Ok so this problem might require my donating more money or hiring an admin to act as a consultant on this project.

That being said, I am trying to develop this layout.

I do not have the skill set yet to make the whole site responsive, but i'm ok with that. I can get the background image to be responsive using this:

html{
background: url(http://www.larrymeansforsenate.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/background.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed; 
-webkit-background-size: cover;
-moz-background-size: cover;
-o-background-size: cover;
background-size: cover;
}

But that's not what I need. I need the image to end at the beginning of the footer, not go under it.

I don't know. I'm seriously confused about all this and am in real need of assistance.

Thanks!

I would hard code the footer in. There is an old thread in the 'FOOTER' faq section that shows how to add a full width footer. I would use that idea to ipliment this.