Thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the Election Commission in egypt confirmed today the new constitution won nearly 64 of the vote in a referendum. The panel also reported turnout was just a third of the countrys 52 million registered voters. President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backed the draft constitution. Opponents warned it paves the way for islamic rule and curbs on civil liberties. The six persian gulf arab nations demanded an end to what they called iranian interference. They issued a Statement Today at the end of the Gulf Cooperation Councils annual summit. The statement gave no details. The six u. S. Allied countries, also called for Swift International action to end the bloodshed in syria. In central asia, a military plane crashed early this morning in kazakhstan killing 27 people including the countrys head of border security. The russianmade aircraft went down near a southern city. The dead also included seven crew members and 19 border guards. There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash but kazakhstan has been plagued by heavy winds and snow in recent weeks. The longtime actor Charles Durning died monday at his home in new york. He came to be known as the king of character actors. In a 50year career that spanned broadway, the movies and television. Along the way he earned two oscar nominations. One was for his role as the corrupt governor in the best little whorehouse in texas in 1992. In tootsies he played the suitor of Dustin Hoffman who was posing as a female soap opera star. Now back to gwen. Ifill we turn to politics and part 2 of our lookality upcoming elections. Last night i had talkd with newshour Political EditorChristina Bellantoni about how senate contests. Tonight we continue our conversation. Welcome. Lets talk some more politics. I want to start with illinois where jesse jackson, jr. Who just resigned his house seat has left a wide ownen political fight in his wake. There will be a special election to fill his house seat which is the Second District on the south side of chicago. Just about 10 blocks or so from president obamas home. This is a very geographically diverse district. It includes the urban parts of the south side of chicago, sub urban parts. And rural farmland on the southern tip of the district. And such a diverse geography means the field is very diverse. A whole lot of candidates, seven pretty well known names in chicago politics are running right now. That number could increase. When the petitions come in to file for the race in a week or two. Ifill i have to ask you this because it seems for a long time jesse, jr. Had in problems. Either legal or health problems. And maybe people have been positioning themselves for a while for this race. Has that been going on even before he said he was going to drop out . Absolutely. Theres no shortage of ambitious politicians in chicago. Ill use the former congressman, for example, she is running in this special election. She also ran against jesse jackson, jr. In the primary sensing he had some vulnerabilities then. She ended up losing by a large margin then. Shes back again like i said for this special election one in a field of about seven candidates. Ifill lets turn to South Carolina because theres something very interesting thats happening there which is were beginning to see people thinking about running for the house seat being vacated by tim scott who just became the appointee to be senator to take jim demints place, dominoes falling. What are people thinking about running kind of know each other . A little bit. This seat could be vacant as early as next week, january 2 when they come back into session for the 113th congress. Whats really interesting about this is former governor mark sanford who for a time was very popular republican. He fought president Obamas Administration on the stimulus program. He had a lot of Different Things that had him really in high regards in conservatives. Then he had an affair. Ifill but hes running against or looking. Jenny sanford his exwife hassles expressed interest in this house seat. Whats very interesting about this in addition to the fact that they were once married and he had this affair and went public and ended up leaving the governors race in a bit of disgrace and under investigation for using state funds for meeting his miss stress. He held this seat for three terms. This is a district hes familiar with. She was actually his Campaign Manager when he held this seat in the late 1990 as and into 2002 when he was elected as governor. Neither of them are backing away. Both of them have said theyre interested. They havent officially declared. Hes got more than a Million Dollars in the bank left over from his political career. Its possible he could be in good shape there. Ifill its interesting. At the time that this story, this very lurid story about mark sanford first surfaced, people thought at the time hes toast. He wont be able to serve out his term but he did survive. He servedded out his term, didnt he . He did survive. You know, like christina said before this scandal he was pretty popular. People talked about him even running for president. He was well regarded in washington d. C. Too among the delegation. Yes, i think this is the perfect path for a comeback if he is going to do that. Hes going back to his old district where hes known well. Hell make a go. It will either work or it wont but this is the most direct path back to public life and Public Service he could probably find. Ifill if they run against each other it will be the most hotly covered race in the country. This is a republican seat so its likely that a republican will hold that seat when its over. Ifill lets talk about the governor of new jersey. We had been watching Chris Christie a lot whether it was to do super storm sandy or whether to campaign for mitt romney. Theres a lot of question about whether he would get the challenge from the very popular mayor of newark, at least popular in some circles cory booker. Whats interesting about this is that cory booker put out a web video which is how all the politicians announce these days. He said im interested in running for senate. That job isnt actually open at this point. Senator Frank Lautenberg holds that seat, a longtime democrat. He has not telegraphed what hes going to do. When cory booker put out this statement that he was going to run lautenberg said theres a time for politics. Its next year. Thats when ill address it. Lautenberg is 8 years old. Hes in his 80s. He might decide to run. He could be. Decide to keep that challenge afloat there. We could either be talking about a democratic primary or booker is very well known. Hes got a Strong National presence. So this is somebody who could clear the field for the democrats but either way it will be competitive. Republicans always say that they think hes within their sights. Chris christie proved to republicans that a republican can win there. Its going to be very interesting but that governors race is next fall. Ifill lets talk about that governors race next fall. Does Chris Christie have a free run . Its looking like his ride to a second term will be a lot easier than it would have been if cory booker were in the race. These are two big new jersey personalities. In a state like new jersey those are big, big personalities. I think hell have a much easier time. This obviously sets him up in a much better position should he decide to run for president in 2016. He can focus on that building a National Profile and a National Donor base, not having to worry so much about his challenge at home. Ifill you raise an interesting point. I wonder what you both think about this, whether both of these folks, Chris Christie and cory booker have such National Platforms now that we can expect to hear a lot from them, no matter what happens in the 200 2004. I would think so. Certainly what you saw Chris Christies complement of the president during super storm sandy. Then cory booker has been out there not just doing the National Talk show circuit but also even in the comedy circuit. The two of them recorded a video playing off each other. The two of them have a Big Personality but also the big profiles. Theyre not going away no matter what they do. Ifill theyre being watched. I dont know that cory booker is being talked about for president but certainly Chris Christie is. Theyre being watched very closely by national figures. Absolutely. Chris christie topped the list of contenders that republicans would like to see run. His favorability rating especially post hurricane send is quite high in new jersey. Republicans would like to see someone who is a little more, i guess, not a southern governor. Someone from the northeast try again. I think Chris Christie has a better profile for that than mitt romney did. They would like to see him run again. Cory booker, 2016 might be a little soon for him to run. If he gets in the senate, he can serve out a term change and try again maybe 2020, 2024. Ifill i want to know what Bruce Springsteen has to say. Whatever he says goes. Thank you both. Merry christmas. Ifill thank you. You can watch the first part of our discussion about the latest scramble for senate seats in two states. Find that on our politics page. Now to a pair of Health Stories and the important questions theyve prompted. First a recent study on mammograms is reigniting a longstanding debate over the benefit of annual screenings. Newshour Health Correspondent bete ann bowser has our report. Reporter last year after a routine mammogram detected two tiny Breast Cancers 56yearold diane wright underwent a lumpectomy four months of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation. I think i was devastated. I was surprised. I was shocked. I was overwhelmed by it all. Reporter wright has been following the advice of the American Cancer Society, getting an annual mammogram every year since the age of 40. I feel very fortunate that it was caught then because i had really no symptoms or signs that i had Breast Cancer. I felt good. Without the mammogram i dont know how long it would be before it was discovered. Reporter like millions of american women wright thinks mammograms are a good screening tool. But she now finds herself at the center of yet another controversy in the medical community over just how effective annual mammograms really are. This latest dustup came on the heels of a new study in the new england journal of medicine last month. The study found that annual mammograms do a good job of detecting new small cancers. Finding over half of them in the past 30 years. But the researchers said mammograms have not been able to tell the difference between those benign, slowgrowing cancers and those that could on to become fatal. And medical professionals were alarmed at the studys conclusion, that mammograms at best have only had a small effect on the rate of death from Breast Cancer. Fran is a best cancer survivor and president of the National Breast cancer coalition. She says from her perspective, the problem with mammography is it leads doctors to overtreat women. We find situations that are not yet Breast Cancer and we treat all of these women with toxic therapy. Most of them do not need it. Reporter overall death rates from Breast Cancer have been declining for the last quarter century. But researchers say thats not because of mammography. Its because treatments have improved. A dramatic turnaround this morning and the argument over mammograms, who should get them and when. Reporter just three years ago, mammograms came under attack when a Government HealthTask Force Said women didnt need mammogram screening until the age of 50 and then only every two years. Lift our breast. Reporter since that recommendation, the number of women in their 40s who are getting mammograms has declined slightly. According to a new mayo clinic study. This doctor, the chief radiologist at Sibley Memorial Hospital in washington d. C. , thinks thats a dangerous trend. Confusing women. Its going to cost a lot of lives. Its also going to result in an excessive treatment required for people that delayed getting their cancer detectedded. Theyre not going to be able to save their breast. Theyre going to have mastectomies or more radical surgeries or more aggression i have been chemotherapies. Reporter this doctor strongly disagrees with the findings of the new mammogram study. She says theres plenty of evidence to support annual screening starting at the age of 40. One out of six cancers occur in women in their 40s. This is an age group that we dont want to forget. And it is worth it. It has been shown to be effective. All the screening trials that been done in the past followed through many decades have shown, looking at the women who presented for screening, a decreased number of deaths decr0 force 50 . Thats substantial. Reporter so far, the American Cancer Society has not changed its recommendation, that all women over 40 get regular screening. Thats been their policy since 1983. Dr. Otis brawley, the societys chief medical officer, sees nothing in the new study that would change that. His greater concern is the large number of women who never get screened. I am much more concerned about the fact that 35 to 40 of american women get no mammography screening and no Breast Cancer screening. Im even more concerned about the fact they have numerous studies to show a substantial portion of the population diagnosed with an abnormal mammogram can not follow up to figure out why its abnormal. Reporter dr. Sandra swain is the president of the American Society of clinical onicology. Like dr. Brawley, shy believes all women over 40 should get annual screening. And she worries that all these conflicting studies with their conflicting set of recommendations leave women confused and illinformed. Studies like the one presented in the new england journal are very dangerous for women. We already know that at least 25 if not more of women dont get mammography, and this could, with all the press surrounding it, make women less likely to get mammography, so i think it is dangerous. Reporter oncologist dr. Claudeine isaac, head of the clinical Breast Cancer program, at med star Georgetown University hospital, thinks there are also risks to getting too much treatment. The risk of causing anxiety due to false positive screens, causing unnecessary procedures, like boston polices. Bu boston biopsies, but i think the one that doesnt get play is the rick of overdiagnosis, which is incumbent upon those those of us in the scientific and medical community is to try and figure out which cancers are going to cause problems and which cancers are not. And were not quite there yet. But we clearly have a job to do, and i think were well on the way to at least trying to answer that question. Were not there yet. Reporter and until that day comes, women have little recourse other than to read all they can on the subject and discuss it with a medical professional whose judgment they trust. There is much more on this story online where you can find a breakdown of the debate and the data on mammograms and get commentary with Scientific Evidence from three leading physicians. To our Second Health story, whats ahead for implementation of federal Health Care Reform . Three years ago, the Senate Passed a bill on Christmas Eve that resembled much of what would become the final law. Now, the Obama Administration faces the challenge of making it work amid continuing resistance from some states. Ray suarez explored those issues in a conversation he taped last week. Suarez the full impact of Health Reform law wont be felt until 2014. Thats when many of the uninsured will either start getting new coverage through medicaid or receive subsidies to buy insurances through new marketplaces called exchanges. But the coming year is also a pivotal one in many respects. For one thing, states must begin setting up those exchanges, and there remains plenty of resistance. Just 18 states have said they will set up their own exchange. Many republican governors have indicated theyll leave it up on the federal government to create one. Julie roddener of npr has been covering all this and takes a look ahead. Now, weve come to the time when the states have had to pretty much declare their intentions. Now thats done. What does americas insurance map look like now . Well, as you mentioned, 18 states have said they want to do their own expectings. States have until february to decide if they want to do one in partnership with the federal government. If they decide not to do that, then the federal government will build thi