothing in the way of your using these online tools. in fact, if you write that letter to the editor, you have to read the article, go to your computer, and send it to them. now you can tweet it out, share it on facebook, e-mail it to people. you can be an activist or information sharer right at the moment you're consuming the news. there are three important areas that we're going to touch upon today that we think you should be aware of. now, you don't have to be somebody who sits behind your computer all day, being an online activist or helping on

any of these fronts, but i think you should at least be aware, whether you're a donor, a supporter, an elected official, a candidate, if you work at a nonprofit, you should know the impact these tools have and the importance that they hold, when you think about strategies or ways, not just for yourself to get involved, but for those organizations and other efforts that you're aligned with. so we want to talk about politics and advocacy. we want to talk about campaigns and elections. and the shifting tide of media and journalism as well. biggest thing i get when i talk to people about this topic is, okay, so you're on twitter, facebook. you have a blog. you're preaching to the choir, talking to a small bubble of people. doesn't actually make an impact. i want to give a few examples that i'm sure you're all familiar with that would never have been possible before the advent of the internet. how many of you remember dan rather? we can now call the former anchor of cbs evening news because of a report he ran on

president bush's national guard service. the mainstream media picked up this story well beyond cbs and it became a major issue in the campaign. a conservative blogger posted the documents that dan rather had used as the basis for his story. it was actually, i think, a typewriter expert in montana who looked at the documents and said the type setting used to create these didn't even exist in the years they were supposedly created. the blogger picked it up, forced the mainstream media to cover it, which forced an investigation that led to dan rather's downfall. never -- could you imagine somebody calling cbs news saying i'm a typewriter expert in montana and i've got to tell you something about dan rather? i don't think it would have made it up the food change. george allen. how many of you remember former senator george allen, from the state of virginia? he was headed toward what looked like a landslide reelection to

his u.s. senate seat in 2006 and in fact many thought he was the leading contender for the u.s. republican presidential nomination in 2008. that was until a video tracker following him got on his nerves so much that he pointed to the guy and said, he's been following me to every event. he said macaca. he claimed it was a term he made up. but liberal bloggers found an ancient racial slur that apparently is associated with that term. it became the defining issue of the remainder of his reelection campaign. sad thing is george allen could have stayed in bed during his whole campaign and been handily reelected. but this youtube thing brought down his political career. below him, van jones. do you remember? van jones was a prominent official in the obama administration who wasn't really properly vetted, certainly not by the media, but wielded tremendous influence. citizen journalists started to

uncover all of this information from his past. his involvement during the riots of rodney king in l.a., him being in prison, saying he's a socialist. he had actually said these green energy initiatives are a tool to redistribute wealth to impoverished african-american communities. it wasn't reported by the mainstream media. glenn beck picked it up. the first story the new york times ran was van jones resigns. before that, they didn't even touch it. never would have happened in the age of just the mainstream media. former congressman bob etheridge, 2010 was a major year for republicans sweeping control of congress. but bob etheridge was considered probably the safest democrat in the country, in a rural north carolina district. the state republican party wasn't even going to put up a nominee against him. a tea party activist, elmers, a nurse, decided that's not right.

i'm going to run against my congressman. thank god she did. a student confronted bob and asked him about obamacare. rather than responding, he grabbed the student by the arm and started twisting it. you can hear the student, in a video, saying let me go, please let me go. and he was being very aggressive. anyway, the video went viral and that is why he is now former congressman bob etheridge. of course, anthony weiner, i don't need to go into the details of that. [laughter] >> that story, most of you are familiar with. but that was something that happened going into memorial day weekend where most of the media was probably off at the beach enjoying a holiday. conservative bloggers picked up on it and wouldn't let it die. they forced the media to cover it. if they hadn't done that, anthony weiner would probably still be a congressman. but they forced his resignation. and in the following special

election, a republican won that seat for the first time in over 100 years. again, all of these never could have happened before the age of the internet. so when you say, does this have an impact? can i, as one person using these tools, even if you're just sharing something, e-mailing it to people, hitting that "like" button on facebook, retweeting it, you can have a huge impact. it influences the public policy agenda. it increases and enhances activism and it spreads our message to a broader audience. one example you guys may have seen in the past week, governor rick perry in texas, indicted on two felony counts, from a district attorney, who was caught drunk driving. the other year, i think she had three times the legal blood-alcohol limit. she was in charge of the public integrity unit, holding politicians in texas accountable. have any of you seen the video? not just the arrest video where she can't even walk a jagged line but once she's booked,

she's kicking the door, screaming for the sheriff to come, let her go. she's being verbally and physically abusive to the people who have taken her into custody. what i thought was really odd, when i saw the article, i got a google saying rick perry indicted on two felony counts. the article said rick perry threatened to veto funding, and then i saw the video on rosemary lundberg. i said, they don't mention her name, talk about her drunk driving. they're just trying to impugn rick perry and not explain the context of why he threatened to veto that funding. should someone who is in charge of public integrity in the state of texas, driving around drunk, have a multimillion budget? rick perry said no. that wasn't included in the article but by that night, it was the

only thing i saw online and it forced the mainstream media to cover it. it got to the point where the new york times and david axelrod have called this investigation inappropriate and clearly political retribution. so that shows the power of the internet. i think i should go back for one second. when you think about tom delay or ted stevens, there are so many politicians whose careers have been ruined and later exonerated. and that was because either the time it happened, the tools or the savvy to fight back. i think rick perry is a tremendous example of turning two felony indictments against him into a political plus. now he's the talk of the, you know, 2016 field. and everybody is rallying behind him. so i think that really, really, truly shows the power of the internet. but we hear a lot about the digital divide, especially in

the fallout from the 2008 and the 2012 elections. and it's true. there is a major divide between where the left is and where we are online. a lot of that is not due to any gap in enthusiasm from the grassroots on either side. it's a lot of the organizations who aren't taking advantage and using the appropriate tools to engage us in their campaigns or their organizations. so in 2008, for example, barack obama launched his own social media website. we all know he's a very humble guy. mybarackobama.com had 200 -- 2 million members. they generated millions of pieces of content online, blog posts, tweets, that got his message out virally across the internet. he broke historic fund-raising levels and it was the backbone

of his get out the vote operation that led to his victory. in 2012 we hear about the role of big data. you know if they mention big bird or a country song in a certain area, the impact that would have on polling, whereas mitt romney, his get out the vote tool couldn't even connect to the internet because they never tested it. $200 million down the drain because they never tested it from the facility it was going to be run from. i think one thing that exemplifies more than anything else the approach -- it's not always about the tools. it's about the approach and the way you use even rudimentary tools, things that we can even come up with ourselves in terms of tactics if we don't have the tools. the iphone application that obama did in 2008. you could download this onto your iphone. it would take all of your contacts and look at the area code and prioritize them by swing state and you could start

calling through. how many of you get robo-calls? you hear the delay, the click? how many of you actually stay on to listen to them? i have one hand over here. i hang up immediately. but if i get a call from my mother, brother, best friend, i'm at least going to take it, listen to them. so when people were calling their friends and saying, hey, listen, i'm supporting barack obama this november, here's why. i hope you will be do. do you expect you'll be turning out to vote for him on election day? it would revert back to a screen, likely obama voter, unlikely, undecided. it all got zapped back to the obama database for them to activate you to follow up. meanwhile, my phone was getting inundated by robo-calls from john mccain. more than anything else, whether you do it online or in person, some of you are involved in activist groups.

how many of you are just a citizen, an activist versus being an elected official or with an organization? if you're an activist, raise your hand. if you're with an organization or an elected official, raise your hand? >> would-be elected official. >> well, now that you stayed for this presentation, you will be. we always like seeing more citizen hands go up than politicians, so we have a better balance here. but it all goes back to the principles of community organizing. this is thing we attacked obama for as a punch line. he's nothing more than a community organizer. that's probably the only thing he's good it. we should actually learn from it. this is a wheel that shows the principles of community organizing. i think they're worth walking through, because they really highlight the mistakes and the flaws or the ineffective use that people or organizations often make when using social media.

first, i think this has a laser. right there. we have this. social media is not about blasting your message out. that's the age of broadcast. tv, newspapers, radio, they all blast a message at you. again, you can scream back at it, but they're not gonna hear you. you can write a letter to the editor, everything we talked about, but they control the information. what makes the internet different is that it's a conversation. if you want to engage people, you have to talk to them. and when you talk to people, you have to listen to what they have to say too. one of the biggest flaws is that organizations will say, oh, let's use facebook or twitter to post our press releases or push out that ad. same thing as citizens. i want to tell people what's going on, come to this event, come to this event. you've got to listen. you've got to ask questions.

you've got to engage them. if you want people to take time away from their families, their business, their jobs to get involved, you've got to make them feel a part of a community. and that requires you to listen. you'd be surprised what you would learn. when i was at americans for prosperity, we ran a petition and it was the first time we had tried in a petition, putting afield, why are you signing this petition? not just your name and e-mail address but why. i think 90% of the people filled out the why. and amazing stories we got from people that we were able to tell the media. do take that time to listen. it's worth them. and that goes to relationship building. it's not about, oh, i have one more person following me on twitter. that's one more potential relationship that you can connect with and mobilize them on your behalf or your campaign or organization's behalf to advance your cause or message. challenge. a good example of this, i think, is the scott brown senate race, not the current one, but when ted kennedy passed away and people thought a republican will never win a massachusetts senate seat. but there were people who thought, why not? let's send buses there and volunteers. if we didn't have people who

stepped out to challenge them, we would never win. i think it's so important that we remember to always challenge people. and then that goes to action. give people things to do. don't just say, be angry about obamacare. be angry about obamacare. make a phone call. here's a phone number. turn out to your representatives' district offices. give people things to do and you'll be amazed at what they will do for you. i used to -- when i started working in media, i complained to our fund-raiser, why don't people give us more money to do stuff with the internet? it's so important. we need more resources. he said, eric, donors don't wake up every day and say, how can i help eric? you've got to ask people. if you're an activist, if you want people to make a phone call, you've got to ask them to do it. evaluation and reflection. i think that goes to listening

too. take time to step back. is what you're doing effective? are you getting input? are you doing what you can to refine it and make sure you are putting the best foot forward possible to ensure success? finally, celebration. sometimes we move on so quickly to the next fight, we forget to celebrate. we forget to thank people and we forget to include people as part of that celebration to make sure they know their hard work was appreciated. so i want to quickly move through here so we can get to erica. how do people in organizations influence policy makers with digital media? we did a survey in illinois and it said that the average state legislator would reconsider their position on a given piece of legislation if they got 17 phone calls from constituents. only 17. now, that was a few years ago. things have changed. it's easier to contact them. and perhaps it takes more than that, especially if we think of the federal level and the number of communications they get. it probably takes a lot more. but the great thing about the internet is that so many elected

officials run their own twitter accounts, run their own facebook page. they don't just get the tallies about how many e-mails came in. you're actually reaching them directly. case studies that point to that, texas and georgia here which is a tale of two states. both texas and georgia politically are very red. republicans control legislatures, republican governors, republican delegations, and the majority, republican voters. when it contaminates to new media, however, texas, at least until recently, was actually a very blue state. that was a blog called the burnt orange report. it was run by a few guys who would go to the state capitol and live blog or stay at home in their mom's basement probably watching the state-level equipment of c-span, blogging about what was happening.

when i was organizing an event there, i had an opportunity to meet with the speaker of the state house. he said, sadly, it's gone to the point where as public policymakers, we're not engaging our fellow lawmakers. we're getting in an argument with a liberal blogger up in the gallery. almost every member has their computer open, and they're reading what this person thinks about them. the ability of one person to even be a distraction at that level is incredible. same thing in georgia. still a red state. a conservative blog called peach pundit. same effect. there's actually a picture of all of their computer screens open to that blog. it happened in virginia. there's a blog, the political commentator on tv, larry. this is not him. and this blogger was upset with the way one of the lawmakers voted. put up a post about it. so-and-so just voted outside of the interests of their district

and i'm going to make sure, come election time, people remember. the lawmaker walked out the floor. a staff member showed it to him. he turned around and changed his vote. in california, we've got a great conservative blog there. the ability of him to put up a post and change the minds or votes of elected officials is absolutely incredible. don't think you can't make a difference. at the federal level, here's a great example from january of 2012. i don't know how many of you remember hipaa, a debate about online intellectual property. you can see from the twitter, they sent out a tweet saying 2.4 million people put out tweets. within one day, and these are just a couple of examples -- when i went online, there were dozens.

lawmakers who were not only stating that they flipped their position on the bill but actually people who sponsored the bill, saying i'm withdrawing my sponsorship of the bill. orrin hatch withdrawing sponsorship, rubio flipping, dozens of others. these are, i think, examples at both the state and federal level that people can have an impact. if you're just one of those tweets, you're doing your part. you don't have to be somebody who sits there and does it eight hours a day. i've got like two more slides and i'm done. so it's transforming the way we communicate with policymakers and the media and how they communicate with us. jason lives in his congressional office. every week, he sits and gives a cot-side chat to his constituents about what's going on in washington. bypasses the mainstream media, gets his message to the public.

same way the public can get a message to lawmakers or the media. make d.c. listen. how many of you remember ted cruz standing up against obamacare in his filibuster? he got hundreds of thousands of americans to get behind him on social media and advance that. don't go back. and i think in 2008 or 2009, nancy pelosi, there was a vital vote they had to take to extend privileges for offshore drilling. she wanted it to expire. she shut off the lights. republican lawmakers stayed, continued to talk. and just through twitter, they were able to get their message out and put enough pressure on pelosi to reconvene congress and hold the vote. after the iranian presidential elections in 2009, cnn -- you remember the protests that were the beginning of the arab spring. cnn was covering celebrity gossip and entertainment news while every other media outlet was covering what happened in

iran. so many people tweeted, it forced cnn to switch their coverage to what was happening. final example. and this really shows how offbase or sometimes ineffective the mainstream media is. nobody saw the eric cantor loss coming. the mainstream media said it was inevitable. polling showed him 30 points ahead. yet he ended up losing by 12 points on primary day. if you look at google trends, which is a tool that shows how many people are searching a given term on google at any time, in the weeks leading up to eric cantor's loss, there was a massive increase in searches for dave. and if you look at twitter, you can see that there is a huge advantage occurring. eric cantor had 63 people who are retweeting him, reaching only 206,000 people.

dave bratt had 834 people, 20 times greater reach than cantor had. there were definite signs that never occurred in the mainstream media, never reported. and i think that shows the diminished power they have. i'm going to turn things over to ericka anderson. if we have time, we'd love to take your questions. thank you all so much. [applause] >> sorry. all right. talking about the campaigns and candidacy aspect of this, i wanted to talk about how the issue of announcing your candidacy has changed.

in the past, and still a lot of candidates actually do this still, announcing your candidacy included drafting a press release, blasting out to reporters, holding a conference call, then maybe as an afterthought, sending an "in case you missed it" e-mail to bloggers. blogers were not a priority. they were just kind of an afterthought. things have changed. one great example is senator ted cruz and how he started his campaign. the first thing he did was hold a conference call with bloggers. press releases are dead. i would recommend most politicians rethink that strategy. because most of the time people are not paying attention to those. i get so many of those e-mails still to this day, and i always delete them. you've got to get my attention in some other creative way. what did ted cruz do? he tweeted out that he was running for senate. twitter has been a huge priority for ted cruz and he does a lot of it on his own.

sometimes his staff does it. but he's made it a huge priority. it's made a major difference. rick perry. he also announced his candidacy in the same way. and in the same way, he's also made twitter a huge priority. if you look at it, ted cruz and rick perry are two of the most popular people in the republican party right now, and that's not an accident. it's because they've made new media, twitter, social media and all of these platforms, bloggers, they've made them a priority. and it shows, because they bypassed the mainstream media and get their message out in the way they want to get their message out. and i think that's a trend that other politicians need to follow. and what that does is it, instead of giving all of your information and your power to the mainstream media, you're empowering your supporters and giving them the power to support you online and get the message out. both cruz and perry and several other politicians, they continue this practice while they're in office. working in the political field, in communications, in d.c. since

2006, i -- i've met ted cruz probably five or six times, because he makes himself available to people on a regular basis. he's at the blogger conferences. he's the guy that comes, at the heritage foundation that we host every month. he's accessible. he's not an elitist. i think that is something that a lot of politicians need to keep in mind. other politicians that you might take note of that are doing it right online include running for congress of maryland, dan. i'm highly impressed with him. you should see the kind of stuff he puts out on his facebook page, how personable he is, how he runs his instagram account. he's talking about all kinds of things in his life that he thinks are interesting, and it's not just policy and politics. he's a real person. that's why people like him so much. so i hope he wins. other people, marco rubio, president obama, cory booker. i wanted to showcase people from

the left and right, just because i think that, you know, we need to learn from both sides and i'm forgetting to do my power point slides. sorry. so those are the people you want to look to. now, in addition to the changing landscape for how politicians run their campaigns, the media is completely diversifying. that's something we really need to pay attention to. the nation's leading newspapers, they decreased in leadership every year, the new york times, wall street journal, every single year their reach is going down. that's because we're seeing the rise of all these other websites bringing information. people are consuming news in a different way these days.

people are watching less tv, consuming more news on different websites. the american press institute study actually said that americans prefer different reporting sources for different subjects. someone is not going to go one place to get their news on every subject. that's due to people that have created these new platforms that specialize in information and have become really important. a pew research study also showed that the growing digital news world is largely comprised of hundreds of smaller sites working to fill the gaps by legacy reporting. the smaller ones are being a part of this. in the pr marketing world, you can't go to a conference without hearing about them talking about targeted specialized outreach. it's not just the big newspapers' ads. it's about the smaller platforms. that's where people are really, really influenced, because it's friends, family members, it's people that they trust and respect. and that's where the messages are really hitting home these days. and the other thing i would just

say is that -- erik kind of touched on this. policy organizations, politicians, brands, if one person says something negative on twitter, they're listening. they don't want that out there in the public earn. that's why places like southwest airlines and different brands have become so good at managing pr on those platforms, because once it's out there on twitter, their reputations are going down. that's why we need to be paying attention to that more often. a study between stanford and facebook shows that your social media is actually four times larger than what you think it is. whereas you might not think you have a lot of people listening to you, it multiplies on social media. even if you're just sharing it with your 50 friends, every action they take, if they "like" it, if they share it, that's multiplied into the feeds they have. i wish people would realize how

important it is that they use these platforms for themselves and to get the information to the bloggers and the websites. sorry. i'm trying to speed through this, because i know we don't have a lot of time. according to a recent study, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family other over advertising. i would say that goes the same for policy, politicians. you're going to be much more likely to pay attention to an issue your friend is talking about on facebook rather than if you get a banner ad from a politician. but if someone is giving a thoughtful perspective of something, on facebook, on twitter, you're going to pay attention to that a lot more. 81% of consumers are influenced by their friends on social media. that goes to show you how powerful it is. a school choice is a great example. there were a ton of smaller voices working tirelessly to make it known how important school choice is and how kids

are hindered by it if they don't have it. what do you know? school choice is thriving across the country now. there were two movies made about the school choice movement. it is people on the right and left coming together. it's just a powerful example of how smaller voices made a big difference. additionally, live action is an organization started by a woman named rose. she hated what planned parenthood was doing and she wanted to expose it. she went in there undercover with her own cameras and recorded what they were doing. and then she sent it out, just from her own platform. what do you know? people could not ignore it, because it was so powerful and exposed some of the awful things that this organization was doing. and their reputation has since declined. she continues to make these videos and i'm sure you've all probably seen a lot of them. one last example, james okeith

did the same thing, went to uncover voter fraud, border security. he went out on his own, did it. now you'll see on fox news, all these major networks, they refer back to what he's done, because it's legitimate reporting that can't be denied. and he did that on his own, without anyone telling him we're gonna pay you to do this. there are so many other citizen journalists out there doing this now. it's important that we empower them and get them the information they need. coming to a close here shortly, here at the heritage foundation, we've created the daily signal. there's also reviews, the blaze and many more. for a long time, all conservatives had was fox news. but that's changed. these websites, i can tell you, i look at the traffic numbers. they're off the charts.

i mean, millions and millions and millions of people are going to these websites. and people are getting information that they wouldn't have otherwise gotten. and i can tell you, at the daily signal, we pride ourselves in reporting underreported stories. and we think we're doing some really important work, just like a lot of these bloggers and citizen journalists do. last example i'll give is there are some influencers, they don't have blogs, don't have major websites, but they're making a name -- sorry. yeah. it's hard to do two things at once. they're making a name for themselves just on twitter. hollie fisher. many of you probably saw this picture. she posted a picture of herself holding a gun and a bible in front of an american flag. she was just being, hey, i'm patriotic. a liberal took the picture and started calling her the american taliban and putting it next to this picture of this soldier. obviously that was a little disturbing. but hollie fought back. conservatives on twitter fought back for her. she went from 30,000 to over

50,000 twitter followers within two weeks. she's made such a difference in getting the message out for conservatives. i asked her to come and talk to us about how she's doing it. you can tune into that online next tuesday at noon if you're interested. to close on this, eric and i are working with all of these bloggers and influencers every day, through our work with rightsocial.com and with our work through the franklin center. if you want to learn more about these individuals, making sure they're heard and making sure your messages are getting to them as well, please feel free to get in touch. here's our information, if you want to get in touch with us. twitter is an easy way. we don't even have our e-mail up there, because that's so old school. so that's -- yeah. that's pretty much all we have. i don't know that we have time for questions. >> i would just say, if you want to get involved, if there's no

time for questions, we'll be around for a while. if you want to learn more or get ahold of resources to learn how you can get on twitter, facebook, start a blog. if you need any help, we'll give you our contact information and have somebody at our offices help you out. and we'll be at the margarita party too. even if you just hit the "like" button or retweet, you have no idea how big of an impact that has. think of the 63 for eric cantor versus the 860 people for david. we one time were promoting a live webcast. we had an e-mail list of 1.3 million people. we sent another link to an e-mail, a list of 100 of our top allies on social media, people who would do anything we asked them and had a large following. we got three times as many viewers from sending an e-mail to those 100 people than we did from an e-mail to 1.3 million.

so don't underestimate the power of you and everyone in the room to tap into our networks all across the country and make a difference. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> next, a political roundtable of women in the upcoming election. idaho senate debate continues. followed by a debate in the michigan governor race. >> monday night on "the communicators," numbers of congress talk about their technology legislation. we passed a law that makes it possible for the major broadcasters to give back some of their spectrum that they had. it gives the fcc the authority

to repackage spectrum and reallocate it. under current law, the low-power , thoseion industry licenses are subject to availability of spectrum in the particular marketplace. >> i am concerned about the proper call for a kill switch. if some government entity or individual decides that they want to cut your phone off and it is your phone, i think you ought to have some protection. certainlynly -- you can ask your carrier to cut your phone off. if you are the primary person that uses the phone, you can ask that the phone the cut off if you are a government entity or long oarsmen agency, you have to get a court order to do so. >> exposing very bad behavior where wrote -- votes that are

fraudulent try to trick the public. six -- a social security number or tax information. ins is a growing problem america, particularly among senior citizens. from texas, morgan griffith of virginia, and leonard lance from new jersey. >> now, a political roundtable of the impact of the women's vote in the 2014 in midterm elections. from washington journal, this is just over one hour. matthews, good morning. onsulting. ellen moran is a principle of the do's square group, and former executive director of emily's list. i want to begin by showing you an ad that emily's list put

together, focusing on the issue of abortion. [video clip] >> i do like anybody getting in between me and my patient, so i was outraged when i found out scott walker quietly signed a law trying to restrict doctors from performing abortions. scott walker wants to make all abortions illegal. even in cases of rape and incest. this is one of the toughest decisions of woman has to make. it is not up to politicians like scott walker. scott walker needs to get out of my patience private lives come out of my examining room, and just leave women alone. host: how is this issue, the issue of abortion, resonating in state races? guest: women's health certainly is an issue that is becoming increasingly important. we see it in wisconsin, we have governor walker on the defensive. we have access to women's health care broadly percolating up in the states. a real point of contrast between democratic candidates and republicans.

host: christine? guest: abortion and birth control of the semantic, to the exclusion of everything else in democratic state races. we are talking to a lot of women, they are saying enough with this. they are tired of hearing this single issue, abortion, birth control ads. host: this is from scott walker, and he looks directly into the camera and is talking about the issue of abortion. that debate and these ads are available on our website at www.c-span.org. [video clip] >> hi, i'm scott walker. i'm pro-life. but there is no doubt in my mind that the decision of whether or not to end a pregnancy is an agonizing one. that is why i support legislation to increase safety, and to provide more information for a woman considering her options. the bill leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor. reasonable people can disagree on this issue. our priority is to protect the health and safety of all

wisconsin citizens. , dizzyhristine matthews thread the needle? guest: he deals with it effectively. he says this is my personal position, we may disagree. reasonable people can. this is a very effective ad given his position. he didn'think that if have trouble on this issue, he wouldn't be responding in this way. this is a very unpopular law that he has signed. want theis, women do most personal and agonizing decisions to remain with themselves, their families, and their doctors. the fact that he response to this ad in this way shows that his campaign sees trouble here for him. look at the numbers. a record number of women running for office, 161 candidates for u.s. house rep is evidence, nine running for senate.

nine running for governor. have we changed our approach of how women are viewing these candidates? guest: i think the more women running, the better. win,shows that women can't we can't put women in office if they don't run. we would all agree that one of the most important things from the get-go is to get more women running. it is a great development that more women are running. host: what's the biggest challenge in trying to recruit women candidates? guest: the political process has gotten very polarized. candidate, have to make decisions about how they are going to balance the jobs they have. whether they're going to enter the political fray. but women also tend to want to be asked to run. at emily's list,

and anyone recruiting candidates knows you have to actually go out there and identify the women who have an interest in public service and asked them to run. host: christine matthews? guest: there are been studies that show there's a difference in ambition. men see themselves as political candidates, women less so. men think they are ready to go. women feel like their qualifications have to be up to hear before they run. in fact, they do need to be asked. there is a difference in terms of looking at themselves as political candidates. host: at to question, we remember that comment in the 1984 debate, in which she said she thought george h w bush was patronizing her, and she didn't need to be educated on foreign policy and military issues. tomorrow night, there will be a debate between senator mitch mcconnell, who is running with allison grimes in the kentucky senate race. have you thinking is to deal

with his younger female candidate? guest: that is an interesting race. we have a man in his 70's running against a woman in her 30's. he has to tread pretty carefully, and i suspect he will. he is surrounded by powerful women. his wife is very powerful. i think he will do just fine. it is interesting. the polls in that state show he is actually very competitive with women. she may be leading by one or two points with women, but he is excellent doing very well. -- actually doing very well. as long as he addresses are respectfully, i think you will have no problems. host: we will have live coverage of that debate tomorrow evening an eta clock eastern here on c-span. -- heould you prepare prepare? uphill battle is that he is that he has been in washington for such a long time. people in kentucky are a little weary. partisanthe entrenched

politics of washington, and know that he has been at the helm for the gop on the senate side, thriving -- driving a do-nothing congress. she is a brescia for a there -- a breath of fresh air, and river since change. host: how should she prepare? guest: i think she's to stay with economic issues and culturally connect with the kentucky voters. i absolutely predict she will hold her own against mitch mcconnell. and really show the kentucky voters that she is a viable alternative. in will really create a fresh start. guest: just one quick point. if i were mitch mcconnell, i would also be mentioning this. he was one of the original cosponsors of the violence against women act in the early 90's. i think he has things he will be able talk about that will be

very effective for him with women. host: the women's vote is not a monolithic group. how do you go after it? guest: right now we are seeing particularly among unmarried women, which is a big cohort, and one the democrats have a really important connection with ,- there are kitchen cabinet i'm sorry, kitchen table bread-and-butter issues that women are concerned about. there women who are struggling. any who are head of household. they are seeing prices rise. they are struggling to put food on the table. or gas in the car. blockedans have increases in the minimal age. -- minimum wage. they have made it difficult to , i'm sorry, made it difficult to ensure that women

have the same cost for health care. candidates have a lot to talk to women about, particularly these unmarried women. , andake an economic appeal really show they understand what their lives are like, and really make a connection. i think that is a real point of empathy that democratic candidates can connect with women on. host: we hope you join in on the conversations. republicans, call (202) 585-3881 , democrats, call (202) 585-3880 . join us on twitter @cspanwj. republican line. caller: good morning. i have a question that i don't think has been asked before. concerning a woman's right to choose. continually, some people seem to equate that with the health

issue. i don't understand. host: christine matthews. --st: well [laughter] let's have ellen take that first. guest: the right to choose and decisions about pregnancy are certainly within the health care framework. -- when women become with a they are faced whole and oddly of health care issues. reprint of health is front and center in that. that includes contraception and the right to choose. those are decisions that involve both access and choice. most women believe, and the numbers -- the data is overwhelming on this.

those most personal health care decisions are reserved for a woman and her family, and her doctor. hear thehy i think you broader framework of women's health, when we are talking about choice. see how a number of issues are playing out in a couple of key races, including new hampshire. jeanne shaheen is in a battle against scott brown. here's one of the ads. [video clip] i approvenne shaheen, this message. >> on issues important where is scott brown's record? look at color to photographs of developing fetuses. scott brown wants to tell women how to make this decision. antichoice groups in massachusetts endorsed scott brown, and women there voted him out. scott brown, not for an answer. host: on the air in new

hampshire, christine matthews. your response? guest: i agree with ellen. i think when we care a lot about economic issues. but all we see is added after ad on the abortion issue. is very reasonable on that issue, but it is the playbook that democrats keep using, which is to continue to hammer on this one single issue. are hearing from women in all of these competitive senate states is enough about this. we want to hear about how we can find jobs. how things can be more affordable. our health care and premiums will be more affordable. st. petersburg, florida. republican line. caller: good morning. about the abortion deal. day.e make decisions every grown-ups, i can understand children.

but so many women are having abortions. and i think they are using this as a form of birth control. and to have control over other people. if i decide that i want to do something that's possibly going to get me in trouble, do i expect the democrats to pay for my decision? host: thanks. who would like to take that? guest: what we are talking about here is reserving this choice to be tween a woman and her doctor. really, there is no role for government here. we've seen on the other side, an agenda that nd so i respectfully disagree. host: democrats line from ohio.

good morning. caller: good morning. now i need to talk to ms. matthews. ms. matthews i'm going to be 84 and i was born during the time when men told women whether or not they couldn't vote. i don't believe in abortion for myself, but why in the world are we going back to that time? tell me, just tell me why that the men in washington are so -- it's like i'm living back in 1931. tell me. talk to me about it. host: before we get her response. are you married? caller: i was married 61 years. host: did your husband tell you how to vote? caller: no, but he didn't believe in birth control. i had no control of my body. i had six children.

every time the doctor told me not to have another one. so finally when the twins came sa sharian he said, no, lady you can't do this again. my husband didn't care a bit because he was born in the time when women were under a man's heel. now they're back again. et's get a response. how did you stay married for 61 years? caller: well, you know, when you have six children and you have a man telling you what to do, what . u've got to do, just tell me host: stay on the line and we'll have christine matthews respond. if you want to follow up, feel free to do so, grace. guest: i love your name. my 14-year-old daughter's name is grace. i feel for you. i hear what you're saying. i feel for the expression not feeling like you're able to make

your own decisions and not being in control. i don't think that's where we're headed. i think reasonable people have differences of opinion on the issue of abortion. i wish we could move on to talk about some of these other issues, i really do. i think -- here's what most women are saying. we do a lot of focus groups in these states. they're saying abortion is basically a legal right. the supreme court made a decision on that. and so they say, let's move on. let's start talking about some of these other issues. i think it does a disservice to women voters out there who are so interested in starting their own businesses or trying to make ends meet working two jobs, that sort of thing. these are really the issues i think we need to talk about. host: grace, do you still want to respond? caller: i still don't know why men in washington -- republican men are still so adamant against

women. i cannot understand for the life of me why the women in the united states just simply let the men tell them what to do even though -- it's like they can't make up their own mind. the men of washington want to tell women what to do. we're going backwards. we're not going forward in the united states, we're going backwards. i'm not interested in what she has to say because it's just like we're going backwards and i don't like it. i do not understand why women keep voting and letting their husbands tell them what to do. if a woman votes for not the right to choose, then her husband is telling her what to do or she's not listening to him because we women have a right. thank you. host: bottom line if your woman in your situation today, married what advice would you give her? caller: make up her own mind and

not let a politician in women tell her what to do. i'm speaking to thousands of women that their husbands tell them what to do because it's their duty to do it. thank you. host: thank you, grace from ohio. did you want to respond? guest: i was actually going to say something about the scott brown or i'm sorry the jeanne shaheen ad. --ber one, i think it may be it is certainly an important voting issue in new hampshire that scott brown took that vote ultrasounds in the choice context. but moreover, i heard the word massachusetts i think three or four times in that ad. i think another thing that senator shaheen is really trying to hammer home is that scott brown has been rejected by the women voters of massachusetts

but he is also not from new hampshire and so he's an import, think -- l and so i st: you may agree based on your re-- guest: i actually liked grace. i mean, i loved what she was expressing. she's in her 80's. she has every right to feel strongly about these issues. i do want to say though there is no man telling me what to do. my husband would sort of be the first one to admit that. and also here's an important point, there are just as many women who feel strongly on the abortion issue in terms of pro-life. 's not just men who -- who's saying they feel strongly about this. there are plenty of women who are supportive on a pro-life as well.

i don't think it should be framed as men telling women what to do. host: let's go to bill from virginia beach, virginia, republican line. caller: good morning. i'm 65 years old. i was in the ninth grade when j.f.k. was assassinated. he was one of my favorite presidents because not only did he lower taxes for the american people, he also saved this ountry from nuclear war. my comments for today's economic s is american women are very concerned about themselves and their children with adequate health care. many families since the women are head of households, they're also concerned about the cost of health care. my biggest concern is that the monthly premiums for health

insurance are just going up. they're eating up or paychecks and it will be a choice between whether or not we go to the grocery store or whether we pay premiums for our health insurance. the law does not deal with the cost to help with insurance one iota. i will vote for any women who can tackle this problem and help the american people and help her fellow mothers and other ladies in this country to help with the health care because i think it's going to ruin us. host: bill from virginia beach. ellen moran. guest: the fact is under the affordable care act, the rate of increases in the cost of health care has actually slowed down. and so that's some early indications that the affordable

care act is actually working and we're actually seeing many women voters. again, many of the unmarried women and other women voters who have benefited from the affordable care act, it's actually turned into a positive voting issue for them because they see it working. there's no question, health care costs are a key concern for women and voters in general. the rate of increase of food and gas and how'sing -- housing, all of those things are putting a tremendous pressure on voters. that is why you also see the democrats talk about raising the minimum wage, making college for affordable so better access to better jobs. opening the door for opportunity for people. those issues are becoming front and center on the democratic side as well. host: we hope you've been watching some of the debates we've been bringing to our

audience. wednesday evening, a florida debate. if you have a teenage daughter, they're probably watching say yes to a dress. this is a play on that reality show. >> budget is a big deal for me now that i've graduated from college. rick scott has no oida -- but mom has other ideas. > i like the charlie cyst -- crist. it's expensive but outdated. don't forget the charlie crist comes with additional cost. there's over $2 billion in million in debt and 15% tuition incretion. >> we cannot let her walk out of the voting booth like that.

>> mom, this is my decision and i see a better future with rick scott. >> sometimes it's hard to let go of old style but it all worked out in the end because brittany said yes to rick sot. host: ellen moran. guest: i don't see the effectiveness in this ad. i think it does a disservice to women voters. clearly, they're trying to breakthrough the clutter but comparing this to choosing a ress makes it a frivolous. host: christine matthews guest: it is generated from women in their early 20's. i have to give them credit for heir creative -- creativity. they are working to reach women that the cookie cutter ads are not reaching. i think we need to look at the

sequel ads they did, they're called shark tank. there are two or three ads that are well done. i don't know if you're familiar with the show shark tank but they have some democratic ideas on student loans and health care and the panel on shark tank says no, you failed. they're great ads. to good for them for stepping up and being creative and doing something. i think credit to them. host: on the democrats line from south carolina, kelly, good morning. caller: good morning. yes, the thing is we have on the republican side all these pro-life people. they say they're pro-life but they don't care about health care for the mother who's pregnant, ok? they don't care about the baby once the baby is born. they don't care if that child has no health care, too bad. i mean they need to make enough money to pay for their own health care. i mean, i don't know how they can say they're pro-life.

and i don't know how anybody can be anti-abortion and anti-health care for everyone. i just don't understand it. host: thanks for the crawl. est: i wanted to address bill's comment on the affordable care act. and i agree with you, bill. what we're hearing from women, we are tracking independent women in senate battleground states and what they are saying is policies that they've liked have been canceled. they are now having to pay higher premiums which is not affordable for them so they are saying basically obamacare has promised an affordable st. louis and it is anything but affordable. i agree, it's a voting issue but it's actually one of the things that is making women very, very angry and one of the things that is actually helping the

epublican candidates because they don't want it to be the level of being mandatory, they don't want the premiums up and they don't want to be kicked off the insurance plans that they ant to keep. guest: again after a rocky start last year with the website, i think we have seen the success stories of the affordable care act. again there was a poll out earlier this week showing that this is actually becoming a positive for some groups of women, in particularly unmarried women. host: our viewers and list ners seem to love grace. the caller grace needs to be on the national stage for women. guest: grace, i mean, she has every right to feel strongly about all those issues. host: at 84 guest: happy birthday, grace. host: let's go to steve joining us from connecticut, independent line.

good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i want to talk about the particularly women in the . publican party can i -- i think it's a matter of getting -- some of the women, , i likean and democrats elizabeth horn. . really like susan collins both of you ladies if you're going to put on your strategist hat because this vote is really swinging towards the democrats, what's the number one thing is it all economics? host: thank you. we'll get a response. guest: each race has its own

dynamics and its own whether if it's an open seat or an incumbent. each race is different. every state is different. but right now what we se what you take a look at the polling and the election over all, we are seeing that the economic the bread and butter issues are coming to the front. we are seeing women voters very concerned about sustaining this recovery and strengthenthing the recovery because again middle class voters are under incredible pressures right now. we're still coming out a tough recession and, yes, i think economics are still very front and center. host: he is campaigning for dollars but he has no campaign rallies scheduled except in a handful of states. why? guest: this is a tough election.

historically in the end of the midterms and thsecond term of the president it's always a tough election. he remains extremely popular with our base voters and he is doing everything he can to help the democratic candidates so that we can hold on to the senate host: across the country he's now accord together gallup 39% approval rating. guest: we've had a really tough year and voters are anxious. and i think -- i fully expect that the president's approval will begin to bounce back as we continue to get more good economic news, and we are getting good economic news. unemployment is now below 7% for the first time in years and we're seeing job growth for four years plus running. so i do think we are going to see his approvals rebound. but there's no question that voters are anxious and there is some measure of disappointment but as you see these races play

out, there are a lot of close submit -- senate races out there. e fact that we're playing in republican territories and republicans have not been able to fully capitalize on this and the senate remains extremely close i think shows the co- heernsy of the democratic message. host: but if you look at ebola which continues to be in the headlines, the secret service situation and the changing of the leadership there, the continued uncertainty and the beheadings of at least two americans, the situation in syria and turkey and iraq, is there an underlying uncertainty about the future that ties all of these issues together as well as economic issue sns guest: incredibly. i think i mentioned we're tracking independent women in these battleground states. we are picking up this incredible sense of unease, of

worry and it has to do with isil. it has to do with our national security, terrorism. it has to do with ebola. it has to do with the virus that is affecting the children enterovirus 68 i think is maybe what it's called. women are very you unsit -- very unsettled and very unhappy and they haven't liked the way president obama has handled the isil situation. the white house break-in of the intruder into the white house has made them very secure. if we can't even protect the white house, how can we protect our borders against terrorism. people again are very unhappy with the president. his approval rating is usually about in the 30's in most of these states and it has to do with the committee not rebounding. there's not the jobs that the women are seeing, the jobless rate has fallen but a lot of people have put themselves out

of searching for jobs out of the job market. there's a lot of unhappiness with president obama and the leadership and a lot of disturbing -- host: ellen moran is the rincipal of the -- what's yu background? guest: my background is in democratic politics. i grew up in massachusetts and i spent many years on the road and here in d.c. i also had an opportunity to work abroad in indonesia for their elections sometime ago. now i do consulting work after spending three years in administration. host: christine matthews with burning demrass consulting which is what? guest: we just started this firm a year ago. i have two female partners. it's the first time on the republican side where all women staff basically focus on women voters. we're having a really interesting and good election women voters. on

i focus on policy and politics. host: let's get back to tone call. ron in florida, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning, steve. i'm watching you on tv. i'm a 55-year-old male that believes that the white male has been in congress for way too long. i believe that women should be paid the same as a man. i believe if a woman has a preexisting condition that a man a vasectomy is a preexisting condition and one that takes viagra is a preexisting condition. and i would not think of telling my wife that i love dearly to do anything with her body at all.

i don't believe that and i believe women make better decisions than males, and that they should be in the congress as an equal or greater number. an i'd like to know what ellen and christine think about this because i think they both have good heads on their shoulders and have been giving great answers all morning long. host: hey, ron, do you know grace? guest: grace needs to meet you. caller: no, but i just went to a friend's 60th wedding anniversary so, yes, i enjoy people that enjoy life for a long time together. so thank you for -- host: thank you, ron. we will get a response, christine matthews guest: who can argue with that? i mean, ron, we're in complete agreement. i appreciate you calling in. i think it's very nice to hear men express that kind of opinion and i agree. i do think we need more women in

congress and i think that's something ellen and i both can agree on completely. you know, women see things differently than men. it only benefits when there's diversity in opinions. thanks for calling in. guest: yes, thank you, ron. that is what emily's list is all about is putting more democratic women in congress but to advance those women candidates and i, too, appreciate your comments. and i would also say you brought up a really important issue, you know, that is part of the women's health framework that needs to be discussed in this election because many of the blocking s have voted or making it so that women have to actually pay more in the health care context. and that is something that angers women and it's another

economic burden that they don't need and so we need to get more democrats in there to clear the path for women's health. host: according to the center for american women in politics, 161 female candidates running for the house, nine for the submit and nine running for governor. dean in huntington beach alifornia republican line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: my dement is that many discussed es being issues -- ocusing on we'll call it a failure of this administration has not been recognizing a need for jobs and these other issues become secondary to employment.

host: thanks for the call. guest: you know trks dean, i appreciate you calling in and i know as a former political science professor you're paying attention. i honestly see the president out there every day making the case for jobs. you know, sometimes it's hard to breakthrough as you say these other issues but the president has presided over an economic recovery. let's remember how brutal the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009 was. he -- through the recovery act. a lot of people had the helping hand they needed and that piece of legislation pulled us back from the brink. he has made important investments in research and development and trying to help the stuff we make here, sell it abroad.

we tried to bolster exports and we've seen some success in that area, manufacturing jobs. the unemployment numbers just don't lie. we are in a much better situation after four years of private sector growth than we were in -- a few years ago. host: inside the war of the war of the female vote. one question he poses is how do you drive up the female vote in either party? guest: the reason we're hearing about so much of these issues is the democrats need to do one thing, they need to motivate single women to turn out to vote. they need to drive up the margin so that these issues are largely directed at a narrow slice of the election, which is unmarried women. republicans here's the thing the

story that's really not told which is republicans in general are winning over married women. in almost all of these battleground races they're winning white single women and mayor wid men. the democrats need to talk about issues that will appeal to unmarried single women so they can drive up their margins on this. right now the democrats really aren't where they need to be with these single women. a poll ster did a baddle ground poll in the senate states and they found a margin for single women was 22 points. if you keep in mind, president obama won single mom by 38 points. this is why we're seeing in colorado more than half of udall's ude all -- television budget has been on

birth control. he's running a campaign entirely about abortion and birth control. >> host: the headline from politico.com. are you familiar with this republican-based organization in guest: yes. and that's the millionaire in california, the wine guy, yes. so i've seen the da. host: let's go to tommy in akron, ohio. good morning, democrats line. caller: good morning. my comment is about the female republican senators and i'll give you an example. the equal pay for equal work bill, i didn't see one female senator from the republican side get up and endorse this. they tried to say that they had a better idea but you never heard the plan. are these senator who have a lot -- onstituents neem ail

female, what do they tell their constituents when they go back home. guest: the senator from nebraska got up and addressed this very issue with an alternative legislation. first of all, the equal pay act of 1963 took care of this. it made it illegal to pay women differently. this is one of those issues where i have to say it was introduced in a way that benefits democrats politically. there is not a republican that you could talk to that says they are against equal pay. it is very possible to be for equal pay and not be for that particular legislation that the democrats are proposing. these things exist independently. i would paraphrase dean, it's a red hering to act like republicans aren't for equal pay but they are. guest: yes, even so, republicans

will say they're for equal pay but this is an issue when you explain what the bill does and even when president obama first came in, the very first bill he signed was the lillie led better act. these are huge concerns. we need to make safe for women to ask for raises and to find out what their mail counterparts are making and these are -- it's not just about reproductive freedoms. a lot of these campaigns are discussing these issues and the economic place that these women are facing. unmarried women are a huge opportunity for democrats. they need a break. they need a better minimum wage. they need more flexible scheduling at their jobs and more affordable access to edcailings. host: there are 99 female

members of congressional in both the house and the senate. 16 democratic senators are female, four republican senators, 60 democratic members are female in the u.s. house, 19 republicans. why the disparity between the two parties? guest: i think one of the things that has historically been true is republican women have had a harder time getting through our prime airies. that's something that needs to get better. more democratic women run. more democratic women win. and we need an -- i know that we're working on it but we're not where we need to be in terms of recruiting republican women candidates, but also getting them through the prime airies because historically they've had a more difficult time getting through the prime airies. host: we know a woman would be the next senator from west virginia. in a race like that with natalie tenant against the

representative, what are the dynamics between two female candidates? sni different than between two male candidates? guest: i think parties trump voters -- candidates. i think in this situation maybe this will be the new normal where we have two women running against each other and it's just two candidates. you see it in states that have two women representing them in the senate or in a few of the places have you've had two women senators and a woman governor that women down ticket also fair better. i wonder you're in public opinion research. i think that sort of helps pave the way, break that glass ceiling for women candidates in that state. and i'm glad that you're working to try to get more women on the republican side to run and get through their prime airs. host: we'll go to louisiana

next. continuey is on the phone on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. glad to see your panel there and talking about women in government. we've had a woman in government in louisiana for decades and the other night in a debate at dillard university she had the nerve to quote the bogs while she was supporting not only she didn't want us to have car seats, child restraints. that was too much government intervention. but we know as republican women we need to keep government out of our business but we also need to save the lives of women. we need to save the lives of we need people that are on board with that. let's discuss business and

economics. we had grace a moment ago. she also stated while she was on the air, she wasn't even interested in anything that your other panelists had to say. and i have to tell you, c-span that's been happening a lot on your democratic party line. we watched that. they've got their own agenda. they call and that's the end of it. but to get women in politics, grace has got a point. we've got to get over the apathy. we don't know when they quit. he was 80 years old. we have our periods -- if we ever wanted to save our country, this is the election to do it. if we can't get good conservative women to go vote, we will get more of the same. i'm so happy to hear the male callers saying that they appreciate some of the things that are coming out that would

positively affect women. that shows where their hearts and minds are, but we need to know where everybody is in the booth and it's not the policy of abortion, it's not those things that have been thrust upon us, we need to go back to the conservative fundamentals that built this country and we have a chance to turn it around. host: thank you very much for your call and your many comments. we'll get a response. christine matthews. guest: i do think that the more people are paying attention, the better. i think that women need to run and women need to vote. it hurts when all of us hear negative ads and that's when they tell us it turns them off.

i would encourage any woman to say even though the process is difficult and i don't like to watch it, please don't tune out. please don't available to vote. host: i want to follow up on two comments. this is also a piece available online at national journal.com. why women are the democrats last best help to salvage the senate? is that the democratic strategy? guest: well, the democratic agenda and particularly the economic proposals, raising the minimum wage, creating equal pay -- all of as well as ese issues are very much resonating with women, particularly unmarried women and

yet we are seeing some evidence that came out earlier this week i would also say on the women candidate side that democratic women had a chance to prevail in places like kentucky and even in west virginia there's a lot i'm leaving out here, but that, yes, they're very much still part of the pick up equation -- i'm sorry georgia where you've got michele nunn. many of the women democrats who have been incumbents, jeanne shaheen and kay hague han are still holding their own and are expected to win. whether you're talking about women candidates or women voters, they factor in the democratic strategy.

>> emema graduate of wheaton college. christine matthews is graduate of georgetown university. we'll go to eric. good morning caller: good morning. there's all kind of stuff here that y'all have been talking about i think you're jumping it a lot of the conclusions without support to back it up. i think there's been some deliberate omission of some data. r example, all the stuff you talked about is between the woman and a doctor. no one exists without artificial insem nation. let me tell my story. let me give my grace story. when i was growing i made a bad choice and he got my girlfriend pregnant and she aborted without telling me. as a kid i remember seeing pictures of aborted fetuses. this is not a woman's choice. don't smile at me.

this is not a woman's choice. this is mevered murder. you're killing babies. the assumption that a woman because they're going to congress is going to act better than men, they're also as cruel and compassionate as windchill. you have not mentioned the male in any of your discussions. if someone does not want to listen to the other side like grace -- by the way no one forced that woman to stay with herman for 60 years. the assumption that she's a that. i'm not for you want to talk about going to the past. host: what is your recommendation? caller: my recommendation is all lives are sacred. no one needs to kill me. from the dumpsters from the babies to the animal shelters nfment my city there's a

thousand animals a month that are killed. host: we will get a response. christine matthews. guest: the issue of abortion is so difficult and so heart-wrenching on every level. there's just no dispute about that. i hear your story. i think again the reason we've been focusing on women is because this particular segment is on women and women voters. i don't think anyone was trying to exclude women from the equation. host: let me follow up on the other point. we talked about abortion in our country in our deck -- for decades. it is a woman's decision but should a man have a role in that decision? guest: hopefully in the best of circumstances they do. eric, i'm sorry for your experience. it's a sad story. when it ow, again, comes right down to it, the

choice has to be with the woman. and again hopefully she has a supportive partner, husband, boyfriend where those are the best of circumstances in when you have that situation. but again, the thing that i i'd lso go to on eric's story is part of this dialog also is around access to contraception so that you're not in this situation. and the republicans have blocked and have this agenda of blocking access for women. the new battleground has been under the affordable care act, but they have really made a big push and that has hurt women and i think women are responding to that as well. host: our talking about one caller driving a program. grace is lighting up the twitter

pages as well. from carolyn who has this to stay, grace stayed with her husband because there was no lillie led better law. do you want to respond? guest: i can't speak for grace. we don't know anything about her circumstances so i don't really think we can say what her -- host: guest: here's the thing about that, this is what women are telling us in focus groups, absolutely men and women need to earn an equal amount. women need to earn more. that did not equal at this ponet. that when you look at lillie led better, these are receipto active. this is what happens after the discrimination has happened. this is not going to fix the actual wage discrimination. i mean that is -- what women are saying to us if focus groups well these things happen after the fact. the discrimination has already

happened. we need employers and women to basically in a private sector work that out. i mean and going after somebody when there's been discrimination is after the fact. so employers are not going to do this on their own. guest: but they don't. we see wage discrimination. we see women making .70 on the man's dollar. it's even worse for minority women. unless you have something in place to incentivize, yes, many of these laws are retroactive but businesses and employers have a choice to make and when they know that there is the possibility of recourse, it will make a better choice. guest: the thing that's ironic about this situation is if you're using that .70 on the dollar figure, most of these

democratic senators are playing their female colleagues less than women. in their own offices the women are earning less. again, i think there are solutions. not every one of them originates in washington. host: olivia is on the phone in on the democrats line. good morning caller: good morning. steve, let me make a point. i want to say this. i am an african an woman i am not 84 but i am 67. i live in birmingham, alabama. i have filed a discrimination suit because of equal pay. i was working for a company. i'm not going to name the company. i found out i was training men to be general managers. i was training guys under me and i had been there longer than

either one of these persons, i found out that they was making ore than me. it was disclosed between a conversation. i went to the manager they denied it. i took it to the eeoc and i won the case. what i will say this, what i don't like about republican woman, i am a win, we shouldn't even be having this conversation in 2014. why are we not talking about men's issues? also, we've got all of these men that are making these laws, that's what's so troubling to me. host: olivia thanks very much for the call. we'll get a response. guest: olivia good for you. glad that you took action when you saw injustice. if we elect more democratic candidates we'll pass some laws to help people like you in that situation. host: next is a caller from virginia. mike on the republican line.

good morning. caller: good morning, ladies. i'm a man. i want to participate because i hink it is good for society. those nominated for this campaign should do their best for improving our society and they've -- the senate as reached host: so mikele, why you are -- michael your question is what? guest: caller: they have to help the women to make them out of these

situations, as i see it going ow in our community. guest: i'm not sure i fully understood the question. i think i heard we needed more women candidates to help promote women's issues. guest: i awould agree with that. host: from michigan, ellen is on the phone, good morning, independent line. caller: good morning. just a couple of points real quick. abortion in my opinion is absolutely murder. i am not a republican. i agree with what republicans maybe 30% of the time. agree with democrats never. the economic that obama inherited from bush came from the 2006 election of democrats that took over congress. and last but not least, i don't think democrats understand all

this. -- if they would take a pencil and a paper and a calculator how these figures are supposed to pport $50 an hour they would see there would be no businesses because the next profit margins are so tiny, they can't afford to spend more. have a good day. host: more comments rather than a comment. ellen moran. guest: ellen, i love your name but i got to take issue with the blaming the democrats and congress in 2006 for spending the fact is the deficit. when george w. bush got into office, we had a surplus and we also had 9/11 attacks. but when we went in to iraq and afghanistan, those wars were off budget. and so president bush never made the tough choices that needed to

be made get the deficit under control and so you're right that president obama inherited a terrible financial crisis. but that was not at the result of democratic spending. host: our last is a republican from kentucky, lawrence, good morning, welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. i sit here and i listen first off i'm an insurance agent. i'm 63 years old and the first are i hear is that women paying more on everything else and they're discriminated on their health insurance. i sell life insurance, i sell medical insurance, i self long term care. i guarantee every woman that i talk to she is a whole lot cheaper on her premium than a man.

men don't live as more don't live as long as women so they pay more life insurance. i'm sorry she think that's is a joke but numbers are numbers. you can sit there and you can say how we discriminate against pure on their insurance is nube. guest: i was raised by a single oman guest: she told me -- i heard a conversation with a friend of hers. is was about 63 or something

everything else. women was really going full forward. mom said any time a woman makes herself equal to a man she has downgraded herself. she has said as a working woman raising three kids, she said she's got on buses when she was younger and men, dirty from working all day long, would get up and give her seat. all of a sudden, she gets on a bus and the men are sitting there and the men are thinking, my god, you done took my job, i'm not giving you my seat. host: ok, lawrence. you've put a few issues on the table. we'll give our guests a chance to respond. thank you. guest: you mow, i think i'm going to go with the part where we talked about the single women working because there are some women out there doing

extraordinary things. your mom was extraordinary. she helped to raise you and your sisters. it's hard because things are expensive. the jobs aren't there now. and i think there's some women in a situation now that your mom were in that really need better jobs, more affordable health care. better access and it's very, very difficult. host: we'll give you the last word. guest: well, lawrence, i think christine and i are in agreement that women are out there doing extraordinary things and when thereok at the agendas of is definitely one party out give looking give women a women a fair shake in the health care setting. and certainly economically i think that's how i would sum

things up host: final question for both of you. what are the odds that we will see a female candidate either at the top of the or the bottom of the ticket on the republican side in 2016? guest: i would love to see that i don't know who's in the . peline that guest: i can't predict. guest: on the democratic side i think we're going to see a woman run for

>> looks at the administration handling of ebola cases in the u.s. as always we'll take your call and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. washington journal live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> next. c-span's coverage of the 2014 campaign continues with a debate with the candidates running for the idaho u.s. senate seat followed by a debate in the michigan governor's race. with robert a" timberg. >> tonight on "the communicators" three members of congress talk about the legislation. >> back in 2012 we passed a law that makes it possible for the major broadcasters to give back some of their spectrum that they've had.

it gives the f.c.c. the authority to repackage spectrum and we allocate it. under curn law the low powered television industry they are granted licenses but those licenses are subject to availability in the particular marketplace. >> what i am concerned about is an improper call for a kill switch on somebody's phone if some government entity or an individual, you know, decides that they want to cut your phone off. and it's your phone. i think they that you ought to have some protection. so what this bill says is you certainly can ask your carrier to cut your phone off if you're the primary person that uses the phone, you can ask that the phone be cut off. or if you're a law enforcement agency you have o get a court order to do so. >> spoofing is very bad behavior where those who are fraudulent try to trick the public to get information from

the public, for example, a social security number or tax information and this is a growing problem in america particularly among senior citizens. >> republican representative joe barton, morgan griffith from virginia and leonard lance from new jersey. tonight on "the communicators" on c-span2. >> on monday, idaho republican a debate or jim risch ith nels mitchell. the debate comes courtesy of ktd tv in boise. this is an hour.

>> seeking his second term. during the next hour, the two will debate the issues face-to-face in their only scheduled debate before the november 4th election. what will it take to win your vote? decision 2014 stars now. here's news certain's mark johnson. hello and welcome to the debate for the u.s. senate. i'm mark johnson alongside the candidates for election. we begin with democratic challenger nels mitchell. he's been a practicing attorney for more than 30 years and received his law degree and has worked as a regional director and trial council for the security and exchange commission. >> jim rish serves as will the

overnor and sits on five committees on intelligence and ethics. thank you for agreeing to participate in this gathering. it is my prev ledge to serve as our -- privilege to serve as a moderator. >> prior to today's debate we draw -- we drew for the order for a one-minute statement. we begin with senator risch, the floor is yours. >> thank you very much. >> ladies and gentlemen, thank you for watching today. you know, i'm sure you're watching because you want to make a choice as to who you should vote for in this important race. it's going to be really, really easy because the choice is going to be crystal clear. we are two very different people. if you want a liberal democrat you have my opponent mr. mitchell. if you want a conservative

person, a republican conservative, i'm that person. i'm going to tell you everything you need to know about the two of us. 68% of us, you and i, fought to keep barack obama from imposing his fundamental cultural changing agenda in the united states. while we were doing that this gentleman was funding the other side. what he actually did was contribute thousands of dollars of his own money first trying to elect hillary clinton as president and then working to elect obama and putting a lot of money into it. if you're happy with the way president obama is trying to take this country, this is your guy. he'll be an enthusiastic assistant to the president over these next 837 days. the choice is clear. we are two very different people and with that, mark, i yield the floor for the gentleman from california. >> mr. mitchell? >> thank you.

i was raised in boise. attended boise high school. graduated from the university of idaho law school. i love my state and country. i'm running for a u.s. senate to replace a career politician with someone who has responsibility and hard work. as your u.s. senator i will work hard to create economic opportunity. good paying jobs for people in idaho. i don't waste your money by shutting down your money as senator risch did last year. . he says one way and votes another way in idaho. like you, i'm sick and tired of the gridlock and dysfunction in washington. we can do better. thank you. >> gentlemen on to the issues now. let's begin with education. and the first question and senator risch we'll we'll begin

with you. what should the roll of the federal government be when it comes to our state school system? one of the primary topics on capitol hill and in idaho. i have teachers from idaho, parent-teachers from idaho come back to washington, d.c. and meet with me. i also meet with them while i'm here. and i hear from them over and over and over again. the biggest challenge i have as far as washington's concerned is that every time washington, d.c. does something by giving them money or something else, they attach all kinds of federal strings to it. it. ldn't agree wit with the iea is very adamant. i believe in idaho people. we can run these school districts ourselves right here in idaho. the legislature can do this.

they don't need washington, d.c. tying strings to it. >> the idaho public school system needs hevment no question about it. we spend less per pupil than any other state in the country, less than even mississippi. idaho schools do need help. i agree with the senator, though, that when we get help from the federal government we need to minimize the regulations and the strings attached to the money that comes from the federal government. some of the -- the programs are well-intentioned but oftentimes with the federal government there is excessive regulations. one with of the things that i bring to the table is having worked inside the federal government and having worked at the s.e.c., i've got an understanding of these run-away bureaucracies and agencies and how we need to keep them in check and not let them overregulate various aspects of our lives, including education. >> let's go to our