Partners leader so it was clear that migration required international cooperation Palauan the Western Pacific Ocean will become the 1st country to impose a widespread ban on sunscreen in an effort to protect its vulnerable coral reefs our environment correspondent Matt MacGraw has more while climate change and pollution are the biggest threats to coral scientists have become increasingly concerned over the impact of chemicals in sunscreen products maybe having on reefs around the world 2 ingredients in particular that protect against the sun by absorbing ultraviolet light make reefs more susceptible to bleaching earlier this year the State of Hawaii announced a ban on sunscreens with these 2 chemicals allow has now gone much further banning products with 10 different ingredients that researchers say pose a threat to corals and other marine species and that's the latest b.b.c. News. Well come give our and this is your call in order to take back the House next week Democrats need to flip 23 seats in the Senate Republicans are expected to maintain their majority but you never know the polls are often wrong so we're not going to talk about polling today this really all comes down to voter turnout if voters turn out in massive numbers Democrats will most likely when early voting in 1000 States has already surpassed midterm turnout in 2014 by really huge numbers according to Fortune the number of people who have voted early in Texas has already topped the state's entire turnout and 2014 Joining us to talk about crucial Senate and House races our 2 guests Dave Levinthal is federal politics editor and senior reporter at The Center for Public Integrity and investigative news organization dedicated to revealing abuses of power corruption and betrayal of public trust by powerful public and private institutions Dave welcome back to the show Good to be back with you great to have you we're also joined by Ella Nelson Ella covers Congress and Democrats for vox and writes the daily Vox sentences newsletter she previously reported for the Concord Monitor newspaper in New Hampshire where she covered Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the 2016 primary Thank you for joining us hi thanks so much for having me great to have you you know I want to start off by a talking about what's at stake here what if Democrats do not win the House next week or the Senate there have been a few articles written about this but can we explore that a bit because you know some people say that if the Democrats fail to win next week the last 2 years will seem kind of. Light compared to what's to come which is really hard to imagine Dave what are your thoughts on that what's at stake here. First of all I think it's unlikely that we will be having a conversation on Wednesday where the Democrats who have not won the house things seem to be cutting their way in just a number of key districts that are crucial to to alternately winning the House so hey look anything can happen we know that from 2016 we know from previous election cycles for sure but the numbers seem to be matching up in a way that that's very favorable for for Democrats in the House now the Senate is an entirely different story and it's at this point a highly highly unlikely that the Democrats have any chance of being able to win the the Senate the Republicans are almost certainly going to retain that but your question you know what's at stake here well you know for the Democrats a huge amount of stake here particularly the ability going in the 2019 and into 2020 to have critical powers that they would need to to forward their agenda of keeping Donald Trump in check or at least their agenda would largely contain that now there are specific powers that they would have again where they take the house one the most notable ones is the ability to to subpoena information to conduct congressional hearings things that they can't do now because they're not in the majority and of course the specter of impeachment looms large Democrats have a big decision in front of them if they were to win the House as to whether to move forward with impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump now the Senate of course would have to be involved in that you need a 2 thirds vote to alternately remove a president but that still wouldn't prevent the Democrats from having a very very deep conversation about what they would want to do in terms of an Pietschmann if they do win the House. And what would you add what's really at stake next Tuesday. Yeah well I think in addition to everything that Dave just said and I think he laid it out really well I mean I think that also Democrats really like the Democratic Party just really means of a win. And especially on you know the House side Democrats have been out of power for a number of years now and I think that you know their base is really energized and very motivated this year which obviously as people have predicted you know very well could translate to a win but if they come up short especially after kind of this devastating loss in 2016 it's really going to I think you know potentially have an effect of deflating people and making people feel like when is this ever possible that were ever going to win again but yes as Dave mentioned in a number of policy areas you know things like health care you know they really want to try to shore up the Affordable Care Act and sort of stop the trumpet ministrations meddling and not certainly the chance to investigate Trump and his administration would be lost so there is a huge amount at stake here and we have been doing shows over the past couple of weeks about massive voter suppression about gerrymandering and some House districts Democrats actually need to win by a margin of 11 points and I think that deserves so much more attention and then voting machines there are problems right now in Texas and in Georgia and we're trying to get the word out again if you have friends family colleagues in Texas or Georgia please tell them that there are problems with the machines in Texas if you vote a straight Democratic ticket a Ted Cruz might come up on your machine. Is already filing a complaint in Georgia over the machines there so a lot of people are concerned that if the races are close we might have some problems with the machines or voter suppression I mean we just talked to Carol Anderson the other day who said voter suppression basically gave trump the White House. So these are other issues that are really important to keep an eye on. What about those issues Dave is there anything else you'd like to add I mean as we're coming down to the wire is there anything else people should know about to maybe tell friends and family in other states when it comes to problems with voting every election cycle you have to have a certain degree of vigilance and what might be the case in one jurisdiction will totally be a different case in another jurisdiction I think it's important to note that across the country because of the very decentralized way that we go about our voting there is no you know national voting system it will vary from state to state to state because of that you have to pay attention to what your state is doing who's in place to ensure that an election is free and fair what is your local jurisdictions doing even down to the precinct level so being an informed voter knowing what the what the the the effects of your local election commission is doing now what a touch of efforts are underway to make sure that voting machines are working these are all things that that are knowable and things that you can ask questions about so be an informed voter that's number one also to the agencies at the federal level that can help there's the Election Assistance Commission which serves as a resource to provide information about voting all across the country and even the u.s. Attorney's offices across the country are they have people in place to take complaints and otherwise deal with situations have to do crop up in the days before an election and on election day itself so these are all different types of resources in addition to various nonprofit organizations and good government groups out there that are trying to ensure that elections across the country are free and fair and our level would you add. I would say you know we'll watch along what what Dave said I mean it's I think that there's a lot of attention to it this year and particular especially in races like Georgia races like Texas I think because people are so fired up to vote this year there's you know a special amount of attention given to when issues do crop up I think people are really looking out for them. And we are going to talk about media coverage of electronic voting machines on tomorrow's show so be sure to tune in for that today we are talking about crucial Senate and House races next week in order to take back the House and this is so crucial for Democrats they need to flip 23 seats and we're talking about this with Dave Levinthal federal politics editor and senior reporter at The Center for Public Integrity and Ella Nilsson She covers Congress and the Democrats for vox and if you have any questions or comments what do you want to know about the candidates running which races are you watching closely and if you'd like to also talk about what's at stake We'd love to hear from you 86671882558667988255 you can also e-mail your call at k l w r g. Well according to The New York Times Democrats need to select 23 seats in the house to take back a majority the time says that there are 73 highly competitive seats meaning the race is considered either a toss up between the 2 candidates or leaning slightly toward one and Dave what are your thoughts on this what does it say about the number of tossup predictions it's that the those are actually growing and many of those seats are in those races currently held by Republicans. You know it's a confluence of a couple of factors number one you have a number of open seats where there are naturally going to be competitive you have seats where you have some really strong Democratic candidates who are running where you might have not even had Democratic candidates of any real stature before the Democrats have been raising just a ton of money one major advantage that the Democrats have is at Blue which is their national fundraising system that has been able to really really capitalize on the antitrust forever that has of course taken place over the past 2 years and converted that energy into dollars and doing so in a major way that his nationalized a lot of these races you usually think of congressional races are often think of congressional races as one of the local affair ads in a certain part of a state you know nobody's really going to care about California 21 or New York 27 or whatnot except the people who live there right well not so much anymore when you have the ability to as a donor say hey you know I got a 100 dollars or a $1000.00 to spend on politics and I just want my money to go and elect Democrats will act blue in a way we've seen in 2018 has been doing that it's such an incredible clip and with the Such effectiveness in the Republicans they don't have any comparable kind of system so there's a certain efficiency that the Democrats have had in pumping resources and money into races across the country to make many of these races more competitive and also track candidates who are perhaps a little bit stronger. Perhaps a couple of go arounds Well we did a show about money in politics yesterday you can find that your college radio dot org The Center for Responsive Politics projects that this election will cost a whopping 5 point $6000000000.00 which is an unbelievable amount of money and this time around the Democrats have pretty much caught up to the Republicans as Dave just said Ok let's talk about some of these Democrats running for the house you wrote a very long article called The 16 most interesting House races of 2018 with all parties there are a range of Democrats running you've got your corporate conservative Democrats who constantly vote for a military spending and wars and then you have more progressive Democrats who don't vote that way you know Alexandria cost of Cortez it's kind of amazing to think that she's going to be a congresswoman next week and it's going to be so interesting to see how she what she does in that role can you talk 1st off about some of the more progressive Democrats running for House seats Sure well one that we are going to be watching is is in your state of California the 43rd Congressional District which is incumbent congressman me Walter is and then her Democratic challenger is keep order and keep order is is an interesting to watch because she's running in a conservative part of California you know an area that. Has never sent a Democrat to Congress and she's not really trying to pander to the middle as much she's running on a message that includes Medicare for All which is a very you know strong progressive message is kind of become the witness test for progressive candidates in 28. So that's going to be a really interesting test case of you know there's kind of been this question and it was really strong in the primaries as well of sort of how with with such a wide open field of seat. What what should Democrats do to try to pick up the seats should they try to run more to the center and try to appeal to sort of moderate Republicans and independent voters or should they really run to their base and really embrace progressive issues like Medicare for all and this is going to be an interesting test case where as in in a number of other districts across the country and certainly districts that probably you know need more of a moderate candidate moderate Democratic candidate when we have California $45.00 where Kitty quarter is kind of going to be the test case of can a Medicare for all candidate win in a conservative space so that's one progressive candidate that that we're watching closely but you're right there is there are a number of other districts I would say are really kind of incredibly diverse fields of Democratic candidates this year another one that we're watching is sure we stayed in chances 3rd congressional district she is running against Congressman Kevin Yoder who has has been in the house since 2011 he voted for the the g.o.p. Tax cuts and Obamacare repeal and sure he stated as a as a really interesting candidate she is Native American and she's openly was in a former m.m.a. Fighter and it was Turney and you know she is kind of represents this new diverse face of the Democratic Party and she's running in you know the I would say Kansas for congressional district certainly isn't the most conservative district in the state it's kind of more suburban areas around Kansas City but you know Kansas is a very red state and so it's again way to be an interesting test case of whether sort of a younger more dynamic Democratic candidate can can win in districts like and I remember David when she wasn't in her primary there was a lot of coverage in the progressive media because Bernie Sanders and Alexandria across his Cortez were supporting one of her opponents on the Democratic side and. And they were you know getting slammed by over that because she's Native American and what does she stand for exactly what are some of her top issues so some of her top issues include like she would she definitely runs more to the middle she's not for Medicare for all like Brant Wilder or the the progressive challenger that she had in the primary but she's more for shoring up the Affordable Care Act you know basically you know the line is sort of like boosting what we already have rather than trying to start from scratch and making something new affordable education is a big part of her platform so she is you know kind of running on these bread and butter issues but she's not taking you know such a clear grasp of stance on some of these things she's not supporting like you know free college tuition for public schools or or Medicare for all it's a slightly more toned down but but a lot of the issues are and other progressive groups and that area who were supporting Bret Wilder are now supporting Sharif David. I would say yes I mean I think that I did a piece earlier this year on chances and kind of you know when when Bret Wilder was running and there was a lot of attention because Sanders and Ocasio Cortez went going you know there was a lot of this attention on like is is can just becoming progressive and I would say that I'm sure that these groups are just you know really active in trying to help elect a Democrat in this district and but I talked to some political science professors in Kansas and their take was kind of you know Kansas might be ready for Democrats but it's not necessarily ready for the Bernie Sanders style of Democrat and Dave what would you add Can you talk about a few more progressive candidates Democrats that are running House and House races well can campuses a great. Deal of the kind of great great tough case right now of whether aid. A state that has long been red it is becoming more blue I think you can definitely lump Texas into a small group of states that are kind of in a transitional period that right now that will eventually become more blue or become purple and Texas' 23rd district I think is a is one to watch coming up on on Tuesday that's will hurts district and will hurt is much more of a moderate Republican I think you can fairly categorize him on he was the guy who did the road trip back a not long ago with better O'Rorke when they had a flight canceled and they literally had to like drive all the way from Texas to Washington d.c. And they live streamed and had a great old time in everything like that so you know he's somebody who definitely reaches across the aisle but he has a pretty serious challenger and now you know which Ortiz Chalons who's giving him a quite a run and if in Texas you get a situation that will be largely better or driven without getting new Democratic voters getting independent voters voting Democratic getting people who simply don't vote at all because Texas has a long history of people just simply not voting if you can get people like that to become voters to go to the polls to vote Democrat and that's going to be something that's going to help but you know what he's Jones and could spell some trouble for will hurt even though he's well established and somebody who generally is what the like to suggest or to Pennsylvania 17 is an interesting to strict that would cover L'Amore isn't just a ton of money Democrat there to to to go and make another go at it somebody who was very very you know popular and I got a lot of attention not 2 years ago and I'm not California 48 is one that's very high on my list and that's Dana Rohrbacher seat somebody who is very very in line with Donald Trump somebody who has had very close ties with the with the with the Russians and it's just a kind of an interesting character in Congress to begin with that he's. Has a very serious chance challenger and. It could be a race 2 years ago you never would have thought. That Congressman Rohrbacher would have lost it yet he is in peril right now too so those are 3 but you know you could talk about 30 races that are interesting story lines like that where you know what you would have expected 2 years ago is just totally out the window today well and since you brought up Texas Dave the voting in Texas is just incredible the Texas Tribune reports that about 3700000 Texans have already voted and that preliminary turnout has surpassed the total votes cast in a number of counties during the entire 2 week early voting period in the last midterm so I mean massive massive voter turnout in Texas so far and yesterday when we did our show about money in politics we talked about better or Rourke raising more money than any senator in history and about 43 percent of the money he's raised is coming from small donors he's not taking any pac money and Dave you've covered politics for a long time talk about the importance of this race I mean it's just been interesting to watch Ted Cruz and bet over work debate it's been interesting to see what kind of national attention better work is receiving I mean this is a really significant race I don't like Pauline but you know it seems to me like 123 percentage points and again it's all about voter turnout. The race is closers no question about it whether it's a toss up or leaning a little bit toward Ted Cruz you can debate that but Iraq as a kind of a singular kind of candidate that mind you Texas is a state that hasn't elected statewide Democrat since the early ninety's and Richard the governor of Texas back then so we're talking about a whole generation has never known a Democrat in a statewide office in Texas I work for The Dallas Morning News for 7 years that say and saw with my own eyes how red a state it is but cities like Houston San Antonio Austin for sure and Dallas especially have become much more blue over the past 10 to 15 years is obviously is playing in the hands tremendously but he's a kind of candidate who's really put in the leg work I would caution one thing about the notion of early voting we don't know and this is what we don't know about early voting how many of those people who have early voted are people who would have voted anyway Idol ection day and are going to the polls early because politicians whether it's Donald Trump or better a lot or what not every time somebody gets on the stump they're saying go vote right now go early vote if you can do it in your state go ahead and do it so there's been a lot of you know get out the vote efforts from the politicians themselves who are running urging people to vote today instead of waiting until Election Day So that probably contributes something to it but the other question is and this is what we don't know is how many people are being motivated to vote who don't have a history of voting who have never voted before or who may you know have a very spotty record of going out maybe during a presidential year but never in a midterm so so it's a little difficult to to quite get it and polls you know is notoriously bad as they can sometimes be for predicting the outcome in an election it's even harder for them to predict how people are being motivated to go to the polls in the 1st place right and I know Dave we have to let you go in a minute we'll talk more with Al after a break at ballot young voters and Latino voters but before we let you go Dave yesterday we talked about tell. Forney Republican Duncan Hunter who with his wife Margaret was charged with using $250000.00 in campaign funds on personal expenses including a trip to Italy private school tuition and yet his race against a mark Champa car is still close and then in upstate New York Republican Congress member Chris Collins is under indictment for federal securities fraud he's accused of tipping off his son to results of a failed drug trial that was about to crash the stock price of an Australian biotech company where he sat on the board and passing along this information allegedly to his son and other investors to avoid about $768000.00 and losses and yet it looks like that is also a close race what does that say about voters and voter priorities. So that the 2 people who are running for office who are under federal indictment as we speak could very well be reelected to their seats and the major reason behind that is because those are very red districts and it's incredibly difficult even under very very trying and bizarre circumstances as we have in those 2 races to flip a district where Donald Trump may have won I believe in New York 27 The New York race that you talked about with Chris Collins that Donald Trump one had by 2324 percentage points and so the notion of being able to convince enough Republicans to vote Democrat or for independents to go Democrat or for not people who have never voted or didn't vote the last time to come and vote this time that's a pretty tough sell so it's going to be close it's definitely going to be tight I think in both races but don't be shocked if both the Republicans win and you know if they hold the seat if somebody else could come in and a Republican could replace some of them simply that that seems to be the strongest case that. Sometimes can be made that hey look we just need to hold the seat and we'll worry about what happens later and maybe we'll get somebody else in there too so both very very. Unique situations because it has happened before but definitely one you know all the time Dave Levinthal is federal politics editor and senior reporter at The Center for Public Integrity you can find his reporting at your car radio dot org Dave thanks for your work and thanks for joining us again Absolutely thank you thank you coming up after a break we'll continue speaking with Ellen Nelson She covers Congress and the Democrats for Fox We'll talk about young voters Latino voters and we'll continue talking about a very important House races in order to take back the House next week Democrats need to flip 23 seats this is your call We'll be back after this how easy should it be to vote polls suggest there's overwhelming bipartisan support for laws that require people to present a government issued id. But Democratic and Republican lawmakers have taken different strategies on changing the rules for the fight for free and fair mid-term election next time on one and. You can hear one in one half hour from now to live in o'clock this morning right after your call there are many ways you can take part in the conversation on your call and call us on the telephone you can send us an e-mail to your call at k l w dot org You may go to our website your call radio dot org If you'd like to participate in today's show by telephone call us toll free 866-798-8255 that's 866-798-8255 you can also tweet us at your call radio. This is your call I'm Rose Aqil are coming up on our media roundtable tomorrow we will discuss the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines in Texas some voters say machines are switching their votes for the u.s. Senate in Georgia the end has filed a complaint over voting machine issues and we just got an email from Hollis who says my sister in law in Indiana has had repeated issues with the machine flipping her vote there's local coverage but I haven't seen it covered nationally I believe Indiana received a failing grade on election cybersecurity thank you for that and thanks for the link we will definitely talk about that tomorrow we're also going to talk about. What's happened in Brazil voters have chosen the far right former Army captain gyre Paulson r.-o. To be the country's next president what explains this radical shift to the right that's tomorrow if you have a show idea or guest idea you can drop us a line feed your colleague k l w dot org You can also listen to past shows and Senate for a podcast at your call radio dot org Today we are talking about crucial House and Senate races mainly focusing on the House because in order to take that back next week Democrats need to flip 23 seats many people say that Republicans are expected to maintain a majority in the Senate and we are seeing massive early voting numbers across the country today we're joined by Nelson She covers Congress and the Democrats for vox She also writes the daily Vox sentences newsletter. Ella you went on a reporting trip to Nevada and you looked at how Democrats have developed a strategy for getting Latinos to turn out in big numbers we're hearing that. You know in order for better or to win in Texas we have to see massive Latino vote voter turnout what really struck you about what you heard and saw in Nevada. Well Nevada benefits from having a very good kind of longtime infrastructure already in place and this is something that was helped it was built up by former Senator Harry Reid who is is no longer in office but he is he does still live kind of near Las Vegas and is still you know not not as publicly but high on the scene still pretty active in the state Democratic Party and Nevada benefits from having a you know still a pretty strong local union infrastructure the colony our union there is very strong with a lot of people that that work in the casinos in the restaurants in Las Vegas and the union also has a very large Latino population it's you know one of the largest you know the size of the median it's one of the largest you know immigrant. Organizations and Las Vegas and the state as well. And the thing that that local organizers told me you know when I was there on the ground is that in order to successfully turn out the Latino vote which Nevada has done in ways that other states have struggled to do You can't think of this as something that needs to happen you know it's a few weeks or a few months before Election Day This is something that has to be year round every single day and then about a state Democratic Party often gets the nickname the read machine after Harry Reid but you know a number of people told me you got kind of conjures up this image of you know all these these old men and kind of smoke filled rooms and stuff like that but it's actually organizing that's being driven by organizers local organizers on the ground organizing within the communities that they are familiar with and know so that is something that's very import. And something that I think that people in places like Texas haven't really figured out that certainly they're trying but haven't mastered quite as much and what can you tell us about Representative Jackie Rosen who is running against Senator Dean Heller for the Senate seat in the Vatican what is her platform so Jackie Rosen is a current Congresswoman She's a freshman congresswoman from Nevada and she is kind of trying to Nevada is definitely a swing state so she is sort of trying to strike this balance between you know being. A democrat and obviously she is she's running on a pretty Democratic platform but also sort of strength trying to strike this balance with voters saying I'm going to be bipartisan I'm going to work with Republicans she's not sort of trying to be better work you know it and sort of do these these run on these large progressive policies but but yes she is she's sort of. There's kind of advantages and disadvantages with Rosen I mean her advantage is is that she's still relatively new so she doesn't have a huge voting record that Republicans and it hit her on but at the same time you know she's running against Dean Heller who should is a long term senator in the state and while he has a very long voting record that that she can attack him for he also because he's been around so long there's a danger that he can sort of define her before she can define ourselves. What did you hear from the Latino voters that you interviewed and the Fattah what issues are most important to them. I mean immigration is certainly on the forefront I think that in Nevada and in states like Texas you know people are living issues like family separation and you know things things that you know in terms of immigration people you know that I talked to on the ground in Nevada said that they have you know family members that are that are undocumented that are afraid to really kind of be out in in society they're afraid of being picked up by local police and and being transported to ice and and potentially being deported and there there are here is and it's Will I think people see this in states like Nevada and Texas as as not just something that is morally troubling but also something that impacts the economy because a lot of these people have have lived in the States for a number of you know a number of years they pay taxes they contribute to the local economy so it's a very multifaceted issue you know not not just impacting people's families but also impacting the economy impacting state and other way and since you brought up immigration I mean some of the ads that Republicans are running are just so horrific at the Guardian has a piece Trump's new election. As racists false fear mongering and the New York Times had a piece recently called the most inflammatory ads of the midterms scores of campaigns particularly Republican ones have leaned in on divisive themes throughout the election cycle I mean these are really awful nasty ads I haven't seen any on t.v. But I've received a few over e-mail I mean blatantly racist ads about immigrants did you hear anything about that in Nevada I mean are you hearing about these ads on the ground how do people respond to these Sure well I think it depends on you know kind of what your background is certainly I think. You know if if you are an immigrant or a or you know somebody who is an immigrant that these ads are very offensive and I was just talking to somebody yesterday an undecided voter in Nevada who is is Mexican American and he just said he feels like Trump's rhetoric is it's trickling down into people that he just talks to in his community because when people find out that he's Mexican American and tell him Oh you're a good x. Again he was like well. There aren't bad like he said that he feels like President Trump's rhetoric is really stoking that and making. You know making that's something that he has to deal with it as in his daily lives but you know I think that there is real kind of calculation on Trump's part and on the part of Republicans that have been running these same kind of ads it's this fear of the other and fear of immigrants and especially since there is a lot of talk about this you know so-called caravan of immigrants coming from you know Latin America and El Salvador places like that. You know that the reality is is those people are going to go to the border they're going to to check themselves and they're going to go through the process rather than sort of this you know images of people just streaming across the border that that Trump is putting on these ads that's that's not accurate but this is this is appealing to people's fear and this is something that Trump did it actively in 2016 and it worked for him then and this is the closing argument especially as Trump and Republicans are facing questions about their tax cuts and health care there are a lot of concerns that Republicans will try to take away preexisting conditions if they are reelected in 2018 so Trump is trying to divert the focus from issues like health care to just sort of stirring up this year about immigration. And then we're talking about House races but the governors' races and Georgia and Florida are obviously getting so much attention and in this New York Times piece in one ad called Truth Republicans attempt to paint Democrats Abrams as untrustworthy and evasive the ad uses a tap dancer in the background to illustrate Stacy Abrams quote dancing around the truth which enraged observers who connected the analogy to the trope of black Americans tap dancing in the segregated South and then in Georgia Republican ran to Santas was criticized for saying voters should not quote monkey this up by voting for Andrew the Democratic candidate who's black I mean it's awful that we have to even talk about this but this is where we're at I mean this is ugly ugly I mean so racist a lot of these ads and I feel like what gets lost in a lot of the coverage of all of this is that in many cases these candidates are on a completely opposite sides of the spectrum. Right I mean it is kind of this thing where where you kind of wonder if it's if it's just done to deliberately you know provoke outrage and kind of and rile up the base of people that might you know respond well to ads like this but yeah it's something that you see a lot you know in and in California I mean and I haven't covered this race as much but with the Jenkins Hunter race the Democrat in that race Mark camp and unsharp I mean Duncan Hunter has has run it's basically calling him the security threat and because he has his grandfather you know was part of a house in terrorist group you know this is a candidate that never met his grandfather he doesn't have ties to his grandfather but yet there are these ads running that you know when you watch the sort of like it's almost like watching a horror movie and that is something that we have to remember this is this is deliberate well and we're even talking about it right and that's the other thing it's like when you talk about real issues here I mean Republicans they just passed this unbelievable incredible tax cut that they could even go that far under George w. Bush so that's one thing I mean getting rid of environmental protections as Steve Benen says deconstructing the administrative state basically taking a sledgehammer to government. Entities like the e.p.a. The Interior Department you name it health care for example I mean there are real consequences to these races and when you watch the debates these issues definitely come out but still there's so much focus on these negative ads and the candidates have to defend themselves so they have to make it an issue. And you also sort of think that this is something that's kind of I don't know it's symptomatic or just a magic of the Trump era like you said they're all that is really really important policy issues but they kind of get one. OS not you know in the in the era of Trump just saying crazy things are tweeting crazy things or you know tweeting these inflammatory ads he is able to effectively direct attention to things like that rather than sort of these more serious policy issues that are also at stake. Can we also talk about what are your thoughts about progressives in the house when you have some you know Alexandria Cortez let's say the Democrats take back the House what are you hearing from Democrats about what they're planning to do especially on policies I mean let's forget impeachment but what are they planning to do on policy issues yes I do have to say I don't think impeachment is very high on the on the priority list right now I mean certainly investigating jump is very high but Democrats don't really want to talk about impeachment right now because they're afraid that sort of jumping the gun but I would say on policy issues they are really focused 1st of all on passing this kind of sweeping corruption bill that would really sort of try to crack down on lobbying and also expand voting rights in America. And that bill it's not in its final form yet but I recently talks to the congressman that's really been instrumental in kind of working on that and that will continue as a really interesting idea which is public financing of elections and champion finance reform so I don't know if that's going to make it into the final version of the bill but it is this very kind of big sweeping statement being like Democrats are you know serious on cracking down on corruption within both parties and really sort of trying to dramatically change the flow of money into politics and into campaign ins very salient issue as you discussed with Dave earlier this year so that's something that they're really focused on and making that 1st or 2nd bill I think that they that they propose. If they do take back the gavel The other thing that they are thinking about is. Infrastructure bill and this would sort of be something that the tribe administration has also signaled and just on and I do think that Democrats once they take back the House they sort of have to strike a balance between you know investigating the trumpet ministration but also trying to work on policies that are within interest of both parties to get on and really kind of demonstrate to the American people that they are trying to work for them and trying to actually pass something. So I think that infrastructure is something that has been talked about there's a lot of interest in. Multiple parts of the caucus whether it's progressed to sort of more of the moderate you know Blue Dog Democrats I think that that is something that people can agree on today we're speaking with Ellen Nelson She covers Congress and the Democrats for vox and also writes the daily Vox sentences newsletter if you want to learn more about some of the Democrats running for House each has a very lengthy piece called The 16 most interesting House races of 2018 an order to take back the House next week Democrats must flip 23 theat And if you have any questions or comments on this what races are you watching what issues would you like to know about and what is really at stake here you can give us a call at 86679882558667988255 you can also e-mail your call it k l w dot org. You mentioned that as part of this anti-corruption bill the Democrats would take money out of politics can you be more specific about that because we talked yesterday about how I mean the amounts of money being raised are just so obscene. Ave some are probably are next governor in California has raised about $50000000.00 I mean in a state with so much poverty and yet if you're a 1st time candidate it's pretty daunting if you run against a well established Republican you really have no choice but to try to raise a ton of money to run t.v. Ads and get your message out there I just don't hear many Republican Democrats talking about money and politics so what this do is exactly. Well you're right I mean there is it seems like there has been there's just a deluge of cash but I would sort of push back on that Democrats haven't been talking about it I mean like you know that our war has raised historic amounts of money in Texas but a lot of the you know he took a no corporate pocked pledge and a lot of that money is is coming from small donations and I would say that Democrats in particular not all Democrats but certainly progressive candidates are really kind of trying to make good on this pledge not accepting money from super PACs or corporate tax and really trying to harness the power of small dollar donations and I do think that this is an issue that's becoming more salient and especially I'm going to be interested to watch in 2020 there are a number of candidates that signaled that they are interested in running for president on the Democratic side like Elizabeth Warren notably Booker Connelly Harris and Warren especially released a detailed plan on how she wants to you know get money out of politics it's a bill in the Senate it doesn't really have any chance of going anywhere in the current Senate because it's controlled by Republicans and I mean she when she rolled out the bill she even kind of Joe You know this is probably going to be unpopular among some of my Democratic colleagues as well just because it's so sweeping and so wide ranging but I do think that there is a recognition especially after the 26 you know action and the success that Bernie Sanders had with this message I do think that there is a recognition among the Democratic Party that people and not just the Democratic Party I mean you have to remember that that Trump before he became president ran on this message as well that you know Washington is corrupt the politicians are not working for you they're working for corporations and that issue was very resonant to voters and I think it still is I mean any time I write about like the war and Bill or the. The bill that House Democrats are working on to get money out of politics people really want to read that I know to the readership on those stories kind of spike so I think that Democrats are coming to an understanding that this is an important issue for them and a winning issue for them as well I think that they are going to try to take this more seriously and certainly it's being driven sort of by the progressive side of the party. That was a big piece of contention in the primaries of sort of like you said corporate Democrats versus progressive Democrats that are really hammering out money in politics but I think that the party in general is. Kind of coming around on this issue and recognizing that they sort of need to do something. Let's hear from a caller Let's go to Mike in San Francisco hi Mike welcome to the show I want to talk about star policy a little bit I mean it's never spoken about and you know I was active in the air they were moved majority of Viet Nam period and a lot of the Democrats and even some Republicans spoke out against the war now I don't see anybody talking really taking it a good position on Israel Palestine and not talking about Yemen I mean maybe some people are talking about it but I don't hear it out here someone whether there is anybody in the progressive part of the Democratic Party and I voted for Bernie by the way but I think he did Bernie was weak on foreign policy someone who was there is anybody that speaking out on these issues it's a great question Mike and Kevin Daly on was on the show last Wednesday who's running for senator against Dianne Feinstein and she she never returned our calls it was just Kevin Daley on and you know he said Democrats need to we need to get out of the business of bombing other countries was what he said we need to stop bombing other countries and you just don't hear Democrats really talk like that or at least maybe they are and you don't hear it in the media so in the profile that you wrote Ellie of the 16 I'm sorry Ella of the 16 most interesting House races of 2018 What did you find about foreign policy and where these Democrats stand on you know whether it be military spending Israel Palestine Yemen there's a very long list yeah I would just like to say I'm 1st of all the caller was wondering about Democrats that have spoken up about this and if you voted for Bernie Sanders he'd be happy you know that that Bernie Sanders has been one of the war outspoken senators on issues of foreign policy particularly you know the war in Yemen and some of the stuff you've been with Israel and Palestine and I would say that that Democratic senators have have been speaking out but you're right I don't think that there is a foreign policy. And that kind of rings true with you know that House candidates that I profiled in this piece I think especially if you're running in some war conservative districts if you're a Democrat running in a markets are going to distract you're not your when you talk about the military it's talking about you know continuing spending levels for the military and keeping the military strong it's not as much really kind of you know against war and general and and going into you know kind of conflicts and obviously there is you know even though the u.s. Is certainly very active in certain parts the world there's no you know actual kind of active war going on that that were embroiled in so it doesn't it certainly doesn't come up as much on the campaign trail but I would say certainly and House races that I would say that domestic issues are really the ones that people are talking about the Afghanistan and Iraq they're not those issues aren't coming up at all or not much at all I wouldn't say they're not coming up at all but but certainly they're overshadowed by domestic issues like health care and what about military spending because I mean this is where you have I think it was 10 Democratic senators voted against this massive military spending bill and I always say that health care is separate from that bill because a lot of people say well of course you want to give veterans health care but that's not part of this bill it's a lot of money for weapons and Democrats tend to vote for these bills is military spending coming up at all on the trail. Again I would say not not quite as much I mean people might get a few a few questions here and there but yeah I think that this sort of does kind of end up sailing through or at least has till now I don't know if there is sort of war a presence of progressive members in the house if that's going to become more of an issue you know after 28 people like Ocasio Cortez and a Presley you know just sort of general more progressive members of the Democratic caucus might speak out about that more but but like I said it it hasn't come up as much on the trail right in fact I think the New York Times had a piece profiling just 3 people who were actually talking about Israel Palestine and you know we'll continue to follow that I don't remember the names of these I'm seeing their faces I don't remember their names but if you just search for that Mike Israel Palestine candidates if they just profile just 3 I think that says a lot about where we are right now especially when it comes to you know running against Republicans in our final minutes what else stands out for you we talked about health care so basically where we are right now is some Democrats are saying universal health care is the only solution or other Democrats say we can't go there all at one time we have to take an incremental steps which is what they've been saying for many many years what other issues really stand out. Are they talking about minimum wage increases are they talking about poverty at all is that coming up yeah absolutely I would say there is a lot of attention on passing like a $15.00 minimum wage bill and not something that you know that's not just a progressive issue I mean Nancy Pelosi has voiced support for that I think that there are other people that are interested in doing not in the House and certainly there yet there is a lot of focus on our bodies from from some high ranking members in the house I mean. Representative Jim Clyburn from South Carolina who's the number 33 Democrat in. House has a big plan with Senator Cory Booker to try to reduce poverty in the United States. Who is the Democratic whip and he's the number 2 House Democrat has really been talking about this issue a lot so I think that you know while certainly there is an emphasis on improving things for the middle class Democrats are going to try to. Improving things for people that are. Ellen Wilson covers Congress and the Democrats for vox and also writes the daily Vox sentences newsletter Ella thank you so much for your work sharing all of this information and thanks for joining us Sure thanks so much for having me thank you and I just want to mention we have talked about voting machine problems in Texas and Georgia and Hollis just sent over an article about Indiana so if you have friends or family there you might want to let them know a piece from The Journal and courier says that after waiting a half hour and line on Saturday on the 1st 8 days of early voting Sunday Prout could not figure out why every time he touched the screen for a candidate label d for Democrat and x. Went into the box next to the one with an r for Republican So here's another state to add to that list be sure to let your friends know look up information and maybe you can ask for a paper ballot instead this is what we're going to be talking about on tomorrow's media roundtable the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines we've got problems in Texas Georgia now Indiana we have known for so long that these machines are problematic we know that they can be hacked into so why are they still being used and then we're also going to talk about what's happening in Brazil the far right former Army captain Paulson are as now the president of Brazil what explains the radical shift to the right that's tomorrow thanks to Laura went to for producing today's show and thank you for joining us I'm Rosa ocular it's your call . On the next open air I'll talk with conductor Chuck Goodman about the opening concert of the 5th season of debate ensemble also. Director of the. Marilyn Levinson talks about the season of Bay Area cabaret and dancer and choreographer Bobby Jean Smith talks about his new work with care. David it's open air that and more this Thursday afternoon at join me. To think about the 20. Is that it's their spring training they're out there trying some different moves but they don't want to show too much because they need to leave some new techniques in reserve for 2020 I'm Michael. From the New York Times. You can hear the daily 530 this afternoon right after cross currents here San Francisco time now 11 o'clock. Matters in these midterm elections finding it harder to vote this time around and what's being done to protect your access to the polls from. N.p.r. In Washington. Today on one a voting access the midterms tend to be slow compared to presidential election years but not this time at least 26000000 people have cast ballots than in previous cycles some states have faced claims of reasonably difficult voter registration conscious efforts to suppress turnout what is an appropriate amount of regulation to ensure the elections are fair and accurate will explore ahead working to help Native Americans to the polls share what you know about voting access comments on our Facebook page or tweet us at one. This is the b.b.c. News Hello I'm Jonathan Izod the United States has brought criminal charges against 2 former Goldman Sachs bankers and a fugitive Malaysian finance here over the scandal involving Malaysia's State Development Fund one m.t.b. Prosecutors say that Goldman Sachs former southeast Asia chairman Tim Meissner has already pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money embezzled from the fund the other banker Roger has been arrested while Jolo remains at large Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head reports it was the u.s. Justice Department's allegations of massive financial irregularities 2 years ago which kept public attention on the one n.d.p. Scandal at a time when the Malaysian government had shut down its own investigations now the Department of Justice has issued indictments against the flamboyant young Malaysian financier known as Jolo famed for his extravagant parties and against 2 former Goldman Sachs bankers who helped him to borrow billions of dollars for one m. D. B. Jolo has been charged in Malaysia too but his whereabouts are unknown to the authorities there the far right president elect of Brazil variable Sanaa who has appointed say to morrow high profile anti corruption charges his Justice and public security minister the move has angered the defeated Workers' Party which has accused Mr Mauro of intervening in the outcome of last month's presidential vote America's editor Leonardo Russia reports several more is a highly controversial figure in Brazil his adored by those who see him as a man who managed to tackle corruption in a country where many feel politicians are above the law but his loathed by the left dozens of businessmen and politicians have been arrested since Judge Moore began his anti corruption probe a few years ago one of those was the former president Louise Inacio Lula of their Silver who led all opinion polls until his arrest in a Pro Bowlers allies say Mr Moore's appointment proves that his arrest was designed to prevent the Workers' Party from returning to power the South African president several run opposer has lashed out at the corruption that infected the country before his predecessor Jacob Zuma was ousted as head of state earlier this year he said corruption was now being tackled but people still needed to see senior government officials tried and sent to prison. A criminal investigation has begun in Britain into a prominent businessman funding of a probe campaign group during the referendum 2 years ago on whether to leave the European Union foreign banks help to finance the leave don't eat you group to promote or exit Britain's Electoral Commission believes that Mr Banks was not the true source of more than $10000000.00 of loans made to the campaign Mr Banks has denied wrongdoing and m.p. For the opposition Labor Party Stephen Kinnock welcomed the investigation I think it's very good that it's been passed to the National Crime Agency they've got the forensic capability to make this happen and Mr Banks has serious questions to answer he is the biggest donor in British political history 9000000 pounds we need to know where that money came from world news from the b.b.c. One of the dominant opposition figures in the Democratic Republic of Congo Cardinal Law in the same way has stepped down as head of the Catholic Church in the country the Vatican said Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of the 79 year old as archbishop of Kinshasa for many years the church led by Archbishop was saying well accused Joseph Kabila as government of corruption and fermenting conflict the suspect in the shooting at a synagogue in the u.s. City of Pittsburgh in which 11 people died has pleaded not guilty to $44.00 charges Robert Bowers is accused of murder hate crimes and firearms offenses he's charged with killing worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in what's thought to be the worst anti semitic attack in u.s. History. The Cuban president Miguel Diaz canal is paying an official visit to the Russian capital Moscow his 1st since replacing Raul Castro as Cuban leader in April the president's tour comes as Cuba looks for help to cope with increasing economic difficulties and fresh children relations with the u.s. Sarah Rainsford reports Cuba's president is on tours a tough time for the island's economy Moscow wants propped up its communist ally in the Caribbean and after the Soviet collapse Venezuela stepped in but now its economy is in crisis in Cuba is looking further afield again for support the wife of politics has returns to its relationship with Moscow amid talk of a new Cold War under a new chilling Cuba u.s. Relations after a brief thaw but Russia's own economy is struggling under the weight of Western sanctions and the days of handouts the have Anna would seem to be over the French priest whose campaign for the Roman Catholic Church tackled child sex abuse has been sacked as a judge on an ecclesiastical court you have in your said he had been informed by email of the decision taken by 12 bishops in the Leon area in August he published a letter calling on the city's archbishop Cardinal Philip Barbara to resign over his alleged failure to report an Abbott accused of sexually abusing boys scouts in the 1980 s. B.b.c. News. This is one day I'm Joshua Johnson in Washington it's been said many times if you don't vote don't complain but a growing number of voters say they have plenty to complain about namely that they struggle to cast their ballots research shows that $24.00 states have a strict it voting access in this decade that includes passing voter id laws purging names from voter rolls and restricting early voting times or locations but the Constitution does not guarantee citizens the right to vote but voting is one of those fundamental aspects of being American that makes us know we count and count equally It lets us not just complain but make change with less than a week to go before the midterms what issues are people experiencing at the ballot box and what can be done about them we'll explore what's happening nationwide and we'd love to know what you are seeing where you live so e-mail us one a at am you dot org How easy or hard is it to vote in your area you can also comment on our Facebook page or tweet us one day let's begin in Georgia where the race for governor has raised big concerns about voter access joining us from w a b e Public Radio in Atlanta is Reporter Johnny Kauffman who's been following this election very closely Johnny welcome to want to say thanks for having me what's happening on the ground for voters in Georgia right now can you give us the big picture. All right now there's a lot of voting going on people are really excited the lines outside early voting locations is really long but in the background are these concerns like you mentioned about voter suppression folks are really pointing the finger here a lot at the current Republican secretary of state Brian Kemp who is also running for governor and he faces Democrat Stacy Abrams in this race and these 2 have been on the opposite ends of voting issues for years Abrams has made a focus of her as registering as many people of color and motivating them to get to the polls as possible and since camp has been the Republican secretary of state some of his policies have created more obstacles that people need to get past in order to vote he says These obstacles are important to prevent voter fraud just be clear secretaries of state oversee elections in their states what do you think has put Georgia at the center of the recent talks about voter suppression I mean that we've we've heard about these concerns in other states what makes Georgia perhaps the meek among them Georgia has and I don't remember the number exactly but you know when you think about some of these obstacles recently that have been and put put in place to voting such as voter id moving.