pete stark off 20 terms in southern california, that huge race, howard berman versus brad sherman. howard berman has been in a decade. totally redrawn lines in their districts. in many cases these incumbents had to introduce themselves to whole new groups of voters. so you had people really spending a lot of money to hold onto their seats, and they are not guaranteed going into november. >> well, carla said some surprises. dan walters, you have seen it all. were you surprised by anything that happened there? >> well, yes and no. i mean, the system as carla said did work the way it was supposed to. new lines, top two primary, a lot of races in the fall in which democrats are going to face democrats like berman and sherman, republicans facing republicans. a new wrinkle we haven't seen before. there were some surprises, for example, the democrats couldn't even get a candidate on the ballot, a district in southern california they thought they were going to win. so yeah, there were some little shakeups here and there. remember, a lot of incumbent congressmen dropped out rather than even

brad sherman and one half of berm an sherman, the epic battle of southern california.hat do you think of this new primary system and if you win you love it, if you lose, you hate it. >> it's good for governing and bad for elections and bad for politicians. i won in june and i would assume have that be decisive, but we have the expense of doing it again months from now. i like the idea that this decision which will determine who represents the west san fernando valley for decades to come will be made by over 300,000 voters voting in november. it would have been made by maybe 70 or 80,000 people voting in the democratic primary in june. every kind of voter, democrat, republican, independent, and even those who vote only in november ought to be part of this important decision. >> what's your appeal to republican voters? what do you say to the -- this is a district they think will have about a third of the voters be republican at end of the day. somewhere between 28 and 35% depending on the turn out. what do you say to them? >> first i say the same thing i say to everyone

bill pascrell beats rothman and howard burman versus brad sherman in one race and another, laura richardson faces janice haun. let's get to analysis here, karl rove and joe trippi, gentlemen, welcome. karl let's start with you. how did walker pull this off? as the raw total came in, it was evident he was going to have a big night. >> republican get out the vote machinery worked and worked in fine style. three keys to winning wisconsin for republicans. one, a combination of milwaukee, which is heavily democrat in big suburban counties of the west. the object there is to keep the margin republican. come out about 20,000 votes down for rinz. right now looks like walker is winning the combination of milwaukee, the city of milwaukee and waukesha county. he won the green bay area running between four and eight points ahead of his 2010 performance then in the counties outside of milwaukee he's running ahead of his performance, then a surprise for me tonight is far western wisconsin he got a lot of democrat rural territory, walk jer winning most of those counties in doing so by margins above what h

bill pascrell beats rothman and howard burman versus brad sherman in one race and another, laura richardson faces janice haun. let's get to analysis here, karl rove and joe trippi, gentlemen, welcome. karl let's start with you. how did walker pull this off? as the raw total came in, it was evident he was going to have a big night. >> republican get out the vote machinery worked and worked in fine style. three keys to winning wisconsin for republicans. one, a combination of milwaukee, which is heavily democrat in big suburban counties of the west. the object there is to keep the margin republican. come out about 20,000 votes down for rinz. right now looks like walker is winning the combination of milwaukee, the city of milwaukee and waukesha county. he won the green bay area running between four and eight points ahead of his 2010 performance then in the counties outside of milwaukee he's running ahead of his performance, then a surprise for me tonight is far western wisconsin he got a lot of democrat rural territory, walk jer winning most of those counties in doing so by margins above what h

bill pascrell beats rothman and howard burman versus brad sherman in one race and another, laura richardson faces janice haun. let's get to analysis here, karl rove and joe trippi, gentlemen, welcome. karl let's start with you. how did walker pull this off? as the raw total came in, it was evident he was going to have a big night. >> republican get out the vote machinery worked and worked in fine style. three keys to winning wisconsin for republicans. one, a combination of milwaukee, which is heavily democrat in big suburban counties of the west. the object there is to keep the margin republican. come out about 20,000 votes down for rinz. right now looks like walker is winning the combination of milwaukee, the city of milwaukee and waukesha county. he won the green bay area running between four and eight points ahead of his 2010 performance then in the counties outside of milwaukee he's running ahead of his performance, then a surprise for me tonight is far western wisconsin he got a lot of democrat rural territory, walk jer winning most of those counties in doing so by margins above what h

bill pascrell beats rothman and howard burman versus brad sherman in one race and another, laura richardson faces janice haun. let's get to analysis here, karl rove and joe trippi, gentlemen, welcome. karl let's start with you. how did walker pull this off? as the raw total came in, it was evident he was going to have a big night. >> republican get out the vote machinery worked and worked in fine style. three keys to winning wisconsin for republicans. one, a combination of milwaukee, which is heavily democrat in big suburban counties of the west. the object there is to keep the margin republican. come out about 20,000 votes down for rinz. right now looks like walker is winning the combination of milwaukee, the city of milwaukee and waukesha county. he won the green bay area running between four and eight points ahead of his 2010 performance then in the counties outside of milwaukee he's running ahead of his performance, then a surprise for me tonight is far western wisconsin he got a lot of democrat rural territory, walk jer winning most of those counties in doing so by margins above what h

this the california primary between brad sherman and howard berman and the l.a. area. sherman one and it was interesting because he tended to be the more populist candidate to assimilate and new jersey, you saw steve rothman defeated by bill pasquel. the big race that interested me was in montana. steve bialek is the current attorney general. he, as attorney general of montana, is the fellow who has battled citizens united, got to the supreme court arguing states should be able to keep corporate money out of their elections. that case is in the courts right now, but this guy has been nominated for governor of montana, running on the -- i think, anti citizens, and have big money campaign. i think we will keep a close eye on him to see whether we get another one of these old- fashioned western populist governors coming in and talking about big money. it is an encouraging development. >> john nichols, a thank you for being with us, author of, "uprising: how wisconsin renewed the politics of protest, from madison to wall street." this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org,

behrman former president clinton going with brad sherman. right now voters in california with deciding whether to hike the price of a pack of cigarettes by one dollar. that's on top of the 87 cents they already pay there champion cyclist and cancer survivor lance armstrong is the driving force at least publicly behind this initiative. he and other supporters say the extra dollar would raise more than $700 million a year for the state. arched three quarters of that would go to cancer research. critics, including tobacco companies say the new tax would hurt the state's economy. even if the measure does pass, california would have only the 16th highest tobacco tax in the nation. california's battle over gay marriage is now heading to the nation's top court. you'll see what that could mean. not only for california but really for the entire nation. plus, new reports of evidence in the abuse trial of the former penn state assistant coach jerry sandusky. including love letters. that he has said to have written to at least one of his victims. it's a

in california clinton is supporting his support behind howard berman, president obama supports brad shermanfferences affect democratic unity in the presidential election? simon rosenberg is president and founder of ndn and a former clinton campaign adviser. chip salzmann is the former campaign manager for mike huckabee for president. gentlemen, welcome. >> good to be with you. jon: chip, this new jersey election is so interesting because you've got two sitting democratic members of congress, their districts have been reapportioned, so they both have to fight for the same seat, and they're both getting support from the two different democratic big kahunas, bill pascrell has mr. clinton's support, mr. obama is supporting his challenger. who's going to win? >> it's going to be a tight race, and i think both of those endorsements matter. i think this is payback from when the congressman endorsed hillary clinton's presidential campaign, and the other congressman endorsed obama's campaign. the one thing about president clinton that you've learned is he's a pretty low ideal guy, and he's -- loyal

representative brad sherman is facing off against howard berman. it is in suburban los angeles in the sacramento valley. it is a primary system in which the two top finishers will face each other again in november. it is quite possible these two candidates are not finished with each other. five months from now they will be running against each other again. neither will really claim victory tonight unless one of them gets an out and out majority, 50% + one, in which they would become the nominee, but that seems unlikely. host: david mark, thanks for talking with us. we are talking with you this morning about presidential endorsements. former president's stepping up and supporting campaigns, even going on the road with them. how significant is that you? when you're about an endorsement of george h. walker bush or george w. bush endorsing romney or when you see bill clinton supporting president obama, does it affect you? let's hear from a caller in las vegas. caller: good morning. i don't like the idea because it can cloud a current president's record

sherman. millions of dollars are being spent in southern california between two people, brad bur man and howard sherman. two jewish liberal democrats fighting over who's more faithful to israel and that sort of thing. that's the one really to watch. >> i absolutely agree with you, dan. in the east bay we've got another sort of democrat versus democrat issue going on with pete stark, the dean of the california delegation. 20-term congressman, 80 years old. >> does he know he's the dean? that's the question. >> normal times he wouldn't have to sweat this at all. under the top two primary in his district, very democratic district, he has to worry about now a 31-year-old challenger, eric swallow, deputy -- a district attorney who has been taking it to him. we're going to see what happens. will those be the top two that goes on? >> another interesting thing is able moldonado, one-time lieutenant governor was the person who got this system put in place by trading his vote for a budget a few years ago. he's now in a race for congress against an incumbent, lois capps. but he's got a tea party guy who's

from california, a sorry from hotline oncall, your colleague writes that, both represents yiffed brad sherman an howard berman advanced past the primary. tell us about the california's new primary system and what this means? guest: you mentioned both those members of congress advanced to a general leaks. california's putting in place a new all party primary system. how it works is you have all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, compete in a primary. then the top two finishers move on to the general election regardless of party affiliation. as we see with sherman and berman, you have two democrats running against each other in a democratic district. we have seen in other states like washington state and louisiana, these all-party primary systems, but it's new for california. we'll see what happens. there was another member vs. member between hahn and richardson. this is a function of redistricting year where you have states losing districts and members being forced into campaigns against each other. and we saw that in new jersey as well last night with bill pascrell defeating congres

in the 30th, it is long-time democratic congressman brad sherman and howard berman.et enough votes to both move on and do this again in november. in new jersey, it is incumbent democrat pascaral going up and putting clinton and obama back up again. because rothman has been backed by the president. in montana south dakota, primaries today. south dakota pits bart against fairlyic. this gives us an opportunity to joe you this jeff barth gem again. [ gunfire ] >> we just like an excuse to show you that. whoever wins goes up against christie nome in november. back with more after the break. current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. >> we're not through just yet, mr. vice president. >> they're swimming against the >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >>