>> we had to hold our elected officials accountable. i wanted tell you right now, with your help and god's will, we will change the direction of our country. >> we will break down what happened in this, the most expensive midterm election in history, and look ahead to what it means for the 2016 race. >> president obama starts making grand bargains with his republican senate in the next two years, he creates a situation where democratic hardy that still has many advantages going into presidential cycle, could lose some of those advantages. and we will look at ballot initiatives including increasing the minimum wage which one in every state it was put before voters. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. republicans have emerged from tuesday's midterm elections with control of congress for the first time in eight years. in the most expensive midterm in election history, the republican party took control of the senate, strengthened its control in the house and won a number of key gubernatorial races. republican candidates won at least 10 of the day's 13 closely contested senate races giving the party control of the senate for the first time since 2007. kentucky senator mitch mcconnell is expected to become the next senate majority leader after he withstood a challenge from democrat alison lundergan grimes. mcconnell celebrated his victory in kentucky. >> this experiment and big government has lasted long enough. [applause] it is time to go in a new direction. [applause] it is time to turn this country around. [applause] and i will not let you down. thank you so much. >> three sitting democratic senators lost races -- kay hagan in north carolina, mark pryor in arkansas, and mark udall in colorado. the political landscape could still worsen for the democrats as the senate race in alaska remains too close to call and louisiana is headed for a runoff. the republicans also picked up at least 10 more house seats, giving the party its largest majority since world war ii. republicans also won another of tightly contested gubernatorial contests. republican candidates in maryland, arkansas, illinois and massachusetts took control of seats that had been previously held by democrats. a number of sitting republican governors also overcame strong challenges, including wisconsin's scott walker, florida's rick scott and michigan's rick snyder. in one of the rare democratic upsets on tuesday, tom wolf is projected to have beaten incumbent pennsylvania republican governor tom corbett. republicans also picked up gubernatorial victories in the traditional blue states of massachusetts and illinois. the midterms saw nearly 150 ballot measures nationwide. voters in four traditionally conservative states approved initiatives that will raise the minimum wage in alaska, nebraska and south dakota and arkansas. voters in illinois also backed an increase to $10 an hour, although state lawmakers will have final say. in massachusetts, voters approved a landmark measure that will provide workers with the strongest paid sick leave requirements in the country, up to 40 hours per year. washington, d.c. passed a ballot measure to legalize marijuana, as did oregon. a medical marijuana initiative failed in florida. in a victory for abortion rights, voters in both colorado and north dakota have defeated personhood amendments which would have defined fertilized eggs as human beings. but an anti-choice amendment in tennessee that would enable the state legislature to pass extreme anti-choice legislation was approved. colorado voters rejected an initiative to require labeling of gmo foods after monsanto spent $4.7 million to defeat the measure. voters appear to have defeated a similar initiative in oregon but it remains too close to call. in washington state, voters approved the day's only gun control measure, imposing background checks on all gun sales. we'll have more on the midterm elections after headlines. a top al-qaeda leader has reportedly been killed in a new u.s. drone strike inside yemen. shawki al-badani, head of al-qaeda in the arab peninsula and deemed a "global terrorist," by the u.s., was among four people reportedly killed in an american attack overnight. badani has been accused of links to bombings that killed over 100 yemeni soldiers and a plot on the u.s. embassy in yemen. the strike follows an earlier u.s. bombing that killed at least ten people. -- 10 alleged militants. ten people have been wounded in jerusalem after a driver drove his car into ten pedestrians. the attacked occurred near a similar incident two weeks ago where a palestinian ran into a group of israelis, killing two people. daily clashes in occupied east jerusalem continued today with clashes between palestinians and far-right israeli demonstrators who tried to enter the al-aqsa mosque. israel stoked new outrage this week after advacing plans to build 500 new illegal settlements homes in occupied east jerusalem. both ukraine and russian troops are moving their forces closer to eastern ukraine after a weekend vote backing pro-russian separatists leaders. russia has recognized sunday's elections will ukraine's president has threatened to scrap and autonomy deal for the eastern regions of donetsk and lunhansk. on tuesday, the ukraine government said it would deploy whereits to the east fighting has killed more than 3000 people since april. in brussels, nato chief said russia has also moved forces closer to its border with ukraine. >> recently, we have also seen russian troops move closer to the border with ukraine, and russia continues to support the separatists by training them, but providing equipment, and supporting them also by having special forces -- russian special forces inside the eastern parts of ukraine. >> authorities in mexico have captured the fugitive mayor of iguala who is suspected of ordering a police attack on 43 students, who have now been missing for more than five weeks. federal police arrested jose luis abarca and his wife in mexico city, where they were hiding in a working-class neighborhood in a building that appeared to be abandoned. they are suspected of orchestrating the attack by police on the students from a rural teacher's college, who were apparently then turned over to a local drug gang. the mayor's wife is accused of being the gang's leading operator. the group fled iguala in the southern state of guerrero, amidst an investigation that has netted more than 50 arrests and uncovered remains in multiple mass graves, none of which have so far been identified as the students. family members and protesters have continued to hold out hope the students are alive. and those are some of the headlines, this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a republican rout. that's how tuesday's election -- the most expensive midterm in history -- is being described after the republicans took control of the senate, strengthened its control in the house, and took a number of key gubernatorial races. republican candidates won at least 10 of the day's 13 closely contested senate races giving the party control of the senate for the first time since 2007. kentucky senator mitch mcconnell is expected to become the next senate majority leader after he withstood a challenge from democrat alison lundergan grimes who refused to say during the campaign whether she had voted for president obama. although she had been once an obama delegate. three sitting democratic senators lost races. in north carolina, thom tillis defeated kay hagan. in arkansas, tom cotton unseated senator mark pryor. and in colorado, senator mark udall lost to cory gardner. the political landscape could still worsen for the democrats as the senate race in alaska remains too close to call and louisiana is headed for a runoff. this is senate minority leader mitch mcconnell speaking last night at his victory speech in louisville, kentucky. they said we could have real change in washington. [applause] republicans also picked up and that is what i intend to deliver. tonight turns a corner. in the future i see is a bright one. americans have seen that what the current crowd in washington is offering is making us weaker both at home and abroad. .hey have had enough you know, there is an old saying that is often a too rooted to winston churchill that i'm reminded of -- attributed to winston churchill that i'm reminded of. here's what he said about americans. he said, you know the americans, they always do the right thing after they have tried everything else first. [laughter] >> through publicans also picked up at least 10 more house seats, giving the party its largest majority since world war ii. president obama is facing a similar predicament as ronald reagan, bill clinton and george w. bush -- the last three presidents to serve two terms. that all governed for the final two years with the opposition controlling both chambers of congress. the republican party also strengthened its control in gubernatorial races as republican candidates in maryland, arkansas, illinois and massachusetts took control of seats that had been previously held by democrats. a number of sitting republican governors also overcame strong challenges, including wisconsin's scott walker, florida's rick scott, and michigan's rick snyder. in one of the rare democratic upsets on tuesday, tom wolf is projected to have beaten incumbent pennsylvania republican governor tom corbett. republicans also picked up gubernatorial victories in the traditional blue states of massachusetts and illinois. we began our show in kentucky. phillip bailey is a freelance journalist in louisville, a former political editor at the local npr affiliate radio station wfpl. this extremely significant race, not only for kentucky, but for the nation since the senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, could now become the senate majority leader if republicans decide to choose him. talk about this race, phillip bailey. >> this is what mitch mcconnell has always wanted. the coveted position since he was first elected back in 1984 was to be senate majority leader. he has all but guaranteed to get position. there seems to be no one else who wants the job that republicans are galvanizing around, even though a few say they don't want to vote for mcconnell. can almost assure he will be sit majority leader. during this campaign, reporters who were not clear on asking the senator what the agenda was, if you took over the senate, mcconnell would say, well, i don't want to show my hand too early, let's not measure the drapes. we're interested to see what exactly is going to happen with this new republican majority in the u.s. senate. will there be more cooperation with president obama? will president obama be more aggressive? on thell often sat campaign trail, i was the defensive coordinator and not get to be the offense of coordinator. of what you doot is to disrupt. in a democrats would refer to doctor ofas the dysfunction. no yes to govern as well in particular for the democrats and republicans in 2016, it is support for them to show how .hey can govern many are frustrated with mcconnell overall. congress is less popular. americans seem to be saying, get anything done. we are to see house and a majority leader richard mcconnell can get that accomplished. >> that's go back to senator mcconnell speaking last night in louisville. >> some things don't change after tonight. i don't expect the president to wake up tomorrow and view the world differently than he did when he woke up this morning. he knows i won't, either. >> that is mitch mcconnell. phillip, can you talk about with the key issues were in kentucky and why this senator, who is the minority leader, could become the majority leader, actually really was given quite a run for his money and it was a lot of money. >> exactly. mitch mcconnell, probably more than any other politician in the u.s., associated with being the architect of citizens united. he often said money is speech. inis filed amicus briefs many of the supreme court cases seeking to tear down mccain-feingold. this race in many ways was mitch mcconnell stream come true. somewhere north of -- the question was, what did the money get us besides a bunch of tv ads? there was only one debate, talking about: president obama. mcconnell saying his allies saying that grimes would be a surrogate for obama. grimes spent a large part for time saying, i'm not barack obama. literally saying that in a tv commercial. what does all of this money in politics get voters? there are a lot of infrastructure issues in kentucky, the epidemic of heroin did not come up. we certainly had a conversation about internet broadband access. a large part was spent on coal with both candidates trying to show who is more of a champion for coal. of your good conversation came up about how the free market impacted coal and the idea it cost more money to extract coal from the ground. a lot of it was missed from this campaign, but it sure did by a lot of ads. grimes, people thought she was going to give mitch mcconnell a run for his money which is why many democrats left with their jaws stopped considering she lost by 15 points, pretty much a blowout, and i think she only one nine or 10 counties in the entire state. this was a rout, as far as that race was concerned. thecrats still held on state house but no one expected grimes to lose the way she did. she underperformed heavily in democratic strongholds like lexington and louisville. you do have a lot of democrats pointing figures at each other now, trying to figure out what went wrong. i think the mcconnell campaign probably of the easiest and best strategy the entire summer -- barack obama is unpopular, she is barack obama, big me senate majority leader and kentucky will be in power. that is what kentucky voters supported. democrat to go back to grimes. whethersed to reveal she voted for president barack obama. >> did you vote for president obama in 2008 and 2012? >> this election isn't about the president. it is about making sure we put kentuckians back to work. >> did you vote for him? >> i was a delegate for hillary clinton. i think kentuckians know i'm a clinton democrat through and through. i know the members of this editorial board bric-a-brac so you are not saying. >> she is referred to herself as a clinton democrat, but not in obama democrat. though she had been an obama delegate at the convention earlier and was sent secretary of state of kentucky, sort of informatics of democrats around -- and lymphatic of democrats around the country when it can to the relationship with president obama in this election? than any single democrat, that answer probably epitomized the problem the national democratic party and democrats had in this midterm election. how do you reconcile running in states were barack obama lost if you still the head of your party? it was surprising giving grimes understood early on this was going to be a strategy that she was so prepared for that question. the first she tries to blow through with a talking point. then she says, well, i was a clinton delegate. then she just creates this very weird answer of, well, i don't want to say things -- well, you're running for u.s. senate. folks are interested in who you voted for. there were many ways for heard answer that. that came off [indiscernible] to be quite honest. if you look at the turnout numbers, a democratic stronghold that half a million democrats registered, far more than republicans in the city. [indiscernible] got about 157 thousand votes. grimes only got 144,000 votes from more precincts in louisville. that disconnect shows there are some democrats who said, i am not going to associate myself toh her if she doesn't want associate with obama or speaker for the environment. what many democrats are saying this morning is, [indiscernible] officials have grimes as someone trying to be a republican in this is what you're getting. now you have a mitch mcconnell blowout. about a year and half ago, many democrats were arguing whether she could beat ashley judd running for u.s. senate. juddsaid, well, if ashley runs, she will get beat by 15 to 20 points. >> phillip bailey, thank you for being with us, freelance journalist in kentucky. when we come back from the break, we will be joined by lee investigatingbeen the money trail. yes, mitch mcconnell was given a run for his money and there was plenty of money. did money win big in these midterm elections? the most expensive in history. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. this is the day after. the day after the midterm elections of 2014 that cost $4 billion. our guest now is lee fang, reporting fellow at the nation institute and blogs about money and politics at the republican report. he did a recent investigation titled, "mitch mcconnell's freighted ties to a shadowy shipping company." about how ifogged the gop takes the senate, climate change deniers will control key committees. why don't we start there and then go back to mitch mcconnell. talk about what the republican senate will look like when it comes to the leadership of the committees. among those who won last night was oklahoma senator inhofe. >> good morning, amy. this republican majority owes its fortune to a small number of fossil fuel companies, the brothers,ve koch natural gas copies were big campaign spenders. the next congress, we will see some of the most about climate change deniers taking control of key congressional committees in the senate and in the house. in the senate, senator jim inhofe, the most outspoken critic of climate change science will take control of the environment committee. senator ron johnson, another outspoken critic of climate change science and take control of the homeland security and government reform committee. it is possible senator ted cruz, yet another climate change skeptic, will control the science subcommittee within the commerce committee. that is the committee that controls federal science research. it is likely these fossil fuel companies that spend big on the selection because they're looking for something in return. that being pressure on the environment protection agency to roll back or delay its proposed rules on carbon emissions. there are rules coming up that deal with existing coal-fired power plants. these are power plants that were built in the 1940's, 1950's,logt .rivers of carbon emissions the obama administration has proposed these rules, and it is likely the new republican congress will pressure the epa to delay them or maybe even attach a budget writer that says the epa will not be funded to carry out these rules. that could set the stage for another government shutdown, like the similar dynamic that happened last year when a budget rider was attached tending to defund the affordable care act, better known as obama care. as part of a broader dynamic, though, the house science ,ommittee in the last congress one of the very first times in history, began subpoena and government scientists, attempted to arrest them and pressure them to back away from air pollution rules with republicans now in control of the senate, we might see a similar dynamic on the senate side. in the last two months, we have seen senate republicans sending letters to environment groups, crushing them -- basically, signaling they would like to open new investigations into groups like the nrdc, the national wildlife foundation, the mac and lung association, greenpeace -- these environmental groups are now going to be under the gun as republicans try different avenues for influencing terminal policy. quick so want to turn to jim inhofe in his own words. he won reelection tuesday. this is a video message he recently made for the climate skeptics and tank "the heartland institute." republicans are going to take over the united states senate in november, and i will be replacing barbara boxer as andrman of the environment public works committee, so we can go back and start using cra's as congressional review asked to repeal or to stop onerous regulations taking place. you guys are the only group out there that can be effective and help us in this battle, and keep in mind, they now have unlimited money to run for reelection using the issue of global warming. >> like another republican senator i was watching yesterday , rob portman, sing the key issues or cutting down regulation and keystone xl. the significance of what one big when ity, lee fang, comes to the keystone xl, some think president obama has put off ruling on until after this election? >> that's right. in terms of policy change, we will see incredible pressure from congressional republicans to push the a administration toward proving many different new pipelines and oil and gas initiatives. the keystone xl is at the top of that list. that pipeline running from the alberta tar sands down to refineries on the gulf of mexico, that requires special approval from the white house and from the state department. and we will see a republican congress push the president to approve that pipeline. but beyond that, there are a number of other goals. there is also the liquefied , for naturalssue gas in america to be exported abroad. the news to be a special and the from ferc department of energy. there are number of bills encumbers to expedite those approvals. and if the american natural gas market is linked to global particular,sia, natural gas prices are much higher, we will see a much broader boom of fracking, the horizontal trilling technique will stop because the price of natural gas in america will rise. republicans are intent on .ushing this priority cory gardner one of the republican senate candidates who won last night in colorado, he has made this one of his top initiatives. in republican leaders have signaled this is at the top of the list along with the keystone xl. >> when it comes to democrats and fracking, right up to president obama, they certainly have not distanced themselves from it. as someone tweeted last night, when organizer wrote -- click the obama administration has also been close to the natural gas lobby. i've done story showing the main lobbying group for the fracking industry, america's natural gas lines, provided dark money under the democrats as well. former maryland governor martin o'malley were current soon to be former governor martin o'malley, received funds for his own dark money group from the natural gas lobby. democrats that have raise money for natural gas interests actually -- and colorado, the democratic party, one of the reasons for their defeat last night was the democrats there were very divided over the issue of fracking, an effort to place a ballot initiative that would have allowed local cities and municipalities in colorado to ban fracking fell apart, and part of that disarray really helped republicans. so democrats have been very divided on this issue, and they have not been shy about soliciting funds from the same industry. >> an exit poll conducted tuesday night by edison research found interesting results when it comes to voters and climate change. the new york times reported -- "nationally, nearly six in 10 voters said climate change was a serious problem, and a broad majority of them (about seven in 10) favored democratic candidates for the house. among the four in 10 voters who said it was not a serious problem, an even larger majority (more than eight in 10 voters) supported republican candidates." lee fang, i want to go back to mitch mcconnell who could be the next senate majority leader if ted cruz does not have his way. how he personally funded his campaign, where his wealth comes from. mcconnellenator mitch is not known for any particular ideology. he has kind of cast himself as a libertarian this year, but in previous years, he supported foreign wars, bank bailouts. mcconnell is really famous were on capitol hill is campaign finance. beginning in the 1980's, senator mcconnell blocked efforts on public financing of elections and drought the 1990's and early 2000's, he attempted to block finance reform legislation including limits on contributions to candidates and soft money. more recently, his filibustered and blocked efforts to shine a light on dark money in elections. he is been successful in that front. thever, if you look at election last night, this is really a culmination of a career that is focused on allowing a limited, unregulated secret money -- the largest spender in kentucky in the senate race this year was actually a dark money group set up by former campaign consultants to the mcconnell campaign. additionally, as you mentioned, we did our story recently on mcconnell's personal wealth. mcconnell is one of the wealthiest members of the senate. he married into money. his wife, elaine chao, the former labor secretary in the bush administration, her father founded a large shipping company for most maritime corporations. it ships commodities all over the world. we did a story looking at some of those different dynamics. the shipping company avoids u.s. taxes and labor law a registering in the marshall islands and flagging their ships through liberia. they also ship, interesting cheap coall -- from colombia. mitch mcconnell has blamed the decline in production of kentucky coal on environment lists and democrats, but the real pictures much more complicated. the role of natural gas has pushed out coal as a cheap feel source. cheap imports from places like columbia have undercut american coal. in a bizarre twist, recently, colombian officials boarded a ship owned by the mcconnell family in-laws and found around 90 pounds of cocaine on a shipment bound for europe. there is an ongoing investigation. there were no arrests made. but it is an interesting twist to the story. >> i want to move from kentucky to wisconsin. in wisconsin, we're joined right now by john nichols, who writes for the nation, political writer there. headlined, "obama need not accept 'lame duck' status." his latest book with bob mcchesney is, "dollarocracy: how the money and media election complex is destroying america." wisconsin was very significant last night. once again, scott walker, the governor has won. he dressed supporters after he was elected to a second term tuesday night. lasten you think about the couple of months, if not the last couple of years, it is interesting the challenges we have faced. there was a group out of washington, washington-based special interests who thought they could spend a lot of money and a lot of time in this state, and somehow convince the people of the state to be against something. i did tell you, i'm an optimist. i believe all along if we have a positive message out, in the end, people of the state wanted to be for something, not against something. and the what happened -- look what happened tonight. [applause] you see, those big government special interests spent tens of lines of dollars, brought all sorts of ads and attacks in here because a few years ago, we took the power away from the washington-based special interest and we put it in the hands of the wisconsin taxpayers. >> that is republican governor scott walker addressing his supporters during his victory speech after he was elected to a second term tuesday night. hn nichols, you are in madison. talk about the significance of this race in wisconsin. he beat mary burke. >> he did beat mary burke, who was waging her first campaign for governor of wisconsin. she was a madison school board member and a relatively wealthy contributedid considerable amount around campaign. i find it amusing to hear the governor talk about the powerful special interests that were waged against him. i was adding up the amount of money that scott walker and his supporters have spent in his three election campaigns. 2010, 2012, and then 4014. it is in the range of $100 million. in a relatively small state, scott walker has brought an overwhelming amounts of national money to just flood the airwaves, flood the no boxes, flood social media with messages on his behalf. and yet last night, he won reelection with a lower percentage of the vote than he and was the same vote he got in 2010. now, the fact of the matter is, scott walker one by single vote. he would've claimed a mandate and he would use that to toxicity about the 2016 presidential -- he would've use that to talk searcy about 2016 presidential run. there's no question that that speech he gave there may have been cheered by a crowd of his supporters, but he set that up -- that event up to be a massive event with all of the right camera angles because he wants that victory, that bit of a victory speech late on media across this country, particularly on fox news, and this is the beginning of a 2016 presidential run. >> john, take this bigger to the piece you wrote, that report you wrote some however tuning our five-hour broadcast last night and today -- somehow between our five-hour broadcast last night and today, "obama need not accept 'lame duck' status." >> it is important to put elections in perspective. the first thing that people need to understand is that the republicans did very, very well last night. in this midterm election, they won back the senate -- [indiscernible] they did very well and the gubernatorial races. and ballotetty well races. if you were to talk about mandates from last night, the important thing to understand is that president obama a not have fared well all over the place, but the agenda did very well. for example, elizabeth born supports raising the minimum wage. warren.h bor the first thing understand, only start to talk about this election sending any kind of ideological or policy message, we should be very careful. the president also ought to take in history. the fact of the matter is, in the sixth bureau presidencies, presidents usually have a pretty lousy time. ronald reagan lost control of eightnate in 1986, losing senate seats. to what eisenhower lost 15 seats -- dwight eisenhower lost 15 seats. in 1938, franklin roosevelt lost eight seats in the senate and more than 80 seats in the house of representatives. each of those presidents was in a very bad position on the day midtermeir six year elections. and yet, by the end of their second term, each of those presidents had relatively high approval ratings, had achieved major things, and in the case of frank when roosevelt, actually got elected to a third term. what can we take away from this? presidents have the ability to define the last quarter of their second term, even if there's a strong opposition. my fear with obama is that he will let the republicans do too much of the defining. so this becomes a critical important moment for grassroots movements. talkingng that lee was about, people need to understand. if you don't want to keystone pipeline, this is the time to make the loudest was possible because president obama can stop it if he feels there's a mandate out there to do it. inyou don't want meddling social security, medicare, medicaid, this is the time to make more noise than ever about how horrid and dangerous it would be. if the president hears that -- frankie, even if members of commerce on both sides hear it, it has power. the most dangerous thing to do would be for grassroots activists to stand down and let the politicians in washington sort things out. that is not, by any measure, with the american people want. but if people do stand down, if they let this become a definitional midterm election, then the folks on wall street are going to take it to the bank. this is going to be a fabulous moment for them because they will be able to align scared democrats are worried about raising money in 2016 with empowered republicans, and end up moving a lot of agenda that, frankly, we know is moving at the ballot box because people voted for paid sick leave, voted for a host of progressive initiatives across this country. we of counter mandates, and we ought to listen to all of them. grassroots activists ought to recognize this time to engage. >> dannel malloy, the governor of connecticut facing surely tight race. it looks like he has pulled it out. just thousands of votes apart. but he did declare victory earlier today. against tom foley, his republican challenger. use one of the few people who had obama come in to campaign with them, unlike alison lundergan grimes, for example. john nichols, thank you for being with us. we willing to your report, "obama need not accept 'lame duck' status." we're going to get a break in here from bernie sanders, the independent governor of vermont, and also look at how the issue of obamacare and single-payer has played into the vermont race. very interestingly. the popular governor peter shumlin facing a serious crisis now. it looks like that governor's race will be decided by the legislature. it is the only state, i believe, in the country where when a -- forte doesn't get 50% example, louisiana, they will have a runoff. in vermont, the legislature decides who will be the next governor. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. last night tuesday night during democracy now! five hour special broadcast, we spoke with independent senator bernie sanders of vermont, just as it started to become clear from early election results of the senate was clearly going to be controlled by republicans. >> what i do know is if in fact the republicans carried the senate and control the congress, as they may, i think it will be a disaster for the middle class and working families of this country. and we're just going to have to figure out how we can fight back as effectively as we can. >> what do you see as the options in case that does turn out to be the results in iowa, what do you see the options in terms of how president obama can move forward? any kind of democratic were progressive agenda in the remaining two years? >> is quite far-fetched to believe he can move the progressive agenda. i think the immediate ethical be to stop -- have more tax break for the wealthy and large corporations, which the republicans will certainly bring forward. i think under the guise of "entitlement reform" they will be making efforts to cut social security and medicare and go after medicaid, education, nutrition. it will probably want to increase funding for the military. my guess is, with all of the money from the koch brothers coming up and the other fossil fuel industries, they will continue to ignore scientific evidence of climate change. i think we're going to be more of a defensive mode tried to prevent that than having illusions at this point of doing good things. >> senator sanders, your state the obamacarewith website. it has caused a very major issue, particularly in vermont because of the quest by governor shumlin and many others to make from the first single-payer state. can you talk about the significance of this and what it will mean? >> it is honestly a negative. in a strong advocate of a single payer system. i think if you want to provide quality care to all people, and that is the approach you have got to go. clearly, it is not a good thing for state government not to be able to run a website which is accountable. that is a negative. i hope despite that, we will go forward and be the first in the country to pass a single-payer. one argument that even governor shumlin has used is that obamacare is complicated, and that is not the ultimate answer. and the downing of your website proves this. >> the american health care system is enormously complicated. that is have a system complicated, it becomes very, very expensive. you end up spending actually 30% of the health care dollar for proper cheering and every thing else. in my view, and i think of you of a lot of people, out care -- health care should be a right. we should fund it in a progressive way through public funding of people should be up to go to the doctor they want in the hospital they want. it turns out in our country, we spent almost twice as much per person on health care as to people of any other nations precisely because it is a complicated, bureaucratic, confusing system. >> senator sanders, the issue of the minimum wage, and all of the states that it is being introduced them at the ballot initiative being voted on in alaska and arkansas, in nebraska, in south dakota, even if they are republican states, it is overwhelmingly two to 1, 3 to one, being voted for. what message does this into your democratic colleagues? pointt is an excellent and very important point. it is not just the minimum wage. on economic issues, whether it is raising the minimum wage, whether it is paid equity for women workers, whether it is investing in rebuilding our infrastructure and creating millions of decent paying jobs, whether it is making college education affordable and ending this burden of student indebtedness that so many young people have, guess what? the vast majority people want change. but what i think republicans, with the support of her media, has allowed to prevent us from focusing on those issues. and what the republicans have done is make did dish this a referendum, are you satisfied with the economy? most people, including myself, are not satisfied with the economy today. but what they have done is had us forget where we were six years ago. and also, had no discussion -- you tell me what you have heard about republican plans for the future on economic issues. do you think the american people want more tax breaks for the rich and large corporations are cuts in social security and medicare? of course they don't. do you think the republicans talked about that one bit? absolutely not. if they win control of the senate, that is what they will be talking about. my last point before i have to get off, what frightens me very much is what citizens united has done to this country, and the ability of billionaires like the koch brothers and others to put unprecedented sums of money into elections. it frightens me very much because i fear we may be on the verge of becoming an oligarch form of society were a handful of billionaires and troll not just the economy, but the political life of this country. that is something we're going to wrestle with. but that is pretty sandals -- ernie sanders from vermont who is exploring whether to run for president as he travels the country. we were speaking to him in his home state and we will stay there in a month where the incumbent democratic governor peter shumlin has nearly been unseated in a shocking upset in a process unique to vermont, projections show the government's race will be decided by the state legislature after neither shall a nor his republican challenger scott milne reach the necessary threshold of 50%. in other states, a microtel runoff. in vermont, the state legislature will decide. a runoffs solidly social and will keep his seat. he is vowed to make vermont the first it with a single-payer health her system. -- health care system. for more, we're going to peter stirling. he is in the nations or the states capital. welcome. we only had a minute before we go to colorado. some other stunning results there. talk about the significance of what has taken place in vermont. >> coming into this year, the governor seem to have the wind at his back. polling showed we wanted to move toward single-payer health care in this election -- election result seems to have taken the wind away from the centerpiece of his administration. >> there are two things that have gone on. vermont could be the first single-payer state, but unlike a number of states, you have had a complete crisis with the obamacare exchange, with the vermont health care exchange. how does that happen? and even if governor shumlin has made the point that it is complicated and that is why we need single-payer, that is a very fine distinction. people see the government can't run health care in vermont, and will he be able to carry out this mandate if indeed the legislature chooses him? >> is a good point. a small state. these are largely the same people who are been leading on the exchange, leaving on the movement to single-payer to implementing it. day, thed of the exchange problems with the website, which is on a short timeline set up by the affordable care act, we have a few years to do greenmount care. i think the government and reestablish that confident in his a administration to intimate the nation's first universal publicly financed health care system. and the response to what has happened that this race will be decided, as peter shumlin's first governorship was decided, by the vermont legislature? >> it is shocking to everyone in the state that it was this close, but i would say most voters did not go to the polls on a referendum on universal health care, they went their on property taxes and other local issues. i'm not sure the governor's ofult was the popularity universal health care. >> thank you for being with us, peter sterling. from one mountain estate to another, we go to colorado. suffered massive flooding during storms. we go to colorado where republican cory gardner ousted senator tom udall in a closely watch u.s. senate race. this gardner addressing his supporters after he declared victory tuesday night. >> the voters around the state had their voices heard. they are not red. they are not blue. but they are crystal clear. crystal clear message to washington, d.c. -- get your job done and get the heck out of the way! [applause] tomorrow -- tomorrow we go to work to fix a washington that is out of step, out of touch, and out of time. >> for more we are joined in denver by susan greene, editor of the colorado independent. she is a longtime reporter and columnist, formerly with the denver post. welcome back to democracy now! talk about the significance of what has happened. it looks like governor hickenlooper has pulled it out. to what mark udall did not manage to do, when the race, mark udall, the senator until, well, january when cory gardner will take his seat. and lastke last night night i think we were telling wasthat our governors race slightly ahead of governor john hickenlooper. in the hour since, governor hickenlooper has slight advantage. he is at .7% over beaupré. it is still too close to call. colorado has been up all night looking at that race because pretty much republicans have taken over everywhere else. people stayed up all night. journalist, political insiders, normal people just looking at all of the numbers, making spreadsheets and trying to figure out can hickenlooper keep his position? >> it was a closely watched race in congress, mike coffman known as proud birther, challenging president obama's birth certificate, beat out andrew romanoff. mark udall, what does it mean to lose mark udall, the man who together -- who has been very forceful on the issue together with senator wyden on the nsa? >> it means quite a bit to lose mark udall. mark and his family are icons throughout the west. mark very much embodies colorado. he climbs are 14,000 foot mountains. he is an ardent environment list. he is married to an ardent environmentalists. he comes from family deeply rooted in the land and the water of public lands of the west. he also has been extremely issues of government surveillance and privacy and very outspoken about it. in fact, one of the pioneers in the senate -- what did not happen in that race was really a serious discussion of all that he is done in the senate on those issues. there's been a disconnect between the mark udall on the floor in the senate and the mark udall as a regional politician in colorado. in some ways, he is much more comfortable talking down and dirty details of public policy .han on the stump he some one who is much more comfortable having a one-on-one conversation and really giving a speech. >> though mark udall lost in colorado, his cousin, senator tom udall, did prevail in new mexico. susan greene, thank you for being with us, as we wrap up with lee fang in separate cisco for your final comments. was the biggest winner here money? >> the biggest winner last night was money. i would say for obama and his lasting legacy, you have seen in the last four years since it isn't united what appears to be blatant lawbreaking in terms of legal cornish between super pacs 'sd candidates, 501(c) four violating the primary purpose, the irs and federal elections commission has not enforced the law for obama to really clean up his legacy on dark money and campaign finance. he needs to issue executive orders and direct the department of justice to start looking into these issues unless he was to be remembered as the dark money president. >> lee fang, thank you for being with us, reporting fellow at the nation institute. and that does it for our day after broadcast. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to [email protected] or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> joanne: growing up in new england, fall was a really special time for me. i loved all of those fantastic fall vegetables, things like butternut squash, kale, and sage, and that's what today's show is about. i'm going to start first of all with some roasted butternut squash and carrot soup with a coriander oil. and then with my student sasha together we're going to make some semolina gnocchi with brown butter, parmigiano reggiano and fried sage, and to go with that some kale with white balsamic and garlic. you're going to absolutely love these flavors of fall, and you're not going to want to go anywhere. stay right there. [ music ]