All in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes. We have some breaking news just a few moments ago. We have just learned that ben bradly, the legendary former editor of the Washington Post has died. In his 26 years of the pap ear s home, he. Entering the home stretch in a statistical dead heat in kentucky with Alison Grimes had been written off by commentators and the democratic senatetorial campaign committee, shes being buoyed by a new poll that was put out yesterday. Grimes got another boost from the campaign trail today with bill clinton. In colorado, another clinton hit the campaign trail with mark udol today, with democrats defending udall. So dig deep. Get out, knock on every day, talk to every person. Tell them yes. To vote. Tell them to vote for themselves. By voting. For mark udall. A brand new poll has gardener up by threepoints. While the latest Campaign Finance reports show him with three times more cashonhand than udall. Voting started this yesterday. In a state democrats managed to turn blue in the last two president ial elections. In a North Carolina senate race now on track to be the most expensive ever with overall spending approaching 100 million. You heard that correctly. A hundred million for one race. And two of every 3 coming from outside groups. The latest pop has cay hagan up three points. Thats just inside the margin of error. Tonights debate, one of three taking place around the country, saying she never agreed to a fourth debate. Just like charli cryst last week flying solo for a full four minutes. Eacxw theres another florida Gubernatorial Debate tonight. It will officially be fanfree, according to the organizers. Claiming to a narrow lead over brown whos been beating the drums over our porous border. Another seat the democrats more or less have to hold onto if they want to keep the senate in a close race that could come down to how women vote. Brailey campaign today, the notsosecret weapon, first Lady Michelle obama. And this time, unlike the last time, she got his name right. Proud to be here today to support the next senator from iowa, our friend, bruce braley. Lets give it up for bruce. Now, let me say that one more time, bruce braley. Joining me now is jess mcintosh. Did someone get fired for the bruce bailey screw up last time . It wasnt just michelle obama. Maybe it was a tell prompter thing. Bailly is a pretty common name. Now, you have a real figure in the polls for this. You guys have a particular outcome you want to see. But you have been working on this. This race seems to me to be tightening in every way. I mean, every race, even new hampshire, where it seems shhine should be winning fairly handedly. But theres two polls since everyones written it off. It just seems like this race is actually really, really close across the board. This race has been really, really close. We have Kentucky Senate race for a long time. Its honestly one of the dumbest and most datafree things that i have seen happen since i started working in campaigns. She has kept him under 50 and more or less within the margin of error for, like, 24 of her last public polls. Her own pollster has her up two. This race has been alive. It is alive. I guess im happy people are s t catching up to that now. We still have two weeks to go. But, no, its really, really close all across the country. There is a plausible scenario where democratic women, else specially, have a great night. Theres a chance that we have a great night. Theres an equally plausible scenario that we lose everything. Ofble, yes. You just painted the most optimistic scenario. Theres two southern races that are particularly interesting. Theres Michelle Nunn in ga gae who has had a very good week in the news cycle because of david purdues deposition which he sort of boasted out sourcing his whole life. Cay hagan, that race seems to be tightening. Yeah, it seems like they are all moving closer together. And remember what being in the margin of error means. If you go from e from being up one to down one, it is statistically the same as going down one to up one. We just dont know whats going to happen on Election Night which is why it is so important to spend the next two weeks thinking about your voting plan, how youre going to get to the polls, how youre going to wrangle Everything Else in your life along with voting, talking with friends about voting, poesz posting on your social networks about voting. Its one of the great things about being a democrat, we want to expand the electorate. We just want everyone to talk about voting to everyone that they can for the next 14 days. The issues are on our side. So the more we spend talking about our election and what candidates are standing for, the better Democratic Candidates are going to do. This is just a very, very tough mat mat for us in the midterm. In the last two or three days, i feel like there was this little mini bubble in political commentary with the Approval Rating among women. Theres been erosion in a lot of places. What do you think what role do you see that playing . Do you think the kind ofcommentators, air goal, thats part of their problem . No, were seeing historic gender gaps. Most of these races are not tight when it comes to gender. In some cases, we have eve seen 20 and 30 point gender gaps. So the idea that women are abandoning democrats for any reason, local or national, just isnt borne out by data. That said, i think there is a tendency among political commentator class because thats what theyre the most confidentble talking about. But when we poll women, theycare its not nearly as sexy, but they care about minimum wage, ending discrimination in pay and access to health departmentcare. Consistently. Oaf e over and over again they come up. Its not about the president orr any national issue, for that matter. Always a pleasure. Thanks. With midterm elections heading into the final stretch, any slip could tip favor in to the republicans. Man warns president not to touch girlfriend, but when you clicked on the link, it took you to a video of the president voting early where shortly after the president headed to his polling booth. The boyfriend of the woman voting next to him walked passed the president and jokingly said dont touch my girlfriend. The following exchange is pretty incredible. Joining me now, the cup at the center of it all. All right. Im, like, mike, can i start with you . What possessed you sure. What po saysed you to make that joke at that moment . It was just so kwooit in the room. We walked in and everybodys eye e eyes were glued to the president , as mine were, too. It was a onceinalifetime type of thing. As i walked to my booth, i saw her frantically trying not to panic. I had to Say Something to ease the situation, thats all. Can i just say this . I completely understand that. Ive been in a few events with the president and i had that same urge. In fact, ive said a few things which i then reported to my wife of which she said thats right on the border of things you can say to the president. So i was texting her and she said well, if you can get away with that so what was your response . Why . Why would you do this . I was just nervous. Supernervous. Another part of me was gist, like, shut up. Theyre going to tackle you. Shut up. Just a lot. All nerves. Ball of nerves. Theres something amaingly gracious in the way the president played that out and kind of took your nervousness away from you to basically reassure you that it was okay and the whole thing wasnt the horrifying nightmare that you possibly thought it was for a second. Nq right. Exactly. Exactly. Have you been telling all of your friends exactly the confers that the president mapped out for you in that interaction . Yeah, friends and family have pretty much reached out. The local news has been pretty interesting in the last few days. It was just an experience i wanted to give her. I knew she was just nervous going up there in the booth next to him that she probably wasnt paying attention the her ballot. But it wasnt anything that the president did. I want to make that clear. It was just something that i always do to her and she knows very well its my personality. I am very spontaneous. And i would just put her out in the front street of anyone in order to make her smile and laugh, just like she did. Were you actually able to focus on voting on the ballot . I was trying. I was trying really hard. I actual thrill did. I did vote for that person. But, after he said that, i was just, like, oh, my god, please, just secret service, dont take him out. Just dont. Please dont. And then standing next to the president , hes sitting up here actually having a conversation, i was, like, this is sur real. It was just a great deal experience. As you noted, you then did have a conversation with the president that would not have happened had he not made the joke. Youre right. Correct. Correct. Theres been some news reports that say youre engaged . Is that true or not . No, not yet. Okay, okay. I didnt mean to put you on front street, i just had to ask. Its all right. Not a problem. Thank you very much. Thaurng. All right. All right. Breaking news, the former editor of the Washington Post who published the pentagon papers has died. He was 93. More on that ahead. Yesterday, someone saw him. The latest ahead. Just moments ago, we learned that ben bradly i e died. Leading the Washington Post news room for 20 years. And a steady hand with bob woodward and Carl Bernstein unravel a massive cover for richard nixon, what came to be known as a third rate burglary. The pentagon papers published by the New York Times offered an unprecedented look. As reporting, Lynn Don Johnson reported gave me the word. We were looking for a successor for j. Edgar hoover. Johnson wanted a press conference and appointed a head of the f. B. I. For life. The president said call ben bradly and tell them [bleep] you. Joining me now, Washington Post columnist ruth marcus. Ruth, one of the three or four most important figures in american georgism in the last 50 years . I think thats a fair thing to say about him. Totally fair. People like me hired by ben bradly, probably the most important thing in american journalism. My experience was that he was a pretty beloved figure. He was this legendary figure inside the post. People felt strong feelings about him, people would trade ben bradly stories. He was a remarkably good manager from all the people that i know in the post in his years there aside from being a great newspaper man. The thing about ben, and i did not know him before he was a legend. I obama knew him postwatergaet, postall the president s men ben. There was something compelling about him so that you just wanted to please him and you just wanted to get his attention and get his approval. When it did, you just felt great about yourself. If he said something critical, which was not very often, you just kind of wanted to shrivel up. But, mostly, he managed by bestowing his charm on you. And he was someone who took this paper, i think if im recalling quadrupled in circulation under his helm. It defined an era of georgism through water gate. If you go back and look at trust and institutions in the 1970s, the press is up there at the top above all others. It then will sink in the decades to follow. But he was there crafting this coverage and overseeing this coverage at a time when arguably, newspapers in american journalism matters more and is trusted more before than it ever has since. I mean, especially since. Imagine a world in which the i was a College Student in the post water gate ara. My most vivid recollection was him swearing like a sailor. But think about the generations of people like me who was inspired by his experience, the postexperience think of journalism as a noble calling in contrast to where we are now in contrast of the esteem or not with which the press is held. If it wasnt for woodward and bernstein, we wouldnt have water gaet. But if it werent for ben, we wouldnt have wroodward and bernstein. Yes, that is a key thing about the legacy with bill bradly. He stood up to wliet house pressure numerous times. Put his capital behind the newspaper. People call him and say wait on this and sometimes they run it and sometimes they dont. But you cant imagine the kind of fort tud it takes to stare at the president of the United States and say no, sir, were running this. Absolutely. And i think you make a really good point about the publisher. You really cant talk about ben and the world of the post without talking about catherine graham. Mrs. Grahams willingness to partner with ben and stick with him and trust his instincts and trust his ability to manage reporters is also an essential ability. Im techlted to look through both of their autobiographies. Theyre bookends. Together, they created a Better Newspaper than they would have been able to do separately. Washington post columnist roout marcus hired by ben bradly, whos passed away tonight. Ben bradly, legendary former executive of the Washington Post has died, as we just reported, at the age of 93. Well be right back. A single ember that escapes from a wildfire can travel more than a mile. That single ember can ignite and destroy your home or even your community you cant control where that ember will land only what happens when it does get fire adapted now at fireadapted. Org right noi, former massachusetts senator with hopes of taking jahines job in two weeks. One thing we can bank on is that brown, running to be senator of new hampshire, this time, the state is more than 2,0 00 miles from the southern border is going to talk about that border because he thinks hes found an issue that is really working for him. Americans go through security before they get on a plane, enter a government building or attend a ball game. But folks who come here illegally, they just walk across the border. Thats wrong. Want to know why theres lawlessness on our border . Ask senator shaeen. Radical islamic terrorists are threatening to cause the collapse of our country. President obama and senator shheen seem confused about the nature of the threat. Not me. But you have potentially upwards of 300 people fighting isis who want to come home. Theyre coming home to change our way of life, hurt or kill us. Scott browns emphasis on fear of the border may have to do with simpbl math. Nationally, latinos make up 11 of eligible voters. But in the eight states with close senate races, fewer than 5 are latino, according to a new research report. Only one of the big, closely contested senate races is in a state thats significantly close. Thats colorado. So the strategy that brown is pursuing actually makes sense given the makeup of the midterm elector ra e rat where states are being contested and whos going to turn out to vote. But heres the thing. We have seen this movie before. Just like mitt romney beating up rick perry, when he said you dont have a heart defending texass decision to give instate tuition to undocumented students, mitt romney beat him up for it. Well, he paid for that later in the general election. You see, the tactical bet the republicans are making in 2014, might have terrible consequences strategically in 2016. Because everyone, everyone. All the operatives understands republicans cannot win the presidency with the ma gins that mitt romney got among latinos. And, yet, here they are, again, just two years later, in the process of repeating just that. Ten schools shut down in pennsylvania today because of a man hunt. The details next. Just tell us your budget and the name your price tool helps you find a whole range of coverages. No one else gives you options like that. [voice echoing] no one at all no one at all no one. Wake up [gasp] oh you okay, buddy . I just had a dream that progressive had this thing called. The name your price tool. It isnt a dream, is it . Nope. Sorry you know that thing freaks me out. He can hear you. He didnt mean that, kevin. Kevin yes, he did keeping our competitors up at night. Now, thats progressive. Vrjts the pocon oh, no Mountain School district ordered all schools closed today wheel police went doortodoor searching for a killer. The schools will be open tomorrow. But the search for frein kobts. It all started on september 12th, at the state trooper barracks in bloominggrove, pennsylvania. 10 15, corporal brian dick son is live leaving the building and suddenly he dropped to the ground dead. A second officer heard a gunshot and called for help and another state trooper dropped to the ground outside the barracks, he was able to crawl into the lobby wounded. At the time, the officers had no idea who was shooting at them or where the fire was coming from. Trooper dead and one injured, set off one of the largest man hunts in pa history. Were being told that officers from three different states are working on the man 9 r ler, hopefully, of Corporal Byron dix son. New york, new jersey and pennsylvania agencies are searching for the gunman at this hour. Xi÷az police immediately blocked roads, launched held co. Ers, went doortodoor in the area and flooded the pocono mountains. Reporter a man was back here with his dog when he stumbled upon a critical clue. You can actually see the tracks. A green suv dipped in a pond, belonging to frein and filled with evidence. There was a gun case. There was no weapon in there. And then i knew that this has to be that it has to be the shooters car. The car belonged to locals deborah frein and her husband, retired army major michael freen. Inside, empty rifle cases, cartridge casings and id for the son, eric frein. The 31yearold became polices number one subject. He knew the surrounding mountains well. He attended pocono high where he was on the rifle team. Later in life, he becomes heavily involved in war reenact. And has always been a good shot. Frein has elude lewded police and terrified residents in the poconos. Police say nay found camp sites, an e6r7ty pack of serbian cigarettes and ammo. At this hour, just two hours away, eric frein, an alleged murderer is still thought to be hiding. Laura, how has he been able to elude them for six weeks. Well, police say that eric frein spent years planning both his attack and his retreat. He knew these woods well. These are the woods near his own home. He spent time there, he researched, survival skills, they described him as a selfstyled survivalist who researched how to survive in the woods and, you know, police say he has stashed supplies there. These woods are dense. There are caves and empty buildings and plenty of places where he could be hiding. My understanding is one of the items is a hard drive which police executed for a very long period in which this ambush, shooting and escape were planned are there indications as to what the motive was . Police have said that they do not know his motive. And theyre not going to speck late about that. They said that he believed to not have get along with the police and may have wanted to harm the police in some way. This is what the flis are telling us. How is the mood in the poconos. It is a relatively its a pretty extreme measure to close schools for 9,000 kids, 10 schools and an entire area. What is the mood in the poconos right now . Well, i think that, at first, people were quite shocked and everything shut down. As time went on and were going on nearly 6 weeks of this man hunt now, people have grown used to the police presence, it seems. And people ive talked to have cautiously moved on with their daily routines. But then, again, suddenly today, schools were closed. There a constant reminder that this is going on. Police are searching yards and knocking on doors. And, you know, the area seems on edge and people are frustrated, yes also very supportive of the police. And there are lots of signs and ribbons in the area thanking police and donated food and so on. Laura, thank you very much. All right, how did charlie cryst fair without his fan . We find out tonight as he debated just a little over an hour ago. Report ahead. One of the most bizarre moments of the to e 2014 elections, cryst hat asked for a fan and the Scott Campaign said that wasnt in the rules. Ladies and gentlemen, im told that Governor Scott will not join us for this debate. My understanding is that Governor Scott will be coming out . Ladies and gentlemen, that has to be the most unique beginning to any debate. I dont think well forget. Not only in florida, but i think anywhere in the country. Why did you insist on bringing a fan here when you campaign knew this would be a contentious issue . Is there anything wrong with being comfortable . I dont think there is. Governor scott, why the delay coming out over a sfan . I waited until we figured out if he was going to show up. He said he wasnt going to come to the debate. So why come out until hes ready. Tonight, he faced him again for another debate. This time, fans were expressive again. And the only hint came right out at the beginning. Everybody is comfortable here . Thank you, yes. The debate was conducted without the media or public access. And the recurrent and bipartisan theme of the night is whether or not he is worse. Hes never had to worry about money. Hes never had to worry about being laid off. You dont know me. And you cant tell my story. And im not going to tell yours. But i know youre world about a hundred or two hundred million today. God bless you for that wealth today, rick. But the way you got it was pretty unsavory. Charlie, youre a divider. Youre a mud slinger. Youre a divider. Did the attorney general ask you to delay the execution so she could go forward with her Political Fund raising . Sell soo, she asked me to delay it because it didnt work on the dates that she thought it was going to be on. Did you know it was for a Political Fundraiser . She apologized. What would you like me to do . She apologized, charlie. He doesnt answer questions. Pleads the fifth. Hears charlies plan, commit a heinous crime, as soon as you walk out of jail, you get to vote. As soon as you walk out. You have intention 23458, permanent disz figurement of a child, as soon as you walk out of jail, you get to vote. I said nonviolent criminals and youve lied. Thats not true. Have you ever seen a lessappealing political figure than rick scott . I mean that. Every time i see him. Im sorry. Shaking that off. Still ahead, the striking difference between those who represent this country and those they represent. If youre watching this, its probably safe to assume that youve not given money to sarah palins Political Action committee. According to politics, a nonprofit, nonpart san rezej group that tracks money in politics, in the third quarter, sarapac has given just a little more than 3 pnt. So what have they be been spending money on . A wide variety of consul tants, lodging, an suv rental and more than 10,o e 000 have been spebt on sarah palins books to hand out to voters. Now, when it comes to money and politics, we are about to end material since the third vote and helped bring a huge wave of outside money into the plilt kal process. Now, much of that money goes through superpacs, which spent more than 600 million in the 2014 election cycle. Two of the biggest superpacs, this time, are the Senate Majority pac and american cross roads which has raised about 25 million for republicans this election cycle. About half of the money raised by the Senate Majority pac came from just 16 people easily controlled and about half the money raised by american cross roads came from just 11 donors. Basically, a couple dozen fantastically rich people are funding a pretty sizable chunk of the election. And keep in mind, thats just the part of the iceberg we can see. There are also a ton of bigspending groups that provide their political donors with anonimty, also, Citizens United pd and sub sell kwent Government Supreme Court dgsz. So we have no idea who that money is coming from. Now, this funding structure that were experimenting with in the last three cycles, this funding structure is grafted atop a mechanism of Representative Democracy that is already producing a massive gap between the people who are doing the electing, that would be the voters, and the people who are getting elected. That would be the poll tigszs. A report this month e month from the womens Donor Network runs the numbers. What do the American People look like and what do their elective representatives look like. There were some big differences. Sort of like right men who make up 31 of the total population. 71 of the e lekted officials are men. 90 are white. And 65 are white men. You get that . Even the white men make only 31 pnt of the population, they hold 65 pnt of elected offices from the county level up to the federal level. Meanwhile, men of color are 19 pnt of the population. They hold just 7 of elected offices. Its even worse for women of color. I would also note that black women turnout for elections, greater than any other group, women of color hold only 4 of elected offices. When we come back, ill talk to one of the ark tektss of the study about what else the study found and why is it that the electorate lookings sos so different from the people it zv[ elects. Joining me now, bren don carter, wrote a piece for that magazine looking at why that difference is so stark. So lets start a little bit with methodology. I think whats great about the report is you dig deep through the whole sort of levels of kbovt. We all know what the usz senate looks like. We know that the u. S. Senate doesnt look like the american sen susz. How kbranular kid you get . We went all the way down to the county level, nationwide. As you said, theres often a theory that we know congress is really skewed, but we know once we get dpoun a lot parteder, its a lot more diverse and genderbalanced. That turned out not to be the case. We cat logged 4 the e 2 all across the country from race and gender and, as you said, the numbers were quite stark. And they were stark where you might expected you would find more day verszty, correct . Correct. And at some respects, theyre even starker. People of col . Dusqaak ep zen e zen e zen e zented at the county. For women, its sliegtly better, although its hard for it to be worse. I think some of us hold out hope that thiss some big pool of women and people in color and lower level Political Office if they could just make their way up, would sort of diversify higherlevel Political Office. You made a point, i mean, i think we can kind of separate women and people of color because theres different issues, right . Theres a different numerical mechanism in place. But you make a point in the piece about one of the obstacles is atlarge districts. And i remember, if i eenl not mistaken, the Shelby County case, the one that came before the supreme court, was in Shelby County. If youre if youre an atlarge district well, explain why that presents a threat. Having me, as well. One of the things that you see with these atlarge districts, is that if you have a minority population in a particular county, and you have these atlarge seats, that is to say e lerkss that are not divided in particular districts, that population will vary rarely be able to out weigh the majority population, which is very free kwebtly, white. So you wind up with very skewed kinds of numbers. And then you see the opposite mechanism happening on the congressional level where there are majority districts and all the other districts have become whiter and whiter. The average gop district is about 75 white, now. And so that, of course, if youre looking at 700,000 people as opposed to maybe 350,000 people of color in two different districts, it has a same kind of effect. Right, of course. Bru theres a tension there, which is ep i think is part of false nating when youre talking about race et nickty. Theres a majority minority district so that people can elect representatives who come from their at the time e ethnic or racial community, right . And then the natural, flip side of that is that you take those voters out of the other districts, which means you create an elector rat which means other people are being elected dont have any latino voters. And you kind of see that in the politics, brenda . Right. I think thats correct. I think there are another number of other factors to look at in the system, as well. Which we would emphasize in our project, which is in addition to composition of districts, which is for us to focus on, there are systems of candidate recruitment and promotion that are sort of archaic from another era that are controlled by gate keepers, political parties, donors and other political actors who, you know, a sort of shorthand way of putting it is pick the lowhanging frut. Pick the people from among your networks. Right. So let me just sort of show people how stark this is, just to remind people what were jscw looking at. This is mite man. This is just the basic topfindings here. White men are 31 of the population. And thats down to the county level. Thats 42,000 elected offices across the could be tri. Thats countyelected so and so. State legislatures, state senators. The question is why is that . We talked about the way districts are carved. Youre tauging about this candidate recruitmented thing. How much of a role does that play when youre talking about women, particularly. Because women shouldnt face the same statistical hurdle. African americans are 12 prnt of the population, in some cases, they could be even less. Its understandable that they would not you know, that they will be less representative than white people. Thiss fewer of them. There is no reason, statistically, there should be fewer women elected to office than men. Right. For women and for people of color, these networks are theyre dom nated by organizations that tend to be dom nated will women and tend to be dom nated by whites. Thats not always true, but that tends to be the kwas. Case. So when theyre looking for candidates, its sort of easier to grab people from within their networks. People like them. People they know. It doesnt even, necessarily, need to be intentional. Right. So someone in the party says weve got an opening coming up. Who can we get to run . Oh, i know jim and hes got this very successful business. I know jim because weve got a friend in common and im a white guy and hes a white guy, so jim should run. Its like any system. It sort of is set up to protect the people in it. So you made this great point. I think that we assume, right, all of these things filled about how we are headed towards a that jorty, nonwhite nation. We assume that this is going to chark. Its just going to be a matter of time it charngs. And you sort of float the idea of what if we all end up like ferguson is. Fergusons demographic change, but its city Council Never did. It was easy to kind of point the finger at ferguson and say, you know, this is some sort of bizarre political anomaly. And then one of the things i think the study does really well is point out the fact that ferguson, the political structure, does not look like the community it rep zens. But it looks a lot like american politics at large. You can easily see a situation where we have a majority minority staggering. And the thing ive learned from ferguson, you know, something i knew already, but saw up close viscerally. It produces resentment. It produces alienation. It produces frustration. And the thought that we could be headed towards a nation in which the racial majority of the nation changes as dramatically as we think its going to change, and when you look at the u. S. Senate, it looks like the u. S. Is that the of 20 years ago. Thats going to produce a profound history for democracy. I think thats exactly right. Over hundreds of years, when the feel elected to represent us are too rev moved from the everyday results, it did you want work out. Thank you. That is all in for this evening. Kwt the Rachel Maddow show kwtsd starts right now. Thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. This is one of those big news nights where all the news has been breaking late in the day, all tonight with just the last couple of hours. In just the last hour, we have learned that longtime Washington Post editor ben bradly has died. That legendary editor helped to that paper into the world renowned power house that it is today. He guided the paper, famously, as it broke the news on water gate. He helped redefine what it meant to be a journalist in america. Well have much more ahead on ben bradly and his work. But we begin tonight with current politics. And with bribery allegations. The guy on the left side of your screen is the republican nominee