the senate. okay, so talking about politics in general, as you re mentioning, chris, joe to you on this, we were talking a little bit earlier in the show about the retiring congress members and there are 17 so far. we re looking at ten republicans, seven democrats. when you look at the republican side, is this money issue part of that? where the energy s going farther to the right, moderates are retiring, tea party candidates are getting more cash? well, i think it really depends on the district, you know, you have a number of retiring members and each of their situations is different. in some instances, you have candidates that are self funders, and self funders, of course, you don t have a money issue, because they have the money to pay for their own campaign elections, but overall, whether the candidates are tea party folks or non tea party, more establishment republicans, we think there s a great opportunity for republicans in the 2014 cycle. but is there a shift there? is th
collide and eventually mutually assured destruction. i will start with you, jonathan. you guys spent more money and you potentially have more to answer to. what are you telling donors that happened to the money? here s the thing. this is what s missing from is cough s analysis. president obama over the course of the campaign outspent mitt romney on television by $154 million from april through november. senate democrats, if you take away the two self-funders in connecticut and pennsylvania outraised. what democrats did in this election effectively was leverage their incumbencies to have huge financial advantages over their republican opponents. we believe that american crossroads by evening out the playing field kept this what was essentially a two-point race at the end. you think this would have been a blowout without crossroads. it absolutely could have. 345,000 votes separated obama and romney in the four swing states that decided this election. if you re going to say that $15
money, handed it off to them. the net worth figures are skewed. there s one person in the house of representatives worth north of $100 million. put it together, and you ll get a higher figure. i think it s a frankly a mismatch econfiguration. the washington post should do better than that. the point isn t where the money came from, how much money they have. the point is that they are clearly in the top 1/10 of 1%. they re supposed to be creating jobs. we ll get to that. they re making money, i ll tell you that much. all the wealth disparities in america, sports is probably one, acting is another, maybe third or so is d.c., and then somewhere down later on the road there s wall street. how about television? in the last couple of years, the committees have been recruiting what we call self-funders, people with deep pockets right, exactly. good point. who can write their own tickets. they say, let s find rich people
depression, who saved their money, handed it off to them. the net worth figures are skewed. there s one person in the house of representatives worth north of $100 million. put it together, and you ll get a higher figure. i think it s a frankly a mismatch econfiguration. the washington post should do better than that. the point isn t where the money came from, how much money they have. the point is that they are clearly in the top 1/10 of 1%. they re supposed to be creating jobs. we ll get to that. they re making money, i ll tell you that much. all the wealth disparities in america, sports is probably one, acting is another, maybe third or so is d.c., and then somewhere down later on the road there s wall street. how about television? in the last couple of years, the committees have been recruiting what we call self-funders, people with deep pockets right, exactly. good point. who can write their own tickets. they say, let s find rich people
if you just look at those figures are they kind of out of touch with economic realities that average americans have to wrestle with day in, and day out? i think bob took my notes again because i was going to say actually in the past couple of years a lot of what they call self-funders have run for office and they have actually been actively recruited by the congressional committees to run. that is less money they have to raise. they can write their own checks for their campaigns. yes, if you look at the current salary of members of congress, 174,000, if you run only for one term, and serve, gregg, you get the benefits of a member that has been in office for a long time. particularly the senate, it is filled with millionaires. still a lot of people who worked hard for that money. we shouldn t demonize a lot of those folks in the house who have worked and their families have worked very hard. gregg: you guys have to stop agreeing with each other. we re going to stop by 5:00. how is t