Warren-Brown, Sandy's Election Impact, Florida, $6 Billion

A recent poll put out by the Boston Globe and the University of New Hampshire shows the race between incumbent Senator Scott Brown and his Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren to be in a dead heat. Both candidates remain popular and, while some other polls appear to give Warren an edge in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, it’s clearly still a tossup. We talk to Frank Phillips, State House Bureau Chief for the Boston Globe.

Hurricane Sandy may have moved on, but it’s impact will likely be felt for some time to come. More than 7 million people remain without power, New York trains are flooded and businesses along the northeast are still closed. The economic impact is yet to be determined, but so is the impact on the election just days away. We talk with Michael Binder, Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida about what impact it might have. Meanwhile we take advantage of Prof. Binder’s knowledge of Florida politics to dissect where this key swing state stands in the upcoming election.

Both the campaigns for president, that of the incumbent Barack Obama and his Republican Mitt Romney are likely to exceed $1 billion each, record setting spending by candidates for president. Add SuperPAC spending and other third-party money, and some estimates put the cost of this election at $6 billion, well exceeding the record set only four years ago by the 2008 election. We talk to Tim Farnam, Political Reporter for the Washington Post where he specializes in campaign finance.