Return to Transcripts main page

Wolf

Democrats Say They Can Hold Senate; Close Elections in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Georgia.

Aired November 03, 2014 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST & FORMER ADVISER TO FOUR PRESIDENTS: In other words, two years from now they are going to be facing a much tougher electorate with a lot of momentum on the Democratic side and there's an anomaly. The contestants in this election are in red and purple states. It's in the red and purple states. The next time out, there are going to be a lot of Senate races with Republicans in that blue wall and that's why they are vulnerable two years out. That means they can glow tomorrow night if they win the Senate, every reason to gloat. But a tough road to get the White House and the Congress.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: To add to that, David is right when it comes to the map and geography. And when you look at the substance of what, it would mean if the Republicans take over tomorrow night, they are going to have to prove that they can govern. They can no longer say that they are the opposition party. They are going to have to prove that they can do big things. Maybe some form of immigration reform. Because if they can't, that could hurt them. And any senior Republican looking at the long ball will tell you that, that if they take it, they've got to be more productive.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: David, do you think it was a mistake for some of these Democratic candidates fighting for their political life to run away from the president of the United States as quickly and as hard as they have.

GERGEN: Well, I would have thought that they would have made more of an effort to wrap themselves around. Instead of running away from him, some of these things are working, they are going to work better. The economy in particular, they are getting zero credit for the state that the United States economy is rebounding faster than any other major economy in the world right now. We're the world leader. The Democrats haven't been able to make a note of that. This reminds me of Al Gore in 2000 when he could have run on the Clinton economic record and he did not and he lost. And I just think they could have made a bigger effort to embrace that part of his -- of Obama's record.

BLITZER: Are the Republicans on Capitol Hill -- Dana, you've covered Congress for us -- are they already measuring the drapes?

(LAUGHTER)

Are they getting for a little bigger office suites over there? Do they already think they have it locked up? BASH: Mitch McConnell's office is pretty sweet already. Locked up,

no. But they are certainly feeling more bullish and confident. He got a call from a senior strategist over the weekend who was going through the numbers, the turnout, polling numbers and so part saying that any which way you slice it, it looks almost impossible, no impossible but almost impossible for Democrats to hold on and he'd very much likely be the next majority leader. I've spoke to the parties and the outside groups because they are all doing polling and have people on the ground and they think it's going to be pretty hard to keep the control of the Senate for Democrats but the question is, what's going to be the margin? Because that matters when it comes to governing and when it comes to the election the next time around.

BLITZER: 52/48? Is that what you're saying?

BASH: Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly what I'm saying. Let's just say it's 52/48. That gives the Republicans the majority. It allows them to set the agenda, which is huge. It makes a huge difference, but it doesn't necessarily make it easy to govern and, not just that, it also means as David was saying, the next time in 2016, it's not just going to be a White House race but a Congressional race, there are going to be a lot of races that are easier for Democrats to win. If they keep the margins low, it will be a short-lived Republican majority.

BLITZER: David, you've worked for four presidents so you know this well. If Republicans are majority in the Senate as they are in the House, with that comes subpoena power. The House, they can demand that certain officials show up, documents that they get, they have the votes to go forward. And that could make the last two years of the Obama administration pretty miserable if they want to go in that direction.

GERGEN: I think that is right, Wolf. What the Republicans are very likely to do is to go in two directions at once. On the one hand, to look as if they were cooperative with the president. As Dana said, maybe immigration reform, trade, maybe even tax reform. On the other hand, they are going to play hardball and that would be investigatory power that they would have in the Senate. There's so many issues, it's not just Benghazi, it's the V.A., Ebola, how we fight the war against ISIS. You have the Chuck Hagel memo floating around, very skeptical about what we're doing now. The defense secretary very skeptical about what we're doing with the war against ISIS. There's a lot of things that they can go after if they have power of the committees. And they will have power in those committees if they win and pick up the six seats or even more.

BLITZER: It's why people should be paying attention closely to what's going on because with the majority comes a lot of extra power that the U.S. Senate Republicans, if they are the majority, will certainly have.

David, thanks very much.

Dana, our thanks to you as well. There's much more CNN's special coverage of the midterm elections

coming up. We're going to take you live to four different battleground states for an up-close look at the races that could shift control of the Senate into Republican hands.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Republicans need to pick up six seats tomorrow to take control of the U.S. Senate from Democrats. Several of the races are too close to call right now.

Our Ana Cabrera is joining us from Colorado. Brianna Keilar is watching the Kentucky race. And our own Kyra Phillips is watching the races there, which include members of, shall we call it, southern political royalty.

Let's go out west, first, to Colorado. The swing state has done well for Democrats in recent years. President Obama won it twice. In the race for the Senate, the incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Udall has seen his early lead in the polls evaporate.

Ana is joining us from Arapahoe.

Ana, Mark Udall was elected with 53 percent of the vote six years ago. Where do the polls stand right now?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this race is neck-and-neck. The poll out this morning has Republican Cory gardener ahead of Mark Udall. It's given Democrats a bit of a morale boost. It's a mail-in election here in Colorado. The folks behind me are doing sorting, going through the signature verifications. Hundreds and thousands of ballots have been returned. Nearly 1.4 million Colorado voters have already marked their ballots and sent them back in and Republicans have the edge with about 100,000 more Republican ballots returned than Democrats. They also have an advantage of the president's very dismal approval ratings in this state right now, just 37 percent in a state that voted for President Obama twice.

Now, Mark Udall is relying on his strong ground game and he has an advantage with Latino voters and also with younger voters. And he's focused his message pretty squarely on the female voters, focusing on female productive rights. Pundits have called him "Mark Uterus." They say it's worked for Michael Bennett, a Democrat, back in 2010. They hope it works for him here. Still, no one is taking any chances. They have their ground games in full swing today. They will be making phone calls and both sides tell us they like their chances come election night -- Wolf?

BLITZER: In addition to the Senate races, there's another vote getting attention in Colorado, Ana. A ballot vote on abortion. What does it look like? Will it pass this time? Explain what is going on.

CABRERA: Well, is it possible it will pass? Yes. Is it probable? Probably not. It's the personhood amendment, amendment 67 that's been on the ballot before and they've been defeated pretty handedly. It would amendment the state constitution to amend the criminal code. Now, proponents of this measure say it's not about abortion. Really, it's meant to protect pregnant women from criminal acts and they cite a 2008 example of a woman hit by a drunk driver who lost her unborn baby. But proponents of this measure say it's really too far- reaching. It could open a can of worms and they say it would set up for possible persecutions and all kinds of situations where a pregnant woman loses her unborn baby regardless of the reason why, Wolf. And I can tell you that there's a lot more noise against this measure here in Colorado than is for it.

Back to you.

BLITZER: Ana, thanks very much. We'll stay in close touch with you.

Let's go to Iowa. The Iowa Senator Tom Harkin is retiring. He's been a fixture in Washington for 40 years. His retirement has given Republicans hopes that they can steal his seat.

Pamela Brown is joining us.

What are the early poll numbers indicating there, Pamela?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far we're seeing record numbers with early voting, Wolf. More than 400,000 ballots cast thus far. And the focus is to get the outstanding ballots in. Right now Democrats have a razor-thin lead over Republicans, about 7,000 more ballots cast for Democrats than Republicans. But Democrats want to see a larger lead heading into tomorrow. For Democrats, it's really early voting. There's a huge push today to get more votes in, to get those ballots in. But both sides are fairly confident that they can win this hotly contested Senate race that could really decide who controls the Senate. It's really down to the wire right now.

And there is some controversy brewing between Senator Tom Harkin, the Democratic Senator vacating the seat in Iowa, and the Republican candidate, Joni Ernst. Take a listen to what Tom Harkin had to say last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM HARKIN, (D), IOWA: There's a sense of, well, Joni Ernst, she's really attractive and sounds nice. Well, I got to thinking about that. I don't care if she's a Taylor Swift --

(LAUGHTER)

-- or as nice as Mr. Rogers. But if she votes like Michele Bachmann, she's wrong for the state of Iowa.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Joni Ernst heard about these comments late last night. She said she was offended by Harkin's comments. She says that if she were a man, he wouldn't have said that. She said she's going to shake it off like Taylor Swift does. BLITZER: All right. We'll be in Iowa.

Pamela Brown, thanks.

Still ahead, we're going to live to Kentucky where a challenger is not giving up her fight against Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell. We'll take you live to Georgia as well where famous southern political families are fighting to establish their own legacies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's get back to our special election coverage. When Mitch McConnell first won Kentucky back in 1984, it was an extremely close race. He won by only 5,000 votes.

Joining us is our chief political correspondent, Brianna Keilar.

How close of a race are we looking at right now between McConnell and his Democratic challenger, Alison Lundergan Grimes?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi there, Wolf. Wolf, polls right now of late show consistently that McConnell has a somewhat comfortable lead here of several points. This is a lead that I would say a number of candidates in these other close races across the country would be envious of. That said, it's not a done deal as Mitch McConnell tries to make sure he's re-elected but also fights to become Senate majority leader of the Senate. This has been a tough race. He's been up against a young, promising Democratic woman, Alison Lundergan Grimes, who is the current secretary of state in the state of Kentucky. Mitch McConnell has seven events across the state today. Grimes has nine.

Last night, she showed some of the stress of what has really been a tough battle here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISON LUNDERGAN GRIMES, (D), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: And I do believe that you are the messenger that Mitch McConnell can't buy. He can buy the airwaves but he cannot buy the hearts and minds of each and every one of you. You know that after 30 years, three decades of Mitch McConnell, we deserve better. We're coming down the home stretch, and let me tell you, this strong independent Kentucky woman, I've got kick left still in me.

(CHEERING)

GRIMES: I'm not giving up.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Of course, this fight is not over until all of the ballots are counted. And certainly I think the McConnell camp isn't taking what is a lead in the polls for granted. You look at the national political environment, it's really bad to be a Democrat in, but it's also so bad to be an incumbent in. Just like you said, Mitch McConnell was first elected to go to Washington in 1984. He certainly has that sort of Washington tarnish on him.

BLITZER: As you know, at times this race between Mitch McConnell and Alison Grimes was a lot closer in the polls. How did McConnell pull ahead as he has right now?

KEILAR: Off the top, this is a very red state. This is not a state that Democrats typically do well in. President Obama did not win here in 2008 or in 2012. McConnell had that going in his favor.

The other thing he did which is sort of interesting, because Grimes is a Democrat from Kentucky and hasn't been in Washington, McConnell tried his hardest and effectively tying her to President Obama. It was so effective that when she was asked if she had voted for President Obama, which you would presume that she has, she wouldn't answer that question. That is something that his campaign used against her.

The other thing, talking to sources close to his campaign, is that they feel that he's done very well on the ground game and that he's gotten out there and the get out of vote operations have been more effective than Grimes. We'll wait until Tuesday to see if that's the case.

BLITZER: We certainly will.

Brianna, in Louisville for us, thanks very much.

Still ahead, we're going live to Georgia for a closer look at the Senate candidate, the Democratic candidate, Michelle Nunn, on the ballot this time. Sounds a lot like a Republican at times. What's going on in Georgia? Kyra Phillips is standing by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: One of the key states we'll be watching tomorrow night will be Georgia. The Republican governor, Nathan Deal, is facing a challenge from an old name in Georgia politics, that name being "Carter." Democrat Jason Carter, grandson of former president, Jimmy Carter. The other big race to watch in the state is the Senate seat vacated by Republican Saxby Chambliss. The outcome could shift the balance.

Kyra Phillips is joining us from Atlanta right now.

Set the scene, Kyra. What's going on in Georgia?

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I tell you what, Wolf, what should have been a sure thing for David Perdue and fellow Republicans could now impact as we've been talking about for months now who controls the Senate. If Republicans lose control of the Senate because they lose Georgia, that would be embarrassment on top of disaster for the GOP. And that's because Georgia, as you know is, a deeply red state. Republicans thought they could win it easily. And now it's in play. It's in play because Democrat Michelle Nunn is extremely competitive. Why so competitive? Shifting demographics, for one, in Georgia, and also the fact that she's been running as sort of a Democrat, who talks like a Republican. She's been trying to say Perdue is an out of touch, wealthy businessman, who only cares about his own pocketbook, and she's been hammering him on his history of outsourcing.

As for Perdue's go-to criticism of his competitor this election season, he says she's just too cozy with President Obama. That's been a major fodder for a weekend debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID PERDUE, (R), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: This president is adamant about getting you in the Senate because he needs you to be his rubber stamp in the Senate. His failed policies are indeed on the ballot. In Georgia, they go by the name of Michelle Nunn.

MICHELLE NUNN, (D), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: I spent 45 minutes of my life with President Obama. I have spent seven years working for President George H.W. Bush's Points of Light organization. And I have a deep and abiding commitment. I've talked it for the entire campaign to working across party lines. I believe that we can work together to get things done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And, Wolf, as of now, just four points separating Nunn and Perdue.

But I want to show you this number. This was broken down by race. Among African-American voters, Nunn leads with an eye-dropping 85 percent of the vote. Until tomorrow, you know this phrase, "It's all about get out the vote." Knocking on doors and getting people out to the polls. Keep in mind, if no candidates reach 50 plus 1, the Georgia race goes to a runoff, January 6th, so you could be pretty busy the next couple of months.

BLITZER: Given the fact that there's a third-party Libertarian candidate in Georgia as you well know, a lot of people just assume it will go to some sort of runoff and that neither of these candidates, Democrat nor Republican, will get 50 percent plus 1 to avoid that January 6th runoff. Polls show if there was a runoff, the Republican presumably would have some sort of advantage. Is that right?

PHILLIPS: That is right. It's interesting because if you -- we pay such close attention to the polls and right when you think, OK, Nunn has the edge and then in the next day, the next two days, Perdue picks up a couple points. It's really interesting. We were saying something totally different last week and as of the weekend, the new NBC poll we saw Perdue up but four points. A lot of Republicans saying to me over the weekend that they have a good gut feeling this is going to go into a runoff. We'll see.

BLITZER: If it goes into a runoff, I think that Perdue would have an advantage. But they'll spend millions and millions of dollars in Georgia over these next two months. PHILLIPS: We're talking about $100 million, Wolf.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Analysts are saying up to $100 million.

BLITZER: You never know what could happen with all that money being spent.

Thank you very much, Kyra, for that.

Tomorrow night is election night here in America. CNN's special coverage starts at 5:00 p.m. eastern. Please join us.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.

And for our North American viewers, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.