. >> lehrer: newshour political editor david chalian fills us in on the hows and whys of republican wins and democratic losses. >> ifill: we hear what party leaders had to say today, starting with the republican likely to be the next speaker of the house, john boehner. >> republicans have made a

these times bit be too bad even for him. >> ifill: stu rothenberg, david chalian, see you when we getome numbers. >> lehrer: to mark shields and david brooks. first mark i want to return to the discussion for a moment, the discussion is that judy ran with leslie sanchez and karen finney where they talked about the outside money in this campaign. i know the two of you disagree on this. you still believe this is a bad thing for this election, right? >> it's a terrible thing for the election, jim. for 103 years since the passing of the tillman act in 1907, there's been a public policy which is you don't... you keep corporate money out of campaigns. i mean that is... that's what the roberts court and alito and scalia and the others opened up this year. we're now seeing outside groups according to open secrets dot-org, the group that david rides on as well, has spent $300 million these outside groups have spent which is more than outside groups have spent in the 10 mid-term elections since 1990. combined. i mean that's how much. i mean, we talk about leslie sanchez mentioned the outside, t

latest results and reporting from our entire newshour team including mark shields and david brooks, david chalian and stewart rothenberg, updates from republican headquarters and the white house, plus field reports from our pbs colleagues in key states. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's election night newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. polls have just closed in the first half dozen states in the east. they're being closely watched for signs of a republican wave. now with details on what's happened so far, here's harry veen veen in our news room. >> sreenivasan: good evening, jim. just a few first results to tell you about right now. the associated press. let's start with the indiana senate race. the associated press with about 3% of the precincts reporting, you can see the numbers here. they've actually called the race for republican dan

message they sent, we take a look now at who voted how and why, with newshour political director david chalian. get some sleep last night, david? >> a very little bit, about the same much as you. >> ifill: enough. the last several weeks we heard the president going around the country saying if you vote for me in the way you did in 2008 we can win this thing. obviously that didn't happen. who showed up and who didn't for the democrats? >> one calculation today showed that 29 million of his voters from 2008 did not show up. 29 million voter dropoff from the obama vote. but you're right, the base voters he was targeting very hard. take a look at the democratic base, you have 18 to 29-year-olds over the course of the last three elections, in 2006 the young people made up 12% of the electorate. in 2008 a presidential year they jumped up to 18%, back down to 11%. so it didn't work there. didn't work with the african-americans, they moved back down to 10%, their normal my term turnout. and hispanics moved back down to 8%, so that $30 million effort, gwen, that the dnc put in to touch the first-time o

we look at some of the season's campaign ads and get an overview from political editor david chalian and susan page of "u.s.a. today." >> lehrer: and on the bomb story, jeffrey brown interviews terrorism expert richard clarke and air security analyst rafi ron. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> lehrer: a new scare involving mail bombs erupted today in greece. it happened just three days after bombs were intercepted in england and dubai. ray suarez has the first of the day's two major stories. >> suarez: the drama in greece involved a parcel bomb addressed to the mexican embassy in athens. it exploded at a delivery service burning one employee. two men were arrested with more bombs, including one addressed to french president sarkozy. police blamed an anarchist group that's been involved in previous

including mark shields and david brooks, david chalian and stewart rothenberg, updates from republican headquarters and senator reed's headquarters in nevada plus field reports from our pbs colleagues in key states. >> lehrer: all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> lehrer: the polls have now closed in 39 states. republicans have scored some gains but not a blow-out yet. that's based on projections by the associated press. the republicans need 39 seats to take control of the house. ten to win a majority in the senate. our overview shows that so far republicans have picked up two democratic senate seats in indiana and in arkansas. in the house, there's been a republican net gain thus far of five. and in the governor's races there's been a party switch of two republican gubernatorial positions have switched from de

thank you, jeff. >> lehrer: now to gwen ifill. >> ifill: i'm here with david chalian and stewart roth rothenberg. gent manymen, we have been sitting here for some hours now. we still do not know the outcome of some of the most closely watched races in the nation. i want to take us through some of them starting in illinois. the president's old senate seat or i should say the senate seat he used to hold now alexei giannoulias running against mark kirk the republican. we still don't know the outcome there with 87% of the precincts in. >> we don't know the outcome and alexei giannoulias was not the first choice of house. they had hoped a stronger democrat will get in there. after talking to democratic sources across town and in illinois as well, this race, although it looks razor thin right now, the democrats are not hopeful they'll be able to keep it. they think that kirk lead is going to hold potentially for the rest of the night but watching it very closely. >> ifill: a very narrow lead. >> remember giannoulias has ahead very early on in the evening. this is one of the states where the

from wil carless of global post in jakarta, and you can sign up for a daily e-mail dispatch from david chaliannd the newshour political team. that's on our politics page. plus, how much of a role did health care reform play in the recent midterm election? according to a new poll, the economy and other factors largely trumped debate over the new health care law. more on that on the rundown news blog. all that and more is on our web site, www.newshour.pbs.org. gwen? >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, we'll look at the ethical rules of the road for political journalism. i'm gwen ifill. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh

>> sreenivasan: on this week's political checklist, david chalian and judy talk about the reaction at the white house and on capitol hill to g.o.p. gains in last week's midterm election. we have more on the attacks on journalists in moscow. we asked experts about the state of press freedoms in russia. plus, paul solman weighs the pros and cons of the fed's recent moves to boost the economy. that's on his making sense page. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> woodruff: and again, to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the iraq and afghanistan conflicts. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are nine more. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll look at the new fiscal challenges for state governments after last week's elections. i'm judy woodruff. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institu

the latest jobs numbers from paul solman, and about the midterm elections from political editor david chalianart beat," jeffrey brown talks to jazz musician jason moran, winner of a macarthur "genius" award. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on monday, we'll look at the oil spill commission's investigation into the causes of the b.p. disaster. i'm judy woodruff. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. "washington week" can be seen later this evening on most pbs stations. we'll see you online, and again here monday evening. have a nice weekend. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org - beaches resorts is a proud sponsor of "the electric company," connecting

i would like to first introduced david chalian who is the political editor for pbs newshour. david direct the political coverage across all platforms in addition to campaign politics. he joined the newshour in the beginning of july. prior to that, he was political director for nbc news. he won an emmy as part of the team that produced the inaugural coverage in january 2009. welcome, david. thank you for joining us. >> kevin doherty -- carroll doherty is responsible for research projects and editorial output including local analysis. recent reports have covered the role of the manila -- of the millennial. i have known carroll because he is a former senior writer of congressional quarterly where he spent a decade covering politics and foreign affairs. he also served as a commentator on president clinton's impeachment proceedings for npr at that time. he is currently an off air investigative reporter. thank you for being here. bob benenson is in his third cycle of election coverage. he is an analyst for cq roll call. policy editor from 1998 until the merger in 2009 and has been w