there wi million to help his campaign. but clearly on the sides of the republicans and conservatives and good starting off point if you re trying to get plugged into that community. laura coates, what stands out to you in this case? in all the cases the u.s. attorneys office has prosecuted in washington, d.c., i don t think vladimir putin has ever weighed in on any of them. it s interesting that mueller is not part of this at all. if he has no interest, it says it s not under the mandate he s already following about russia collusion, which is interesting, given the fact this is somebody who may be trying to influence an election. what s interesting to me is the nra. very keen on being able to navigate successfully the campaign finance and disclosure laws to avoid letting you know who the lobbying arm is funded by or to what extent they have to disclose information. you have somebody who essentially is although the nra is not known for direct contributions, their outside spend
to kyung s point, these can take several days. you can see 60% mail-in votes. as long as they re postdated by tuesday, they can count them until friday. we could have a long time before we get a clearer picture if some of the democrats are locked out like in the 48th district in rticular. joining us live from los angeles, cnn political reporter, maeve reston. it s not goomorning, s good evening, pacific time. let s first step back and talk about the numbers. democrats need 23 seats to retake the house. ten seats are ranked as competitive in california, seven which hillary clinton carried in 2016. how central is california to democrats overall chances? i mean, it is a central, part of the strategy, to take back the house of representatives, coming this fall. and that s why you saw democrats spend so much money here. there was a ton of outside spending, millions of dollars, in a lot of the most contested
and file. so 1977, nra annual conventions voted out leadership and installed hardliners who radically changed the organization. the group later changed tactics, using political ads to rile up the members to take action. from 1998 to 2017, the nra spent $144 million on outside spending. and if you are wondering if this strategy is working, consider this, last major piece of federal legislation still on the books is brady act and that was passed nearly 25 years ago. now, i made that video. give me some love. [ applause ] that s amazing. so i put that to you because you both seem so reasonable. are you worried that maybe the nra is getting a black eye and
polls with that? yeah, alex, i talked to a lot of republicans on the ground who said that they even still support president trump, but ultimately they ll back conor lamb. because in this race there s been a lot of outside spending for rick saccone, the republican candidate. i was at two of his events on friday, one had eight people, the other had 15 individuals, and that doesn t include the dnc staff. he said rick saccone is going to vote for him all the way and not trust that conor lamb will do for them. a lot of voters are hesitant to support candidates purely out of outside influence, even if that s donald trump. there is no seeming end to the list alleged white house distractions, you have the
i m not just starting a campaign, i m beginning a conversation with you, with america. we all need to be part of the discussion if we re going to be part of the solution. this time around the tactics don t necessarily look much different at least in the beginning. clinton will announce as early as sunday another weekend announcement. she s expected again to make the announcement on social media followed again by a trip to iowa. the first in the nation caucus state. but sources say the video will focus on voters not on her. now the campaign cash last time around, clinton raised a whopping $229 million. by the time she lost the democratic primary. but the campaign laws have changed since she last ran for office. the supreme court has made that now a the citizens united supreme court citizens united decision in 2015 raised the threshold of outside spending. this time around clinton stands to raise much, much more. in the super pac ready for