which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. with xerox, you're ready for real business. the battle all comes down to this. it is election day, tuesday, november 4th, and this is "now." >> a fight for control congress. >> it begins tonight. >> at least seven or eight states are totally up for grabs. >> and republicans need to gain six seats to win control. >> all the indications that we see, republicans will pick up substantial gains tonight. >> if you don't win tonight, just game over. >> we know it's a pessimistic mood in the country. the question is are they going to take it all out on the president's party. >> he's become a symbol of the problems and the angst that people feel about their lives and the government. >> what would a gop senate mean for the president and democrats? >> that's going to be the great challenge for the president. >> a lot of the voters don't

really have a clear distinction as to what republicans would do versus what democrats would do. >> it's hard to imagine there will be sweeping changes if the republicans women or in or a de win. >> anything short of a majority is a disaster for the republican party. >> there is a lot at stake for the republican party tonight. >> what's going to go on with your zip code if you don't win. are you going back to massachusetts? >> that's a silly question. >> good election day afternoon. i am coming to you live from the new hampshire institute of politics at st. ansome college. after all the adds, the koch dollars, the hog castration, the clinton visits and the cold shouldering of the president, it all comes down to people at the polls. we are just a few hours from the first results rolling in, and the key races that will decide control of the united states senate. the earliest signals will come from some of the tightest races

here on the east coast. polls close at 7:00 p.m. in georgia where democrat michelle nunn and dave perdue could be headed for a runoff. then we'll see whether kay hagan can fend off thom tillis. and here in new hampshire, the last votes will be cast by 8:00 p.m. in the battle royal e between jeanne shaheen and scott brown. a win for shaheen give democrats one sigh of relief. some say republicans need to gain six seats and install mitch mcconnell as majority leader or install someone else as majority leader. my colleague luke russert put the candidate in a candidate in one of tonight's marquee races, iowa republican joni ernst. >> do you support mcconnell for

leader? >> i'm not there yet. i have to win an election. >> ernst has called president obama a dictator and said impeachment should be an option. so who might she have in mind other than mitch mcconnell? here's a clue from a brand new extra enthusiastic and self glorifying video from a certain senator who is not up for re-election. >> if conservatives show up and vote, we're going to retake the u.s. senate. we're going to retire harry reid as majority leader. so let me encourage you, go vote today. >> for once, i agree with ted cruz. at least on that last part. if you have not already, go vote today. joining me now is the republican congressman from oklahoma's fourth district, tom cole. congressman, thank you for joining us on this very big election eve. i want to ask you a question i'm sure you've been thinking about all day. are republicans going to rule the upper chamber come dawn tomorrow morning?

>> i think so. the numbers look awfully good. they have gotten better over the weekend. there's an old saying in politics as you approach an election, good gets better and bad gets worse and most of the news is pretty good. it looks a lot better in georgia and north carolina than it did. it looks neck in neck in new hampshire so we feel pretty good going into the election, but there's still several hours to go. we've certainly been disappointed in the senate before so we need to finish the job. >> if the republicans do take the upper chamber, is mitch mcconnell going to be majority leader? there seems to be some debate within your own party on that question. >> i don't think much debate. i mean, again, obviously is allowed to run, but i don't have much doubt that leader mcconnell is going to get the nod. when you take your party from the minority to the majority, you very seldom lose the leadership spot. so again, if we're fortunate enough to take the majority, mitch mcconnell will undoubtedly be the senate majority leader. >> do you think ted cruz

undoubtedly thinks that mitch mcconnell is going to be the majority leader? >> i suspect he thinks that. again, he's free to do what he chooses to do. you know, other people may look at it, but i think the reality is not only will the vast majority of the members that are already there who aren't on the ballot vote for mitch mcconnell, i think a lot of the people that are running today will probably appreciate the help they have gotten from leader mcconnell who's been in a terrific race of his own but still taking time to be extremely helpful to the new freshmen incumbents that are coming in. so again, i think he's in an awfully strong spot. i don't think anybody is likely to be able to beat him. frankly, i'd be surprised if anybody even contested him. >> interesting. congressman, let me ask you, you've been generous enough to take some time to speak with me in previous segments about control in the republican party and the various combative factions, if you will.

i wonder what you would say if ted -- if mitch mcconnell is majority leader and goes forward with what he said he wants to do, which is repeal obamacare root and branch. what do you say to people like senator susan collins who is with your own party and has said we are past the point at which repealing obamacare makes sense. how do you get her on the same page as the rest of your party? >> well, i think frankly, look, the president is still the president until january of 2017, so i don't mind sending repeal there. i favor repeal but let's be realistic and recognize that that would be an item you're unlikely to get 60 votes for. the filibuster would probably come into play. even if you did, the president would certainly veto. but there's certainly elements of the affordable care act that i think are subject to repeal and revision. i think the medical device tax is something that democrats and rips would like to get rid of. i think looking at a 40-hour week instead of a 30-hour week

is something that might have some appeal on both sides of the aisle since it's a job killer right now. i think that probably postponing or perhaps repealing the employer mandate, something the president has delayed twice himself, there are things that i think the two parties can come together on. to me the most important thing for a new republican majority to do is to get some things done. there's a whole array of other items i think we can finding some common ground and work together. >> is one of those things that you would like to get done the lawsuit that speaker boehner has put out there against the president? >> yeah, i actually don't have any problem with that at all. i think, look, that's where you go to settle disputes. we think the president has acted, you know, in extra constitutional means. i think an impeachment would be a terrific overreach, an inappropriate thing to do, but we really do think he's stretched and delayed the law in places where he shouldn't be able to do it. it seems to me what you do is go to court when you have a disagreement. that's what was done on the

recess appointments. the president thought he had the power to make appointments when the senate, you know, was not in recess. he lost that case in front of the supreme court 9-0. i thought that was the appropriate avenue. so again, when you've got a disagreement, i don't have any problem with either side going to court. democrats have historically sued republican presidents quite frequently. nothing wrong with that. the courts usually sort out the differences and we know what the real boundaries are. >> let me interrupt you, congressman. do you think it would be sending a good message about the republican party to begin what could be ownership of the upper and lower chambers by continuing with a lawsuit against the president of the united states? >> well, i would leave it to the speaker to make that decision. what i would like to begin with in the lame duck before a new congress comes together is pass an aomnibus spending bill so we have no risk of a government closure through the rest of this fiscal year. i'd like to sit down and look at the tax extenders and get those passed, tax breaks that

businesses and companies that have relied upon and taken care of and i think we ought to look at the syrian authorization where i think there's considerable bipartisan september meant that we need to repeal the provisions that got us into afghanistan and iraq and replace it with something new. let's get some things done where there actually is a great deal of common ground. i think that would set the stage for a much more productive final two years of the president's administration. >> congressman tom cole. congressman, thank you as always for taking the time to share your thoughts and best of luck this evening. we'll talk to you in the coming days. >> alex, thank you. joining me now is former senior adviser to president obama, director at the university of chicago institute of politics and msnbc political analyst, david axelrod and senior writer for politico magazine, glenn thrush. mr. axelrod, let me start with you first. in terms of what's going to happen here, the polls are showing a likely republican

takeover of the upper chamber. what would your advice to president obama be for tomorrow morning? what should he be thinking and doing? >> well, you know, at the risk of engaging in a premortem rather than a post mortem, i would certainly tell him to test the proposition of some republicans, you just heard congressman cole extend the notion that we have to get some things done. he ought to see what can get done. i think he ought to get together with them right away, with the leaders of both party, and find out what's possible and what's not possible and begin that discussion. it would be a terrible mistake to just assume that nothing can get done. and i think there's considerable reason why the republicans need to get something done, because they're going into 2016 where the roles are reversed and they have seven republican senators running in blue states in a presidential year who can't afford to follow ted cruz over

the cliff. and so i think there are possibilities here and he ought to pursue them and see what can get done. >> glenn, what do you think the likelihood of some kind of detente between the white house and congressional republicans is, given the fact that as david points out, you heard tom cole lay out beyond the lawsuit some things that do have bipartisan buy-in. is there an appetite for that? >> i think there's an appetite during the lame duck session. i think we'll see more stuff crammed into this than we've seen in some of these previous lame ducks. you harken back to 2010 right after the election, there was a substantial deal cut when mr. axelrod was still isn't tn the house. that is the window. because i think once these guys take the oath, all bets are off. >> alex, one of the -- >> go ahead. >> one of the problems that mitch mcconnell is going to have is he may believe that it is good for the republican party to

show that they can govern and get things done, but they have just spend hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to run on one premise, that they are against the president. and now he's going to have to turn around and get his caucus to say, you know what, maybe we should try to work with him on some things. and so the real issue isn't whether the president can get along with the republicans, the issue is can republicans get along with republicans and arrive at a constructive place. >> well, that -- >> that's the $64,000 question. can republicans get along with republicans. you saw that ted cruz kind of -- i don't know what that was. a proto 2016 campaign ad. how likely is it that ted cruz and mitch mcconnell will be on the same page about the succession plan? >> i think they'll enjoy that show the next two years. and what about his other fellow

inmates like rand paul and marco rubio. but one of the things the white house is looking forward to is the fact they now have ownership of both houses. that puts them in the position of having to take action. they have made promises to their electorate. they're going to push things through. i think it was interesting hearing the broad range of compromised deals that congressman cole offered, including getting rid of the employer mandate, which is hell will freeze over i presume before that will be considered. so i think you've got a lot of hunger within the republican ranks to have leadership do something muscular to appeal to the base. and i think that is going to slam right into the reality of 2016. so the white house i think is going to have a little bit of a political advantage insofar as they are going to start to be able to hold the hill responsible for initiating some of this stuff and that gives them, the white house, some political running room, i think. >> glenn, always good to see you, my friend. i hope your night is not too,

too late. david axelrod, please hang with me. >> okay. after the break, for democrats, where a door closes a window might just open and that window happens to be in state houses across the country. i'll explain coming up next. plus scott brown is not giving up his mailing address or at least not giving out his mailing address if he loses the new hampshire senate race tonight. i'll tell you what he had to say to me about that ahead on "now." you, my friend are a master of diversification. who would have thought three cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets. it's a masterpiece. thanks. clearly you are type e. you made it phil. welcome home. now what's our strategy with the fondue? diversifying your portfolio? e*trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right. are you type e*?

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despite the fact that almost all of the exciting and weird and totally unbelievable stuff that is happening in american politics is happening at the state level, the governors races have played second fiddle to the senate races. not only that this is one of the

most competitive gubernatorial landscapes. more than a dozen are considered pure toss-ups including marquee races in kansas, florida and michigan, all of which see high profile republican incumbents in danger of losing. by high profile, i mean mascot level. in wisconsin, a defeat for scott walker, the union-busting poster man child for the gop could signal a major blow to conservative governance, at least on the state level and in advance of 2016. on the flip side, a third win in four years could see scott walker soaring to reaganesque heights and ensure that his name keeps tongues a wagging over the next two years. joining me is brian poitler and david corn. david, the gubernatorial races, aside from the word "gubernatorial" being the most unsexually political term are actually where all the action is at and i am following what's happening in wisconsin with

baited breath. the american spectator has already core natd scott walker as the presidential nominee if he makes it past this race. do you think that's a little premature? >> you also left out the florida fan, which was my favorite item in the whole election cycle. but you're right, in wisconsin, scott walker, who has been a koch favorite and a conservative darling, because he went after the public unions and survived a very, you know, fiercely fought recall election is poised, if he gets past mary burke, his democratic challenger, to be continuing as a favorite who they believe now might have some appeal as a national candidate. that would mean winning a third election and then immediately tomorrow starting off for a fourth election in two years on

a national scale. that would be quite a daunting exercise. i'll just say one quick thing. i give scott walker credit for having, i think, the most misleading and ingeniously, maybe devilishly sly campaign ad of the year in which he was implying he was pro-choice which actually he's been for outlawing abortion in all instances. >> brian, let me ask you, in terms of the governors, there's a tendency to think that governors kind of -- can paint a more accurate picture of their policies and where they're shepherding the states as opposed to senators who often promise one thing and are very reactionary. it seems in this election season there is a very anti-incumbent mood that goes down to the state house level and doesn't end at the doors of the capitol build. you look at what happened to john hickenlooper where unemployment is town to 4.7% from 8% and that race is a

toss-up given the very good economic news that is pervasive in the state of colorado. >> governors like the president, they're managers, right, so at the ending of the day whether it's right or wrong, whether there are extenuating outcomes that explain the results in those states, the governor and the president, they're the people and political actors who end up bearing voter anger or apathy or pleasure at the outcomes. and, you know, we've been through a six, eight year going back even longer cycle where even though we have had a recovery we haven't had any median wage growth. so you have all these elections in states that are much more representative of the country as a whole than the senate electorate, right, and as you said over a dozen that are within the margin of error. i think that's a reflection of sort of voters not being exactly thrilled, even if they're not exactly devastated by the

outcomes in those states. >> you know, alex -- >> david, when -- go ahead. >> i think the funk a lot of the people in this country are in. colorado has created more jobs than most states and personal income has gone up there and the governor and mark udall are fighting for their lives. 41% of americans think the economy is getting better but 54% believe that it's not, even though it is getting slowly better. so whatever is happening on the economic front, americans by and large either don't feel it or don't buy it in positive terms and incumbents everywhere, particularly those associated with barack obama where he's unpopular, are really feeling a lot of pain. >> yeah, you know when we talk about economic stewardship, one of the things that is going to be dramatically affected by these gubernatorial races is access to health care. i mean 15 of the 23 states that

are contested tonight have not expanded medicaid under the affordable care act, brian. depending on what happens in maine, in florida, in kansas, we are talking tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people could have access to medicaid depending on which way the votes go. >> right. so i think replacing a republican governor with a democratic governor is already a giant step towards states expanding medicaid. it's not a guarantee in all cases. we saw in kentucky a democratic governor was able to expand medicaid by fiat but in virginia we have a democratic governor who wants to expand medicaid and has been basically foiled by it. so getting a democratic governor in place is one big step. the next thing is they need to -- if they have a republican legislature. in particular they need to have whatever leverage they need in order to force the expansion. so the hope would be where they can act on their own, they act on their own. where they can cut a deal with the legislature, they do that. but it would be also nice to see some of these democratic

governors play hard ball with their legislators in the way jan breuer in arizona did with hers where the legislature was reluck tangt to do this and she basically picked a budget fight with them and said we're not going to have a budget unless you agree to expand medicaid within it and she won. that's how arizona of all places ended up among the two dozen or so states that have expanded their medicaid programs. if democrats have a good night in governors races, it wouldn't surprise me if we saw one or two more fights like that in 2015 where medicaid expansion happens by, you know, political hardball. >> yeah, but david, increasingly, the opposition between state legislatures and governors is decreasing not because people are getting along better but because we have single party rule. 36, i believe, 36 states out of 50 currently have single party rule. that is the trend line in american politics right now. >> and that has a strong

implication for the political future of this country because of gerrymandering. and we've seen in the past republicans are very effective in drawing lines to preserve and give them an edge, particularly in house districts. if this happens in 2020, it will allow the republicans to fight back against some of these demographic trends that are pro-democratic. >> gentlemen, thank you for joining us on this big gameday. it's always good to talk to you. >> happy election day, alex. >> thank you. coming up, we will get a live report from the tar heel state, where the most expensive race in the country is coming down to the wire. can democratic senator kay hagan throw a wrench in gop plans to take the upper chamber? that is next on "now."

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barn-burning senate race between kay hagan and thom tillis may be the most expensive senate race of all time, but it is also the first to test the tar heel state's new voting restrictions. earlier this month the supreme court allowed part of the state's republican-passed voter suppression law to take effect. voters can no longer register on election day and voting the sunday before election day has been abolished. joining me now from greensboro, north carolina, is tremayne lee. what are you seeing in terms of turnout and how these new pieces of legislation may have affected voters going to the polls? >> reporter: straight from last night they had one more moral monday rally to lead into election day and people were really excited to turn out. they feel they have to push back against some of the suppressive moves made this year. here in greensboro i'm right down the street from bennett college and there was a huge surge of 200 or so college students from the school. one thing that's really

interesting is it's old school kind of boot strap on the ground politics. they had dorm storming where they would knock on each dorm room and try to inform people about their rights to vote and the new laws. one thing i have heard from poll monitors across the state is there is some confusion. again, you can no longer register to vote on the same day, on election day, so people are showing up to the polls not knowing which poll is their precinct. so there have been issues with some voting machines. but again that same-day registration and the idea that you can no longer vote outside of your precinct has thrown confusion into the process. >> thanks for the update. i hope it is not too, too long of a long night for you, my friend. just ahead, in addition to voter suppression efforts, minority voters are facing another, more basic challenge in exercising their constitutional right. longer lines and less resourcing their their white counterparts. more on that next on "now." time to be on verizon.

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we are back live. right now polls across the country are still open but many are having a harder time voting than expected. in houston voters reported waiting as long as an hour and 15 minutes to cast their ballots. in hartford, connecticut, all 23 polling places were affected when voter ridge station lists were not send in on time. but voting troubles don't affect all voters equally. as a new report from mother jones documents, in the last election african-americans waited nearly twice as long to vote as white voters. in south carolina, a state with some of the longest wait times, the ten precincts with the longest wait times had more than twice the percentage of registered black voters than the state's average. the reason, resource allocation. the brennan center for justice reports that minority-dominated precincts tended to have

significantly fewer voting machines and poll workers than whiter precincts. joining me now is michael waldman. michael, let me ask you in terms of this report from the brennan centering, should we not be seeing more action on the federal level in terms of combatting these unfair and they would seem to be biased resource allocations? >> i certainly think so. we're one country. we ought to have one standard for how to run a free and fair election. it's kind of outrageous that local communities sometimes through no fault of their own wind up allocating fewer resources to poorer communities. in fact the bipartisan commission led by mitt romney's lawyer and president obama's lawyer urged national standards just for this kind of issue of resource allocation. you know, we focus a lot and you have too on the many ways people are passing laws that seem deliberately to make it so a lot of people can't vote.

there are many people who are locked out by our ramshackle election system and we've got to modernize it across the board from the way we register voters to the way they cast their vote. >> i want to bring in now chairman of the southern elections fund and former president and ceo of the naacp, ben gellis. you have been talking for a long time about the importance of minority registration and it seems it is as critical now as it ever has been giving the raft of voter suppression laws that are being rolled out across the country. do you think this is the only way to counteract the negative effects those initiatives? >> that's precisely right. we have known for a long time that the antidote to voter suppression is massive voter registration and turnout. and this day -- today it is all about turnout. people have to show up. you know, what's clear here is that these extreme conservatives are not doubling down on voter suppression in states like

california and new york. no, they're doubling down on voter suppression in states that they control. why? because they are afraid that the states will soon be beyond their grasp if they kngt cannot suppr the ranks of the new voters coming online. increasingly, those voters coming online are progressive voters. they're black, they're latino, they're asian, and they're young whites who are frankly fed up with the status quo politicians this their state who are repeatedly making it more and more expensive for them to go to school, more and more likely that they're going to go into debt. and so when you look at these new voter i.d. laws that are coming online in states like virginia and texas right now, what you see is who gets impacted most. voters of color and young voters of all colors. >> yeah. to that end, michael, al

gentlem gentleman severa has a report out that election officials -- there's a program that will affect black, hispanic and asian american voters. tell me more about that purge. >> what a coinkydink, right? >> who would have thunk? >> this is a system called cross-check and it's designed arguably to make sure that there aren't duplications and errors on the rolls. now, it's important to know that we don't think this is a good system. we also don't know that these voters have been in fact purged from the rolls. and that kind of thing did happen a lot in earlier elections. even if that isn't the case, even if there wasn't this purging, this does reveal something very real about our election system. i never thought i would give props to some of these -- to these folks, but there are in fact lots of duplicate names on

the rolls. there are lots of people whose names shouldn't be on the rolls, but there are 50 million people who are eligible to vote who are not on the rolls. and if you move from place to place, even welcome back a city or a state, for example, as so many people do, so many young people do, so many poor people do, you fall off the voter rolls and have to go through it all over again. so we have to be very careful this isn't an excuse for purging. in years past we've seen people kicked off the rolls for typos in their names. sometimes you have people with the same last name and they accuse one of being the other. even if there isn't this kind of malicious endeavor under way, it just shows again that so many people are disenfranchised by the way we run elections as well as by the deliberately skr discriminatory laws. >> mike, i think you're being a bit charitable because this is a

system that was designed by kris kobach who is nothing if not focused on frankly suppressing as many voters as he can, even though he's a secretary of state. and folks have said that it can be wrong up to 40% of the time. and so the fact that we have secretary of stat secretaries of state to use anything that kris kobach has created and is wrong 40% of the time should concern all of us. >> it may well be the case that his anti-voter activities catch up with him this time. we'll see tonight. >> hopefully. >> and indeed all eyes are going to be on kansas. michael waldman and ben gel is, thanks for your time. >> thank you. coming up, we'll get a live report from iowa where joni ernst has locked up the hog farmer vote and is now on to the highly coveted red solo cup vote. that is coming up next.

first josh lipton has the cnbc market wrap. >> hi, alex. here's a look at how stocks stand going into tomorrow. stocks end mixed in today's trade as the price of oil slid to a three-year low and americans cast ballots in midterm elections. the dow rose 17 points, the s&p 500 dropped about 6 points and the nasdaq fell 15 points. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. hard it can be...how ...to breathe with copd? it can feel like this. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

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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. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. hog castration, taylor swift and wandering chickens. the race between bruce braley and joni ernst has been a hard-fought battle. last night luke russert spoke with ernst who insisted iowa could remain healthy even with an repeal of the affordable care act. >> the governor said he wants iowa to be the healthiest state in the country. can that happen with a full repeal of obamacare? >> you bet it can. we need to have patient centered health care, something that addresses pre-existing

conditions. i think it's a great goal and i think we need to continue striving towards it. >> what would you say to the thousands of i people who like their health care. >> we will finding a solution to take care of those people on other policies. but to the others that have picked up policies and are now paying 4 and 5 and $600 more every month, i think they would be happy to have patient-centered health care that is actually affordable. so thank you so much. >> polls in iowa close in about five hours at 10:00 p.m. eastern. joining me from west des moines is nbc capitol hill correspondent luke russert. luke, fascinating position joni ernst is taking there on the aca. there's been a lot of talk about what happens if she makes it to the senate and who she will align herself, the mitch mcconnell establishment wing of the party or the fire brand ted cruz brand of the party. what is your sense at this time?

>> reporter: it's interesting you asked that because i asked her if she would back mcconnell and she said i have to get there first so she's been very coy about what she plans to do if she should get to washington, regardless which side of the senate republican aisle she would tanned on, tea party or establishment. i also asked her be sides chuck grassley which senator she most identified with and she said i'd have to think about it. so the answer is she's coy. what i can tell you, though, is she is an example of what the establishment had hoped to do this cycle. in 2010 and 2012, they sort of lost control of the people who came through the primary with tea party control -- tea party backing, shall we say. this time around when i was at the ernst rally, i saw a lot of these high-priced d.c. consultants, very much from the establishment wing. what have they got joni ernst to do in the last few weeks? sort of tamper down those comments about abolishing the department of education, abolishing the epa, getting rid of the federal minimum wage.

so we're starting to see sort of a repackaging, if you will, of joni ernst in the final weeks, making the race about personality and charisma, something that's beneficial to her over bruce braley who is not able to match her on those traits. >> maybe less talk about impeaching the president. luke russert, thanks as always. good luck to you out there. the fight here in new hampshire is getting downright nasty. here is the chair of the new hampshire gop. >> this is our time. we need to crush it. we need to grab it, run with it, push their heads under, over and over again until they cannot breathe anymore. >> more on the granite state, including what the candidates told me today, just ahead. wethey were a littlehorizons to mbit skeptical.ss, what they do actually is rocket science. but at ge capital we also bring expertise from across ge, like lean process engineers

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for the past day that has

been an election day mantra in the live free or die state, so when the polls close here in just about three hours, we may have some sort of a sense of where this election and the u.s. senate is heading. the latest polling shows senator jeanne shaheen and challenger scott brown in a dead heat which, for a popular incumbent with a solid ground game and decades of experience seems just a little bit disconcerting, especially since the man she is running against wouldn't have been eligible to vote in the state just one year ago. >> what is your position on the minimum wage? should we have it? >> i'm not going to repeal it, but i don't think it -- i don't think it serves a purpose because we're debating then about what the lowest levels are at. i want people to make like i said the other night -- >> that, of course, is not anybody from new hampshire, that is governor scott walker of wisconsin. we will get the appropriate sound bite for you coming up. shaheen's campaign is surprisingly not taking anything for granted. around new hampshire today we

have seen massachusetts carpetbagger signs against scott brown. when i met with scott brown this morning, it seemed like the whole zip code thing was still kind of a thing. we don't have that piece of sound either, making this discussion rather challenging. back with me now is david axelrod. david, in those two clips, my hard work this morning goes unaired on my own show. scott brown -- i asked him, i said will your zip code change tomorrow if you lose the senate race and he said that is a silly question, and it was said not with a silly attitude but a little slightly pointed response. i am actually surprised when it all comes down to it that the whole carpet bagger thing, the fact that scott brown was not a new hampshireite has not been more of a liability for him, especially in the state that you know well is fiercely independent and fiercely about new hampshire. >> right. no, i agree with that, though. i would say if you look at his

negatives, they're very high. it's not like scott brown has won the hearts and minds of people in new hampshire, but new hampshire is a fiercely independent state and there are a lot of independent voters there. and he has made this very much tried to nationalize this race. and it's hurt a little with those independent voters. the electorate in new hampshire in the off years, in the midterm elections, tends to be different than the -- as in the rest of the country but more so different than a presidential year and it's less hospitable to democrats and the president's approval rating there is about 40%. he's capitalized on that. so even though he's not popular, he's a vehicle for people who want to send a message and that's made this race close. >> yeah, david, it sounds like the woolly mammoth that powers this television station is up and running again so we have those clips. let's play them for our audience. >> how is the race this close at

this moment. scott brown is not from new hampshire, scott brown has been talking about isis and ebola. how are the polls still neck in neck. >> we always knew this was going to be a close race and we've spent the last weeks and months point out the differences between me and scott brown. i'm working for middle class families, for small businesses here. we know when he represented massachusetts, he was really in the pocket of the corporate interest interests, the wall street banks, the oil companies, the companies that want to outsource our jobs. so i think the voters will look today at who's going to represent new hampshire, put new hampshire first versus somebody who's not been here who doesn't know the state. >> how's your ground game as compared to jean sne shaheen. >> well, we're going find out in about eight hours. >> what's going on with your zip code if you don't win tonight. are you going back to massachusetts? >> that's a silly question. >> silly? >> yeah. >> david, let me ask you, one of the things that some new hampshire poll watchers and political experts have said the race is tightening because

jeanne shaheen has always had the support of democrats. scott brown is the one who needed to prove himself. he had a very tight primary in september. he had not have humongous buy-in from members of his own party. part of the way they have come around is nationalizing the race. certainly no small amount of that nationalization has been trying to tie jeanne shaheen to president obama. there are also signs all over new hampshire that say support obama, vote shchaheen. i wondering if you were surprised how much of an anchor the president has been in the state of new hampshire for the democrat, given her favorability, her excellent ground game and the resources she has on hand. >> well, there is the sixth year itch that has afflicted every president. reagan lost six seats, eisenhower 13. you're going to feel it in a state like new hampshire, a big

anti-washington, skbnindependen tradition and you're seeing it here. don't minimize the fact that scott brown, whatever you think of him as a public official, he's a very energetic campaigner. and that's helped him as well. he's a personable guy and very energetic campaigner. that's how he got elected in massachusetts and he's now moving up the eastern seaboard and see how it plays elsewhere. >> david, let me ask you one more big question, big picture question. the president said in an interview moments ago this is the worst map in terms of senate seats for the democrats since eisenhower. that seems a little bit like a premortem which i know is something we dread. >> i think it does point out what would really be news is if the democrats hung on to the senate. given all the headwinds and atmospherics that would be news. if the republicans lose here, it's a dramatic defeat. >> david axelrod, it is always

awesome to talk to you, the guru of campaigning, on a night like tonight. thanks as always for your time. that is all for now. "the ed show" is coming up next. one: verizon's the largest, most reliable 4g lte network in the country. that's right america. with xlte in over 400 markets. two: and here's something for families to get excited about. our best pricing ever! get 2 lines with an incredible 10gb of data to share for the low price of $110! or just $140 for a family of 4! and three: get $150 credit for every line you switch. the more you switch, the more you get. verizon. for new nestlé© toll houser delightfulls morsels, the chocolate you know and love now filled with caramel, peanut butter, cherry, and mint. so peanut butter up some brownies. and caramel-ify those chocolate chip cookies with new nestlé© toll house delightfulls. bake some love™

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synchrony financial. engage with us. good evening, americans, an welcome to "the ed show" live from tampa, florida, where it's hot and it's too close to call. let's get to work. >> we were ensuring the integrity of the elections. >> i just think it's a dumb idea. >> big sprawling area of high pressure. >> for republicans to emphasize sgle if you're voting early, this is how we're going to win the election. >> if the republicans do capture the senate, there's no more excuses about impeachment. >> vote, vote, vote. >> we need to learn from history. >> i have to win an election. >> this election is too important to stay home. >> we are embarrassed by a