Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Whitman targets Latinos on education - Monday stakes: Who has the most to lose? - Obama raising for Giannoulias - NFIB to back Rubio - McInnis on withdrawal: 'No way' - Dems hit Pawlenty at home
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 06:02:46 -0400 (EDT)

By Alexander Burns (@aburnspolitico, [email-masked])

SCORE EXCLUSIVE -- THIS ONE GOES WITHIN ELEVEN: California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, already narrowing Democrat Jerry Brown's lead among Latino voters, is launching a new Spanish-language television ad Monday that homes in on the issue of education. The spot begins with Whitman speaking to the camera (in English, with subtitles), before cutting to scenes of her in a classroom as the former eBay CEO narrates: “The Latino kids attending public schools in California today will be tomorrow's doctors, engineers, businessmen and teachers. I want them to have the opportunity to go as far in life as their God-given talent will take them.” Watch it here. http://bit.ly/dmImur

Whitman has courted Latino voters aggressively since winning the GOP nomination last month over state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who ran hard to her right on the immigration issue. Whitman has aired multiple commercials in Spanish and put up billboards advertising her opposition to Arizona-style immigration legislation (“NO a la Ley de Arizona”). The Field Poll showed Brown ahead of Whitman by just 11 points among Latinos earlier this month, leading 50 percent to 39 percent.

As Dina Titus sweats, Joe Biden does the mid-Atlantic and Scott McInnis vows no surrender, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily cheat sheet for the 2010 midterm elections.

MONDAY STAKES: There's just a little more than 15 weeks until the November election. Every Monday, Morning Score lists the candidates, groups and campaigns that have the most to gain or lose in the week ahead. For the next few days, those are:

(1) Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle, who can't let last week's poll showing her losing to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid define the race, especially for donors; (2) West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, the GOP's best possible Senate candidate, who has the decision of a career to make; (3) Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who called a special legislative session on drilling and has to make sure it doesn't blow up in his face; (4) Georgia Reps. John Barrow and Hank Johnson, either of whom could show weakness in the face of semi-competitive Democratic primary challengers; (5) Colorado Republicans, who need to figure out some way -- any way -- to turn the page on the Scott McInnis affair.

COMING TODAY -- BIZ FOR RUBIO: The National Federation of Independent Business will back Marco Rubio's Senate campaign in Florida, heralding his opposition to federal health care reform legislation and calling the Republican “a proven pro-small business leader.” The NFIB is a Republican-friendly organization, but its endorsement is notable as Rubio competes with independent Gov. Charlie Crist for business support.

AT LAST -- ALEXI GETS POTUS: President Obama will travel to his home state next month to headline a Chicago fundraiser for Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. The Giannoulias campaign said Obama's visit would “reinforce the importance of the clear choice Illinois voters face.” It will also help shore up Giannoulias's shaky campaign finances -- he was widely outraised by GOP Rep. Mark Kirk in the last quarter. http://bit.ly/9418l9

1,000 PERCENT: Former Colorado Rep. Scott McInnis vowed over the weekend to stay in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, telling a supporter who asked if his continuing plagiarism scandal would knock him out: “No way.” McInnis is still reeling from the revelation that he passed off someone else's writings as his own during a paid fellowship and on Friday, he promised to repay the $300,000 he received through the Hasan Family Foundation fellowship. McInnis also lost three top campaign aides: his policy director, political director and a regional director. http://bit.ly/95zvQz and http://bit.ly/92m50r

PLUS -- IN THE SENATE RACE: The Denver Post endorsed former Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton for the GOP's Senate nomination and backed appointed Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet for a full term. The Post praised Norton for delivering “specifics on issues that matter most,” dinging primary challenger Ken Buck for having “had trouble” speaking in detail. http://bit.ly/arHKez

POLL OF THE DAY -- ON A KNIFE'S EDGE: Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, running her first reelection campaign in Nevada's 3rd District, is only ahead of challenger Joe Heck by a two-point margin. She currently takes 42 percent of the vote to the former Republican state senator's 40 percent, according to a Mason-Dixon poll conducted for the Las Vegas Review Journal and KLAS-TV. The numbers aren't comforting, but they're an improvement for Titus since April, when the same poll showed Heck leading by five percentage points in the immediate wake of the health care debate. http://bit.ly/bNJUrD

AND -- OVERNIGHT IN MICHIGAN: The Republican primary for governor is effectively tied between state Attorney General Mike Cox and Rep. Pete Hoekstra, both of whom are hovering around 26 percent support in a fresh Detroit News poll (Cox leads ever so narrowly, 26.4 percent to 25.6 percent.) Former Gateway Executive Rick Snyder trails just behind with 20 percent and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard takes 12 percent. The poll tested 500 likely voters early last week. http://bit.ly/9rDWU6

FIGHT NIGHTS IN ARIZONA: Sen. John McCain and GOP primary challenger J.D. Hayworth faced off in back-to-back debates in Phoenix and Tucson over the weekend. Your Morning Score correspondent reported: “McCain refrained from matching Hayworth blow for blow and instead aimed many of his punches at a man who is not on the ballot. When Hayworth attacked him for supporting the 2008 bank bailout, McCain blasted the Obama administration for “committing generational theft.” When he was accused of supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants, McCain repeatedly blamed Obama for failing to secure the border. On Afghanistan, the Arizona senator called Obama an 'uncertain trumpet.'” http://politi.co/96MKrR

SCORE'S POSTCARD: The on-the-ground reality of this Senate race is that people in Arizona just aren't watching it as closely as people in DC. If not for McCain's saturation-point TV advertising, you might not know there's an intense campaign on. Races for county attorney have better signage. There were more peace protestors - chanting “Jobs at home, not wars abroad” - outside the Phoenix debate than there were demonstrators for either Senate candidate.

2012 TALKER -- PAWLENTY AT HOME: The Minnesota governor may be on his way out of office, but Democrats aren't done taking the fight to him in the race for his current job. State House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher -- competing with self-funding former Sen. Mark Dayton and former state Rep. Matt Entenza in the Democratic primary -- is up with a new television ad today, complete with a fast food motif and the charge that Pawlenty has been catering to “corporate special interests and his own political ambition.” Watch the ad here. http://bit.ly/bz6shu

BIDEN'S DOUBLE-HEADER -- From Monday's White House guidance: “At 12:30 PM, the Vice President will attend an event for Congressional candidate Bryan Lentz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... At 5:30 PM, the Vice President will attend an event for Governor Martin O'Malley in Baltimore, Maryland.”

ACROSS THE BIG MAP -- with POLITICO's Tim Alberta:

-- Kasich starts on defense. The Republican nominee for governor of Ohio spends time in his first television ad trying to parry Democratic attacks on his tenure at Lehman Brothers. “Here's the truth: I didn't run Lehman brothers,” Kasich says. “I was one of 700 managing directors; I worked in a two-man office in Columbus.” The former congressman accuses Gov. Ted Strickland of attacking his business background because he “can't campaign on his record.” http://bit.ly/cM2vKG

-- Newspaper war in Vegas. The Los Angeles Times took a look over the weekend at the real dividing line in Nevada's Senate race: between the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun. While the Review-Journal has persistently bashed the “dumb” Harry Reid, the Sun “persistently finds bright spots for Reid, a Senate leader who has long since worn out his welcome with most of the state's voters,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Read the rest here. http://bit.ly/c366oW

-- Meet Artur Davis, team player. The Alabama congressman and unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial candidate had some warm words for GOP nominee Robert Bentley, calling him “one of the most decent, honorable people I know in politics.” “I have nothing but admiration for him. I believe he will be a very strong candidate," said Davis, who lost last month's Democratic primary to state Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks. http://bit.ly/978PJW

-- Barnes runs right on immigration. Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, who's expected to be the Democratic nominee for his old job this year, says he would support introducing an Arizona-style law in his state. “I don't have any problem with federal laws being enforced by state officials,” Barnes said during a Democratic debate on Friday. “We do that all the time.” http://bit.ly/aCXS0c

-- Haley plays nice(r). South Carolina state Rep. Nikki Haley has been courting her state's business community after winning a GOP primary for governor against Chamber of Commerce-backed Rep. Gresham Barrett. The State reports that she's “spent the past two weeks in closed-door meetings with S.C. business leaders, seeking to mend fences and calm fears about her commitment to business in the state.” The Chamber endorsed Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen for the general election. http://bit.ly/aafPTP

Go to Morning Score Now >> http://www.politico.com/morningscore

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