i will go back to you bradley smith. when you think about the fact, that our democracy is predicated on one level, on one person one vote. but money is considered speech. >> at and first when you to go back and just pull back a couple bit of hyperbole. it is been suggested that members of congress spend the majority of time fundraising. that is not true. no study has shown that they spend even remotely close to the majority of their time a fundraising. we largely know that is not true. and if the vast majority of givers today to candidates who agree with the daughter. as for the donor gives to them. -- agree with the donor. that is why the donor gives to them. we have a research and studies that have gone into that. there's also the question that -- everybody thought super pacs or run by corporate money. that is not the case. it is all individual money. and there's not a strong reason to think it is corporate money. going into other kinds of groups that find this type of activity. what we have you are ultimately as a cou

and bradley smith, chairman and cofounder of the center for competitive politics. you been talking about the rise of dark money in election 2012 that looks like election 2016, et cetera, et cetera. thanks to kim propublica and ths to everyone. [applause] >> sister is at center college in danville, kentucky came up with some questions. >> ever tougher to be a big factor in the election this year. i know we really tried to get as many people to vote as possible and i heard a lot of like different opinions, so i think it's going to matter. >> my question is, what are your plans to improve job prospects for graduating? >> hi, i want to know what you're doing to make college more affordable for students. >> i would ask the candidates how they are reducing the deficit and still taking care of the poor and underserved communities. >> what are you doing to prevent human trafficking clack >> after tonight's visit presidential debate, joe biden and paul moran leave kentucky for campaign events in the midwest. vice president biden has a campaign mailing wisconsin tomorrow and

just a reminder that bradley smith is the cofounder of the center for competitive politics, and a fan of the regular so political money, and melanie sloan is executive director of citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. melanie, i'm going to turn back to you. i want to get to the disclosure question but also want to approach the question of whether there is a fundamental mismatch between one person one vote and money is free speech. >> i wouldn't agree that money equals speech. i think that they're separate and distinct. i think that there is, a lot of questions about disclosure issues and all the people he used to be all in favor of disclosure in fact are no longer in favor of disclosure. before citizens united you have people like senator mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader, is it really we should be able to contribute what we want but we should disclose it all. as soon as they got citizens united everybody's at the disclosure as part of the republican mantra, b. and i disclosure bill to require more disclosure has gone through congress twice, failed, called fo

next, bradley smith. campaign finance law and served as commissioner resigning in 2005. welcome to all of you. let me start with the speed around if he should tell the class what to pay attention to in campaign finance law, what would you say to them? >> i would tell them when they see all of those commercials on their television screens, they should ignore most of them because they have no idea about the context for the ads and why they are putting them out in most of the things that are said in them are not necessarily true. >> i would say disclosure for tax-exempt groups. >> i think they have to understand something very intricate. >> i would agree with both of those points and bring it back to the idea of whether we want to have anonymous money coming into our political system and taking a look at old cases where you have that influence coming in and what happened. >> campaign finance reform is about how the government monitors your political speech. you as voters will ultimately have the say. it is i

speakers included former federal election chairman bradley smith. former "national public radio" host moderated the discussion. from the lower east side tenement in new york city this is an hour and 15 minutes. >> i love the title, dark money rising and it seems like it should be a batman character involved but it's a lot of people with a lot of money. i'm going to introduce her panel starting immediately to my left is melanie melanie sloan executive director of citizens for sponsor billy and ethics in washington otherwise known as crew. she is in ashland recognized expert on congressional ethics and prior to starting crew she served as assistant u.s. attorney in the district of columbia from 1998 82 to 2003. next to her we have nick confessore of "the new york times." is the political reporter currently covering 2012 presidential campaigns finance and really speaking to that he is the recipient of a pulitzer prize in 2009 into his left we have cam barker of propublica, reporter and author and covert campaign finance issues focusing on dark money th

we have been speaking with melanie sloan, nick, kim barker, bradley smith.we've been talking about the rise of dark money in the election 2012. thank you, everyone. [applause] >> tonight at 7:00, a debate with the candidates for the senate and indiana. he will debate the democratic nominee congressman joe donnelly. that debate is live on c-span at 7:00. after that, added o'clock, you can see the first presidential debate between president obama and mitt romney. that debate took place october 3 at the university of denver. you can see that tonight at 8:00 on c-span. the campaigns are building sets at the media center ahead of tomorrow night's presidential debate. this'll be where representatives of the campaign talk to reporters after the debate. this will be the sixth ever town hall style presidential debate. the audience will submit questions and advance and the debate moderator will select which wants to ask the candidates. -- which ones to ask the candidates. thewe saw were the mitt romney campaign is building their sats. moroccan towards where the obama

smith, nbc bay area news. >>> the man accused of attacking a student off campus is expected back in court this afternoon. 25-year-old bradley mrozek could answer to charges back this afternoon. on september 21st, he walked on the campus and grabbed a student from a bathroom. she eventually kicked and fought and got away and told school administrators. pa parkside has increased security measures. >>> the murder trial for giselle esteban started yesterday. esteban's attorney did not deny the allegations, but she killed le as a result of extreme provocation and the heat of passion. le disappeared from keiser hospital in may of 2011. her body was found four months after that. >>> a horrifying discovery for a bay area family after finding the body of a missing boater on the shore line near pigeon point. the coast guard says the family of the missing man was searching for them on their own when they found the body yesterday. the boat capsized on sunday during a fishing trip with friends. he and another man who is still missing were not wearing life jackets. the two other fishermen were wearing life jackets and were able to swim t

bradley reports, last night was all about the laughs. >> reporter: the presidential contenders took a break from campaigning, for a night of comedy. appearing together at the al smith dinner in new york, president obama and mitt romney competed for laughs. >> the employment rate is the lowest since i took office. i don't have a joke here. >> it's nice to relax and wear what ann enand i wear around the house. >> reporter: the there's no partisan rhetoric allowed. just self-deprecating standup and light jabs. >> has some of you noticed, i had a lot more energy in our second debate. i felt well-rested after the nice, long nap i had in the first debate. >> president obama and i are each very lucky to have someone in our corner. someone we can lean on. i have my beautiful wife, ann. he has bill clinton. >> reporter: also while in new york, president obama stopped by "the daily show with jon stewart," and things took a serious turn discussing the consulate in benghazi, libya. >> we had to ramp up security around the world. >> reporter: president obama heads to virginia. while mitt romney campaigns in florida. the latest gallup poll shows mitt romney leading by seven poin