Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20141104

Could this help republicans win the senate . We will speak to Georgia House minority leader Stacey Abrams and benjamin jealous, former head of the naacp. Then the nations john nichols and lee fang of the republic report will give us a preview of the races and Ballot Initiatives to watch today. When i look across this country, i am seeing results that say that people are really ready to look at an alternative to austerity. They want Something Different than just cut, cut, cut. There is an alternative. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Its election day in the United States, where an estimated 4 billion has been spent on the most expensive midterms in u. S. History. Despite the record spending, voter turnout is expected to hit one of its lowest levels in years. Control of the u. S. Senate has boiled down to about 10 key races. Some of which could result in runoffs. Current projections given republicans about a 70 chance of netting the six seats they would need to retake the senate from democrats. Thirtysix states are also choosing governors. Voters across the country are also voting on also coming down to around 10 key races. Including decriminalize rwanda, restrict abortion, raise the minimum wage, and required labeling of gmo foods. We will spend the rest of the on the Midterm Elections after the headlines. We will also broadcast live this evening from 7 00 p. M. To midnight eastern time with coverage and analysis of the Midterm Election results. U. S. Drone strikes have killed at least 10 people in central yemen. Agence france press said at least 20 people were killed in the overnight strikes targeting militants near rada. Reuters put the toll at 10 but said 10 more people were killed in clashes between the militant group Ansar Alsharia and shiite Houthi Rebels who have taken over the yemeni capital sanaa and advanced into majority sunni areas. While recent attention has focused on the u. S. Wars in iraq and syria, United States has continued its covert bombardment of supposed militants in yemen and pakistan. An independent human rights probe in liberia has faulted Security Forces for opening fire on protesters opposing an ebola quarantine. The report obtained by the New York Times found liberian forces acted with complete disregard for human life. In sierra leone, another doctor has died of ebola. Dr. Godfrey george is the fifth doctor to die of the virus since the outbreak began. More than 500 Health Workers have contracted ebola in all countries impacted by the virus, just over half of them have died. In the u. S. , state officials continue to impose restrictions on Health Workers who have treated patients in west africa. In louisiana, officials told Health Workers who have recently been in the hardesthit countries not to attend a tropical medicine conference this week, saying we see no utility in you traveling to new orleans to simply be confined to your room. Researchers say the move will hinder progress at the conference on fighting ebola. At least 24 migrants have drowned after a boat carrying them from turkey toward romania sank in the black sea. A number of people remain missing. The Obama Administration has condemned regional polls in Eastern Ukraine which elected elect prorussian separatist leaders. Russia has recognized sundays elections while ukraines president has threatened to scrap an autonomy deal for the eastern regions of donetsk and luhansk. U. S. State Department Spokesperson jen psaki said European Countries have joined the u. S. In rejecting the paul. The United States support yesterdays ize recognize any of the leaders chosen in this illegal vote. We also welcome statements from the european union, united nations, france, germany, and others rejecting these illegal and illegitimate actions. The u. S. Air force has fired two more commanders in charge of its nuclear arsenal. Colonel carl jones was second in command of the 90th missile wing at Fe Warren Air force base in wyoming, which operates a third of the forces minuteman 3 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. According to the associated press, jones was fired for four separate transgressions, including one described as shocking. In the most recent case, he was accused of banging on the counter and shouting profanity at a volunteerrun thrift shop. Meanwhile at the 91st missile wing at Minot Air Force base in north dakota, which oversees another third of the forces minuteman missiles, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Keith Brown was fired for discrimination after he made statements to subordinates that created a perception within his squadron that pregnancy would negatively affect a womans career. Another commander at minot has been disciplined. The news follows a cheating scandal at a base in montana earlier this year and last years firing of the commander in charge of the entire Intercontinental Ballistic Missile force for drunken misbehavior in russia. The Supreme Court heard arguments on a 2002 law that would let americans born in jerusalem list the birthplace on their u. S. Passports as israel. The Obama Administration opposes the law, saying it would threaten its decision not tos status. Passports of u. S. Citizens born in jerusalem currently list only the city, not a country, but the parents of a 12yearold boy born in jerusalem want the Supreme Court to change that. While israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967, palestinians claim it as the capital of any future palestinian state. The Supreme Court hearing came as israel has advanced plans to build 500 new illegal settlement homes in East Jerusalem. U. N. Secretary general ban kimoon says he will launch a probe into reports that britain spied on fellow governments at Global Climate summits in 2009 and 2010. A document released by nsa whistleblower Edward Snoweden snowden revealed a spy from the British Intelligence agency gchq embedded with the british climate delegation. The news comes as negotiators meet in venezuela ahead of the upcoming Climate Summit in lima , peru next month. Last year documents from snowden showed the Us National Security agency spied on foreign governments before and during the 2009 u. N. Climate summit in copenhagen. The Supreme Court has allowed protections on reproductive rights to stand in two states by rejecting antichoice appeals. In one case, the court left in place a Lower Court Ruling in favor of a colorado law that bars people from blocking entry to abortion clinics. In the second case, the court let stand a ruling which reinstated part of a new york city law requiring socalled Crisis Pregnancy Centers to say whether they have a licensed medical provider on site. Crisis Pregnancy Centers often appear like medical facilities , but their goal is to deter people from abortion. A Congressional Study in 2006 found 87 provided false or misleading medical information. In oklahoma, laws restricting abortion have gone into effect, reportedly leaving just one clinic providing abortions in the entire state. The laws mirror restrictions passed in texas. One requires providers to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, which has proven impossible for some. The other restricts the pill form of abortion, imposing an outdated protocol and banning it after 49 days of pregnancy. The center for reproductive rights is seeking an emergency injunction from the Supreme Court. Prosecutors in utah have ruled two Saratoga Springs Police Officers were justified when they shot dead an africanamerican man carrying a sword as part of a japanese anime costume. County attorney jeff buhman said 22yearold darrien hunt swung his sword at officers, who opened fire. Hunt then ran away and the officers chased him, ultimately shooting him six times. Buhman said Police Feared for their lives and for public safety. But hunts family has vowed to file a civil rights lawsuit. They say the sword was a replica with a dulled edge which was purchased at a novelty shop. Two Police Officers in austin, texas have been caught on their own dashboard camera joking about rape. In footage posted to youtube last week, one of the officers says, look at that girl over there. The second officer then blows a whistle and says, go ahead and call the cops, they cant unrape you. Listen carefully. I want to report a robbery. He probably deserved it. Look at that girl. Go ahead, call the cops. They cant unrape you. Hey cant unrape you the officers have been identified as mark lyttle and michael castillo. The Austin Police Department Says it has launched an internal investigation and issued a heartfelt apology to all victims of sexual assault. New york city has agreed to pay 2. 25 million to the family of a homeless veteran who died after being left unattended for hours in a sweltering jail cell at rikers island. Jerome murdough died in february after temperatures in his cell topped 100 degrees. He had been arrested a week earlier for trying to sleep in a stairwell at a Public Housing project, where he had sought shelter from the cold. He had been unable to pay 2,500 bail for his release. Former cia analyst ray mcgovern is recovering from what he described as a brutal arrest by new York City Police after he tried to attend a speech by former cia director and retired army general david petraeus. Mcgovern says he had a ticket to the event late last week but was told by security at the 92nd street y that he was not welcome. He told rt he already suffering from an injured shoulder and Police Caused him to scream in pain as they tried to force his wrist behind his back. Mcgovern was held overnight in a jail cell and did not get to ask petraeus the question he had planned. You advertise a q a at the did, then you risk having somebody ask real questions. And that is what i intended to do them a not to get into a debate with them, but to ask, david petraeus, have you no shame . Have you no shame and advertising your successes when iraq is disaster area and afghanistan is soon to be the same . Ray mcgovern is the former cia analyst who was a daily prefer for former president george h. W. Bush. In upstate new york, 15 people were arrested as they blocked the gates of a gas facility to protest plans to create a gas storage hub in the finger lakes region. Under the banner of we are seneca lake, area residents are seeking to block plans by the texasbased company Crestwood Midstream to expand storage of natural gas in underground salt caverns. They say the plan threatens both the climate and seneca lake, which provides Drinking Water to 100,000 people. And Tom Magliozzi, cohost of the npr show car talk and one of public radios most familiar and beloved voices, has died after a battle with alzheimers disease. He was 77. Tom and his brother ray were known as click and clack the tappet brothers on the weekly show they cohosted for 35 years. They stopped making new episodes in 2012. While car talk was ostensibly about car advice, Tom Magliozzi was perhaps better known for his laugh. To people who dont know what know morealking about or less than one person who doesnt know what he is talking about. [laughter] let me think about this for a minute. Tom magliozzi died on monday in his home state of massachusetts. And those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with aaron mate. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Well its election day across , the country and control of the u. S. Senate is up for grabs. Contested most hotly senate races is in georgia where , a controversy about Voter Registration has raised the stakes. Over the past few months, more than 40,000 Voter Registrations have allegedly gone missing, most of them from communities of color, who largely support democrats. The new georgia project and the georgia chapter of the naacp filed a lawsuit against the office of georgias republican secretary of state brian kemp, saying about half of the 80,000 Voter Registration forms it submitted do not appear on state rolls. Last week, Fulton County court judge Christopher Brasher sided with kemp, dismissing the lawsuit, and writing that the new georgia project failed to allege, much less show, the counties registrars past or continued failure to process Voter Registration applications. The Senate Contest between Republican David Perdue and democrat Michelle Nunn is very close, within a couple of percentage points, so these tens of thousands of voters could tip the balance, determining who ultimately controls the senate. The governors race between nathan deal and jason carter is just as close. Earlier this year, georgias secretary of state brian kemp accused the new georgia project of voter fraud, but an investigation found just 51 potential forgeries out of the more than 80,000 applications the group submitted. In september, audio was released of kemp, warning fellow republicans that democrats might win because they are registering minority voters. The audio was released by better georgia, and features kemp speaking at a july 12, 2014 event in gwinnett county. Cooks after we get through this runoff, democrats are working hard. Rescuing all these minority voters out there and other sitting on the sidelines. To find out more about whats happening in georgia, were joined now by two guests. In atlanta, Democratic State representative Stacey Abrams. She is the House Minority leader in georgia and the founder of the new georgia project which has been leading a Voter Registration drive across the state. She is the first africanamerican to lead a party in the Georgia House, and the first woman to lead a party in either chamber. And here in new york is ben jealous, chairman of the Southern Election Fund which he started with julian bond. Theyre working on several reports with the new georgia project. He is the former president and ceo of the naacp. Welcome to democracy now representative, thank you for joining us, representative Stacey Abrams. Talk about what is happened. What about these 40,000 missing registration forms . Than is actually more 40,000. Reducing the most conservative estimate. The challenge is not that the counties we think did anything untoward, but the state of georgia has advised secretary of form requires that every that is completed goes through a series of screens, including the Social Security administrations process citizenship. The problem is, according to experts, that proof could be a false negative almost 40 of the time, which means you could have a 20yearold College Student without an id who submit a Social Security number and is rejected falsely, but never told they are rejected and never told why. And we think a variety of these errors, clerical screenings, these have led to more than 40,000 of our applications not being properly processed. Can you respond to the judge . He said you failed to allege, much less show, the counties registrars past or continued failure to process Voter Registration applications. What evidence did you submit . With our process is that we dont have information unless the secretary of state gives it to us. The reason we want with this, it is an extra narrow request. We went with that because we cannot get the secretary state to meet with us and tell us what was happening. We use the legal route. However, i want to point out judge brasher did not allow for discovery or for an evidentiary hearing. We were essentially being asked to prove something we suspect without being able to access information that would give us the proof. Blasted the county judge dismissed a lawsuit wrought by brought by the new georgia project and the georgia chapter of the naacp over the more than 40,000 Voter Registration records that have gone missing. Fulton county court judge Christopher Judge brasher wrote that the petitioners failed to allege, much less show, the counties registrars past or continued failure to process Voter Registration applications. The judge went on to exonerate secretary of state kemp, saying the petitioners have failed to come forward with evidence showing that the secretary of state has failed to carry out this duty, or even that this duty is ripe, since it can only be carried out after the various counties election registrars register an eligible voter. Your response to that . I think it is a poor rating of what the law says. The law requires and the state has said secretary of state is essentially the ceo of elections. He is the chief elections officer. That means it is his job to tell the counties what to do. When the counties do that job, he sets up the screenings, the use of the secretary of states website im sorry, the Social Security administration, the use of department of corrections. He batch processes all of the letters. He batch processes all of the precinct cards. The secretary of state is actually the head of elections. The counties are essentially franchisees that get information from the secretary of state or have to follow the secretary of states orders. The problem we have with the judges response, he said out of six money and 40,000 is not substantial noncompliance and of the 6 million, 40,000 is not substantial noncompliance. Worse is to cast a provisional ballot which in the state of georgia can be a candid not being able to cast a ballot at all. No doially, there is over. Our issue is the secretary of state is in charge of elections and to put the responsibility on counties that have to follow his directions may use his systems and abide by his rulings and then to say he is not responsible is a very poor reading of state law, but even worse is a poor reading of our system of voting. Can you give some background on this voter drive . Who were the people you signed up . What was the thinking behind launching it in the first place . I founded the new georgia of act, an offshoot nonprofit i started 16 years ago. In 2013 we did a lot of work around the Affordable Care act. What we discovered is a number of people being denied access to health care because the Medicaid Expansion refusal in georgia, did not understand why they could not have access to health care. They thought it was the fault of the president and did not realize it was the governor and legislature. Most of those folks were not registered to vote. The more we looked into this issue in the larger conversation about civic engagement, i released we needed to register more than 800,000 unregistered africanamerican, latino, and asian voters in georgia. We began to register these voters. It was a 145 day effort. We collected registration forms from 146 counties and registered more than 86,000 people will stop in addition, we funded an additional 12 groups and their registered more than 30,000. Our total registration of that 140 five days was in excess of 120,000 forms collected. Can you respond, Stacey Abrams, to the secretary of states allegations of voter fraud . First and foremost, it was a misuse of the term. What he was alleging is over some Voter Registration fraud. Voter registration fraud assumes there is systematic effort to deceive, which is completely belied by his own acknowledgment of what we did. I personally call the secretary of state in june to tell them about our efforts, to tell him where we were, and to ask his assistance. We had gotten one complaint from one county. Based on the complaint, i wanted to make certain we did everything we could to be in compliance with the law. We worked with his investigators until the friday before the subpoena was issued. He admitted a week later after his allegations were disproven the fact were only 25 forms he could show had any problems, and those reforms we were working with his office to resolve. He walked it back and said, we dont believe new georgia committed fraud. Essentially he used inflammatory language to call attention to this effort, and i cant speak to his motive, but i can speak to the effect which is that it had a Chilling Effect on organizations that were in court engaged in thirdparty registrations. When you have 800,000 not engaged, we have an obligation to do this work. This is a nonpartisan effort. We cannot register by parties in georgia. If you fear your party cannot speak, that should be fixed internally and not by trying to suppress Voter Registration in the state of georgia. Do you think it taken advantage of your corroboration . I was disappointed by his reaction. I have worked with secretary ,emp in our four years collaborated on efforts. I was disappointed by his reaction. I dont know what precipitated his response, but i do know i have been forthright and is up front about what were doing. You cannot sick leave register 800,000 you cannot secretly register 800,000 people. This is an ongoing process. We will register these voters and turn them out. What we are discovered, there are deep flaws in bedded in our system. The secretary of state has unfettered power to make decisions that will affect negatively our voters. Theres a system called the crosscheck system has begun using without notifying the legislature and i would know serving as the minority leader. We did not know he could possibly be purging up to half a million georgians are primarily africanamerican, latino, and asian voters, based on their last names. Those are decisions i think are deeply automatic but speak to a larger need for us to better define and control our voting system. This is a sacred and basic right as people in a democracy. Ben jealous, yet done a lot of work in south. Theyre interesting races. On the one hand you have the tens of thousand Voter Registration forms, where are they, and you have these races for governor that involve the grandson of jimmy carter, jason carter, the senate race, the daughter of sam nunn, Michelle Nunn, but people being represented . This is a big moment in georgia. What has happened in georgia is you have had more and more blacks moved back, more and more the tinos move in actually come in from mexico over the years, establish families. And you have more and more swing , white women who say, you know what . I would prefer to go with republican. They lost their mind when it comes to my rights. There is a real concern. What is terrifying about georgia is you see how a man who could be a good man on most days, mr. Kemp, can get worried in a very public way about the impact of these changes in who is voting in georgia. And now could impact his party. And then very publicly appear to be tracking his feet. The allegations he made are so ridiculous, it is hard to comprehend. Georgias law says as soon as the Voter Register form, it has to be turn off go. If i hand to a format your door and you write a mickey mouse, i have to hand it in. When you have a law like that, up to 10 of the forms can be impacted. Out of 86,000, hes been able to find maybe 50. If it was above say 86 hundred, we would be concerned because it is their own law that requires you to turn in these pop up automatic forms. Problematic forms. Is georgia the next florida . It could be. You have these dynamics. Nunn and carter are big names. Theyre attracting a lot of vote to vote who may not have voted before or democrat and a very long time. On top of that, Stacey Abrams has been leading one of the dishst voter registrars registrations in years. It is about 50,000 more that funded other groups. What is deeply concerning and a concern for anyone who cares about voting, all of these the fact you could have 40 error rate. I used to be a reporter in jackson, mississippi. I cant tell you how many men i met named williams or johnson. Theyre going to crosscheck everyone in the south . It is a mess. The new go back and say, who created this . Chris kovac them like the most inflammatory secretary state in the country. For au people like kemp, long time, seemed like a reasonable guy. Folks in the Georgia Senate or assembly . It is deeply troubling. Talks we want to talk to overall about the south, but before we break from georgia, compass member Stacey Abrams, in her final words, what do think people should do today if they go to the polls . Go to the polls. Whether you have received your precinct car or not, whether you have information or not, show up. The judge said you should try to provisional ballots. Were lawyers across the state ready to help. What we want to demonstrate is either brian kemp is correct in a thing got done on time, and kudos to the county if it did, but if they failed to do their duty, we need to know about that and that can only be proven having people show up and having that information. All we can say is, go vote. I want to thank you, representative Stacey Abrams, Georgia House minority leader, founder of the new georgia project, leading put a registration drive across the state. Ben jealous will be staying with us, chairman of the seven election fund, former head of the naacp. Stay with us. [music break] be careful how you vote by sunnyland slim. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with aaron mate. As we continue our coverage of the Midterm Elections, we turn now to the overall picture. The most expensive midterms in history could see one of the lowest turnouts in years. Voting numbers will likely dip below the 40 mark of both 2006 and 2010. This despite a record estimate of 4 billion in spending. One quarter of that money 1 billion will come from anonymous, socalled Dark Money Groups. That money has gone into creating some two Million Television ads, most of them negative attack ads, like this one by the kentucky Opportunity Coalition. Collects housing grimes and her campaign. Desperate, phony, blakely untrue. Doubling down on false attacks. Grimes should be ashamed of her self. Her at is funded by the obamaents money man, needs grimes and she will say anything to hide it. How could Alison Grimes change washington . She is a really everything that is wrong with it. Kentucky Opportunity Coalition is responsible for this ad. Trucks each house seat is up for grabs, but only a few dozen races are competitive enough to be in play. Its control of the senate that hangs in the balance, coming down to around 10 key races. Republicans need to gain six seats to recapture senate control, with a slight edge over democrats in the advance polls. A few races are so close that they could go to a runoff. That potentially means we end tuesday night with the senate still undecided. Senate control is crucial, with republicans vowing an agenda that includes more cuts to public spending, and repealing environmental regulations, such as the epas limits on emissions from coalfire power plants. No matter how the senate goes, we can expect mixed results at the state level as incumbent governors from both main parties face a voter backlash. The midterms will also see votes on 147 ballot measures, covering a number of key issues. Four states will vote on raising the minimum wage alaska, arkansas, nebraska and south dakota. Polls show the measures will likely pass despite them all coming in republican states. Today is also a big day for drug policy reform, from decriminalizing marijuana to reduced sentencing for drug offenses. According to the Drug Policy Alliance there are more drug policy reform questions on the ballot this november than ever in American History. Abortion rights are also on the ballot, with votes on socalled personhood amendments in colorado, north dakota and tennessee. Washington state will vote on the midterms only major gun control measure. Initiative 594 would require background checks on all gun sales. Well we are joined now by two guests. John nichols is a Political Writer for the nation. His latest book, with robert mcchesney, is dollarocracy how the money and Media Election complex is destroying america. Joining us from madison, wisconsin. From San Francisco we are joined by lee fong. He is a reporting fellow with the Investigative Fund at the nation institute, and blogs about money and politics at the republic report. And still with us in new york, ben jealous, chair of the Southern Election Fund, which he started with julian bond, former president and ceo of the naacp. We welcome you all to democracy now the south ase in we were talking about georgia. Give us the lay of the land. Right now you have four states in the south whether our new Voter Suppression laws go into effect with this race. You have texas and alabama, virginia, and North Carolina. The first three were talking about new voter id laws. It will have a huge impact. Texas, the margin of victory is typically 600,000 votes. Their law will impact about 600,000 voters. The margin is about 60,000 votes. Their law will affect about 200,000 voters. What you see across the states downpublicans are doubling in Voter Suppression in states theyre trying to acquire. Theyreting down doubling down on states the arctic control because theyre afraid of losing control. They have looked at what is happening in those states and demographically, they are changing so rapidly, unless think eight and massive Voter Suppression or, god for bid, change their politics to actually appeal, they will lose control. What were saying to people across the south and across the country, the only way you can actually turn the tide of massive Voter Suppression and the only way to respond is to vote. Massive Voter Registration and today of all day, massive voter turnout. If you werent planning on voting or calling 10 of your friends, this is the day to do turn out, if we cant if we cant begin to take back the house and the senate in the states, take back the Governors Office which youre seeing all the play in georgia than this Voter Suppression will be with us for very long time. The justice Department Says it will conduct inperson monitoring today polling places in 18 states and 20 targeted locations including four counties in florida, two in texas and one in North Carolina. The plans were announced monday in a video message by eric holder. Officials will gather information on numerous aspects of local percent election procedures including whether voters are treated if only depending on their race or color. Whether jurisdictions are adequately serving individuals with disabilities. Whether jurisdictions are complying the provisional ballot requirements of help america vote ad. And whether jurisdictions are complying with the Voting Rights acts require mr. Provide a single lecture materials and assistance in areas of need. That is attorney general eric holder. I want to read from a report in texas. A disabled woman in Travis County was turned away from voting because she could not afford to pay a parking ticket. The dishwasher cannot afford the cost of getting a new birth certificate, which she would need to obtain a special photo id card required for voting. Can a federal monitoring here help any of these local struggles . It is important to have the federal monitoring in place, but what youre describing in texas is an actual poll tax. The reality is, deal the way to overcome that is to pay it and a lot of folks cant. Weve heard from people. They dont accept student ids but they do except then licenses. Talks oftentimes what people need to get signed up is their birth certificate. Born in a theyre different state. It can cost 38, 42 for that but certificate. We heard from voter after voter, immunities court cases, look, i do choose between feeding my family and getting a birth certificate. I family cant eat my book certificate, so it could not afford 38. That is what were dealing with. That is why it is so critical people decide were gonna take back our state. In texas, theres Something Like 3 million voters of color are currently registered who came out to vote. Folks need to turn up and take back their state. I cant stress how important it is for us to understand it is been more than a century since we have seen states passed two laws to suppress the vote. This is a very big deal. Figures ago, people were killed trying to fight Voter Suppression lost but they were putting fighting laws that were put in place half a century ago. This is an old playbook we dragged off the shelf. The far right wing has dragged it off the shelf because they understand this is the century when they lose control of the country. All of us who care about voting and democracy and inclusion have to speed up that process. I was just and also, norway this weekend. It is where dr. Martin luther king gave his nobel address 50 years ago. In that address, rereading it, he is talking about people having their heads bashed in because theres something tried to register to vote. Do you think we have made progress in this 50 years . We have made progress, certainly, but we have also seen the clocks turned back rapidly in the past be years. Weve seen the Supreme Court, the eviscerating of the Voting Rights act and its actual enforcement powers. When you see what is happening across these states, when you see states putting into factor poll taxes such as the strict voter id law in texas, when you the secretary of states becoming highly partisan , this is what it looks like when the clocks are being turned back and we have to understand the clocks are being turned back not saying votes are just ares are racist, they invested in low road employment and the want to hold onto their ability to continue to destroy our environment. They know what threatens that is those communities that they are exploring and endangering an increasingly making up the majority of the voters in their state, so theyre trying to h others them so the koc can keep on rolling out and building dirty coal plants and people like art pope in North Carolina can continue to exploit workers. Youre talking about money in politics, which brings us to lee fang, reporting fellow at the Investigative Fund, blogs about money and politics at republic report. Lee, can you talk about what youre found when it comes to dark money . Amy, we unfortunately dont know a lot about the donors in this election. A lot of analysts who have taken a look at the midterms are calling this the dark money election. Were seeing hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into campaigns through 501 c for nonprofits or 501 c six business leaks. These are groups that do not have to report their donors. We still dont know actually the proportion of the funds things better the seagulls until after election day because some of this is just coming in, a lot of these groups just went on air in the last few weeks. We took a look at this dynamic in a recent piece for the nation when the Citizens United decision was handed down, just as Anthony Kennedy made a distinction and said that these outside money groups, these independent expenditure andittee groups, super pacs Dark Money Groups, they cannot court nate with candidates. The reason being, bigmoney donors, billionaires are millionaires, can lean on candidates, that would have a corrupting influence. Unfortunately, over the last four years, weve seen candidates brazenly appear to break the law. Many candidates appear to be coordinating with many of these dark money organizations, including the u. S. Chamber of commerce, americans for , and many of these other organizations. Some of them spawned just this year to emphasize specific races. Were seeing little enforcement from the federal elections commission. That agency, which is charged with enforcing election law, is deadlocked 33 with the three republican commissioners voting basically in lockstep since 2010 to block any investigation of potential wrongdoing. This election is turning out to be kind of the wild west. Not only are campaign entities raising and spending unlimited amounts, much of it in secret, but we have no caps on the beat. We have no enforcement of election law because of this gridlocked. In this wild west, who are the main Interest Groups and what are their objectives in terms of all of the spending that theyre putting into the selection . What policy goals today have . The largest art money group in u. S. Is the u. S. Chamber of commerce. 501 6 business. Is the largest organizing group and d. C. Am primarily receives its funds from about 56 downt corporations chemical, provincial. They have their priorities are restricting the powers of the epa, fighting back on many different revelatory issues proposed by the Obama Administration, everything from the new rules on Financial Advisors to fiduciary role to forprofit colleges. There is a ran of regulatory issues they will be leaning on congress to block in the next two years should republicans expand the majority in the house and take the senate. In addition to them, there is a patriot majority, Dark Money Group affiliated with Senate Majority leader harry reid, americans for prosperity the koch group, and another about a dozen different 501 c Dark Money Groups that are affiliated brothers designed to influence specific demographic groups. Theres a independent womens forum backed by the Koch Brothers to influence the women vote. Theres Generation Opportunity to influence younger folks. Initiative toibre influence latinos. So on and so forth. Many Different Senate candidates now creating their own dark influence their specific races. In kentucky, there is the kentucky Opportunity Coalition, a Dark Money Group affiliated with Mitch Mcconnell that has raised undisclosed money and dumping money into that race. A similar dynamic is going on in North Carolina, alaska, and other places. Is it your the dark money will soon, as the amount of money spent, will be more when it comes to dark money than the money that campaigns actually spent . And we wont even know where it is coming from . We are on a trajectory. Campaigns are Still Limited the contribution limits. Same with political parties. Nok money groups face restrictions. In the early days of Citizens United, there was a hesitancy to use Dark Money Groups because the irs rules are promulgated in such a way that say the primary purpose of some of these nonprofits cannot be on political activity. However, the irs has been very slow to actually define what primary purpose means. Because of increasing congressional pressure on the irs, we havent seen the irs take action to define primary purpose or to revoke the nonprofit status of groups that are clearly just created to influence elections. So as it is become more commonplace to use these types move hundreds to of millions of dollars into elections with no fear of enforcement from the irs, we will see this trend continue. Talks before we go to break, you mentioned senator mcconnell. Alisone against grimes. Can you talk about where hes getting his money from . We recently had a story in the nation taking a look at where senator Mitch Mcconnell receives his own personal fortune. He is one of the wealthy as members of the senate, worth over 22 million. Most of this money comes from his inlaws family. He married elaine chao, the former secretary labor in the bush and administration. Her father founded the foremost Maritime Corporation, a large shipping company. It were many revelations in this piece, one being most of these ships owned by this company or registered in the marshall islands, largely for tax purposes and also they use the flag of convenience from liberia, meaning they sell their ships under library and maritime law liberian maritime law, which is much more relax than u. S. Maritime law. He is made call a top issue of his campaign. Interesting part of the story, in fact, the decline of coal is much more complicated, the rise of natural gas is a big part, but the other big part is america is relying more and more on cheap imported coal. The foremost Maritime Corporation exports cheap colombian coal, potentially undercutting kentucky coal. In a recent inspection by colombian officials with a found as much as 90 pounds of cocaine on one of these shipments. Were going to take a break and then come back to this discussion. Lee fang will stay with us and we will be joined by john nichols. Fornt to thank ben jealous being with us, has been doing a lot on elections, particularly, in the south. He is the former head of the naacp. He is the chair of the southern elections fund, which he started with julian bond. Theyre working on several reports with the new georgia project. Ben jealous is also a partner and senior fellow at center for american progress. Take you for being with us. When we come back, we will continue to look at the elections. Tonight at 7 00 eastern time, democracy now will be on the air for five hours covering this material election night. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with aaron mate. Of thest are lee fang nation and republic report and john nichols whose latest book is, dollarocracy how the money and Media Election complex is destroying america. You way and from madison, wisconsin, john. Talk about the significance of the race there, which is very tight, the gubernatorial race, which has great significance not only talking about Midterm Elections, but what is going to happen in 2016 as well with the president ial elections. Without a doubt. The important thing to remember about the 2010 elections four years ago is they swept in a wave of republican governors who are very different than previous republican governors. These governors were committed to an austerity agenda with regards to Public Education and public services, and also committed to a very aggressive antilabor agenda. Wisconsin highlighted that. Governor scott walker just weeks after becoming the governor of wisconsin, he implemented a series of assaults on labor unions that led to one of the largest mobilizations of workers and their supporters that weve seen in modern American History back in 2011. There was an attempt to recall walker. It did not succeed. Now hes on the ballot again, and it is an intense race. Hes been challenged by woman and mary burke. What youre seeing in wisconsin is recently to what youre seeing in michigan are governor schneider came in and over time, implemented a right to work law. Similar to what youre seeing in pennsylvania were tom corbett came in and implemented a number of assaults on Public Education and teachers. Very visceral and his attack on teacher unions. Across the country we have these tests of whether this new republican approach, very antiunion, very rough on public schools, rough on public services, can survive politically. The polls showed is quite unpopular. Walkers reelection race is really one of the key tests because if he wins, theyre simple enough question that he will not stop and just say, hey, thanks for reluctantly. His victory tonight will be a transition into a 2016 president ial race. Everybody in wisconsin is very conscious of that. This has been an incredibly tense race. Talk about his opponent, mary burke. Absolutely. Mary burke is an interesting figure. She is a Madison School board member, a wealthy woman. She is a member of the family that started the trek bicycle company. She has not actually been close to it closely identified with a lot of politics in the past, more of a philanthropist. It she got into this race and she has run a very Fascinating Campaign against walker. She has essentially argued he is just no good at economics. His austerity agenda has stalled in wisconsin,y trailing neighboring states. She is made a very practical argument for getting rid of him. But underpinning her run is all of the passion that has existed in the state in the past. It has been a very intense and quite ugly race. At the close of it, there was pretty brutal attempt to smear mary burke, suggesting should troubles in her business past. Hamhanded and so overthetop, that the largest newspaper in the state, the milwaukee journal sentinel, said it said more about the people trying to smear burke than it did about her. Yet it gives you a sense of how this race has played out. Scott walker is absolutely desperate to get reelected. He wants to hold on to this office, not to govern wisconsin, but to launch a president ial campaign. Mary burke, in contrast, said she really wants to be the governor of wisconsin and made a very straightforward argument. Polling has suggested that really since the summer, this has been a close race. Right now, the real clear tossups suggests it is a in the polls. One of 14 tossup races for governor this year. That is important to remember because we are focused so much on the senate races, we sometimes lose sight of the fact the biggest signal that comes out of tonights voting may well be the results of these governor races, especially in the states were republican governors who have implement forms of austerity are being challenged by folks who say this just doesnt work. Talk about the senate. The republicans just need six seats to take control. What are the key races you are watching . Im watching a lot of races. There are eight races that are generally rated as tossups. Very,eans theyre all very close. I think we have to keep an i on the kentucky race we talked about an surly the georgia race. That may well go to a runoff. It is possible that louisiana race will go to a runoff. That will keep all of his competition in play into december, perhaps even into january. Thereupon to of other races that are very, very important. What is notable, two states should be watched especially relativelywa, a populist democrat and a very rightwing candidate and then mark udall seeking reelection against cory gardner in utah. Both of these are intense, close races. If the democrats lose these hows, it is hard to imagine they maintain their control of the senate. It there is more than just the i think people should be very conscious. Mark udall in colorado has been among the one or two or three senators who has really stood up to the nsa. He is one of the boldest senators in regards to privacy rights and a host of concerns that crossed party boundaries. In the senate elections, while we talk a lot about the fight for control of the senate, we should also be contests that some of the senators are unique figures and if udall gets beat in colorado, you will lose one of your loudest voices on nsa issues. What about the significance of the surge of cory gardner gap co. How is that happening, john . John, we can hear you. Can you hear us . You could talk about the surge of cory gardner in colorado. To leeask that question fang. Amy, has been a swing state for many years. In fact, president obama, National Democrats can trace their current fortunes back to 2006 when in the wake of the 2004 president ial election, a group of democratic donors poured resources into colorado to flip that state to the democratic column. And since then, weve seen that state trending blue for the last eight years. Now, republicans have become obsessed with reversing that trend. They have interned for their own into groomingonly candidates, but to think tanks local Media Outlets and data survey efforts to increase republican turnout. Race, youlitical arms see candidates like cory gardner who are very close to the republican Donor Network that created this republican resurgence were republicans might not only take the Colorado Senate seat, they could also take the Governors Office as well. Cory gardner is very close to energy interests. He attended the secret koch gathering last june over the summer. He has benefited from a lot of that dark money and outside court nation that we were discussing earlier. We have to leave it there but i thank you both for being with us. We will continue to follow this tonight, doing a live broadcast on the Midterm Elections beginning at 7 00 Eastern Standard Time from the studios of democracy now in new york, covering the country. Lee fangs recent investigation is Mitch Mcconnells freighted ties to a shadowy shipping company. Hes also blogged about how if the gop takes the senate, climatechange deniers will control key committees. He is a reporting fellow with the Investigative Fund at the nation institute, and blogs about money and politics at the the republic report. Thank you to john nichols, Political Writer for the nation,s latest book is dollarocracy how the money and Media Election complex is destroying america. 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