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good morning miami melissa harris-perry. tomorrow is monday, january 6th. and it's a big day for parents. the kids are going back to school for their first full week after the holiday break. now, for some, like the kids in boston, who were supposed to go back to school on friday, but got a snow day instead, it will be the first time back at all after two weeks of tearing around your house, hyped up on holiday sugar and cabin fever. now, not everyone's going back to school, though. the governor of minnesota has already canceled all classes tomorrow due to extreme cold. the high temperature is forecasted to be 15 degrees below zero. elsewhere, across the country, most keds will ids will be heado school tomorrow, perhaps evoking a relieved sigh from parents and caregivers. and some people are also going back to work this week. president obama is returning back to d.c. today, after a two-week vacation in hawaii.

the senate returns tomorrow, and the house comes back on tuesday. so when our kids go back to school tomorrow, we know what they're going to be working on. we know they're going to be learning about the second world war or how to calculate a high hie pot news. now, comprehensive immigration reform, maybe not. at least not right now. raising the minimum wage? nope! maybe extending s.n.a.p. benefits? uh-uh. how about restricting access to firearms or common sense economic legislation to expand the middle class and help the poor? nope. and then there's long-term unemployment insurance, which allows people out of work to collect benefits for up to 73 weeks, nearly a year and a half, in states where unemployment is especially why. without it, most people's benefits last only 26 weeks. and that long-term benefits program expired last month,

three days after christmas. 1.3 million americans lost their unemployment benefits. collectively, they lost $400 million in their first week. now, the senate says extending the benefits is priority number one. on monday, their first day back, senate majority leader harry reid plans to hold a procedural vote on a bill that would extend the benefits for another three months. the bill, so far, has one republican cosponsor, senator dean heller, reid's colleague from nevada. but president obama is also pushing congress, and especially republicans, to get on board. here he is, in his weekly address. >> just a few days after christmas, more than 1 million of our fellow americans lost a vital economic lifeline, the temporary insurance that helps folks make ends meet, while they look for a job. republicans in congress went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire. and for many who have their constituents who were unemployed through no fault of their own, that decision will leave them with no income at all.

so when congress comes back to work this week, their first order of business should be making this right. >> the president is expected to speak again on unemployment benefits from the white house on tuesday, while surrounded by people who have lost their benefits. and things are a bit different over in the house of representatives. there are no plans to vote on an unemployment extension on the congressman's first day back. in fact, in a memo laying out the republican leadership's agenda for the month of january, unemployment insurance is not even mentioned at all. repealing obamacare is on their, finishing up the farm bill is on there. eliminating certain environmental regulations is on there. even immigration -- excuse me, immigration and flood insurance get honorable mentions as things to be addressed in the coming months. but, not unemployment. joining me now is julie, professor of public affairs. and author of "governing america." amy goodman, host of democracy now. public tv and radio "newshour." she's a syndicated columnist and

best-selling author. her latest book is "the story of majority." also with us, dorian warren with columbia university. and susan del percio, republican strategist and msnbc contributor. thank you all for being here. >> good morning. >> i want to start with you, susan, on the question of the republican leadership's agenda item, and the fact that unemployment insurance does not appear there. is this primarily an ideological position or a set of beliefs, or is it about believing politically that it would be harmful to them, given this is the start of an election year, to take up unemployment? >> i think it's based on the fact that there's been no mention of a pay -for here. i think this is something that is going to have to be addressed immediately. like everything else that you discussed in your introductions, this is happening now. these unemployment benefits within if they're going to be addressed, have to be addressed now. not in a month. you can't do an extension on them again, because people are

being hurt immediately. i do think there's a potential that we're going to see some form of pay-for come in, and that there is the potential for a three-month extension. >> so even though it's not showing up as a priority agenda item, you actually think there will be movement on that. do you agree, dorian, that we'll see them take up unemployment insurance as a central issue? it does feel like, because it's happening now, because people saw income go out of their household, it's the sort of thing that would have political and electoral consequences. >> the president is going to keep it on the agenda, as the majority leader reid will try to keep it on the agenda. the question will be, if it comes up now and the republicans deal with it, what will they do three months later. it's not going to go away, even if they extend it. so they'll be forced to grapple with this issue, much like they'll be forced to grapple with both immigration reform and minimum wage later on in the year. it might not be explicitly on their agenda, but it will be forced on the agenda by other folks. >> three months from now, the other difference is that they're going to continue to be hit, besides unemployment, this

s.n.a.p. issue, food stamps issue, as well as other budge ta their things that will have immediate impact like the minimum wage. how many hits can the republicans take in 2014 and still hope to be successful at the end of the year? >> but the march issue -- i think the other thing happens in three months, julian, is that the primaries there largely be over for republicans, who are being tea partied from the right. so, is part of this a strategy to actually sort of pull back, allow there to be no vote now, in order to sort of give those -- moderate is probably not even the word, but those folks who are facing tea party challengers, space, and then they can go a little more moderate on the other side? >> absolutely. speaker boehner is facing this huge challenge as the year begins. everybody's looking at the midterm elections. he has a tea party caucus, which wants to stand firm on a lot of these issues. and at the same time, he has moderates who are asked -- not really moderates, but more moderate than the tea party, who are asking for help on

especially these bread and butter issues, like unemployment compensation, which can really hurt in the reddest of districts. and so i think there's this balancing act of a short-term extension, but also trying to figure out a long-term strategy, to balance these two factions. >> so you brought up boehner. and i'm wondering, is there any reason to think that over the holiday, boehner got better at his job? and all that i mean by that is in his ability to move that republican caucus towards being able to actually make policy. because what we know about the 113th is that for the most part what they do is nothing. it's not like you can with mad about what the policies there are. for the most part, there's no policies. >> there's an assumption in your lead there, you talked about them going back to work tomorrow. >> as though they'd previously been at work. >> but the issue of unemployment benefits goes right to the heart. how could anyone, whatever their political party, say no to people who are desperately out there, looking for work. we're talking about 1.3 million people. there are simply not enough jobs. and what's astounding about this

story is it's stimulative to the economy. it's a win-win all the way around. dean heller, who is the senator from nebraska, who's joined with the democrats in calling for an extension of unemployment benefits, i thought he said it very well. providing a safety net for those in need is one of the most important functioning of the federal government. the fact that you get more money back out of the economy. because people who are desperate, who need money and get that money, they spend it right away. unlike the ceos, who are making millions of tax-subsidized dollars, they put them in offshore accounts. this helps america. >> and i want to point out, that the democrats ton ways and means committee, so this is a partisan set of numbers, but the democrats on the ways and means kme have estimated that people lost $400 million in the first week alone. and again, even beyond the question of a sort of ethical response to those households, this idea of $400 million, it doesn't go into stimulating the economy. and when we look at long-term

unemployment, 4.1 million people have been unemployed longer than six months. 37% of the unemployed have been out of work longer than six months. and the average length of unemployment now is nine months. when we talk about -- it does seem excessive, when you very first hear that. 72 weeks of unemployment. it's like, oh, come on, surely you can find a job in 72 weeks. but, apparently not. this is what we're now looking at, this new normal. >> rationally, all the arguments are there. there is need. you can see why republicans wouldn't want to do this in a midterm year. and you can see the economic effects. that said, we said the same about immigration reform after 2012, and many people in the republican caucus balked. and symbolic politics are very powerful. and it really depends, i think, how dug in they get, either on a deal for other kinds of spending cuts, or broader debate that emerges all of a sudden on unemployment compensation. i don't know which way to go. >> and i wonder on that symbolism, because you brought up the s.n.a.p. benefits earlier, which is another stimulative effect for

households. but i wonder -- i guess, unemployment insurance, it always seems like it has a more broad, symbolic appeal than s.n.a.p., which has often been stigmatized in a way. i'm wondering, the really other big agenda here the the farm bill. do you think we'll get a bipartisan agreement on farm bill, and do you think it's going to in any way back off from the billions in s.n.a.p. benefit cuts? >> well, i don't know. i mean, the farm bill has been looming. we still have a budget issue. more budgeting that has to take place. a lot of republicans are upset with the farm bill. so i think of all the issues, that's the one where you're most likely to see movement. that said, you're right about unemployment insurance. it's always been kind of the first tier of our social welfare programs. it's not stigmatized, it's not associated with welfare. but i think we've seen a change in the debate in the last year, as the republican party has changed. >> but there is a little bit of a problem for democrats right now, because they're also trying to push that the economy is doing well. we're moving forward. so if unemployment is better, if

unemployment, we start seeing a 6, which is possible in a couple of months. you mentioned the midterm elections, the primaries in three months, a lot can change in those three months, of what needs to be done or how far some of the democrats are willing to push that message, and against pushing a positive economic growth message. >> it's a tough message to say, the economy is so much better. man, we really need unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed. you can't say both of those things at the same time. you've got to pick one of them to be running on. when we come back, there is one issue that we know that lawmakers are going to be facing this year. some want to, some don't, but almost everyone can agree that refusing to do anything means political peril. [ male announcer ] this is betsy. her long day of pick ups and drop offs begins with arthritis pain... and a choice. take up to 6 tylenol in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. all aboard. ♪

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i think 2014 needs to be a year of action. we can get immigration reform done. we've got a concept that has bipartisan support. let's see if we can break through the politics on this. >> that was one of president obama's stated missions when he gets back to washington, d.c., getting immigration reform done, and soon. but while the speaker of the house, john boehner, has indicated that he is potentially on board, house majority leader eric cantor told republicans in a memo friday that the party's agenda for january consists of obamacare, government fund iing iran, the farm bill, and epa reform. as for immigration, that may be brought to the floor, may. and only over the next few months. so, read the tea leaves, as we did on unemployment insurance. do you think, facing these political realities, that we're going to get action on immigration reform? >> yes, but two qualifications. one, second-term presidents don't usually have big breakthroughs. it's much more of a muddling through. >> oh, to you, a political

science -- i feel like i'm back in american politics 101. >> come on back. >> muddling through, yes, here we go. >> muddling through. i think we'll see much more executive and administrative action this year than we will congressional action. and the context of a congress on pace to be the least productive in history. the second factor is also the republican party strategy has been in action, don't do anything, say government is broken and doesn't work, and go out and run on that in the next election. so i think that's a strategy. the other factor that they can't plan on is disruptive social movement actors. grassroots immigrant right activists, who will keep the pressure on, especially throughout republican primaries this year for the midterm election. >> which is what happened with the hunger strike, across the street from the white house. >> that's right. and this is, again, this is the movement is agenda setting and forcing things on the agenda. i think we'll see a lot of action from grassroots immigrant rights activists over the year to try to push that issue on the agenda to force the house to deal with. >> which almost works

counterintuitively, of what they want to do when you're working with a republican majority in the house. and what i mean by that, we're not going to see most of the primaries done until really closer to june, state primaries,s in general. so that's going to be the winner for immigration reform. if the president uses executive action too often or you see too many protests pushing the backs up against republicans, that's going to lead to more inaction. there needs to look like, and i think that's why speaker boehner made some indications, that they are working on something. let's not push too hard, too fast and back the republicans in a corner -- because at the end of the day, the republicans -- well, i should say -- there's a responsible group of republicans who do want to see reform. and the business community wants to see reform. >> so i want to talk about exactly those groups, amy, and i want to throw that to you. because i think you laid them out beautifully, susan. because on the one hand, you have these groups, these big groups, we saw it on "the wall street journal" saying, look, we

think immigration reform the necessary. we need it because it is part of what -- i'm sorry, that's "chicago tribune," right? business groups actually bank on the house acting on immigration reform. on the other hand, we have heritage action, which is a powerful conservative group saying is, basically, you better not act on it or act on it in a particular way, because if you do, we're going to score you in a way that is problematic. and let's listen quickly to boehner, and although he was not talking about immigration reform in this case, was talking about what those outside interest groups do. and in this case, was yelling at them about it. >> there just comes to a point where some people step over the line. when you criticize something and you have no idea what you're criticizing, it undermines your credibility. >> so what do you think? do they go with business community pushing them from one side, or with the kind of heritage action pushing with the other? >> it was very interesting to see how speaker boehner responding to the tea party overall, and all the groups that

he feels are getting in the way of any real success, ultimately, for even the republican party. but i think that the grassroots groups that are making the difference here are the -- for example, the young dreamers. why did they get legislation passed? why did they get executive action? young dreamers getting a pathway to citizenship. that can be expanded -- because still families are destroyed. if a dreamer gets to stay and their mother is sent home, that breaks up a family. conservatives say they're for family values. immigration is a no-brainer for most everyone, i think. but the democrats are also at fault. i mean, you saw president obama in san francisco giving this speech, and right behind him, like the hand-picked people behind him, he is yelling, stop the deportations now. president obama has presided over more deportations, he single handedly can stop that, than any other president in u.s. history. >> and this to me is such an interesting point around this question you brought, about

second-term presidents and their ability to do anything more than muddle through. because how did they get doca. they basically write it and say, this is the thing you can do without this congress. if you want to take action, do this. of course, the other thing, the other side of it is to stop the deportations. i wonder, jillian, even as the republicans are bouncing multiple viewpoints and constraints, so, too, is the president. i'm wondering if the deportations are part of what then give him credibility, as he enters into an immigration fight. because he can say, look, i have been tough on sort of holding the line and keeping law, not trying to just let everybody in. so, you know, yes, he could stop them, but then, also, would that take any power he has away from that immigration fight? >> well, i think he is going to try to use that as leverage. he's going to call for tough border control restrictions, which are in the senate bill. and i think he's going to stand by that. and i do think he's a president who this is of this kind of leverage. he wants to recreate reagan in 1986, second-term president, who

had one of those breakthroughs on immigration reform. the question is, does the house throw something much smaller out? and does boehner try to solve his problem with a much narrower bill, that doesn't include a path to citizenship, and causes a lot of problems for the administration. do they go with something small, not get the breakthrough, or does he stand firm with that kind of leverage and call for something -- >> he does have a lot of reaganisms in the way that he thinks about governing. not that they have the same ideology, but in the way he thinks about governing. up next, the biggest thing on the minds of many members of congress, as 2014 begins. this is the one thing they really care about. this is political science 101 too. you're giving away pie? would you like apple or cherry? cherry. oil...or cream? definitely cream. [ male announcer ] never made with hydrogenated oil. oh, yeah. [ male announcer ] always made with real cream.

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will be working on in 2014 -- getting re-elected! this is an election year, folks, and all 435 seats in the house of representatives and a third of the senate seats are up for grabs this year in november. the democrats need 17 more seats to take the house, and the republicans need six to take the senate. tens of millions of dollars have already been raised on each side. $70.2 million for house democrats, $56.4 million for house republicans. $48.7 million for senate democrats, and $32.7 million for senate republicans. and those are just the official campaign committees. so, the big question, for all that big money, what's the game plan? jillian, i want to ask you sort of an historical question here. in a mid-term election, if you are the congressman from whatever district, do you run on an all politics is local, i'm here for my members of the district, or do you run under kind of newt gingrich, we are a party, we have a banner, we are the challenge to that other party. do you run national or do you run local? >> you used to run local, but

you don't anymore. midterm elections have become nationalized because of the way the media works, because of the way the party works. and it's unlikely that you're going to see many legislators just running local anymore. republicans are going to run on president obama, on health care, on arguments about the economy. and a lot of democrats might separate themselves from president obama, but they're going to talk about extremism in the republican party, they're going to talk about the need for a higher minimum wage. this is an era of national midterm elections. and i don't think we're going back to that older style. >> so, the fact that they put obamacare at the top of their legislative agenda is important. i want to take a look at boehner saying this about aca repeal. this just happened, in which boehner says, "the heavy emphasis will be on oversight. the law cannot truly been fixed, so we'll have to make the case for repeal by highlighting the endless negative consequences of the law." that is a spokesman for house speaker boehner who said those

things. but then i want to listen to some sound from congressman mcdermott, who says that congressmen ought to run on aca. >> for the first time, many people have health care. and that's going to be an issue that democrats, i think, can run on and be very proud of. and the other side will have a hard time explaining why it is good for people to have health insurance. >> that's congressman mcdermott speaking to my friend, thomas roberts, here on msnbc. so what do you think, is obamacare once again the national issue on which these local elections will be taught? >> most likely, but again, it depends. i agree with julian's take on how you have to respond nationally. because if a republican candidate says something about rape, for example, any republican running nationally -- or, i'm sorry, across the country, is going to have to address that comment. >> right. >> however, if you're in a swing state or in a swing district, like, for example, new york, you may have a -- you may not be able to run as hard against

obamacare in new york as you can potentially in another state or another district. so, it does become local in that regard. overall, the message will be, because, right now, when you implement any big plan, anything like obamacare, there's going to be a lot of negative stories. they have a lot of fixes they're going to have to make. but those are going to be the headline stories. so it will help in an overall fashion, where the republicans -- and it goes into your introduction, where they're going to raise all that outside money. >> you know, this could be a big year for someone talking about medicare for all, right? the old way doesn't work at all. how many millions of people who are unemployed. obamacare, what president obama said, is we get more people covered. but ultimately, i mean, you're talking about saving $400 billion a year, when you simply have medicare, which is extremely popular, and drop the age to zero. you don't have the bureaucracy, you don't have these health care

problem, website problems. and by the way, just a correction before, since i know the difference between new york and new jersey, and the states. i said deen heller was from nebraska, he is from ground zero. >> katrina vanden heuvel said it yesterday, this idea that if the argument becomes, not that we have to repeal obamacare, because as congressman mcdermott said, who is going to say that health care is bad, now that people actually have it? but the administration of it, the website, the problem of bureaucracy. well, there is an answer to that, and the answer is medicare for all. and as soon as you do that, it begins to undercut this other -- because what we have here is what was closer initially to a republican plan for how to do health care reform, which is the establishment of a marketplace. and that seems to be glitchy to say the least. >> one, republicans essentially have to go out and say, we want to take your health care, vote for us. number two, and i don't make predictions, but by october of

2014, i guarantee you that an annex of this issue will have been totally changed. so many millions of people have been signed up, this will be a very different issues in terms of how we talk about it. >> and so many millions will be paying more when it comes to middle class, and middle class on obamacare. and they're going to have higher premiums to meet -- >> we don't know that for sure. >> they do and we see it happening. this is going to be a really tough first year. >> and the fact that it's happening in a midterm election the going to be problematic for democrats. >> so i think there's -- i do think there's two points. one that we are seeing some people who are having premiums go down, others that premiums are going up, and others may be the capacity. where the premium of running for office going up. the capacity to get the story line, the narrative out, that you want to have out. and also whether or not we see overall health care costs declining. stay with us. we're going to talk a little bit more on elections. i want to talk about the senate race that could make history, no matter who wins. the comeback trail. there is no map.

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we have just gotten started in 2014, so we'll have all year to talk about some of the most interesting races. but i want to focus on just a few today. first up, tim scott of south carolina, who was appointed senator by governor nikki haley last december. now, he's up for a special election in november, and he made history as the first african-american to serve as a senator from the south since reconstruction. his likely democratic opponent, rick wade, who is also african-american. he's a former commerce department official and was the national african-american vote director for president obama's campaign in 2008. he's also credited with early organizing efforts that help then senator obama take the primaries in both iowa and south carolina that year. so that senate race stands to make history in south carolina, where an african-american has not one statewide office since reconstruction. and i'll also point out that the last time that there was a senate race between african-americans, the winner of that race went on to become the

president, right, because that was when president obama, then state senator obama, ran against alan kei alan keyes. that was a very different kind of race, but they're in south carolina. they're in a state that we wouldn't normally think of as competitive in this way. you end up with a competitive race between two african-americans for this seat. i mean, this, for me, is a fascinating possibility. >> well, it reflects some of the changes that have been going on in the south, in the last, you know, decade or so. a lot of democrats are eyeing this race and others in florida for this very reason. places that have been very republican, very conservative, are changing. and i think we're looking for these kinds of measures to see how the matter dynamics might shift in this region. >> here's the question, though. if you are running as the democrat who has those kinds of ties to the obama administration, for a statewide office in south carolina. you talked earlier, if you were the republican running in the state of new york, on the one hand, you need the president and

the president's fund-raising machine, you want the president to come stump for you. on the other hand, you don't want to be anywhere near the president, you want the president to stay away from you. how do you balance that? >> midterm elections are different from presidential elections. they are two different electorates. midterm elections tend on older, whiter, and more conservative. if you have worked for the president, you know that almost a third of the voting bloc in south carolina is african-american. so you focus on turning out the base and energizing the base, while letting -- and by the way, i think lindsey graham is also up this year and has a tea party challenger. so let them do that, focus on turning out the base, in terms of the african-american vote in south carolina, and let the tea party dynamic handle itself with both wade's opponent and tim scott, as well as with lindsey graham. >> that's an interesting point, because while you have that tea party primary, and we know things can kind of get ugly among republicans at times, you're also going to see a lot of independent expenditures. and these candidates are going to have a very difficult time

trying to distance themselves from what both sides, i think, are going to try to do politically, in the game of politics, if you will. the statements, the ads, those things coming out of both sides, i think there's going to be a lot of negativity on that, and it's going to put these candidates in a very difficult position. >> so we've been talking about the tea party challenges on the right. but i wonder also about challenges on the left. we've got new polls showing that when it comes to raising the minimum wage, 76% of americans support raising the minimum wage. we know that there is broad support, for example, for the possibility of, you know, medicaid expansion in these states where, in fact, there haven't been, yet, a medicaid expansion, because republican governors have stood in the way. do you see, also, in these races, the possibility of actually pushing some dems to the left? >> those kind of issues will affect democrats and republicans. most people don't realize this kind of broad support for increasing the minimum wage.

for who is going to be affected. and these states where governors, republican governors, have denied the state getting expanded medicaid, that's republicans, as well as democrats, who are poor, who are not getting this massive amount of money. and they are going to see this. but on the minimum wage, it's also another story of how grassroots action makes such an enormous difference. it wasn't an enormous group of people, though there were about a hundred protests recently when i went out to the mcdonald's in new york at times square, that was one of many hundreds of sites where the people, the workers, and their supporters said, hey, we should be making more than $7.25. now you've got proposals for $10 an hour, proposals for $12 an hour, at a municipality in seattle near the airport, $15 an hour passed. so i think the big story of 2014 might be issues over candidates. and how candidates from all the parties respond to that. we have a much more progressive population than the leaders, the

so-called leaders that represent us. >> it's the old issue that political scientists like to talk about. on specific issues, americans are april liberal when you ask them, do you like this program, do you want the minimum wage, do you like medicare. if you ask them philosophically, do you like government, they say no. so i think what some democrats, sometimes awaken to is the idea that if they talk about these specific issues, they can gain huge traction with the population. it's not necessarily moving to the left. it's just moving to where a lot of the population is. that's why -- >> this is populism, right? >> it is pop yulismpopulism. that's why a lot of governors have been quite nervous about this medicaid expansion, often battling with republican legislatures, where they actually want to do this, but they're getting -- >> i want for one more race real quickly i'm watching carefully, the senate race where i live, and that is mary landrieu. she's got a very slim lead right now in terms of the likelihood of her winning just 41-34, in a state where the other elected

officials at the statewide level are pretty much all republicans. how do you run as a mary landrieu? you can't go very far left, but you have to turn out that base, particularly to democrats in new orleans. >> to turn out that base, you say, hey, may brother is very popular as mayor of new orleans. >> he's running right now. we'll see. >> you're right, she has a very narrow window through which to maneuver, in terms of building a re-election coalition. she hasn't won any race over 52%, by the way. she's going to cut it close here as well. there are four states, by the way, four conservative states where minimum wage will be on the ballot, which i think will be important. arkansas, alaska, new mexico, south dakota. four states with important senate races. and if the minimum wage on the ballot can turn out democratic voters, assist clear strategy to do so, then it can make those races much tighter. >> it could. or you could end up with a split, where you're like, i'm going to get my minimum wage and my republican, because i hate government, but like my big minimum wage. before we move on, we want to update you on the bitter winter

weather taking a toll on much of the congress. this morning at new york's jfk airport, a plane from toronto slid off the runway and into the snow. luckily, no one was injured. the airport temporarily suspended flights because of the icy runways but has now resumed them. also, in chicago, a plane skidded off the tarmac last night at o'hare international airport. again, no injuries were reported. the snowy and icy conditions come amid record-breaking cold. one of the coldest arctic air masses in nearly 30 years will blast through the plains, parts of the midwest, and the south over the next couple of days. i am going home to new orleans at the end of the show. up next, solving the unsolvable. homelessness and the proof that it can be a thing of the past. ] this is the story of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored

to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪

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resolutions about more than just ourselves. what if we include d others in the positive changes we want to see in the world. so although there has been a decline in the percent of the population that is homeless, more than 600,000 people are still without permanent housing and nearly 100,000 people are considered chronically homeless, meaning they have experienced homelessness for more than a year or at least four supposed of homelessness in the last three years and have a disability. shortly after president obama entered office in 2009, he made history by becoming the first sitting u.s. president to demand an end to homelessness for veterans. then in november of 2009, veterans administration secretary, eric shinseki, laid out the administration's five-year plan to end veteran homelessness. many cities heard the president's call. in 2010, the city of phoenix, arizona, identified 222 homeless veterans through its annual census, and employed a program to give veterans permanent

housing. the thinking was that once the issue of housing was solved, veterans could focus on other issues. in august of last year, president obama praised phoenix's efforts to end chronic homelessness. >> here in phoenix, thanks to the hard work of everyone from mayor stan to the local united way to us airways, you're on track to end chronic homelessness nor veterans, period, by 2014. >> and just a little more than four months later in december of 2013, the city of phoenix declared it had become the first city to end chronic homelessness among veterans. by allocating an additional $100,000 in funds to house the remaining 56 homeless veterans. now, while phoenix may have been the first city to complete its mission to end chronic homelessness for veterans, it is not the only city in america to take on this resolution. when we come back, we will speak with the mayor of another city that is working to do the very

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in march, 2005, utah approved something once thought impossible to achieve. utah approved a ten-year plan to end chronic homelessness and significantly reduce overall homelessness. that puts utah on the same timetable as the department of veterans affairs, which is aiming to end veteran homelessness by 2015 too. salt lake city is very close to joining phoenix, arizona, in ending chronic homelessness among its veterans, and is making strides to ending all homelessness. wherever do i get to say, there's a problem, and we have a solution. mayor ralph becker noting recently, that we've been able to make a huge dent in our chronically homeless population. i know we can achieve that goal of ending homelessness together. mayor becker joins me now from salt lake city. it is lovely to have you hear. >> thank you. great to be with you. >> so mayor, talk to me.

why did you -- you know, a mayor has lots of different things on the agenda. why did you make this decision to make it a key initiative for salt lake city to end homelessness? >> well, in a society like ours, it is inexcusable, unacceptable to have homeless folks roaming our streets and out there in the cold in the winters and not having the sfort they need and shelter overhead. so this is a decision that was made by the whole community and we've been dedicated to it, as you said, for many years. >> so talk to me about that idea of the whole community. so i'm interested in how you get buy-in. you know, we're in an economic downturn. i know that salt lake city is actually doing extremely well in terms of employment at only 4% unemployment, but that said, how do you get people to say, all right, we're willing to commit municipal resources to do this. >> well, it really centers around a community, and this is an incredibly generous community. so whether it's state government or salt lake city government or other local governments or the

private sector, both the nonprofit side and the profit side, everyone has come together and worked together in an unusually collaborative way among all sectors of government to be singularly focused on ending homelessness. we made a decision early on that the chronically homeless were a quay to enabling to us address this issue. and we've been, as i said, just focused on that, really, ever since the decision was made, and the resources, while never enough, have come forward from every part of the community. >> so let me also ask about the other partnership. there's all of this partnership occurring in the municipality, in the city, in the community. what about the partnership between salt lake city, the state of utah, and the federal government. where are the resources coming from in terms of hud and the v.a.? >> well, they're coming from all sectors. and as you mentioned in your

introduction, that with the focus on veterans homelessness by president obama, the resources have increased and has elevated our ability to be able to address veterans homelessness in salt lake city in a way that we really couldn't have imagined just a few years ago. and so like phoenix, we really have gotten to the point now where we can say, we have ended veterans homelessness in salt lake city. we have done a census like phoenix. we've got this wonderful, friendly competition i do with mayor stanton and we now are down to eight veterans who have indicated, at this point, they're not interested in having homes, but we're continuing to work with them and making sure we're keeping our census up to date. so it's a commitment, it is also resources. it's every level of government. it's public sectors, private sectors, our nonprofit community has stepped up. but the resources have been there. that makes a huge difference. >> i want to back up one second

and ask my panel a question as well. dorian, part of the thing i love about this story is how often can we just say, there's a social problem. oh, look, here are some people who have solved it. not who have founded an organization, but, just, yeah, they figured it out, they solved it. they made sure the folks had housing and wraparound services. is this a model, given everything we spent the top of the hour talking about, how difficult it was to get things done, is this a model for getting things done? >> absolutely. this is a model for solving intractable social problems. they made a commitment and government works. here is what i would offer as the one critique. the question is, can the circle of care be widened to not just include homeless veterans, but all homeless people. we're living in a city right now, new york city, i am, with 50,000 homeless, the highest on record. half of those are children. can new york city, for instance, learn from phoenix and salt lake city, to focus not just on veterans, but all homeless people?

>> so let me ask you that, mayor. i love that there's a friendly competition between you and the mayor of phoenix. this is my favorite kind of municipal competition to be going on. but what would you say to a place as complicated, as, say, a new york or a philadelphia in how they might begin to address this problem? >> i think your panelist identified, really, the key. and that is, we -- what we have done with veterans is what we've been doing with our homeless population across the board. we have focused on the chronically homeless and getting them housed. and we've reduced, by 75% or more, the homeless population in salt lake city. by focusing first on providing those services. and it really takes everyone working together. and the federal government is a critical partner in providing resources in many ways. some of it financial, some of it expertise, some of it sharing ideas that come from other areas. and the private sector has been unbelievable. every organization has played

their role to the hilt. and that's what it takes. if we're going to be able to address problems like homelessness, which we should be able to address in a society as wealthy and successful as hours. it takes everyone working together. >> thank you so much, salt lake city mayor, ralph becker. gave me good news to report this morning, which i always appreciate. we are going to move on now, was there is so much more to get to today, including the one party rule spreading throughout the states and the bellwether looming large in florida. but most important, an update on doc mcstuffins. seriously, doc mcstuffins breaking news. you know you're in nerdland and there's more of it at the top of the hour. lyrics: 'take on me...' ♪ ♪ 'take me home...' ♪ 'i'll be gone...' ♪ 'in a day or...'

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this is the creamy chicken corn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups. welcome back. i'm melissa harris-perry. when we imagine the picture of our country's political map, we almost always paint it in

primary colors can. by now, our understanding of the united states partisan landscape is indelibly painted in shades of red or blue. in fact, the portrait of a bi-color america has been a favorite rhetorical of the president, when he's wanted to illustrate the differences that divide us but do not define us. >> the pundits like to slice and dice our countries into red states and blue states. red states for republicans, blue states for democrats. but i've got news for them too. americans that sent a message to the world, that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. we are and always will be, the united states of america. we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. we are and forever will be the united states of america. >> he really does love that line. but if we look closer, beyond the boundaries, separating one

state from another, a different picture emerges. some reds and blues, but also a beautiful blend of purples and violets and magentas too. this map created by the university of michigan cartographer was widely circulated after the 2012 election. he broke down election results by states, then by counties, and added shades of purple to break it down even further by percentage of voters for each party in the counties. and what he revealed is a more detailed, nuanced picture of who we really are. still divided, but separated by a much smaller distance than our old fateful red and blue map might suggest. it's only when those differences translate to governance, that those binary colors emerge into stark contrast. in our democracy it is, you know, winner take all, which in our two-party system means, in the famous words of new york senator william l. macy, to the victor belong not only the spoils, but also the ability to plant a red or blue flag to claim the entirety of contested

political terrain. in our national government where neither party is fully in control, that is translated into gridlock and inaction that we have all come to foe and loathe. but at the state level, it has come to mean something else entirely. as "washington post" chief correspondent dan balz wrote this week in "the washington post," "political polarization has ushered in a new era in state government, where single-party control of the lovers of party has produced competing americas. one that's grounded in principles of lean and limited government, and on traditional values. the other is built on a belief in the essential role of government, and on tenants of cultural liberalism. today, three quarters of the states, more than at any time in recent memory, are controlled by either republicans or democrats. elected officials in these states are moving unencumbered to enact their party's agendas. with me once again, author and professor of history and public affairs at princeton university.

he's the author of "governing america." amy goodman, with democracy now tv, and author of "the silenced majority." dorian warren, associate professor of political science at columbia university, and susan del percio, republican strategist and msnbc contributor. so, julian, how -- so 37 of the 50 states are currently under unified, one of party control. how different is that then our our history, as a country? >> it's been changing. i mean, that article looks at 1980, 1990, and we've seen a slow expansion of the number of states in these decades that are under unified control. and you have to combine that with a washington or a federal government that is having problems producing a lot of legislation. so you have more unified control, and more pressure on the states to deal with issues. either way, republican or democratic, and i think it is changing. and we have a different kind of configuration right now. >> i mean, there's no doubt, amy, that states are getting more done, just in terms of the amount of stuff that is

happening, but, it's also true that you can get even better than that. you can get yourself a dictatorship or a king, or like, the more that you narrow down the contestation, the more will get done. but that's part of democracy. it's meant to be messy. you're supposed to have to take in competing world views. >> it's not only at the states. you might talk about party rule in the united states right now, because of how close the corporate democrats and republicans are. and all of the issues that are being left out. for example, health care. real, universal health care. for example, dealing with issues like climate change and global disruption, global warming. what is key is to have a great diversity of opinion represented at all levels. and i think the greatest threat to that was money in politics. we were talking earlier about what mary landrieu should do in louisiana. maybe she should raise the fact that she and two other women governors like hagan in north carolina, shaheen in new hampshire, are being targeted by

the koch brothers, by americans for prosperity, for supporting obamacare, and they're pouring millions into ad campaigns. what about across the country. raising this issue of this other person, right? corporations have become people. and say that this is what's changing, more than anything else, the dynamic of american democracy. >> so that changes the hues of our map, right? if we were to then paint that map in relative levels of green, right? so where the darkest green would represent the most expensive seats in terms of how much it took to win that seat, and then maybe we would see something around, for example, populism versus elitism, that is different than a democrat and republican, it would force us to think a little differently about who are our opponents, who are our allies, right, in any given struggle. i think that is important to point out, that there's a way in which the notion of democratic one party rule is necessarily progressive, would be inaccurate, right? at least empirically. >> that's actually the big test

for 2014, we'll have to exam. a decade ago, 12 of the largest american cities, six of them were run by republican mayors. now 12 of the largest cities, all democratic mayors, including bill de blasio, explicitly progressive, just inaugurated here in new york city. the question will be this year for these 12 mayors of these large, democratic cities, what progressive policies can they try to enact, given that they can govern over large cities, but how will that translate in any way into state politics? many are in republican-controlled states. you have power concentrated in blue islands and red -- >> i was going to say, if you look at that map, right, if you really pause and look deeply at that purple map, you see there really are almost no blue states. there's just blue cities, right? and then those cities are either powerful enough and populous enough to kind of generate that purpleness out, so you see those cities along the -- basically, it's all along the coast, where

you see blue, and it's all in the middle, where you see red, which is a different way of thinking about what the allies are. >> and yet, in new jersey, that has a democratically controlled legislature, is working with a republican governor, and you look at new york state, and you talk about bill de blasio, who you wants to get a tax hike through, a democratic governor, cuomo, and right now he's pushing back on it. because for him to do things, there's still a republican state senate, which balances out the power there. and there always has been a real -- you know, in new york and a lot of other states, there tends to be at least one branch that would at least represent another idea, which is now not going to be represented in a lot of states, and that's just plain old dangerous for governors. >> that's what i'm thinking. is there a way that we could actually sort of say, all right, let's take new jersey as an example, right? and say, do you actually end up with better outcomes, right? and we'd have to figure what we mean by better, right? do we mean somehow more representative of public opinion, or do we mean, sort of,

you know, longer -- i'm not sure exactly what our terms would be. but do you end up with something that is a better outcome in a new jersey, where you have split governance, than deep south states or midwestern states, where you end up with all the folks -- >> a lot of ways, you do, only because a lot of people who are in the statehouse want to run for governor or governors want to run for president or senate. so they have to worry about, are they getting the base of their constituencies, for example, in new york state, you have to get at least 30% of very -- more than that, of very progressive new york city. so if you're a democrat, and you have to represent the whole state, you have to be careful how far middle of the road you go, because you want to be able to get -- >> so the political ambitions of the elected officials themselves, when you have divided government, allows them to be more moderate. stay with us. more on this, because as much as we're thinking about this in this level up here, i want to come and talk about it at the

very clear bottlely personally level. the impact of o one-party rule on reproductive rights, when we come back. [ male announcer ] legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses.

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one of the consequences of single-party dominance in state legislators is a growing number of places in the country where women are denied access to reproductive health care. 22 states enacted 70 abortion restrictions during 2013. at least 63 were in states were republicans were in full or partial control of the government. tomorrow, one of those laws will take center stage in the first reproductive rights battle of 2014, as the federal appeals court in new orleans hears arguments about the texas measure that caused one third of the state's abortion providers

to close. so, amy, you know, there's the big thing about whether we end up with better or worse policy, and then there's the on the ground reality that republican-controlled states have gone, really, effectively against reproductive rights. >> over the last few years, hundreds of restrictions have been voted against, of reproductive rights. everything from the closets have to be bigger to doctors have to have emitting rights at hospitals, and these may not seem critical, but altogether, they closed clinics down. which means women's health is imperiled. but it also has really galvanized women's rights activists, women and men, all over the country. look at wendy davis, who's now running for governor in texas. she was the one in the pink sneakers who stood up in the state legislature and said, no, and held that filibuster for how many hours. and she had to do it alone. no one could even touch her. she couldn't break at all.

so you have the push and the pull. and you have the whole movement now saying, it's bigger than abortion rights. women's rights are about economic rights, workplace discrimination, violence against women, child care that's supported. and broadening this out. and then you have the pushback even against the democrats to get ride of the hyde amendment. he was a republican, but the democrats have gone along with it, that poorer women should be able to have federally funded abortions. so i see this push and pull, but there's no question that hundreds of laws have been passed against women. >> texas is such an interesting case. if we look at it, here, julian, we just looked at the university of texas did a poll about abortion support, for people living in texas. and found that only 16% of those polls say that they think that abortion should never be available. now, you don't end up a majority anywhere, but 49% saying it should be generally or always legal. and another third saying, in the cases of rape, incest, life of the mother. so a vast majority when you add

those two latter categories. but you have a state legislature that's governing that's trending much more towards that 16% than towards that 69%. >> yeah, what they're doing, it's the politics of restriction. so first we move the debate away from washington to the states, as we said. this is where the action now is. and then within the states, i think the strategy for many republicans has been to fight for different kinds of restrictions, gradually curtailing access. so that you get around that poll problem. so that you get around the grayness in the polls, but gradually limit the number of abortions that are available. one-party rule is not all it's made out to be, and there's all kinds of reasons you can't push everything through. but this is one area where we've seen republicans be remarkably effective. >> i have to say that for me, part of what's surprising, and when you look at the categories where there are big differences between states that are one-party ruled with

republicans, they end up being reproduc reproductive rights, labor and organize rights, same-sex marriage. and it seems to me if these were legitimate, political, ideological fights, maybe minimum wage, but they would be primarily economic, they would be about the budget, they would be about revenue. rather than being about reproductive rights and educations and same-sex marriage, for example. >> i think what we're seeing, especially in the 30 states in republican rule is a form of jane crow and jim crow politics. jane crow politics nerin terms women's reproductive rights, and jim crow on targeting people of color. and here's the risk of this, especially around reproductive rights. we saw the backlash of trying to limit black and latino voters in the last election cycle. i think women, if the activists and organizers can really keep this issue around reproductive rights in texas and north carolina and other states, on the agenda in terms of the public consciousness, this could

actually backfire on the republican party in those states, much like voter i.d. did. >> so you've agreed before, susan, that certain kinds of outrageous statements that were made in the last election cycle around republicans, though those are the kind of things that clearly turn off all women voters, whether they're democrats or republicans. but this is very different. reproductive rights is very different. it turns out that women are -- that there's a majority of women, but not an overwhelming majority of women that support, for example, abortion. so do you think that it is still relatively safe for single party republican governing to go after reproductive rights, especially in these ways that are a little more technical and around the edges. >> and it's problematic for republicans nationally, because, again, you see people who, like, in red congressional seats, they're primaries. it's about, you take these types of issues and they're very easy, because for republicans to say, i'm more conservative than -- and they can push those. so that does affect them on the state level.

but then you also have to look at where in blue states, for example, again, focusing on new york, you have a law that says that a 12 or 13-year-old girl can have an abortion, no questions asked, but if she wants to get a the tattoo or her ears pierced, she needs a letter from her parents. there has to be room for other points of view. and i think that's one of the reasons why single-ruled states is problematic, because there has to be room on that other side. but when it comes to reproductive rights, it is going to be problematic for republicans in the long run. >> in the break, i'm going to make an argument for why i think that a 13-year-old should have to have permission for a tattoo and not for an abortion. it's mostly because there is always the possibility that the person who got the 13-year-old pregnant is the same person from who she would have to ask for permission. >> and i don't disagree with you, except to say, there has to be some conversation. if you say that the girl is mature enough to do that on her own, but she needs consent from

her parents, i agree with you in there, but there has to be some room there, or at least allow different points of view to come together. >> up next, the fight over voting restrictions, the battle lains clearly drawn along party lines. dentures are very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. that's why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. if yand you're talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me,

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fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your doctor if humira can work for you. this is humira at work. over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ i can't believe your mom has a mom cave! today i have new campbell's

chunky spicy chicken quesadilla soup. she gives me chunky before every game. i'm very souperstitious. haha, that's a good one! haha! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right. on the red state side of the political guide, legislatures controlled by republicans have been employing a strategy that just happens to have an outsized impact on those unlikely to vote for them. last year after the supreme court's decision to gut the vote rights act, five states rushed to advance voter i.d. laws within 24 hours of the ruling. this week, in a column for the daily beast, jahmell bowie writes of the findings of a university of massachusetts study. what they found was surprisingly straightforward. between 2006 and 2011, if a state elected a republican governor, increased its share of republican legislatures, or became more competitive while under a republican, it was more

likely to pass voter i.d. and other restrictions on the franchise. likewise, states with unencumbered republican majorities and large black populations were especially likely to pass restrictive measures. their broad conclusion, in other words, is that these laws are the result of fierce partisan competition. and this, julian, i guess, for me is the problem. i am a fan of, if you get elected, you have the right the right to govern. but you don't have the right to restrict the ability of people to hold you accountable, by either saying, we would like to return you to office or take you out of office. >> it's a remarkable development. 50 years ago, this country was in a heated, bloody fight with the right to vote. that culminated with the voting rights act, lyndon johnson, the 89th congress, where the government, the whole point was the federal government guarantee that those kinds of restrictions could not happen.

the supreme court knocked that down, and what we've seen is over 90 restrictive laws proposed since 2013, and a very aggressive move in many states, republican states, to impose restrictions that will have racial effects, that will have effects on immigrants. all kinds of potential problems, with very little evidence of corruption, or very little evidence that the measures would prevent the kinds of problems that allegedly exist. >> so if you think there's -- >> it's a good story. >> if you think that voter fraud is a problem, ending early voting does not address voter fraud. in fact, early voting ought to give you more opportunities, if you think there's voter fraud, to address voter the fraud, because it gives you more time to vote. >> and the problem with voting in america is not enough people vote. that's the issue. so by standards of other centuries, not enough of the population comes out for presidential elections, under 50%, they don't come out for midterms. so there's the issue of rights and then there's the issue just to the health of our democracy, the government, state, local, and federal should probably be

focusing on just the opposite, turning the vote out. >> getting more people voting. and dorian, we know, as empirical political scientists, that causation and correlation are two different things. so what this study found was correlation, not causation. but there is a strong correlation there between republican control and the size of the african-american population and voter turnout. now, that suggests to me, in part, that not only is this about fierce partisan competition, but also a little bit of demographic angst about the changing american electorate. >> and we also have on the record, republican politicians who have said very explicitly, i'm thinking of either the governor or legislature in pennsylvania, who said explicitly, this is about preventing black votes from going to the polls and voting for the democratic party. we saw this before -- >> or that wonderful daly show moment when that guy said, if some black folks just don't make it there, they don't. >> exactly. we saw this before at the end of reconstruction, a whole wave of voting restrictions, pushed

through legislatures, especially in the south, to prevent blacks from voting, which created one-party rule for almost a century in the south. >> okay, that said, there is an important distinction that i -- you know, there's always change over time, and as much as those laws have some similarities, it's also true that those laws were enforced by massive acts of violence that were safeguarded by governments that did not address that violence. and so one of the things we saw so different in 2012 was that although those laws came in as restrictions, it mostly had a backfiring effect. people showed up in even greater numbers. and so i wonder, susan, just on the political calculation, it feels to me as though, given what happened in 2012, that places that had these restrictions, even more people showed up. why not stop trying to restrict? >> here's the thing. i have no problem if there's a voter i.d. law, if you were required to show an i.d. when you registered to vote, which all of the states that have implemented these laws do not have a requirement, because you

can send it in by mail. so that's the way i kind of look at it. if you're not required to show i.d. when you're registered to vote, why should you have to show i.d. when you go to vote? so it's really kind of that simple. if they want to look at change of the laws, which they'll never do, then you could start implementing that kind of thing. and absolutely, the republicans, again, are digging themselves in. if we can't win with our ideas, if we can't win on saying, this is how you succeed in america, and you should vote for us, then they don't deserve to win. >> amy, health of democracy on this? >> i mean, you know, in other countries, people die for the right to vote. they get gunned down at the polls. we are one of the lowest voting countries. this is ridiculous that less than half of the population goes out to vote. but i think with the republicans, you know, the concern about immigration, for example, for the next election. i think it's not only immigration to get latinos voting, it's also voter rights. and it's ability to get to the polls. the fact that mitt romney, for example, got less than 30% of

latino vote, i think it's these issues go beyond immigration. >> and after republicans had been building their share of the latino vote, it wasn't at all clear where latino voters were going to go. they had been growing, for example, and they contracted back. >> i think the calculation is a little like the discussion of abortion rights. if you talk about, you know, i.d., or you talk about certain new rules to prevent fraud, it won't necessarily be translated as restricting the votes, but i think voting rights advocates have really pushed back much more aggressively than a lot of republicans anticipated to frame the issue. >> stick with us, we're going to go to florida, which had a lot of these conversations. we'll go to florida next, and you'll really want to go to florida, because before we move on, we'll provide you with one more update on the brutal weather conditions impacting much of the country. one of the coldest arctic air masses in nearly 30 years will blast through much of the country over the next couple of days. high temperatures will only reach 5 to 20 degrees below zero

from minnesota to indiana on monday. brr! >> beware of climate change, folks! there's something we can do about it. when we come back, it's a pretty safe rule in a national election year. if you're going to have national elections, we're going to be talking about florida. everything you need to know about florida, when we come back. [ male announcer ] the new new york is open. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com. [ male announcer ] can't take a sick day tomorrow. [ coughs ] [ male announcer ] so he can't let a cold keep him up tonight.

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♪ ♪ oh are we early? [ male announcer ] commute your way with the bold, all-new nissan rogue. ♪ florida, land of mickey mouse and orange juice and one-party rule. with republican majorities in both houses of the state legislature and the governor's office, florida is likely the most consequential electoral college swing state governed by a single party. now, florida's former governor is trying to change that. charlie chris, governor from 2007 to 2011 is running for his old job in 2014. and since he's a former republican turned democrat, he's

now saying democratic-shhh-sounding kind of things. like on friday, when he apologized for previously backing amendment 2 to florida's constitution, which in 2008 defined marriage as a union only between one man and one woman, banning same-sex marriage and civil unions. in an interview with the lbgt online daily watermark online, crist said, i'm sorry i did, it was wrong, i'm sorry. he has a sizable lead over the man he hopes to defeat in november, rick scott. a recently poll showed scott trailing crist by 12 points. in another setback, a federal judge on tuesday struck down a law that scott championed that required drug screening for welfare recipients.

scott says that he'll appeal. and the democrat who scott defeated in the 2010 gubernatorial election is now a candidate in the congressional race, expected to be a bellwether for 2014. alex sink has a massive money lead over her gop opponents in her bid to replace the late congressman bill young in florida's 14th congressional district. young held the seat for more than four decades, and the district is split almost evenly between democrats and republicans. the special election is set for march. joining us now from tampa, florida, is adam smith. not that adam smith. you know, adam smith, the political editor of the "tampa bay times." nice to have you, adam. >> thanks for having me. >> adam, how important is this particular special election? and why should all the folks snowed in right now in these other place around the country, why should they care what's happening? >> the temperature here has plummeted to 70 degrees. >> stop, stop! >> there are so few truly competitive house districts in the house. and this is really a truly swing district.

50/50, barack obama won it twice by about a point. rick scott lost it in the last governor's race by about a point. so this really is a district that is competitive as you get. and if the democrats want to have any argument that they can take back the house, if they can't win this seat, it's hard to make that argument. >> so if they win this seat, then does this become the sort of poster child of, we can win, that allows them to raise money for other congressional races, for the year? >> sure. i think they'll capitalize heavily on that. and this is not an easy seat for them to win, but they do have, alex sink is a very well-known former gubernatorial candidate, and they've got the republican nominee, who is likely to be a fairly obscure, little-known candidate. >> adam, i want to ask you a question. one of the things we've been talking about at the table here, both amy and dorian bringing this up, the idea that there have been ground swell populist movements, and one of the most important places where that has been happening is in florida, around the dream defenders and others who have been pushing

back against what they see as rick scott's overreach, because of the one-party control in florida. how important is that for sort of florida politics going forward? >> you know, it is -- to cover politics in florida, it's a bizarre situation. where you have presidential races, where the democrats really can win, if they get their vote out. they've won more than they've lost, in modern history. and then you go to the state capital, tallahassee, and the democratic party is truly irrelevant. they're just almost nonexistence. so this is absolutely a one-party state. but it's also, you know, the ultimate and biggest battleground state. it's a bizarre situation. >> all right. stick with us, adam. but i do want to come out to you, susan, and ask, so if you were advising whomever is running against crist, what would you say to them about how to spin or challenge what crist is doing in terms of the move from being democrat -- i mean, from being republican to democrat, and flip and say, if you were advising crist, what you would be telling him?

>> okay, well, don't forget, there was also his independent run, charlie crist's independent run for senate, where he flipped a few times. and that's his biggest problem. he's really done more somersaults and twisted himself into a pretzel, like you rarely see a politician do. and i don't think, you know, under normal circumstances, that would be really difficult to come out of. however, on the flip side, you have governor scott, who just has such low approval ratings that all you have to do is simply say, i'm not him. as a matter of fact, charlie crist would do pretty well for himself to not to mention his own record and say, i'm not him, aisle not rick scott. >> was rick scott led down a path that happens in part when you have one-party rule, that doesn't push back, that doesn't sort of encourage you to mediate and moderate? >> well, part of it's the story of the state. part of it is scott, as part of this new republican party, that has shifted to the right.

and he was one of the key figures in that, taking on the unions very aggressively, making provocative statements. and it is a product of that. and crist is the opposite. on the one hand, he's someone who changes his views. on the other hand, you can see him as someone who's shifted away from a party that left him and he's trying to find a new home. >> i don't think he can say he's evolved on the issues. >> but i do think there is a story there that is appealing to system republicans, in terms of him taking on scott. so it reflects probably the problem of the party. >> his campaign could be, i'm not rick scott and i'm not charlie crist. >> right. >> i know i look like i am, but in fact, i am not. it is true, my main beef with crist is a flip-flop he made way back in college, because for the first few years, he went to my alma mater, wake forest, was even a quarterback on our football team, and then flip-flopped and went to florida state. what kind of mess is that? all right. stay with us, adam. i want to ask you a little bit more about some things that we may not understand, if you don't

actually live in florida, about how some fundamental floridian policies that are on the agenda, in fact, are understood in florida. we're going to talk stand your the ground when we come back. is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap.

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that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. a potential bellwether case in the fight over florida's stand your ground law was decided thursday in miami, when the local appeals court agreed with gabriel moegly's claim of self-defense in the fatal shooting of two men, orlando r carzana and his friend, jason gonzalez outside a chile's restaurant in 2008. this is how mogly justified the shooting in a hearing last april. >> i freaked, i was scared, you know. and i seen this other guy coming up from the back. and he reached up under his shirt. so i was scared. i thought they were going to shoot or kill us. >> if one of the men was reaching under his shirt, it wasn't for a gun. both men were unarmed.

garzana's sister, joyce, spoke to wtvj this week. >> he's going to get away with murder. he's going to get away with executing my little brother. he has a gunshot wound to his hand that exited out of his elbow, and that means that he's trying to stop it, with his hands, he's trying to stop a bullet. >> thursday's ruling not only overturned a judge's previous rejection of mogley's stand your ground defense, but it also marked the first time a local appeals court has granted immunity to a defendant under the stand your ground law. two other stand your ground cases that we've been talking about go to trial in florida very soon. you may remember michael david dunn who claims he fired his gun several times in self-defense at an suv filled with unarmed young men, killing 17-year-old jordan davis. davis' parents settled a civil lawsuit against dunn on friday, but dunn's criminal trial is still scheduled to begin on february 3rd. and in the trial of marissa alexander, the jacksonville mom

who allegedly fired a warning shot in her home to stop abuse from her husband, that trial will be begin on march 31st. so i want to come back to you for a moment, adam, because i think so many in national media assume that stand your ground is very unpopular, in part because of the cases that i have just laid out, that have gotten a lot of attention. but, in fact, in florida, this is much more of a consensus issue, right? >> for better or for worse, there really is no fight over stand your ground in florida. the polling shows that it's got roughly 60% support. there are certainly some people with serious concerns about it, the legislature appointed a special committee to look at how it might be changed, and the legislature who's put in charge of it declared at the outset, he's not going to change one single comma. so, just politically, there is no effort to change and no will to change stand your ground. >> amy, i guess, honestly, sort of, knowing that leads me then

to a set of questions that are maybe even broader than one party rule, and are really about states as laboratories. so if you have a policy like this, one that is popular and then enacted by the democratically elected members of that statehouse, who is anyone else to say that it shouldn't exist? and yet, i feel like there is a responsibility for the rest of the nation to say, hey, wait a minute, we've got to take a look at what happens when a man can gun down two other men who are unarmed and claim immunity from it? >> you know, we have to also look at the american elective exchange council. if we are going to look nationally, at an organization that affects what's happened state by state. when you say something as simple as, well, if it's a democratically elected group of people, well, let's talk about what is the money that's going into these, all of this legislation, the american legislative exchange council has corporate heads together with governors and state legislators

that are incubating bills and sending them all over the country. and you know, i think that they have suffered a tremendous setback in the last few years. clearly, koercorporations, one r the other, have pulled out. even though stand your ground stays in florida, george zimmerman, how many times has he been stopped and arrested since he was acquitted of the killing of trayvon martin? let's look at alec. >> it's interesting, when you bring occupy the alec point, it does then lead us to ask a set of questions about how -- because i think part of the -- as you said, the unpopularness of it, or even the fact that you can say alec and people now know something about it. it had been relatively cloistered and quiet. we didn't really know that much about it. suddenly, we learn that it is impacting our legislature. why wouldn't that have an impact? i just imagine, if i'm living in the state of florida and i find out that stand your ground actually comes not from an indigenous set of beliefs of lawmakers themselves, but from an organization outside, that that alone might make you feel anxious, even if you don't

initially oppose the law. >> well, i think amy's point is right on. there has been an amazing campaign targeting alec by color of change, which has forced a lot of corporate sponsors to pull out of alec, and not just around the stand your ground laws, but alec is now trying to repeal a wave of minimum wage and living wage ordinances across the states. this has been one of the most successful issues for progressives in the last 20 years, is raising wages a to the state and local level. this is now alec's target, is to repeal those efforts, or to at least repeal the authority of cities, to try to raise wages in terms of income and inequality. so i think alec is squarely going to be on the agenda in 2014 in terms of people looking at its influence. and i think the more voters get educated about the fact that there is a centralized, political organization, with lots of money, spreading these laws across the country, i think they might begin to change their opinion about -- >> but, where did alec get the model of this law, stand your ground? from the national rifle association.

>> let me bring you back in for just one second before we head out here. and just to ask you, whether or not these nationally sort of focused on cases, jordan davis and marissa alexander, and now, undoubtedly, the mogley case, whether or not that does start to move folks in the state of florida. >> first i should say, florida, to its credit or discredit, the stand your ground really came from the legislature, alec then adopted it and spread it around the country. but so far we just haven't seen that. we've done, my paper has done a big package on stand your the ground. we compiled a database of nearly 200 stand your ground cases and found all kinds of consequences and it still hasn't moved the needle in terms of political or public opinion. >> i have to remind folks that gun culture tends to cross ideological boundaries, cross racial boundaries, cross class

boundaries, for folks who don't live in the south and don't live in places where guns are sort of an ordinary part of life, it can seem odd, right, to recognize how much that is part of it. so thank you so much for joining us, adam smith. i hope sometime you will come up from that 70-degree weather and sit here in nerdland with us. as we go out, i'm going to play the one thing she did want us to play. i'm going to play it because it's a fun sort of moment in the florida congressional race. but before we get to playing that, i'm going to let her set it up. before that, when we come back, we have got breaking coverage of doc mcstuffins. >> the most exciting thing for me in the florida '13 special election is bob barker is now involved and apparent lit choice is right. >> let's play it as we go out. >> with jolly, the choice is right.

for today's footnote, i have some breaking news. breaking doc mcstuffins news. if you're a regular viewer of nerdland or if you have young children in your home, you already know who doc mcstuffins is. she's the wildly popular disney character for preschoolers. she's a 6-year-old african-american girl with a stay-at-home dad and a mother for a doctor. little doc opens a clinic for her stuffed dolls and toys. nerdland loves doc. at the joint insistence of my daughter and executive producer, we featured mcstuffins as a foot soldier. it was the highlight of my year to have a one-on-one interview with the creator. one of our favorite guests is a founder of the artemis society, or as she's known around here, the real doc mcstuffins. we learned this week there was breaking doc mcstuffins news.

it's about another real doc mcstuff ins. he's an emergency medical doctor. as of friday, january 10th, she will become the name sake of the heretofore unnamed mother of doc mcstuffins. she will now become dr. miesh amc stuffins. she said she's honored, saying, quote, it's not just me this cartoon represents. it's all of us that have been involved. all of us from the college, all of us in the artemis medical society. we all identify in the same way, with both characters, the little girl aspiring and now her mom. it's bigger than me. and the creator of doc mcstuffins is also pretty thrilled about the news, telling us, quote, i love giving tribute names. it's an easy way to give a wink to the people who are important to us. no one is greeter friend of the

show than dr. taylor. at first we were trying to find a great toy, but when the idea came, it seemed to perfect. by the way, it just rolls off the tongue. i think we have got to figure out a way of how to induct doc mcstuffins as an official member of nerdland. that's our show for today. thanks for watching. i'll see you next saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> you know what i'm thinking? melissa mcstuffins. thank you so much. we're going to have a story behind how a plane landed on one of new york's biggest highways. richard engel in a report from sochi with an inside look at the security measures meant to keep the olympic games safe from terror. it's the greatest show on earth for all you gadget buffs. we have a preview of the future, stuff that could be in your living room sooner than you think. don't go anywhere. i'll be right back. campbell's chunky new england clam chowder. wow! this is incredible!

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dramatic temperature swings sweep across parts of the country, leaving some cities in a sudden deep and dangerous freeze. we bring you the story by the numbers. back to business. fresh from hawaii, the president plans an aggressive to-do list in the coming weeks. what's on it and where does economic fairness stand? in iraq, there's more war. are the forces of al qaeda undoing some critical gains u.s. troops made when they were there? and what happens when a highway turns into a landing strip? you're going to hear what the pilot of one small plane said momentings before he ended up there.s before he ended up there. hey there, everyone. it's approaching -- oh, no. we just hit high noon here in the east. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." right now 140 million people are bracing for bone-chilling temperatures not seen in decades, by the way, as a dangerous arctic blast barrels down on half of the country. this is the scene around indianapolis just a short time ago. winter storm warning