Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Ayotte gets Coburn - Romney to boost Kirk - Friday standings: Sabato up, Schilling down - Glickman stumps in Kansas - Can Hoffman hold tea party? - Brewer: 'Longest 16 seconds'
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 05:26:00 -0400 (EDT)

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

SCORE EXCLUSIVE I - THE DOCTOR IS IN: Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn is endorsing former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte for Senate today, giving the GOP frontrunner another conservative thumbs-up ahead of the Sept. 14 primary. “I look forward to having Kelly Ayotte join us in the Senate next year to help defend the Constitution's limitations on federal power and to fight for the fiscal survival of our country,” Coburn will say in a statement. “She has the experience, the commitment and the integrity to be a strong force for reducing spending, protecting freedom and making government effective yet manageable.”

Coburn is the latest activist-friendly Republican to stick up for Ayotte, whom he met earlier this year. Sarah Palin also endorsed Ayotte this summer, as have social conservative groups including National Right to Life and the Susan B. Anthony List. Ayotte is competing with attorney Ovide Lamontagne and self-funders Bill Binnie and Jim Bender in the primary for retiring Sen. Judd Gregg's seat.

SCORE EXCLUSIVE II - ROMNEY FOR KIRK: Mitt Romney will visit Chicago on Sept. 24 to stump for Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk, according to a source close to the Kirk campaign. Kirk's also getting a boost this month from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who's scheduled to appear with the congressman on Sept. 13. A Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll published overnight showed the race for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat as close as can be: Kirk and Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias were tied at 34 percent. http://bit.ly/9bT22a

As Jerry Brown ramps up, Tim Cahill sputters and Jan Brewer reflects on all the good she has did, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily cheat sheet for the 2010 midterm elections.

FRIDAY STANDINGS - ARE YOU BETTER OFF NOW? We are at T minus 60 days until the November election, with Labor Day weekend set to mark the formal start of the fall campaign. Here's Morning Score's weekly take on how some of the top candidates and campaign players should answer the question: Are you better off now than you were one week ago?

YES: (1) Alaska Senate candidate Scott McAdams, who has a clear path to becoming one of his state's few Democratic stars if he runs a respectable race - win or lose - against Republican nominee Joe Miller; (2) Sarah Palin, back on this list for a second consecutive week after showing how quickly she can steal the 2012 spotlight with one announced trip to Iowa; (3) University of Virginia's Larry Sabato, who outflanked his fellow political handicappers with a bold and precise prediction that Republicans are on track to pick up 47 House seats.

NO: (1) Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who discovered the down side to being a media celebrity when she had a brain-freeze moment during a debate with Democratic challenger Terry Goddard; (2) Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, who's unlikely to pull a Joe Miller against Rep. Mike Castle if she keeps up the combative interviews and outlandish accusations (Actual quote: “They're hiding in the bushes”); (3) Curt Schilling, whose eye-popping $75 million business deal with the state of Rhode Island has become a safe target for both major candidates for governor, independent Lincoln Chafee and Democrat Frank Caprio.

THE MOST IMPORTANT NUMBER OF THE WEEK … is due out at 8:30 a.m. from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the August unemployment report. Watch this space: http://www.bls.gov/

THIS SUNDAY - TWO OUT OF THREE AIN'T BAD: Florida Senate candidates Marco Rubio and Kendrick Meek will appear together on NBC's “Meet the Press” Sunday, with the network predicting clashes on “the economy, jobs, health care, the role of government, foreign policy and more.” Republican-turned-independent Gov. Charlie Crist won't attend - or, as NBC's website optimistically puts it, “has not committed.” http://bit.ly/dorRDw

ALSO IN FLORIDA - THE FIRST OR THE LAST? Florida Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson, a leading African-American Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Alan Boyd in the August Democratic primary, broke with his party to endorse Crist for Senate Thursday. “Florida desperately needs an independent senator in Washington who will fight for good jobs and economic opportunity, a quality education for every child, and Social Security for all of our seniors regardless of what the political party bosses want,” Lawson said in a statement, passing over Meek in the process. http://bit.ly/9pp66B

SHOTS FIRED: Christine O'Donnell's campaign performance may have been shaky this week, but it didn't stop the Tea Party Express from dropping its first independent expenditures on her behalf. The group has already spent $46,498 in support of O'Donnell, according to FEC disclosures, including paid media and online campaign activities. Castle's camp has also purchased air time, and released an endorsement message last night from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie saying the congressman “is the strong voice that the people of Delaware need in the Senate to get our fiscal house back in order and get Americans back to work.”

WARNING IN WISCONSIN: Republican Senate candidate Ron Johnson outraised incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold between July 1 and Aug. 24, according to new FEC reports. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel notes that “in that stretch, Johnson spent over $3.4 million, while Feingold spent over $2.1 million. Johnson raised roughly $1.2 million in that period, while Feingold raised $920,000.” And that's not including the $4.4 million in personal funds Johnson has plowed into the race. http://bit.ly/cK6NVm

MEET JERRY BROWN: The once and possibly future governor of California has finally “begun a visible campaign,” the San Francisco Chronicle writes. “He appeared in public Thursday at a sparsely attended rally at Laney College in Oakland, followed by two events in Los Angeles later in the day. … Brown made only a handful of non-fundraiser campaign appearances since the June primary and produced virtually no advertising. On his behalf, several unions spent $8 million on TV, radio and online ads over the summer, trashing Whitman in the hopes of 'keeping Jerry close,' according to union strategist Larry Grisolano. Brown's new ads are expected to be introductory, biographical sketches. While he has high name recognition among Baby Boomers who remember his terms as governor, about one-third of voters younger than 40 have no opinion of him, according to the Field Poll. … 'We are in good shape,' Brown campaign manager Steve Glazer said Thursday, estimating that Brown would spend a total of about $44 million - the same amount former Gov. Gray Davis did in his 2002 general election run.” http://bit.ly/blucGy

HOUSE RACE MUST-READ - TEA PARTY GETS PRAGMATIC? New York congressional candidate Doug Hoffman continues to brush off questions about whether he'll run as a Conservative Party candidate if he loses the GOP nomination to rival Matt Doheny. But it's also not clear that Hoffman's activist base will stay with him if Doheny wins the nod to challenge Democratic Rep. Bill Owens. The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports: “The Upstate New York Tea Party … has endorsed Hoffman. What if Hoffman loses the primary? 'We're going to do whatever it takes to get Bill Owens unelected,' said UNYTEA Chairman Mark Barie … Barie said a three-way race would increase the chances of an Owens victory. He said he couldn't say what UNYTEA would do, as the group's steering committee would have to decide that, but he hoped everyone would unite behind the winner of the primary.” http://bit.ly/bqObIy

TODAY - GLICKMAN SIGHTING: Former Agriculture Secretary, MPAA president and Kansas Rep. Dan Glickman is back in his old Wichita-area district today to campaign for Democratic House candidate Raj Goyle. Glickman held the seat until 1994, when he was ousted by Todd Tiahrt in the GOP wave. Now, Goyle, a state representative, is trying to overcome the 2010 Republican tide to capture the open seat there. His Republican opponent is RNC Committeeman Mike Pompeo. http://bit.ly/agRg9t

MASS. MOVEMENT: Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick outraised Republican challenger Charlie Baker by more than two to one in the month of August, according to new campaign reports. From the wire: “Patrick, boosted by a series of fundraisers including one on Martha's Vineyard during President Obama's vacation, reported raising nearly $524,000 in August. Baker reported raising more than $253,000. The Massachusetts Republican Party has picked up the cost of a recent Baker television advertisement, allowing him to hold on to more of his campaign money.” Tim Cahill, the Democrat-turned-independent state treasurer, raised only $22,000 last month for his bid. http://bit.ly/909ogj

POLL OF THE DAY - LOOKING AHEAD: A Braun Research poll for the Kentucky political site cn|2 finds Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear just slightly ahead of his top Republican challengers, 14 months before next year's election. Beshear and his running mate, Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, start out well below the 50-percent safety mark. But they're six points up on one just-declared Republican ticket, leading state Senate President David Williams and state Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, 44 percent to 38 percent. http://bit.ly/9DTaOH

MORE: The same survey showed Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul edging up against Democratic state Attorney General Jack Conway, 42 percent to 37 percent. That's slight movement in Paul's direction; in the last cn|2 poll, the two candidates were tied. http://bit.ly/aeGfv6

CODA - QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “It certainly was the longest 16 seconds of my life.” - Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, about this moment: http://bit.ly/95x9y0

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

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