>> sunshine to light the way. house seat in florida is about much more than just one seat in florida. national leaders know the results will echo across the eight months until the mid term. also this morning, a former top aide to governor christie is headed to court. we'll have the latest on what to expect once she's inside and why this is a pretty important day for governor christie's fight for survival. plus, planning the seeds for success. we're digging into the first tax revenue report for marijuana sales into colorado. president obama takes his healthcare sign-up push "between two ferns." yes, it's that kind of wacky, very green and herbal day here on "the daily rundown." good morning. it is tuesday, march 11th, 2014. this is the daily rundown. the latest on both the missing malaysian plane and the outlook

for ukraine coming up this hour. but we begin with breaking news at the capitol. 28 democrats are just wrapping up an all-night talk-a-thon on one issue, climate change. these 30 senators, including majority leader harry reid spent about 30 hours trying to attract attention to climate change and hoping to grab the attention of swing voters. a planned event with lots of charts and pictures. senators took turns talking about natural disasters in their home states like superstorm sandy and the wildfires in colorado. these senators have now formed the climate caucus. did they accomplish their goal of raising the issue's profile even more in the minds of swing vo voters? in a few minutes we'll talk to senator tim kaine of virginia about how effective the talk-a-thon can be. that's all ahead. first to my first read of the morning. if it's tuesday, somebody's voting somewhere. today that somewhere is pretty

important. in florida's 13th district. when polls are open in that congressional special election to fill the late seat held by bill young. swing district in a swing state. it's the first major test of the two party's messages going into the fall and right now, as of this hour, it's truly a coin flip. yes, we know that special congressional elections don't predict what will happen in november. and, yes, it's difficult to attach meaning to a close race that could be decided by less than five percentage points. today's election between democrat alex sink and republican david jolly for this st. petersburg seat can help us answer this question. what is a more powerful force right now? democrats have the advantage in candidate recruitment and sink is running a better campaign. she has a lot of intangibles on her side. more money. higher name i.d.

if he siphons votes from anybody, it will be jolly and the republicans. rand paul ended up recording an 11th hour robo call to try to prevent the libertarian from siphoning too many votes. but jolly also has advantages going in. number one, being the national political environment. hammering sink in ad after ad, which attempts to tie her to the president. >> 300,000 floridians will lose their current health coverage because of obamacare. alex sink supported it. and she still does. >> to pay for obamacare, washington is forcing seniors to endure deep cuts to medicare advantage. sadly, alex sink supports these cuts, sticking with nancy pelosi, who wants to keep obamacare intact. >> sink has tried to take the issue head on and inoculate

herself by going on the attack in medicare and social security in a district where more than one in four registered voters is old older than 65 and seniors make up an even higher percentage of those who cast ballots. >> david jolly wanted to privatize social security. now he wants this to be his office and still says privatization should be on the table. >> when the market crashed we lost 40% of our savings. i don't think it's right for david jolly to risk social security money in the stock market. >> now jolly ran a last-minute ad that featured his mother and aunt, hitting back on the social security tax. clearly, they were nervous about it. but here is what i sink win would be, a blueprint for survival for those skittish red state democrats and purple state democrats in the senate. healthcare to a draw and run a superior race. they can hold and even pick up seats rather than breaking even or losing them.

on the flip side, a sink loss and jolly win will rattle democrats because it would prove that the environment trumps everything else. national republicans have publicly griped about jolly's campaign, airing blind quotes like this one to politico, calling it a keystone cops operation, marked by inept fund-raising, hundreds of miles away from the district in the state capital. poor optics. frankly, he has run a c-plus campaign at best. and he also happens to be a lobbyist. and if he can beat a candidate who has more of the intangibles on her side, that is going to terrify a lot of democrats around the country, including, say, the jim chahines, all running for re-election. how crucial this race is to democrats? big dog, bill clinton, has urged democrats to volunteer and turn out the vote. >> hello. this is bill clinton. on march 11th, pinellas county

voters can send a proven leader to congress. alex sink can only work for you in congress if she gets there. >> one other huge story in this race is outside spending. talking about this money issue for weeks. we know for some people it's white noise or like crying wolf. you have to look at these figures. outside groups have poured nearly $9 million in this race through mid february. more will be reported as the results come in. most of that money has been spent on tv ads. sink herself has vastly outspent jolly himself on the airwaves, the groups have helped to erase that gap. check out these tv ad spending number that is a campaign source gave to us. together, sink are outspending jolly nearly 2-1. more than $4.2 million compared to $5.2 million. while they are far out spending the democratic roots, the jolly campaign, which has spent just

$560,000 on tv ads, has been propped up by millions in outside republican money. and it brings the total republican amount of money spent on this race to $4.5 million. much closer to the $5.4 million collectively the democrats and their outside groups have spent overall. even as they benefit from millions in outside money, both candidates have been doing their best to try to denationalize this race. but they've struggled. >> at the end of the day this is a pinellas county race and i'm running against national political machines. voters need to make sure they know where the candidates stand on the issues. >> it's been a lot for people to endure. every time you turn on the television, what i'm saying to the voters is do your own research. >> meant a lot more on the impact of this money at the end of the show. over 125,000 ballots have already been returned in early voting, republicans make up 43% of those who cast ballots, democrats make up about 38% of those ballots.

that could be a higher number than the votes recorded today. we'll see. polls close at 7:00 eastern time. so, joining me now with a little bit more on the ground in this race is adam smith, political editor for the tampa bay times. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, chuck. >> all right. let's talk about that early vote. five-point republican registration percentage on the early vote. why republicans feel better about their chances than they have in weeks. >> yeah. like you say, i think this really say nail biter, coin toss election. both sides expected this is a special election. you'll expect republican turnout to be better maybe by eight-plus points, both sides agree. it's a real question on whether this is enough, five-point advantage and how many of those independent voters with roughly one in five and how many republicans alex sink is able to peel off. >> when you look at the organization that you've seen on the ground, i've heard all sorts of whispers about the lack of a

jolly organization. obviously, the sink organization, much more sophisticated. what's that worth, do you think? >> something. you know, i think that's absolutely true. i think there really is no ground organization on the jolly campaign. and the democrats who are usually pretty inept at that, just a couple of cycles ago had no program to chase these absentee ballots, mail-in ballots that are so important, have done a very effective job. so, the democrats are banking on an unusual bely high turnout and the republicans are banking on a low turnout. >> there was something about the -- you called it a chase program. there was something new. the pinellas county -- i heard some democrats say this could be a secret to their success if they win. pineillas county decided to send an absentee ballot to anybody who cast an absentee ballot in 2012. therefore, if the democrats, giving them an opportunity to use basically the obama list and the obama program from 2012 to target these voters.

is that right? >> yeah, that's right. florida often has a big early vote, whether that's in person or by mail program. pineillas county in particular, happens to be a republican but really pushes these absentee ballots. for more than a decade, the republicans have really had a giant advantage on those mail-in ballots and now democrats have at least caught up to them. >> how much of this -- has this been all nationalized? give us a flavor of the television ads. you're at home. you're flipping around. how saturated is it? compare it to previous election titles, governor's race in 2010, presidential in 2012. >> it's really saturated. it's almost all negative. i mean, the difference between other cycles is this is just one race. in other cycles, you know, you'll have governors ads, legislative ads, congressional ads. this is just all one race. both the candidates like to say this is mostly a local election.

but that's -- you know, we're not debating curbside recycling programs. we're debating obamacare, medicare, social security. >> so give us the if democrats lose and if republicans lose here, what will they wish they did better? so if the democrats lose, what will they be saying? what will they be second guessing themselves? if jolly loses, what will be the second guessing that goes on with the gop? >> you nailed it in the setup. democrats being democrats, they'll point fingers at one another and blame each other. i think alex sink has run a very good campaign. and very cautious. they kept alex sink away from vultures like chuck todd, moderated debate, would have had some tough questions. the jolly campaign, his message has been all over the place. his fund-raising is weak. he is not the most appealing candidate in person. i think the republicans will

have more finger pointing at jolly than the democrats can have, at least fairly, at alex sink. >> all right. adam smith, political editor for the tampa bay times, the man who will be up -- i don't know. we'll see if we're up late. we had to look up the recount provision just in case. you never know. >> remember, overseas ballots could be ten days away. >> see, something else to look forward to. thank you, sir. turning now to new developments in a search that's both unbelievable and unprecedented in modern times, entering a fourth day with not a single sign of that massive boeing 777 that vanished off the coast of malaysia. this morning we're learning more about those two passengers that had boarded the flight with stolen passports. authorities say one of them was an iranian teenager, apparently trying to migrate to germany, with no known terrorist links. the other man has been identified by interpol as a 29-year-old with an iranian passport. information is still becoming

available on that front. the inspector general says they're looking at several scenarios for what happened on boa board. >> we are looking into four areas. one is hijacking. two, sabotage. three, psychological problem of the passengers and crew and, four, personal problem among passengers and crew. >> search and rescue teams have expanded their search to include the waters off malaysia and thailand and the land in between. the military has been told to search the mountains and the jungles. there is some concern that maybe the plane literally disappeared into the mud of the jungles. now at least nine countries are involved in this search. they are sending at least two dozen ships along with aircraft. two of those ships are from the united states. nbc's tom costello explains, searchers have the plane's

last-known position but almost nothing else to go on. >> reporter: so far, no one has heard the underwater pinger attached to the black boxes that should be good for up to 30 days. no emergency locater beacon signals and no radar track showing where the plane might be. >> meanwhile, nbc's keir simmons is in malaysia with more on the search and, frankly, the families that are frantic. >> hey, chuck, good morning. ware hearing from reuters quoting a malaysian military source who says it believes it may have tracked flight 370 all the way west of here to the straits. at the same time the plane itself stopped giving out signals hundreds of miles northeast of here over the south china sea. that suggests that it may well have diverted and traveled some distance before it did finally disappear. >> that would go to the theory of going back to that payne

stewart plane crash, the golfer, where it was basically a ghost flight for a few hours, that the crew was incapacitated. 227 passengers and 12 crew members were on board flight 370 when it disappeared. most of them were in china, taiwan and ma lalaysia. we'll be updating you on the search effort throughout this day. of course, we'll be bringing you any new developments on that front as well as what else we're watching today. it's a big day in new jersey. and the bridge scandal that's been haunting governor christie. after months of staying out of the public eye, the ousted christie aide, bridget ann kelly will appear in court. we'll bring you that live on msnbc. also this morning, my colleague, andrea mitchell, interviews john brennan, cia director, at 11:00 at the council of foreign relations. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on nbc. i always say be the man with the plan

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well, a mountain of money headlines tops today's "tdr" focus. how much money can be raised by selling legalized marijuana, something other states and even other countries will be watching closely. colorado legalized pot last fall but didn't go on sale until january. first figure frts revenue department which show in january the sales of marijuana, recreational and medical generated more than $3.5 million in tax revenue and fees. strip away the medical marijuana and its licensing costs and the sale of recreational marijuana alone brought in over $2 million in sales taxes alone. by way of comparison, furniture stores brought in about $5 million in sales tax revenue, electronics stores brought in $4

million and stores selling recreational/medical marijuana brought in $2 million combined. the director of colorado's revenue department says profits are in line with the expectations that they had. she also said a clear picture of pot's earning potential will be available by next month and that marijuana revenue will be included in futures. question now, of course, is what to do with all that new money. first 40 million is dedicated to school construction. after that, it's up for grabs. governor's latest proposal assumes $143 million in marijuana-related revenue and wants the bulk of that to deterring underage use and boosting substance abuse treatment. chiefs of police is calling for more law enforcement funding with that money. of course, lawmakers have their own ideas of how to use it. state's joined budget committee

is planning to brief lawmakers about their options tomorrow. right now, i'm joined by one of those lawmakers, republican state senator david balmer out of colorado. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, chuck. >> now, i know you were somebody who was opposed to the original amendment for the recreational use but said once it was passed it was your duty to uphold the law. that's what the referendum did. let me ask you. your first reaction to those january revenue figures and what it did for the state budgets. >> thank you, chuck. the numbers are still a he question mark. the governor's projections will be that we are going to have somewhere around $130 million and so when you take the first $40 million for school construction, the rest of it is up for grabs. and i think that a lot of legislators are looking at the law enforcement requests as being the most serious requests. the law enforcement is dealing with a number of new

property-related crimes. you have to remember that these marijuana businesses are all cash businesses. >> right. >> they do not have bank accounts. the banks are not allowed to offer them banking services. so, these marijuana businesses are operating everything in cash, from paying for their hydration systems. >> right. >> paying for their lighting systems, renting their warehouses. warehouse space in denver now is going for as much as 15 bucks a square foot and the owners renting these warehouses are renting them with suitcases full of cash because they do not have bank accounts. >> let's go through that and let me pause you there. federal government, marijuana, because it is considered a controlled substance, while there have been some guidelines that essentially have given washington state and colorado

the ability to essentially go around federal law and the justice department, there needs to be, you believe, congress itself has to pass a law that gives states like colorado and washington, that have approved this, made it legal, banks in those states to operate with marijuana dealers. is that correct? you need a law in congress passed? >> yes, chuck. in fact, it would apply to all marijuana businesses nationwide, because there's medical marijuana businesses in 20 states. and, basically, the banks are regulated by the fed and the fdic. and they are required after the september 11th attacks to know their customers. and so they do a lot of work, checking their customers. and that's all according to federal law. and once a bank discovers that a customer is actually a marijuana business, then the bank has to notify that customer that they can no longer be their bank. and so the marijuana stores,

unfortunately, when they bring in their cash to deposit it in a bank, it smells like marijuana. it smells like pot. >> right. >> so the banks say, i'm sorry. we cannot deposit this money for you, because it violates federal law and we could use our federal bank charter if we deposit this money. so the marijuana stores are spraying their cash with perfume. they're spraying it with air freshener to try to get the marijuana smell off but that's not really working. >> let me ask you this. do you think because of the cash thing that here we have the first january revenue estimates being brought in, do you think that's actually low and if there were a banking system and this were being done above-board without the cash transactions that are being forced upon these businesses that the revenue numbers would be even higher? >> possibly. i actually think that the marijuana stores are trying to be honest. but even the marijuana stores are having a hard time keeping

track of all of their transactions. because, when you think about it, every business normally uses banks for everything. they use banks for credit card transactions. they use banks to pay their employees. they use banks to do everything. and marijuana stores don't. they don't use banks for anything. so, it is difficult to have a good accounts of how much sales they're actually doing and, therefore, how much taxes they actually owe. >> very quickly before i let you go, what do you think the marijuana legalization has done to colorado's image? good or bad? >> well, it's interesting. i think it is bringing a lot of young people to the state. denver is the number one destination for young people in america. so, our state is growing from a population standpoint, attracting young people who like the way that our state views marijuana legalization.

a number of businesses that are in the tourism business say it's a mixed bag. we are losing perhaps some family vacationers, who normally come to colorado. but it's being made up for with new, young people that are coming here to ski and take advantage of the fact that they are allowed to buy marijuana here in colorado. >> sounds like you think it's a net positive. >> actually, i'm getting that from tourism experts who are telling me that it's a wash. we're losing family vacationers but we're getting young people. >> all right. david balmer, state senator out of colorado. senator balmer, thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you, chuck. developing now, our nbc new york affiliate. they report that bridget ann kelly has just arrived for her court appearance today. former deputy chief of staff for governor chris christie, one of the key figures in the george

washington bridge scandal. she has rarely been seen in public since the scandal. that's her in the pink jacket there. when the news first broke in january. she was the staffer who wrote that infamous e-mail who said time for some traffic problems in ft. lee. whether kelly should be forced to comply with a subpoena and turn over all the documents, including even more text messages, et cetera. kelly's lawyer tells nbc news that the fifth amendment should protect his client from having to turn over those documents and all those text messages. also an attorney for bill stepien, governor christie's former campaign manager and political concigliary, is expected in court today. stepien himself is not expected to attend. , the world's most intelligent servers, designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance, using forty percent less energy. multiply that across over a thousand locations,

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the obama administration desperately needs to enroll in the healthcare coverage. but in the first four months of healthcare sign-ups, young people have made up just 25% of the pool. that's a big problem. march 31st enrollment deadline approaching, the president has been taking his healthcare push to the intertubes and recorded this interview with zach galifianakis. >> do you mainly stick with dot govs? >> have you heard of healthcare.gov? >> i heard about that. that's the thing that doesn't work. why would you get the guy that created the zune to make your website is this. >> healthcare.gov works great now. millions of americans have already gotten health insurance plans and what we want is for people to know that you can get

affordable healthcare. most young americans right now, they're not covered. >> the whole thing is funny, it's weird. it's funny. but it's funny. today's tdr trivia question, by the way, when was the last time colorado did not vote for the winner in a presidential election? give us the old chance to find out if you get the shout out. be the first person to tweet the correct answer @chucktodd or @dailyrundown. no two people have the same financial goals. pnc investments works with you to understand yours and helps plan for your retirement. talk to a pnc investments financial advisor today. ♪

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essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities or any you're looking live here at the senate florida, head of the senate committee, dianne feinstein, is railing against the cia, a standalone computer network established for members of congress. all part of its investigation into the allegations of cia abuse in a bush era detention and interrogation program.

she has been on the floor discussing the cia and ongoing detention and interrogation study. feinstein, usually one of the democrats that defends the use of some of these controversy kral intelligence measures. she has been railing on the cia, particularly on this idea that the cia was actually spying on u.s. senators and their staff. trust is at an all-time low between those two entities. >> now to the latest on ukraine. the clock is ticking towards sunday's vote of the region for crimea to -- on monday a meeting between secretary of state john kerry and russian president putin did not take place as russia had suggested it might. u.s. officials say it's not going to happen unless russia changes its ways. >> we think there needs to be concrete evidence that russia is prepared to engage on these proposals and in these discussions in a serious way.

>> administration officials tell nbc that kerry told russian foreign minister lavrov he won't engage in talks until russia stops its military advances and backs away from sunday's referendum. jim maceda has more on what's going on from the point of view of moscow. >> reporter: the ousted ukrainian president, viktor yanukovych appeared again in southern russia. he told journalists he was still the only legitimate leader of ukraine, echoing the kremlin's position there. in kiev sumarily firing government officials and that mass men were patroling the streets of he kiev and that crimea was about to secede from ukraine. meanwhile, russian or pro-russian forces have taken control of virtually all the ukrainian military bases in

crimea amid reports that ukrainian journalists and activists are being beaten or kidnapped by unidentified gunmen. five days before the referendum there, chuck, tension is at a breaking point. back to you. >> that's for sure. thank you, jim. our next number in your tuesday data bank. 29. as in 29 days. that's the number of full days that the house or senate has met or held votes this year. 29 days. it's march, folks! it begs the question, congress hard at work or hardly working? day 29 in the senate, though, did stretch into an all-nighter. we'll have more on the body's 14 hour, 26-minute talk-a-thon. did it do what organizers hoped it would do, bring more attention to climate change? first, tdr colorado soup of the day, they're serving up chicken tortilla today. enjoy that while you're not

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time now tore today's deep di dive. senate democrats wrapped up an all-night 13-hour talk-a-thon on kriemt change. brian schatz helped organize 28 democrats and 2 independents to form what he says is the senate climate action task force, came armed with dozens of charts and climate facts. two years ago senate majority leader harry reid didn't move forward on a climate change bill and refused to say much on the topic. last night, he became the person that led the charge. >> seriousness of this climate problem is not lost on our average american. the vast majority of americans believe climate change is real. they believe it's here. >> but republican leader mitch

mcconnell launched a criticism of the event even before the democrats could even start talking. >> families are losing work because of government attacks on the coal industry. communities are hurting. and tonight you're going to hear 30 hours of excuses from a group of people who think that's okay. it's cruel to tell struggling coal families that they can't have a job because some billionaire, some billionaire in san francisco disagrees with their line of work. >> of course, coal pretty big in kentucky. mcconnell is hoping that anger in the coal sector helps him in his race, both in the primary and in the general there. climate is consistently ranked at the bottom in recent polls among priorityies. even more thought climate issue should not be pursued at all. 41% say climate issues can be

delayed until next year. there was a media matter survey at the sunday talk shows that found that politicians only talked about climate change for 27 minutes across the board for all of 2013. all four major networks ended up covering it in some form or another. of course, we've had dramatic weather across the country, droughts in california and, of course, the rough winter weather here in the northeast and midatlantic. five red state democrats, not surprisingly, opted out of the climate marathon last night. begich, hagan, landrieu, pryor and warner. they did join the climate marathon last night, four more purple state democrats. >> the fact is, as we've heard, climate change is real and it is happening. >> we can't leave it to future generations. last year, my first grandchild, joe, was born. and i don't want to look back in

20 years and tell swrjoe that w we were in a position to do something about climate change we chose not to because it involved difficult choices. >> we've seen in my state this is not an obscure threat or distant problem. we've had catastrophic floods and mega wildfires. it's threatening our very way of life. >> carbon pollution, a direct assault on our rural resources, on our farming, our fishing and on our forestry. >> by the way, who feels a little bit old to find out al franken is a grandfather? anyway, billionaire donor like this one, tom stire, as he confirmed he has pledged $100 million in seed money for climate causes and to fight the approval of the keystone pipeline. could the climate talk hurt those candidates in tough races or help them secure some key campaign funding? did the all-night attention grabber accomplish another goal? trying to get more attention to the issue itself?

i'm joined by one of the participants, senator tim kaine, democrat from virginia. good morning to you, sir. >> chuck, good morning to you with you. >> glasses half full for those climate change activists, seeing 30 democrats doing what you did last night. glass is half empty. they see 20 democrats, including those in the toughest fights in 2014 duck the issue for fear that it could be used against them. how do you assess the politics of this? >> you know, in virginia, chuck, and as i think you have pointed out, virginia might be the best bellwether state in america in terms of the match for the electorate and national electorate. i ran for the senate in 2012 and we asked them. and overwhelmingly, what virginians think is this. that the science that demonstrates a connection between human activity and climate change is real. we believe it. and we need to do something about it. now, what exactly to do about it and how quickly is the subject of a lot of debate.

but virginians are overwhelmingly pro-science. they're worried about effects on ag. >> let me ask you about the do something. can you get stuff done without having to first have the debate about whether cloiimate change man made or not man made but say, okay, we still have to deal with the sea wall issue in, say, virginia beach. >> actually, chuck, you're right. i think the scientific consensus is clear about this. and virginians accept it. even if you don't want to debate the science, we had a massive debate about the flood insurance program. it was on the verge of insolvency. homes that had never been in the flood plain before are now in the flood plain and are seeing insurance premiums spike up dramatically. we are spending money on this issue, debating this issue and fixing the problems already.

we could pay money to fix the problem after it's occurred or we can take the preventive steps that will keep these severe weather challenges from getting worse. >> where are you on keystone? >> i'm against it. not because of the pipeline. i with his a mayor. we had all kinds of gas pipelines in our gas utility. i don't think we should be exploiting the oil. cloner tomorrow than today. tar sands oil is dirtier. let's go forward and make it cleaner. >> where are you on coal? do you think we should stop building new coal plants? >> cleaner tomorrow than today. if we can do cleaner coal tomorrow than today, we should. when i was governor, we permitted and built a coal plant in wise county, virginia, that reduced sulphur dioxide, mercury, water use. we can do the same thing reducing carbon emissions.

we've got to be cleaner tomorrow than we are today. >> thank you very much. >> thanks, chuck. i want to turn to the sierra club and their federal campaign deputy director, linda pierce. >> how are you? >> thank you for join iing me. the environmental community is trying to do this pr effort to get more attention to climate change. the question i have, though, do you continue -- why is it necessary to focus on this debate to get republicans, for instance, to accept the fact that it's man made versus saying -- tabling that for now since it becomes this polarizing issue and instead focus on the problems that senator cakaine w talking about, flood wall issues? regardless of whether you think it's man made or something occurring naturally, there are issues that need addressed. >> the effects of climate change on their doorstep. droughts, flooding, wildfire. there's no question that we need to take action on climate. what we're seeing is a lack of

will from the folks who are occupying the capitol dome take on this issue even when their constituents want to see action on climate and see the benefit of a clean energy economy. >> do you think you would get more action if you moved away from the debate about manmade versus occurring naturally? they're thinking about building new, higher walls in new york city? everybody realizes stuff has to change regardless of the science. no? >> that's right. that's right. >> should you be focusing more on that? >> we are focusing on infrastructure and community resilience. frankly, that's all that will be accomplished in this congress. we need to renew tax incentives and improve energy efficiency. the big ticket climate items maybe in the future

>> was last night disappointing because you have 20 democrats afraid of the issue or encouraging because you have 30 democrats that raised the issue? >> well, what i like to hear last night is all the leaders in the capital saying we need action in congress, leaders like senator cain, who realizes the constituencies want to move away from dirty energy to clean. >> a lot didn't want to do it. >> we'll be out there helping them out. >> thanks for coming in. here we are, bridget kelly, of course, the chris christie aide with the infamous e-mail. she is in court right now. we'll show you some live pictures of that. right now that is her lawyer in the way of the pink jacket there. she is just behind that person. it's all about whether they can get some of the subpoenas quashed, which is what they are hoping to do. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman,

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time now for my if it's tuesday takeaway. as we noted earlier, it's an unprecedented amount of money being spent in this one special election in one swing district in one swing state. outside groups alone have spent nearly $9 million on this race to replace the late congressman bill young. when you add in candidate spending, $10 million, now we estimate it to be $13 million and when all is said and done, it will probably be closer to $14 or $15 million spent in one house race. if this is the kind of money spent in every one of the house races this year, the total would be just shy of $600 million, not even touching senate races, and look how this compares in the average amount spent in successful senate races in recent years. i'm talking about statewide races. in the 2002 midterms, i could show you here, the average cost of a senate race was $4 million for the winning senate

candidate. in 2004, that jumped to about $7 million. in 2006, you see it keep going up, $7.5 million, 2012, $10 million. more money is going to be spent on one side than successful winning senate races just 12 years ago. we're going to look at competitive races easily and house races are going to get close to $15 to $20. senate races, $50 to $100 million, depending on the size of states and media markets. these are unprecedented amounts of money. yes, we know we cry wolf about money, money, money in politics, but folks, it is astronomical. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." chris jansing is up next. live coverage of the bridge hearings in trenton right now, barbara buono will join chris jansing after the break.

i'm meteorologist bill karins with your business travel forecast. during the day today, the weather's going to go downhill in a hurry across the central plains. if we're going to have significant airport problems, late today, into this evening, areas like chicago, kansas city, st. louis, very warm day from texas to the east coast. enjoy it while it lasts. (knochello?

hey, i notice your car is not in the driveway. yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. that's hilarious. sorry. you shoulda taken it to midas. get some of that midas touch. they tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. next time i'm going to midas. high-five! arg! i did not see that coming. trust the midas touch. for brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling)

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good morning, i'm chris jansing, and we begin with breaking news from trenton, new jersey, inside the courtroom, the next act is getting under way for the political payback drama that is governor chris christie's administration, a scandal that could threaten his potential 2016 run. here's where we are right now, bridget kelly, who was fired for her role in bridgegate, fighting for her right to remain silent and not respond to lawmakers' subpoenas. kelly was behind the infamous e-mail that read, "time for some traffic problems in ft. lee." "got it," said david wildstein. the access to the george washington bridge caused monumental traffic jams and this ongoing political and league quagmire. it's not just kelly, bill stepien is there, as well.