could lose. but then again he had run run in a race where red map for its own reasons was going to spend $500,000 on that race in the last two weeks before the election. so yeah, russ decker lost and that seat became a republican seat. i don t know if you know this but i m a liberal. and i think the republican takeover in the states has been terrible. basically across the board in terms of policy consequences because i dobt don t tend to like republican policies. i m also a civics dork who thinks that districting shouldn t be drawn for political reasons for safe seats for democrats or republicans. so on the merits the story, as a matter of practice though the thought, planning execution of a political plan to have the biggest, most long standing impact without a huge outlay of resources and without your
we did research polling, we worked with partners on the ground. russ decker no one would touch him. we thought he was beatable. what was the most bang for your buck in all of the states you targeted in terms of it being really cheap to get a really big political return? when i looked at your data i felt like it was pennsylvania. you re absolutely right. every state chamber has a different number of seats in it. pennsylvania has over 203 seats. little little little arizona, quite the peek have less than half of the seats. so the costs are relatively low. so 13 million people we targeted, we spent almost $1 million. some was cash we gave directly
we worked with partners on the ground. russ decker in wisconsin, senator decker one would touch him. we thought he was beatable and we dropped a half until the last two weeks. what was the best bang for your buck out of the states you targeted in terms of it being cheap to get a political return? looking at your data i thought pennsylvania. you are right. what folks don t realize is every state chamber has a different number of seats. pennsylvania has one of the biggest houses over 203 seats. arizona, half the size of pennsylvania has 60 house seats. on a per capita basis the seats in pennsylvania have relatively few people which means the cost are relatively low. you spend 50 bucks and it shows up. 13 million people. working with the house leadership in pennsylvania we spent almost a million dollars. some we gave cash direct ly and took on their stretch goals.
they flipped two of the four. congratulations. you just won control of the new york state senate for $1.5 million. they spent $1 million on michigan house races. that was enough to pick up 20 seats. 1.5 to the alabama republican party, when properly targeted was enough to flip enough seats the house and senate flipped from republican to democratic control for the first zim time since the reconstruction area after the civil war. on an average fund-raising day right now jeb bush literally raises that much money before lunchtime in one day. that was enough to get the whole state. one of the biggest coups for red map in 2010 was wisconsin where they thought it was worth the investment to topple the senate majority leader, russ decker. he was a fixture in wisconsin. even in a red year it did not seem like a guy like russ decker
development, screwing with the dynamics on the democratic side. that was a surprise development. and for the interview, we have a legitimate political genius. unless you are this man s friend or family member, or someone that works with him, he is my nominee for the single most consequential actor in partisan applicants. no one has heard about him, i m very excited about that. we start tonight with what may be a silver lining to this very, very dark cloud. you will remember that this video was posted online late on thursday, last week, showing isis fighters laying siege to the main museum in mosul using sledge hammers, saws, drills and thing they can use. they are destroying statues, icons, frescos. this priceless cultural heritage of some of the earliest human civilizations on earth. this footage, i have now seen this ten or twelve times, and it is still difficult for me to watch this. especially with the voice over and the guys on bragging about what it is they re destroyin