tammy baldwin. hr 4680 in june. you voted for that deal have been many about -- you have been blaming me about. that deal she's talking about, that was in 1999 and came up in 2000. she voted for it. it was a democratic proposal. in regards to medicare, i believe if we do not think -- if they do nothing, medicare is going to go bankrupt in 2024. i do not want medicare to go bankrupt. i want to fix medicare but i want to make sure that seniors in america and wisconsin are protected. only those under the age of 50 by the year 2000 will have a choice, not about her life she says - not the voucher like she says. people will make a choice. that is a much better approach. good, if not better than medicare. all seniors will be taken care of these and people will have the to protect them when they get to that age. >> the plan just propose, will it save any money? >> right now you cannot score in like it to washington but it was introduced by a couple of u.s. senators and they said it would save medicare. i will like to see i

it's pretty gross, which accuses congresswoman tammy baldwin of voting against honoring the victims ofoday, the baldwin campaign fired back with its own ad. and i want you to see this one. here it is. >> tommy thompson's ad is a disgrace. the truth. time and again, tammy baldwin has supported honoring victims of 9/11 and tommy thompson, he got a government contract to provide health care to 9/11 first responders. but tommy took advantage, leaving them without the care they were promised. tommy thompson personally made over $3 million off the deal. tommy thompson should be ashamed. >> let's break it down. tommy thompson served as the health and human services secretary under george w. bush from 2001 to 2005. so it raised a few eyebrows when in june of 2008, thompson's company, logistics health incorporated, won an $11 million contract from the federal government to treat 9/11 responders living outside the new york area. the company was criticized for its handling of the contract, with some patients complaining it took months to receive care. despite all that, thompson did eventually pro

we are joined by tammy baldwin and tommy thompson. thanks to both of you for participating. >> my daughter. >> i worked as a journalist and served as a fellow in law and public policy here at the university. the rules for tonight's discussion are simple. we have asked candidates to join us for conversation about the role of government in our lives and the direction of our country. we have asked them to answer a question as directly and concisely as possible. we have asked them to stay on point. the candidates may talk to one another, but i will be managing the time we spend on a particular topic and we will have the freedom to move the conversation along. each candidate will have an opposing statement along with 90 seconds. there are no opening statements. we flipped a coin to see who got the first question. if we begin tonight with congresswoman tammy baldwin. good to have you. >> thank you. >> it's about your portrayal in the campaign. you have been portrayed in this campaign as an extreme liberal. that's what we see in the advertis

let's listen to this. >> i'm tommy thompson and i approve this message. >> tammy baldwin had the opportunityto honor the victims of 9/11 and she voted against it. >> there's baldwin did vote against the bill but as her campaign noted that's because it paid tribute to the patriot act which was she something she was against. the baldwin campaign hit back with an ad of their own. let's listen. >> i'm tammy baldwin and i approve this message. >> tommy thompson's ad is a disgrace. the truth, time and again tammy baldwin has supported honoring victims of 9/11. >> you know -- >> does anybody really believe that any candidate is against the victims of september 11th? that's why that ad doesn't work. >> you think that doesn't pass the smell test. >> it doesn't pass anybody's smell test. >> upper midwest elects more liberal democrats because -- but they elect republicans as governors in their state legislatures because they look to the federal government as a source of wealth and liberal democrats have an edge in like north dakota, montana, and wisconsin as they have. my colleague, senator mcgovern, w

tammy baldwin voted nine out of 10 times to support first responders. of fact, first responders have come out and said this is ridiculous, we supported tammy baldwin. one was attached to bush agenda as well, at the time. those ads are pretty ugly. >> they don't care about the facts. they load up a bill about isn't bush great about everything. you see that, she's against 9/11. forget about how we told you we want to end medicare and medicaid. vote on this issue instead. >> i think she's going to win in wisconsin. that's one that they're going to hold. moving on to the state of nebraska, bob kerry going back from new york to nebraska to run against deb fisher who won a tight primary there a tea party candidate. she had quite a big lead, up to, today within two points. that is huge ground he has made up there with the help of old hollywood friends like steve martin. >> cut it in like this, take out the one and put this on there like this. now you're almost done, use your last little paper clip. >> that's fun. it's old steve martin doing a little distract b

electing tammy baldwin to the senate is a huge priority.e have been educating voters about tammy baldwin's consistent record, and really shedding light on the person that tommy thompson has become since he left wisconsin, went to washington, and went to make millions profiting off of his lobbying career. so we're doing everything we can, and i believe on november 6th we'll have the first woman u.s. senator here in the state of wisconsin. >> jennifer: do you have results to see whether republicans or democrats have taken advantage of early voting? >> we are not able to track that way, but we are able to get a list of people that have early voted, and look at our records and the voters that we're targeting and look voter to voter who is voting. >> jennifer: so what have you learned? >> we feel very confident of where we're at. where we need our democratic base to turn out in early vote, they are doing absolutely that. >> jennifer: you are not giving me any firm numbers, but you are feeling good is what you're telling me? >> yeah, wisconsin is

susan, another woman candidate there tammy baldwin, congresswoman tammy baldwin running against the former governor tommy thompson >> the toss-ups that you mentioned at the beginning, i believe five of them have women candidates. a lot of them running for the senate. tammy baldwin, a congresswoman from wisconsin would break a barrier if she's elected to the senate. she would be the first openly gay member of the u.s. senate. what's remarkable about this is the degree to which it is not her sexual orientation has not been an issue to a big degree in this race against tommy thompson the former governor. i think that says a lot about changing attitudes toward gays and lesbians >> we have it as a toss-upsetterly. the republicans were pretty enthusiastic about tommy thompson figuring he was a well known candidate statewide. he had good ratings. once this race engaged the democrats who were able to remind people what they don't like about tommy thompson, the fact that he has been around an awfully long time the republican view is that tammy baldwin is weak not because of her gender or because of

it accuses tammie baldwin of voting against honoring the victims of 9/11. litary victims speak over images of waving flags and the ruins of the world trade center. then comes this headline from the capital times. baldwin rejects 9/11 tribute. as factcheck.org points out, it fails to include the sub header. she's cast one of 22 "no" votes. republicans crafted a memorial resolution that also paid tribute to controversial republican legislation like the patriot act. so democrats had a choice. vote for a resolution praising legislation they oppose or vote against it and be painted as unpatriotic. it was a trap set six years ago. baldwin said at the time and she was very clear "on the the fifth anniversary of the worst attack on american soil, my republican colleagues have politicized what should have been a solemn and sincere resolution. this bill was transformed from a memorial resolution to an endorsement of president bush's failed policies. the republicans showed disrespect to 9/11 victims by playing politics with something as solemn as the fifth anniversary

agenda. >> the truth, time and again, tammy baldwin supported honoring victims of 9/11. >> real clearcalls the race a tossup and has baldwin up by less than a point averaging recent polls the. latest marquette university law school poll has thompson leading amongst likely voters by one point, 46 to 45. and the director of that poll says the tough tone of the race has had an impact. >> to me the most important thing is the way the negativity of the race has affected both candidates. and how both have been effective at tarring the other side with their negative message. >> while this is a big year for wisconsin republicans, with paul ryan on the ticket, and reince priebus, the rnh chair, experts note the recall against governor scott walker further polarized the state. in a purple state it should be close on election day. >> bret: thanks. more senate races coming up when we come back. unexpected guest during a focus group. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions tha

tammy baldwin. hr 4680 in june. you voted for that deal have been many about -- you have been blaming me about. that deal she's talking about, that was in 1999 and came up in 2000. she voted for it. it was a democratic proposal. in regards to medicare, i believe if we do not think -- if they do nothing, medicare is going to go bankrupt in 2024. i do not want medicare to go bankrupt. i want to fix medicare but i want to make sure that seniors in america and wisconsin are protected. only those under the age of 50 by the year 2000 will have a choice, not about her life she says not the voucher like she says. people will make a choice. that is a much better approach. good, if not better than medicare. all seniors will be taken care of these and people will have the to protect them when they get to that age. >> the plan just propose, will it save any money? >> right now you cannot score in like it to washington but it was introduced by a couple of u.s. senators and they said it would save medicare. i will like to see it.

the democratic candidate is the congresswoman from madison, tammy baldwin. the republican candidate is the former health secretary, tommy thompson. it's quite a race. it's really been a race in which it surprised a lot of people because former governor thompson was seen as the favorite. he was seen as the candidate that had a history of attracting moderates and conservative democrats and independent voters and crossover voters. it was felt that he was somebody that could carry the state for republicans even if republicans lost at the top of the ticket. what's happened in the polling is interesting. the people that -- his crossover support has diminished. i alluded to this yerl as this race has hardened along party lines, he's kind of had tough republican primary he barely squeaked through. there was a period of time after the primary he was out of money and the democrats went up with a lot of advertising and drove up his negatives. and tammy baldwin emerged as the frontrunner in that race. it's tightened up again since then. it's a close race. tammy baldwin

we've got tammy baldwin run forg the u.s. senate here in wisconsin. she's also let me call it right now house of representatives. did she give up her thing there as the house of representatives when he ran? i'm not really sure. but also, i want to say i'm really -- you talked about medicare when they took away 716 billion out of medicare that scares me. also how can you vote for even stand for -- i'm sorry but our president and in ben gazzie when that whole group lied for weeks on what happened there. blaming a movie and when they knew two hours later the truth. i'm really sorry for you, sir. and you talk about spending money. how about our recall 13 billion or million dollars for the recall? ridiculous. thank you. guest: well, there's a lot going on in that call. let me see what i can do to address it. tammy baldwin representative of the second congressional district since 1998 and a fabulous job did give up her seat to run for the senate. mark is a democrat running there going to be our next member of congress we're very excited about that. in refer

. >> reporter: on the right, tommy thompson, on the left, tammy baldwin, now 70, he served four termswisconsin governor and was george w. bush's secretary of health and human services. she's 50, openly gay and a 14-year veteran of the house of representatives. up for grabs is the senate seat left open by retiring democrat herb cole which republicans desperately want to help them win a majority. >> i'm tommy thompson. >> reporter: both sides are pooring in cash, a state record $40 million has been spent so far on this election. almost three-fourths coming from groups that aren't directly associated with the candidates but are very interested in the outcome. >> you can't turn on your tv right now without running into ads for tammy and tommy. >> reporter: daniel bice has been covering wisconsin politics for more than 20 years. this race he says is all about attacking the opponent. >> she's trying to define thompson as someone who was a good governor but no longer supports the interests of wisconsin. >> tommy thompson, he's not for you anymore. >> he's trying to define her not as the nice

let's start with democrat tammie baldwin and the medicare debate. baldwin is three points ahead of tommy thompson in wisconsin. here's the main reason. thompson was caught on camera promising to do away with medicare and medicare. thompson has tried to clarify the comments. it's not working. the latest ad shows her taking care of her late grandparents. she promises to leave medicare alone. so baldwin is proving to be a tougher candidate than the republicans bargaining for in the badger state. but there's another surprise for the gop. elizabeth warren is ahead of scott brown in massachusetts. warren uses the 47% comment to go after brown on tax fairness. brown responds by attacking warren's native american heritage? his staffers were even caught on tape making racist gestures. brown thinks he can win the election on this issue, but it's not working. warren is ahead by five points. her fellow democrat in missouri is doing better. claire mccaskill is winning on women's issues. todd akin coined the phrase "legitimate rape." he was caught on tape saying

let's start with democrat tammy baldwin and the medicare debate. baldwin is three points ahead of former governor tommy thompson of wisconsin tp. here is the main reason. in may thompson was promising to do away with medicaid medicare. he is trying to clarify comments. it not working. this shows her taking care of her great grandparents. she promises to leave it alone. so baldwin is proving to be a tougher candidate than the republicans bargained for in the badger state. but there is another surprise for the gop. elizabeth warren is ahead of republican favorite scott brown in massachusetts. warren uses romney's 47% comment to go after brown on tax fairness. brown responds by attacking warren's native american heritage. his staffers were even caught on tape making racist gesturees. brown thinks he can win the elect on this issue. but it's not working. warren is ahead by piff points. her fellow democrat in missouri is doing even better. senator claire mcascal. caught on tape last month saying that he doesn't support fair pay for women because it hurt

jason's father is now running for senate in wisconsin where he is trailing democratic congress woman tammy baldwinmy has rewritten the resume to include some things wisconsin voters might not have known. >> this pill helps prevent heart attacks. for the v.a. it cost $1.37. but under medicare it cost taxpayers three times more. why? tommy thompson. he cut deals while working for george bush. then tommy made millions at a d.c. lobbying firm working for drug companies. tommy thompson, he's not for you anymore. >> tammy baldwin is doing her part to rewrite the image of the thompson name in wisconsin from political winner to political loser. everyone thinks jason thompson will some day make his move and finally get his name on a ballot. and then it will be up to wisconsin voters to save us all from this american idiot. >> we have the opportunity to send president obama back to chicago. or kenya. we have an opportunity -- >> we're taking donations for that kenya trip. everyone in the nicu, all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you cha

tammy baldwin is representing the district since 1998.to run for the united states senate. the democrat is one to the next member of congress. and reference to the $716 billion, that was money that was allocated to actually defray costs and make medicare solvent for a little longer. it is the biggest lie that the republicans tell, that the president stroll $716 from medicare. he talked to a bunch of people and said, if we move these costs, we are going to make it solvent for a little longer. was such a good idea that paul ryan put it in its own budget. it is a line the keep selling because they do not have anything real to offer the people of wisconsin right now. and it is unfortunate that they keep repeating this fly over and over again. that the president stole 716 million. senior should be afraid -- people as young as myself should be afraid, the republican plan to turn medicare into a voucher-care. it is a benefit we have provided for so long, now we would have a voucher or there would go out, purchase health care and likely have to m

tammy baldwin has been a liberal on israel issues. tommy thompson has been hammering him for that.she found something she could knock him back with. you own stock in companies that are -- >> let's look at connecticut. i love this race. democratic congressman chris murphy called out republican linda mcmahon and she's been tough in this case, for being vague on her positions. let's watch. >> i've not talked about specifics when i have been on the campaign trail because they get demagogued. >> she says that she's going to get demagogued. that maybe is a different way of saying she's going to lose votes. you might lose votes if you take a position, but that's our responsibility as candidates, to tell folks what we do. >> linda mcmahon just parroted absolutely echoed what romney has been saying and what's his name, paul ryan is saying. i can't tell you what deductions i'm going to get rid of, i can't tell you how my tax plan is going to work because you will use it against me. >> you don't expect a world wrestling federation owner to duck and weave so much but she was obviously doing it

it was tammy baldwin who voted against it. baldwin: well, again, the salient point here, during his four years tenure, as secretary under brush, medicare moved nine years closer to bankruptcy. and medicare part d. program is an important program, but it wasn't paid for and it costs us between 700 and $800 billion every ten years. thompson: and you stole -- [inaudible] baldwin: the idea -- aarp said that's not true. we did not change one guaranteed benefit in medicare. in fact we strength end. thompson: [inaudible] baldwin: aarp said the allegation is simply not true. thompson: you stole from medicare. 0 took it out and used it . you took for obamacare. who would like to see some more money taken out of medicare to fund obamacare. i don't know if anybody does. [applause] >> moderator: let me jump in here. you have 30 seconds far followup on response. you talked about the sweet heart deal with medicare part k. but under the affordable health care act, there was talk among the democrats let's get rid of it. you had an opportunity

tammy baldwin, clair mccastle, go down the line and now they are not talking so much about the republicans winning back the senate but in some circles, i heard talk of democrats taking back the house. >> not going to take back the house. let's look. so we had the primaries at the beginning of the year. that was about a whole host of candidates fighting it out between themselves. romney was really not ahead during the summer. he was making this race tighter. that's what happens over the course of the summer. then have you conventions where both parties get to see. romney -- >> virtually no bump in the obama -- got a huge bump. >> do you think he's going to get a bump when you have a democratic convention that starts basically hours afterwards? i don't know if bumps exist anymore. look to the bumps -- >> for obama though. >> but that bump is already coming down. and look at the bump we got for killing osama bin laden. that bump was gone like. this i don't know if bumps really exist for that long anymore because we are such a 24-hour -- >> quickly. >> on this -- i think that we have 39 days o

first, tonight's debate in wisconsin between tommy thompson and tammy baldwin. between the senate candidates. followed by the debate in new jersey senate race with the incumbent and his republican challenger. >> it starts as an economic argument. when men are adapting more easily. i cannot -- just to stay with this period of history. and it is education and credentials. women seem to be getting those skills and credentials at a much faster rate than men are and they seem to be more nimble. in the book i talk about how that changes marriage and our notions of fatherhood and what men can and can do in families and how young people make -- a young people have sex and make decisions. tucker carlson joins hanna rosin to discuss "the end of men" on "after words." >> tommy thompson faced tammy baldwin tonight. this debate is hosted by wisconsin public tv. the political report rates the race as a top -- a tossup. >> let's welcome, thompson and tammy baldwin. [applause] >> several times over the next hour the candidates will speak with each other on the issues. these wil