end me endometriosis. my mouth, i could barely speak the words. but everybody was so excited, and it was a great event. you're headed to new hampshire. you're going to be speaking at the newt of politics tonight about your book. we look forward to hearing about that. now it's time for kristin welker with "the daily rundown." have a great weekend. >> a bipartisan deal, yes, you heard that correctly, after months of talks, senators from both parties actually agree to a plan to ex-tetend long-term unemployment insurance benefits, but what will the house do with it? also, pressuring putin on the heels of a public plea in the u.s. by ukraine's prime minister. secretary kerry meets face to face with his russian counterpart in london. we'll hear where the chair of the ukraine caucus thinks things are headed. new signs scott brown is

close to a senate bid in new hampshire. and mining for golden nuggets in little rock. another clinton document dump is sure to make some news. and a very good morning. happy friday, everyone. it is friday, march 14th, 2014. and this is "the daily rundown." i'm kristin welk aer in for chu todd. the expanding search for the passenger jetliner that vanished on its way to beijing. the search is now entering its seventh day, and there's still no sign of the plane or its 239 passengers and crew members. hundreds of family members have gathered in malaysia to await word, but this morning investigators said they have got nothing to go on. >> i speak for the malaysian people when i say that our hearts are with the families and the friends of those on board the plane. we want nothing more than to find the plane as quickly as possible. >> malaysian officials confirmed this morning they searched the pilots' homes but found no

clues. nbc a nbc's keir simmons has more on the co-pilot. >> reporter: i'm outside the house of the co-pilot of flight 370. there's an ordinary middle-class street. on either side of the house are nurseries. all day children have been playing in this street. he is 27 years old. people here say that he's a nice guy, dedicated to his work, they say. he is often away. pretty constantly away flying. but when he is here, they say he is deeply religious and goes to the mosque to pray. let me just show you right at the end of the street here, just a short walk away is his mosque. about 1,000 people pray here, apparently. we're told that when fariq is here, he will go pray at the mosque five times a day. we've been talking to people out here in the street, too, about that one speculative possibility that the pilots might be investigated to see if they were in control of the plane.

people here looking absolutely shocked when that possibility is put to them. back to you. >> keir simmons, thank you for that report. and nbc's tom costello continues our coverage now with the very latest on the search. tom, they have expanded the search area. what's the very latest? what do you make of that? >> we've got a couple of headlines. let's begin with this. a lot of questions, not a lot of answers here. there's a chinese report that there was a -- some sort of a deep-ocean event, almost a seismic event that occurred about 90 minutes after the plane went down at the last point of contact. right up there, 90 minutes after the last point of contact. we have no idea what that event was. we also know two communications systems on board the plane stopped working. a data feed that's last transmission was 14 minutes before the transponder stopped working. so did someone turn those off, or was there some sort of a catastrophic failure? we know the plane kept pinging a satellite suggesting it kept

flying beyond the original search zone. so towards the strait of malacca and then up towards the sea of andaman and the indian ocean. they've expanded it out the potential area for where this plane could be. because they believe that this plane may have flown on for another four to five hours. so that, therefore, becomes 2500 miles that the plane could have flown in. and you can see on the top, we have china. on the bottom, australia. and way out into the indian ocean. at the moment, the indian ocean is what they're focusing on. they believe it's possible that the plane could be out in the indian ocean based on these pingers. let me tell you what i'm talking about. i'm going to ask my teleprompter operator to scroll forward here just a little bit because experts are telling us that through some sophisticated mathematical calculations, it may be possible to get a general location, a fix for where this plane was based on the arc of the actual flight. and if that's possible, they may get a better sense of where it was. back to you, kristin. >> tom, one quick follow-up. you talk about the fact that the

plane continued to ping the satellite. that's one of the latest developments. does that suggest or make it more likely that this could be something more sinister instead of mechanical failure? >> i think that that clearly at this point is a major consideration. you have to believe that. if this plane was flying for another four or five hours and if it did, in fact, make that left-hand hook as the military radar now suggests, then those pieces of evidence do indeed suggest that probably somebody intentionally turned the aircraft back and the plane kept flying. why would the transponders go down and also the reporting system, that data transmission? why would all of that go down? it's possible that somebody could have turned them off. it's possible somebody pulled the circuit breaker on that, the bus system. i don't think you can take catastrophic failure off the table here, but the folks we talked to believe that is increasingly unlikely. >> all right. tom costello, thank you for your ongoing reporting on this. we appreciate it.

and we want to turn now to capitol hill where after months of backroom negotiations and several failed attempts, the sn senate has reached a deal on extending jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. a group of ten senators led by rhode island's jack reed and nevada's dean heller has hammered out a deal which would provide five months of jobless aid for more than 1 million americans. now, that includes 2 1/2 months of back payments. the program lapsed at the end of december when congress could not negotiate a compromise. the sticking point has been how to pay for that $10 billion measure. this new bill is paid for temporarily by changing the way private corporations fund their pensions and by extending fees on goods coming through u.s. customs. now, the deal also makes structural changes to the benefits program requiring more job training, but it's not clear those adjustments will be good enough for house republicans. house speaker john boehner has said in the past he would block similar measures, but with house

republicans eager to focus on health care ahead of 2014, quietly allow a deal to get done? we'll have to see. nbc's kelly o'donnell is here with me. thanks so much. appreciate it. how did this bipartisan deal come together? >> well, i think what's so critical here is you have some of these sort of usual suspects when it comes to bridge building, deal making, more moderate types. you also have something -- my home state is high hohio and yo both the republican and democratic senator coming together. and we have to look at the two people who pulled this off, dean heller and jack reed. nevada in particular, very high unemployment rate. so there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes conversations going on. and it was one of those moments where my first indication was talking to susan collins of maine in the hallways yesterday where just a few cryptic words, "we have a deal." and there was kind of an electric moment where people were running this down. what's so key is five republicans is what's needed to get it over the hurdle of that 60-vote threshold that is so often a sticking point in the senate. unclear what happens in the house.

i'm told too early to tell at this point. but why this matters is that there is a way to pay for it. if you remember, part of the conversation was does it need to be paid for at all? because it's considered -- and certainly in elm dids' mi democ minds, this is an emergency piece of legislation to help people who have been without checks since the end of december. so there is real compromise in finding a way to pay for it. another detail is if someone had earned $1 million and then lost their job, they would not be eligible for this kind of assistance. and that is certainly in terms of messaging helpful for republicans to gain their support. >> absolutely. and you have such strong bipartisan support in the senate. i wonder, does that help to get it through the house, and do house republicans see this as politically advantageous to take it off the table in 2014? >> well, certainly the greater the numbers in the senate, we always say does that lead to a message to the house? and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. i think the strong bipartisanship is helpful

certainly. and i think there is a mood right now that if this could be dealt with, it does allow, then, republicans in the who us to focus on some other things they're interested in. likely if it gets to the point -- let's say they do bring it to the floor and there's a vote, certainly democrats in the house will carry this. so you would need a lesser number of republicans to make it happen. i think right now the headline is a deal in the senate. and that enough is a story to tell. and we'll have to see if it unfolds. you know, they're gone next week, back in their home states and districts. then they'll actually vote on this after that. >> yeah, words we haven't heard in a little while. >> deal is a good thing. >> absolutely. kelly o'donnell, thank you so much. appreciate it. we want to take a live look now at the house democrats gathering for an event about affordable health care for latino americans. now, this comes just hours after president obama met with members of the congressional hispanic caucus and announced the white house is reviewing deportation practices. the president will meet today with groups advocating immigration reform. he'll fit that meeting in

between st. patrick's day celebrations. we will have much more on the white house's st. paddy's day traditions coming up. but first, a look at the politics planner. you're watching "the daily rundown." a little later on today, we're going to get that clinton document dug. stay with us. r hearburn? yea. try alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heart burn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. alka-seltzer fruit chews. enjoy the relief! on my journey across america, i've learned that when you ask someone in texas if they want "big" savings on car insurance, it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair...

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we're wrapping up our focus this week on colorado. and with each state we spotlight, we want to leave you with some names you may not know but you should know them because they will likely be big names in a few years down the road. we talked to the state's best political reporters and experts to get their take. so here's our narrowed-down list. we'll start with the republican liesing stars. first up, colorado state representative cla reese navarro

ratsloff, first elected in 2012 to represent colorado's 47th district. and her next step could be the u.s. house of representatives. she has been mentioned as a possible candidate in the 4th congressional district race. next up, colorado state treasurer walker stapleton. a cousin of former president george w. bush. stapleton is likely to cruise to re-election this year. and he's been mentioned as a potential candidate for higher office. george brownshler is the third republican on our list. the arapahoe county district attorney gained national recognition of the aurora theater shooting case. he was considering a run in 2013 but has said his first priority is leading the death penalty case against james holmes which will play out for several months beginning later this fall. turning to the democrats now, we begin with state senate president morgan carroll. carroll replaced democrat john morse last year after he was ousted from office in september for his support of stricter gun laws. before that, carroll searched as

majority leader. she is widely considered a potential statewide candidate and could become the state's first female u.s. senator or governor if she runs. next up is state senator jesse. the latino and openly gay senator is widely acknowledged as a rising star among latinos and the lgbt community. and lastly, state representative dan pabone. he is thought to be very ambitious and a potential future denver d.a. candidate. joining me now to take a look at all of these rising stars, nbc news senior political editor mark murray, someone you have certainly heard of before. mark, help me break this all down. a lot of these candidates who we just talked about have actually entered onto the national stage in some way, shape or form in terms of getting engaged in some of the larger national issues in the state of colorado. talk a little bit about that and how that might set the stage for them moving forward. >> what i find fascinating about

all these candidates, these are the people we're probably going to be talking about in this very important battleground state over the next sis or eigx or ei years. what's so striking about colorado is the democratic dominance in the state dating back to 2004 when ken salazar won. and since then democrats have won every big contest, whether for united states senate, for the governor's race and, of course, in the presidential contests. and we've seen so many different people come and go on the democratic side. i mentioned ken salazar. you have mark udall, michael bennett, john hickenlooper, the governor. and, you know, the eye is going to be a lot on these republicans on whether they can start cracking that colorado code. the democratic success in the presidential elections have led the democrats to rack up big electoral college wins. and then, of course, you know, the reason that democrats hold the majority in the senate today is a lot due to their success in colorado and other kind of blue/purple battlegrounds. >> you also have some hispanic stars really on both sides of

the aisle here, mark. >> mm-hmm. well, that's right. >> how does that play for them as potential candidates moving forward? >> the latino vote is incredibly crucial in colorado. 21% of residents are latino in the state. we saw president obama ride to a pretty impressive victory, a lot bigger than many expected and we thought in the polls. and primarily because of that latino vote. and we've seen some republicans and latinos take center stage in nearby new mexico, you have the governor, susana martinez, is someone like clarice ratzloff going to become a susana martinez, that's a story we're watching. >> thanks for breaking all that down. we appreciate it. >> thanks. this week we took you to the centennial state and examined the rocky road that carried a lot of colorado from red to blue in recent years. so which state is up next in our tdr 50? drum roll, please. it is illinois.

the land of lincoln and doerksen, president obama and a lot of governors who went to prison. we'll dive into the state's legendary machine politics, the culture of corruption and urban/rural evolution that foretold what happened to a lot of other states. you won't want to miss that. from the land of lincoln to the granite state, that's the first stop in our "data bank." the number is 493. that's how many days it's been since scott brown lost the senate race to elizabeth warren. now there's word he's forming a committee to explore a bid for senator jeanne shaheen's seat for the midterm. brown could be the republicans' best shot at beating shaheen this fall. he spent the last year fund-raising for other gop candidates. and before we go, today's tdr 50 trivia which, which mining town in colorado claims it got its name because there were too many other towns with silver in their names? it's not a precious metal, but you will win an on-air shout-out if you're the first person to tweet the correct answer to

@dailyrundown. the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown" when we come right back. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. jen launched rent the runway on the web in 2009. customers rent dresses and accessories for a fraction of what it would cost to buy them. mobile became 25% of their traffic. so they launched a very successful app last year. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum.

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say it with milk-bone. new developments this morning in the environmental crisis unfolding in north carolina where residents are still waiting for the third largest coal spill in history to be cleaned up. on february 2nd, a pipe collapsed at a plant owned by duke energy, the nation's largest electricity provider, leaking at least 35 million tons of contaminated water into north carolina's dan river and coating 70 miles along the river with toxic sludge. you're looking at video and stills posted by greenpeace. now, coal ash is the by-product that's left over after coal is burned and can contain high levels of arsenic and also mercury. affording to federal officials, ash near the spill is still five feet thick. now, after the spill, state regulators gave duke energy

until saturday to present a detailed plan for cleaning up its sites. and on wednesday, the company responded in a four-page letter saying it plans to remove ash from three sites and place the waste into landfills. but those are just 3 of the 14 coal-fired plants duke energy owns in north carolina. and environmental critics say that for years the agency has taken no action to stop the seepage of coal ash from 32 basins at those plants. before taking office, governor pat mccrory worked for duke, and some environmental groups have accused him and state regulators of being too cozy with duke. he denies that claim. yesterday the state's department of environment and natural resources called duke's plan inadequate. then there's the question of how the spill's cleanup will be paid for. on wednesday, the governor said the decision on who should pay for -- should be left to the state's utilities commission saying, quote, you make decisions based on data and research, not based on politics. what we don't need to do is have

every politician get in the details of that. mccrory appoints members of that commission. now, also on thursday, an ongoing fight between the state and the southern environmental law center broke into public view when the environmental group released selected e-mails that it claims shows an inappropriately close coordination between duke energy and the department of environment and natural resources. with that, michael besicker has been covering the story for the associated press, and he joins me now live. michael, thank you so much for your reporting and for being here this morning. we really appreciate it. >> oh, good morning. thank you for having me. >> before we get to the e-mails, i first want to talk about the very latest. what's being done to clean up this historically large spill? where are we with that? >> well, the cleanup will likely take years, if it can be cleaned up, you're talking about 70 miles of river bottom. so short of dredging all those miles of river, the coal ash will be very difficult to remove. duke is focused on getting that big, i guess, slug that you

mentioned right at the site of the spill about five feet deep and 70, 80 yards long. >> and, of course, there's this big discussion about who's going to pay for the removal process of their other coal ash ponds. now, duke has said they're going to pay for the cleanup of this spill, but it's unclear right now who's going to pay for the cleanup and the removal of those coal ash ponds. you heard the governor say that the utilities should figure out how that's going to be handled. is it possible that duke's customers could wind up paying for that? >> well, in fact, duke's ceo, len good, said that customers will pay for the cleanup and removal of the ash ponds if there's legislation passed or a legal ruling requiring them moving away from rivers and lakes. you know, these are pretty enormous, unlined ash pits typically located at coal-fired power plants because after the coal is burned, the ash is put in those ponds for water to be

filtered po eed out. and they remain there. and because they're unlined, they leak groundwater. so even before the spill, environmental groups have been trying to push duke to clean up these ponds and remove the toxic ash away from the state's waterways where they could be contaminated. >> and michael, just to be clear, there's been a lot of outrage about the notion that customers should have to pay for this, hasn't there? some legislators there also speaking out about this. >> that's true. it will be politically difficult for lawmakers if rate payers, duke's customers, end up having to pay for the several hundred million dollars it will likely cost for the cleanup. duke is a $50 billion company. it had more than $3 billion in revenue last year. so there's a lot of people who think that it's duke's investors, if anyone should take a hit, it should be them, not the rate payers and customers across the state.

>> and i want to get to these e-mails now. to be clear, these are e-mails that were exchanged between state regulators and duke attorney attorneys. prior to this spill, they were reaching a settlement about how duke should clean up its pollution. some say they are questionable. when you look at some of the e-mails, they seem pretty benign. i want to read one of them, though. we have a full screen of it which says "we think it makes sense for the consent order to set out deadlines by which the two companies will provide plans to the department for completion of the required activities rather than deadlines by which the activities will be completed." now, that's from charles case who's an attorney for duke. the north carolina department of environment and natural resources responded to the release of these e-mails, saying "any reports based on selected excerpts from e-mails may provide an inaccurate account and shows a reckless disregard for facts about the events leading up to the filing of the lawsuits." and then duke responded saying,

"we're not going to comment on the details of in he specific e-mails, but we do communicate with regulators." the environmental law group is saying this shows an inappropriate relationship between duke and state regulators. what do you make of them? >> well, it does show they were cozy. you know, the allegation has been that when the so were environmental law center sought to use the clean water act, a provision to allow citizens groups essentially to file lawsuits in federal court when state officials have not taken action. and duke's coal ash ponds have been polluting groundwater for years. and they had never been fined. they had never been cited for a violation. so those groups wanted to take duke to federal court. under the law, however, the state agency has 60 days to file an enforcement action in which this case the state did do, and then very quickly they were in negotiations with duke that resulted in a proposed agreement that the environmentalist arrived was a sweetheart deal.

essentially duke, which is the nation's largest electricity company, would have paid a $99,000 fine and been under no requirement to actually clean up its pollution or stop pollution in the future. they were going to study the issue potentially for years. and these e-mails show that before that proposed consent order was agreed to, there were lots of meetings and lots of communications between attorneys for the state, state officials at the environmental agency, and then lawyers and lobbyists for duke that resulted in that proposed agreement. and the environmental groups that initially filed the legal action were excluded from that process. and so that's really what's at the root of this is did duke get a sweetheart deal from the state? >> and michael, just very quickly because we're almost out of time, people can drink the water who live along the dan river, but they can't go swimming in it. just paint a picture of what life is like there. >> i canoed the river a couple days after the spill, and it was

clogged with gray sludge. if you stuck your hand in the water, it would come out coated with it. it remains on the bottom of the river on the banks of the river for miles. when the water goes down, you can see it looks like an old gray dirty ring on a bathtub. >> all right. michael besicker of the associated press, thank you so much for all of your coverage. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. and we will keep watching that story for sure. meanwhile, the presidential document dump delivers our next data bankhead line. the number 4,000. that's how many pages of records will be released at 1:00 from the clinton presidential library. the records cover the florida recount and terrorism in the decade before 9/11. fascinating stuff. this is the second batch of records approved for release from the clinton library. we will be right back. for hearburn? yea. try alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heart burn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already.

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secretary of state john

kerry and russian foreign minister sergei lavrov are meeting in london today in a last-ditch effort before sunday's referendum to join russia. >> i look forward to an opportunity to dig into the issues and possibilities that we may be able to find about how to move forward. >> before leaving the u.s., kerry warned that russia does not currently have the capacity to take over ukraine but said that could change very quickly. on thursday ukraine's prime minister was in new york, asking the u.n. security council for help in confronting moscow. >> my country has faced a military aggression of a neighboring country which is the p-5 member. this aggression has no reasons and no grounds.

>> while russia's ambassador insisted his country does not want war, developments on the ground show they are preparing for one anyway. troops are carrying out operations in multiple regions along ukraine's eastern border. russian fighter jets and military helicopters are holding training exercises nearby. inside ukraine, tensions are high. violent protests between pro-russian supporters and supporters of the ukrainian government left at one person dead and more than a dozen injured. nbc's jim maceda is in washington. what's the latest with what appears to be a troop buildup for russian troops? >> reporter: well, first of all, we have a response from a british diplomat today who is calling these talks that are going on in london formidably difficult, and that really is diplomatic. the meetings going on now for about three hours. and after similar and unsuccessful meetings, kristin, in paris and in rome, now, the

u.s. side has really not given this much of a chance. it's calling it a last shot, a last-ditch effort before the referendum takes place in crimea. and by the way, in crimea, there are only two options on that ballot for crimeans to join russia or to become independent and then join russia as well. we understand that kerry presented lavrov with the best possible off-ramp, meaning the best option that gives crimea maximum autonomy, gives russian speakers maximum security, but keeps crimea within ukraine territory and sees a pullback of russian forces. now, if russia doesn't respond positively to that offer, that means come monday, we will see u.s. and eu publish names of russian and ukrainian individuals whose u.s. and eu visas will then be banned and whose u.s. and european assets will be frozen effective immediately. kristin? >> and jim, yesterday we heard some really strong language from

german chancellor angela merkel. something that i think a lot of people weren't exactly expecting, given the relationship between germany and russia. how does that play into putin's next move? does it have an impact on him? >> reporter: well, the very fact that it was the usuallily reluctant angela merkel when it comes to sanctions against russia, she's now leading the charge on sanctions. and that really shows that things have changed. these sanctions especially if putin remains defiant and the next wave of trade sanctions kicks in, these sanctions can seriously hurt his economy. analysts we've talked to here in moscow, they can isolate him. you can already sense the panic in russia's stock market today. it's hit a five-year low. this morning the rouble is off, like, 5% to the dollar. more than $50 billion, kristin, has left russia during this crisis. and by the way, that's exactly

how much he spent on his glorious olympics. back to you. >> interesting last point there. jim maceda, thank you so much. we appreciate that. back in the u.s., a bill that would provide aid to ukraine is on hold for at least ten days after congress recessed thursday without reaching a deal. both the house and senate passed bills, but neither chamber would agree to advance the other's legislation. now, the house bill included aid but no sanctions. the senate bill includes both, but its proposed changes for the international monetary fund that's drawn republican opposition. >> the imf money has nothing to do with the ukraine. i understand the administration wants the imf money. but it has nothing at all to do with ukraine. >> so we now have russian forces about to invade a sovereign nation. and what are we talking about? an imf fix. where in the world is our priorities? where in the world is our

sympathy and our concern and our need to support the people of ukraine in this hour of need? >> joining me now, ohio democratic congresswoman marcy captor whose grandparents were born in ukraine, and she is the co-chair of the congressional ukrainian caucus. thank you, congresswoman, for joining me. i really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> so given the latest developments in ukraine, given the referendum that seems all but inevitable at this point on sunday, do you anticipate that congress will agree to a sanctions bill? >> i think there's greater pressure on the republican leadership of the house to measure up. again, there is a split in their caucus which is very unfortunate. and there have been some statements made on the house side that hurt america's interests abroad. this is a time when we need to be united as americans. when we go beyond our borders,

especially in a situation like this where russia is behaving badly, we have to be united. so i would urge the leadership and the membership on the republican side in the house to get their act together as soon as possible. i commend senator mccain. he's on a plane right now. they probably landed in kiev. and with senators, they are meeting their obligations as political leaders of this country with probably the most vital political prices that has faced us since the fall of the berlin wall in that part of the world. it is very important we be strong and that we be united. >> and congresswoman, i just want to be clear on one point. you talk about the divide. a lot of discussion about the imf reforms. do you support them, or do you see them a distraction at this point given that on monday, a lot of folks are going to be pressing for sanctions? >> well, we've begun to kick in some of the sanctions.

already through the assistance of the united states, one of the ke kleptocratiic oligarchs was arrested. some of that money is going to be returned to ukraine as we unwind what happened. we worked with our allies on that. so some of our sanctions are already biting, and they will bite harder over the days and weeks ahead. hopefully it won't be weeks. but i think that the international monetary fund is the only instrumentality large enough to handle the financial crisis that ukraine faces. if you listen to certain individuals over in the senate during the debate the other day, they've got whole schemes in their mind to restructure the world banking system. this is not the time to do it. we have an immediate crisis at hand. we need to address the financing crisis that ukraine faces as a global community. this isn't just the united

states's job, but we have to be in the leadership role. >> and congresswoman, as you know, secretary kerry is meeting with his counterpart in london. are you hopeful that they are going to get anything done there? you heard jim maceda reporting that secretary kerry is offering his counterpart this off-ramp? so far the russians have not taken the u.s. up on that off-ramp. >> that is correct. the russians are playing, as they always do, kind of a russian roulette game here. it's not a game when people's lives are at stake. and when the interests of a sovereign nation are at stake. i think secretary kerry has gone the extra mile. i am so proud of our country. i'm so proud of nations like poland and lithuania, germany has just wrurung in really stro over the last couple of days. they've done their best. and you can see a seismic shift in the positioning of countries all over europe. there are 17 countries that have been part of the european union.

it's hard for them sometimes to agree. they are united. they've gotten their act together. and now we're seeing countries like romania, bulgaria, armenia who see themselves as next, moldova as paying attention and making their weight felt as well. so the world community is lining up. the visit of the prime minister yesterday to the united nations, his plea to the world, the world is waking up to what russia is really doing. so the cosmetics of the olympics and all of that propaganda, people are now seeing russia for what she really is. >> congresswoman kaptur, thank you so much for your perspective. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. a live look at london where we're expecting to hear from secretary of state john kerry in just a few minutes. today's tdr 50 colorado, we want to shift gears now and give you that. "the soup of the day" from breckenridge, they are serving up clam chowder.

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they have more power over how you vote than anyone else in the country. today we're looking at secretaries of state. mostly elected and sometimes appointed officials. they're getting a fresh look from officials, voters and in the case of the elected ones, outside groups, they realize that one of the best ways to have a leg up in elections is to support like-minded people who would be making the rules. for instance, you would have been hard pressed to find anyone outside of florida who knew secretary of state katherine harris in the summer of 2000, right? well, within six months, she became a national figure as the face of the florida recount, of course. the job has also been a springboard for some other notable politicians including senators jay rockefeller and sherrod brown as well as arizona governor jan brewer.

kentucky secretary of state allison grimes is hoping to move up to the u.s. senate by beating mitch mccconnell. nose names aside, secretaries of state are usually the most powerful people you don't know in state government, particularly when it comes to elections. although the duties vary from state to state, in most of them the secretary of state is the chief election official. they typically oversee the election process, train workers, interpret election laws and in some cases investigate fraud. and while they don't often make headlines, when they do, it can have huge implications. for that reason, at least three organizations, two on the democratic side and one republican, have been set up by national campaign veterans to try to defend secretary of state seats or beat back opposition. of the 27 seats up for grabs, 18 belong to republicans and 9 belong to democrats. now, the republican super pac alone is pledging to spend $10 million on these races.

and since these campaigns typically cost closer to $1 million as opposed to much more expensive senate and gubernatorial races, a little bit of outside money can go a long way. reed wilson covers state politics and policy for "the washington post's" gov beat blog, and he recently wrote about all of this. thank you for joining me. i appreciate it. let's talk about the evolution of this, these super pacs investing large amounts of money. >> huge amounts of money. in a lot of cases, the average secretary of state race costs maybe one-tenth of a governor's race, maybe less than that in a lot of cases. and this outside money, you know, not many people know who the secretary of state is. they deal with voting rights. this he deal with the dmv in a lot of states and sort of these just good government technocr technocratic kind of things. and now with the injection of money, people are starting to pay a lot more attention. primarily because they have so much power over everything that has to do with election administration in most states.

in states like ohio, the secretary of state has cut the number of early voting days. in other states, voting wars have become hugely important and those secretaries of state have power over everything from who gets an absentee ballot to how accessible absentee ballot applications are to early voting days and locations. all across the board, people are starting to realize that the makeup of the electorate, especially in that early voting period, can have a big outcome on elections. >> and one of the things that's so fascinating, traditionally these were not thought of as highly political positions. is there a risk to the fact that they are increasingly becoming more political? >> let me give one example. in my home state of washington, the governor in every gubernatorial election since 1984 has been a democrat. but in every secretary of state election since 1956, a republican has been elected. why is that? because there's this long line of republican secretaries of state who have just done a good job managing state government. they all come there the same line. they all sort of anoint their successors. and then they stay for 25 years or 30 years administering state

government and the dmv and elections and all that. and they do a pretty good job. so voters are -- reward them, and they never try to leap up to become a u.s. senator or governor or take a more partisan role. so electing secretaries of state isn't necessarily a bad thing. but this new money on both sides, the democrats are doing it, the republicans are doing it, really injects a level of partisanship that we haven't seen before. >> all right. reed wilson, thanks for helping us understand this really fascinating story. appreciate it. >> thank you. well, trivia time. leadville, colorado, says the founding fathers picked its names because there were lots of silv silver-named towns at the time. so congratulations to today's winner, zachary. hopefully i pronounced your name right. nice friday treat. and we will be right back with more. stay with us. salesperson #1: the real deal's the passat tdi clean diesel

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ireland's prime minister will meet with president obama

today just one of many white house saint paddy traditions. the fountain runs green. and there is a lunch with bagpipes. take a look. ♪ the irish prime minister delivers a cluster of shamrocks to the president. most years there is a party at the white house and the president along with much of official washington wears their best irish green. >> i want to welcome you. thank you for giving me an excuse to break out my green tie. >> and of course like many, the president lets loose a little. sometimes he rays a glass at a local d.c. pub. and there are always good jokes. >> it is wonderful to see so many wonderful irish americans as well as so many who wish they were. tens of millions of americans trace their the roots back to

the emerald i'sle. and on santa patrick's day, many more claim to. most who celebrate aren't irish anyway, so we shouldn't go on technicalities. looking at and you would of you, i'm reminded of a greeting president reagan once offered the guests. he said he should intend time with saints and scold lholars. so i have two more spots to make. it's 70 million strong which is impressive for a small island and even more impressive that they all find their way to america for st. patrick's day. i can make that joke as somebody of irish heritage. >> hope you have a great saint pat trig's day, everyone. that is it for this edition of the daily rundown. chris jansing is up next. the day we rescued riley was a truly amazing day.

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the clock is ticking. the secretary of state talking tough to london. but vladimir putin shows no sign of backing down. will there be a breakthrough before russia claims crimea. we could hear from john kerry any moment now after that meeting. the pope, the poor and politics. speaker boehner vice presidents the pope to congress, but will his message clash with culture on capitol hill. and the search for malaysia flight 370 and a frightening moment here in the united states. just when you thought it couldn't get more misty guying, the search for clues just got a whole lot more difficult. here is why. by now at the least the search should be narrowing. and areas eliminated. but instead, it's expanding. again. the