happy friday, everyone. i'm erin burnett. the million dollar election so far. $35 million have been spent in only four states on the republican side. and 85% of the money that gingrich and romney's super pacs has spent have been on negative acts. >> gingrich exaggerating, dropping reagan's name 50 times. but reagan mentions gingrich only once. >> there are a lot of reasons not to elect me. >> all right. but $35 million super pac damage so far is just a scratch compared to the gash this money will inflict on candidates before november. american crossroads and priorities usa action are two names we all need to know. they're the big super pacs for the republicans and the democrats. and they say they will raise millions of dollars for their candidate. who is bank rolling all of this. you may find out a little bit on tuesday. that's when super pacs are required to reveal their donors. but guess what? there's a loophole and both american crossroads and priorities usa action are exploiting it. this is a bipartisan loophole as frankly most loopholes are. here's how it works. super pacs are allowed to have a nonprofit arm. so, for example, the nonprofit for the conservative pac, super pac, american crossroads is c l called crossroads gps. so if a donor writes a check to crossroads gps, then the donor's name never has to be disclosed. so a super pac expert tells "out front" to expect these anonymous donations to add up to big, big, big money. we wanted to ask whether we can close this loophole. so at least we know who is bank rolling the candidates. well, will it happen? not likely. i asked bill burton, the head of the democratic super pac that we're talking about, priorities usa action, whether he would be open to disclosing his donors. >> no, what we're going to do is we're not going to give karl rove, the koch brothers, the private equity guys supporting mitt romney any more advantages. we're not in position of saying we'll step aside and let you playing by a different set of rules. >> instead of everyone shaking hands saying we should all disclose. like we said, a bipartisan loophole action. great to have all of you with us. i know i say it with a little bit of a smile, dave, this is bipartisan in a sense, but it truly is here. what i fail to understand, and maybe you can explang why this loophole exists. >> of course, the democrats want to blame the pruns and the republicans want to blame the democrats. but you're right. this is not exclusive to any one party. and is this going to change? well, congress tried to change it back in 2010. they tried to pass a piece of legislation called the disclose act. well, it went nowhere. and right now, the federal election commission, congress again, the irs, pretty much everyone is thinking about weighing in, but really not going anywhere with it. you've got to wonder if the supreme court is going to actually get involved again. of course, back in 2010, there was a major court decisions called citizens united versus the federal election commission that set all of this into motion as we know it now. i know you see a use for super pacs. ear demonized and they run negative ads. i want to ask why you think there's a role for them in american politics. but first, if you give massive amounts of money as a company or wealthy individual to a super pac and you write a little check to its charity, it really seems ridiculous that you should not be able to disclose who you are. how does the lack of transparency here make sense. can it? >> i absolutely understand where dpoeks are. co-ing from. but the charitable arms do fundamentally different stuff. they're work on larger ideological products, not necessarily on campaign advertising as such. and the thing is, anonymous political speech has been a part of american life for a really long time. james madison and alexander hamilton didn't use their real names when they were writing the federalist papers. there's a reason for that. there's a space for protecting anonymous political speech. >> the bottom line here is that a lot of people wouldn't give a lot of money if they were going to have to disclose. a lot of wealthy people don't want that kind of attention. so the fact that there is a way to give an awful lot of money without disclosure actually encourages contribution to these super pacs. it's one of the reasons politicians like that. >> but shouldn't we need to know, dave? that's exactly my point, right? a wealthy individual or a big company gives a lot of money in the hopes that, well, they're going to get something. i'm not saying they're trading for a spefrk something but yeah, they want influence. shouldn't we have the right to know? >> these nonprofit groups in some cases are spending seven, even eight figures on political advertisements. advertisements that are if not overtly going for or against a political candidate are getting pretty darn close to that line. and really what the internal revenue service says if you're a nonprofit group, you can be politically engaged but you can't have it as your primary purpose. a lot of people are arguing that many of these groups are being set up to exploit that loophole, to include their donors but really when it comes down to it, have a primary purpose of playing politics. >> and gloria, i guess this kind of comes back to congress and the frustration that so many americans feel with congress that, of course, when this comes in front of them, they're going to say keep the loophole because they benefit from the super pac money. >> right. you know, i mean, to be fair a lot of democrats includeding the president didn't like the citizens united decision that allowed these super pacs to flourish. but now that you've got them, you interviewed bill burton there, nobody is going to unilaterally disarm and say okay, i'm going to disclose but then again, you don't have to disclose, right? and in a way, these super pacs as you know, erin, they service the candidates' purposes so well. they have denyability. okay, they can do the negative ads, we really hate them but we can't talk to them. it's not us, it's them. >> we need something like the last nuclear disarmament summit. you were in the position tonight of trying to explain why super pacs have a relevant and important role to play and are not just negative vehicles for big influence and big money. >> super pacs have become a huge vehicle precisely because we made it hard for the political parties to be accountable and effective. you could write a check to a political party and then was able to put money into a little known candidate. candidates have to be able to raise huge amounts of money and we need to have other organizations that request have a voice and allow people to influence the larger political environment. that's what super pacs are doing. they're not doing it as well as the parties would, but that was caused by this desire to regulate the system into the shape that people wanted to be in. >> makes you want to go back to the old days. although that would decimate our industry. >> what are we going to find out next week when we find out we're going to get disclosures from the super pacs and they don't have the nonprofit loophole. so we should get a full list, right? >> sort of pit's only going to be through december 31. all the spending that's taken place in january, which of course has been millions upon millions of dollars, we won't get a chance to see yet. but really, this is a -- strikes to a very interesting situation that we have here in that we have all of the things that have been spent, all the ads that we know are out there, we know how much these super pacs are spending, yet we don't know who's been fuelling the ads going up on television. there's a big disconnect with the law right here and we're finally going to be able to close that down just a little bit. >> if you're afraid of people knowing what you're doing, maybe you're doing something you shouldn't be, right? that's what kids learn? thanks to all of you. we appreciate it. does a growing economy, even though it was mmm today, help the president's re-election? and now somali pirates threatening to kill another american right after the naycy s.e.a.l. rescue of another american. and the cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of italy, a lawsuit filed by six passengers. ring, ring. hello, progresso. it fits! fantastic! ring, ring. progresso. they fit! awesome. thank you. 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>> i really don't. first of all, it's a semantic difference. these are pirates. they're kidnappers. they're hanging on in this case in a hostage situation. i have no doubt that if there's another assault that they would use any means necessary. but i think that we see in every situation in somalia, whether it's pirates or kidnappers, they're willing to use force, they're willing to kill their hostages as a method to get the ransom they kbhademand. >> how serious do you take their threats to execute? >> well remember, this is a business. they have no intention of killing as long as they can the money that they're looking for. but they will use, as i said earlier, extraordinary means. we had a situation where recently, a taiwan captain had his hand cut off. >> so u.s. policy is the united states of america does not negotiate with pirate, does not negotiate with terrorists. behind the scenes, obviously sometimes the united states of america does just that. should nit this case? or does that then just open the door for these things to start escalating. should the united states back off and try to call these guys' bluff with someone's life hanging in the balance? >> first of all, we never leave an american in the hands of kidnapper, either here in america or abroad. it remains a policy in the united states that we don't negotiate with terrorist, but that doesn't stop the government from rely on the commercial sector to get their people out, to get their ships out. those captains have a duty to care and it is part of this commercial exchange, this commercial transaction. and that's really what we have at root here, a simple commercial transaction. the pirates and kidnappers want money. the money is paid and the people are released. >> well, thank you very much. appreciate you taking the time tonight. the first lawsuits were filed against the cruise ship company that ran aground last tuesday. this. co-s the same day the cruise line offered $14,000 to each passenger. the cruise line, of course, is carnival. the captain is now under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship. 16 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage, 16 still missing. my next guest represents the six passengers who just sued cruise line company. good to see you, sir. we appreciate it. the cruise ship came out. they limit damage to about $16,000 a person. thaf are offering about $14,000 as well as psychological counseling for passengers. why was that enough? >> why was that not enough, did you ask? >> right. >> it is an insult. this was not an incident that could be covered by the ticket limitations. erin, this is an act of horrendous negligence. it was careless disregard for human life and property. this was not covered by any limitations. >> how did you find the six client tlas you have? >> well, clients have found us in a number of different ways. we have a lawyer in italy, a consumer group who sent us a number of italian plaintiffs, and the americans, we have two miami and two from new york in this particular suit. they know us by reputation. we just handled the world trade cent center litigation. another litigation where people said you could never recover. >> here's my only thing about this. i think some people struggle to understand it in lawsuits. economic and compensatory damages if your clients, punitive damages of $450 million. that sounds obscene and frankly, well beyond the damage of people who got off the shipper fectly healthy and sound. is this just a number you throw out there for dramatic effect? some may say you're the example of why we need tort reform in america. >> absolutely not, erin. first, nobody got off that shipper fectly okay. that's a fallacy. nobody that was on that ship that faced that terror, that faced death and ultimately got off the ship will remember that for the rest of their lives. whether or not they have a scratch. the psychological aspect is with them for the rest of their lives. it's impossible for them to understand the emotional suffering a person is going to have to undergo the rest of their lives as a result of this absolutely reckless and careless conduct by the ship and the captain and carnival itself. >> but how do you get a number of more than $1 million a person? >> these are numbers that are put into lawsuits. it gets the attention of the defendants here. >> so it is -- so i understand. so you are doing it to get attention. you're not doing it because you think that's the number you're going to get or that you think is there. >> we do not know the nature and the full extent of the damages that these people have suffered. that may not be known for years. so we have to make sure that they are covered adequately. >> well, thank you very much, sir. we appreciate it. thank you for coming on. and obviously people did go through a great deal of pain. we're going to hear more about what people are doing about it and we're going to keep covering exactly how these lawsuits go forward. a tragic accident or horrific honor murder? 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[ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. so, last night we were in florida for the cnn gop debate and today, we had some massive airport delays and barely got back for the show. i mean trust me, it was pretty tight this time. usually, airport delays are totally hell, but not today. because today, we spent time in what i think might be america's best airport. the jacksonville international airport. code letters jax, which is cool to start with. the jacksonville airport does pretty much everything right. the terminals are filled with open spaces and clean bright stores. sunny food court with live music from the man you see there. the fabulous moods of roger glover. an art gallery. an art gallery, in an airport. and everywhere you turn, real live people offering help and smiling and actually inviting you to talk to them. proof that talk of america's infrastructure demise is not all right. while we were there, we stayed at a place called tapestry park. a make believe little village where shopkeepers now live over their stores and they've got church bells that make it sound like mid evil europe. puts you in a good mood. we broadcast last night's show from the university of north florida, which was a beautiful campus and has an increasingly popular global logistics training program. which brings us tonight's number. 44,000. that is the number people employed by the distribution industry in northeast florida. logistics is one of the region's fastest growing industry sectors. mercedes benz, publix have distribution centers in northeast florida. and this is amazing. women out there and men who buy them gift, did you know that 90% of all coach bags are shipped through jacksonville? that's right. that's all good news for jacksonville and graduates because every year, 11,000 new distribution jobs are needed in florida. that is pretty darn amazing and jacksonville, a pretty neat city to discover. check out jax. what's your favorite airport? again, not always an oxy moron. they even have a spa there. let us know your vote. president obama was campaigning at the university of michigan today. miles away, his opponents are fighting for florida's 50 delegates. and then are american children putting their lives on the line in the name of sports? dr. sanjay gupta with a look at concussions. 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