Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Pawlenty to unveil 'better deal' in Chicago - N.C. GOP goes on air against Obama - GOP targets Weiner cash recipients - Miller leans toward Fla. Senate run - Medicare wars: DSCC, NRCC escalate - EMILY's List blesses 3
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:31:03 -0600

By James Hohmann (
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked] ) and Alexander Burns (
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[email-masked] )

FIRST IN SCORE -- WELCOME TO NORTH CAROLINA -- President Obama is bringing his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness to Raleigh, N.C., next Monday, to hold an economy-themed event in a heavily targeted 2012 swing state. Starting today, the North Carolina Republican Party is going on the air with an ad keying off the president's visit -- and aimed at sending a signal that the GOP won't let the state swing to Obama's column again in 2012. From the script: "In 2008, we fell for his hope and change. But all we got were broken promises ... Thanks to Obama's budget deficits, we face high unemployment and an uncertain future. And now he's back, asking us to believe him again." Watch the ad here:
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MORE - DETAILS - The commercial will run on cable from now until June 14 n the Raleigh-Durham television market. It ends with an explicit fundraising pitch for the state GOP, which is also gearing up for a highly competitive governor's race. North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes said in a statement to Score: "The road to the White House runs through North Carolina and Republican activists throughout our state are already organizing and mobilizing to hold President Obama accountable for his broken promises and failed policies."

2012 SNEAK PEEK - PAWLENTY'S 'BETTER DEAL' - Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will call for a dramatic overhaul of the tax code Tuesday in his farthest-reaching policy address since announcing for president. He's speaking at the University of Chicago, where President Barack Obama taught and Council of Economic Advisers Chair Austan Goolsee will return this summer. Pawlenty won't hold back against the president, according to prepared remarks, charging: "Obama is a champion practitioner of class warfare. Elected with a call for unity and hope, he has spent three years dividing our nation, fanning the flames of class envy and resentment to deflect attention from his own failures and the
 economic hardship they have visited on America."

BUT THE SPEECH IS MORE THAN AN ATTACK - Pawlenty will set a target of growing the economy by 5 percent and walk through a detailed list of policies that he believes will get the job done. They include ...

- On corporate taxes: "We should cut the business tax rate by more than half. I propose reducing the current rate from 35% to 15%. But our policies can't just be about simply cutting rates ... The tax code is littered with special interest handouts, carve-outs, subsidies, and loopholes that should be eliminated."

- On individual taxes: "On the individual rates we need a simpler, fairer flatter tax system overall. I propose just two rates: 10% and 25%. Under my plan, those who currently pay no income tax would stay at a zero rate. After that, the first $50,000 of income - or $100,000 for married couples - would be taxed at 10 percent ... In addition, we should eliminate altogether the capital gains tax, interest income tax, dividends tax, and the death tax."

- On deficit reduction: "I propose that Congress grant the President the temporary and emergency authority to freeze spending at current levels, and impound up to 5% of Federal spending until such time as the budget is balanced. If they won't do it...I will. As an example, cutting even 1% of overall federal spending for six consecutive years would balance the federal budget by 2017."

AND - THE 'GOOGLE TEST' - Expect to hear that catchy phrase a few times in the future: "If you can find a good or service on the Internet, then the federal government probably doesn't need to be doing it. The post office, the government printing office, Amtrak, Fannie and Freddie, were all built for a time in our country when the private sector did not adequately provide those products."

As Ed Rollins picks his new favorite, Sarah Palin shows up in CA-36 and Las Vegas faces its time for choosing, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

POPPING IN IOWA - "Five candidates sign on for Iowa tea party bus tour" - The Des Moines Register: "Five Republican presidential hopefuls have signed on for the Iowa Tea Party Bus Tour this summer: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Gary Johnson and Rick Santorum. The three-week bus tour, the first in Iowa for the tea party movement, will make stops in 20 cities starting June 13 in Council Bluffs. The tour is meant to be an opportunity for Iowa voters to learn more about the presidential candidates and to brush up on caucus procedures, organizer Ryan Rhodes said."
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SENATE EXCLUSIVE -- MILLER MOVES FORWARD -- Former Ruth's Chris Steak House CEO Craig Miller is now leaning toward a Senate run in Florida, visiting Washington D.C. this week to meet with Republican officials and conservative groups ahead of a possible bid. Miller, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2010, is a former chairman of the National Restaurant Association and a Florida tourism commissioner under Gov. Jeb Bush. With a geographic base in the vote-rich Orlando area, and a biography that includes a successful business career and service in Vietnam, Miller could have an opening in a GOP Senate primary that has yet to fully take shape. A source close to Miller told Score: "Craig is
 getting strong encouragement to run for Senate from Republicans around the state. Conservatives and Tea Party activists want someone like Craig who has real world experience creating jobs and balancing budgets, not career politicians who got us in this financial mess."

TODAY IN SCANDAL - YOU MAY ALREADY BE A WEINER - The National Republican Congressional Committee will call on Democrats who have received money from New York Rep. Anthony Weiner to return those contributions amid the congressman's unraveling sex scandal. An NRCC official compared the push to the committee's offensive against another New York congressman last cycle, Charlie Rangel. PLUS - Why this isn't over - headlines from the New York Post: "The Dork Knight; Weiner a 'caped crusader' in sext chats"; and the Daily News: "What was he thinking?!"
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EARLY LOOK -- EMILY'S LIST PICKS THREE MORE -- The leading Democratic women's group will give three new House challengers "On the List" status today -- highlighting them as candidates that the EMILY's List community should support. Getting that designation: former Minnesota state Sen. Tarryl Clark, Nevada Treasurer Kate Marshall and former Connecticut state Rep. Elizabeth Esty. Clark, who ran last cycle against Rep. Michele Bachmann, is now challenging GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack in a newly drawn district. Esty is running for the open seat currently held by Democratic Senate candidate Chris Murphy. Marshall may be the most notable EMILY's List candidate: She's running in the special election for
 Sen. Dean Heller's old district, and she'll need buy-in from national Democratic groups in order to win the difficult seat. EMILY's List president Stephanie Schriock cited NY-26 as inspiration in a statement: "After the stunning upset win by Kathy Hochul in New York, our members are more energized than ever and eager to take back the House."

SPEAKING OF BACHMANN - ROLLINS SIGNS ON - Ed Rollins, who ran Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign and helped Mike Huckabee win Iowa four years ago, will run Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign. Rollins joins pollster Ed Goeas and other seasoned Republican operatives on Bachmann's team, lending extra credibility to the already formidable tea party contender. CBS's Jan Crawford broke the news: "Rollins will run a campaign that already has a number of experienced advisors on board, including Brett O'Donnell, who advised George W. Bush and John McCain and is considered the best debate coach in politics. Bachmann also has brought on Bob Heckman, who is prominent in the conservative
 movement."
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MEDICARE WARS - FROM THE RIGHT - The NRCC is launching a new round of Medicare-themed robocalls against Democratic members of Congress, attacking them for having "already cut $500 billion from Medicare" and drawing on the Medicare actuary's report to accuse them of supporting a "partisan plan that the media says would 'decimate Medicare.'" From one script, targeting Oklahoma Rep. Dan Boren: "The Boren-backed plan will cut Medicare benefits by 17% and lead to 'political rationing' of health care...taking personal health care choices away from seniors." The calls target nine Democratic incumbents; the NRCC is going up on TV against a tenth, Illinois Rep. Jerry Costello, for three weeks.

AND FROM THE LEFT - The Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee is unveiling an online campaign Tuesday to ask Republicans to keep Medicare out of the debate over the debt ceiling. The DSCC will be using web ads to target GOP senators and Senate candidates in Virginia, Montana, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, Massachusetts, Florida, Nebraska and Ohio, calling on them to tell Mitch McConnell not to make Medicare an issue. It's the latest evidence that Democrats see Medicare as a huge winner for their candidates, and the DSCC recently saw its largest web traffic spike in four years with a similar effort to mobilize activists against the Ryan budget.

POLLING 2012 - WRONG TRACK, HOUSE EDITION - The latest SEIU/Daily Kos State of the Nation poll finds that 40 percent think Republicans are doing a worse job running the House than Democrats did when they were in charge, according to results shared early with score. One third said Republicans are doing a better job, while a quarter said things are about the same. The GOP gets dramatically higher marks among tea party members, 76 percent of whom say Republicans are doing a better job than Democrats did. Among self-identified Republicans, that number drops to 63 percent, suggesting a problem with some moderates and soft Republicans in the party. Fifty-three percent of union households and 48
 percent of moderates said things are worse under the GOP. More from the poll here:
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DATA FRAGMENT OF THE DAY - MITT IN S.C. - Public Policy Polling is poised to report that Mitt Romney leads the South Carolina primary by 9 percentage points, suggesting that even less-friendly territory is looking winnable for Romney in this unsettled race. @ppppolls teased on Twitter: "Best news we've ever had for him I think."

MORE FROM THE ROSE GARDEN - MITT'S STRATEGY - Romney said Monday night that the GOP's 2012 nomination fight will come down to two finalists, telling CNN's Piers Morgan: "I believe I'm going to be one of those two, and that I'll finally get the nmination ... I don't know who the other person will be." And if it seems like he's running a below-the-radar campaign, Romney said, that's because he is. "Until Labor Day hits, I'm going to be pretty quiet," Romney said, explaining that he's "not doing a lot of TV."

997 DAYS LATER - PALIN EMAIL DUMP COMING FRIDAY - MSNBC reports: "The long-delayed release of public records in Alaska, 24,199 pages of emails sent between former Gov. Sarah Palin (and her husband) and state officials, will happen in Juneau at 9 a.m. Friday, the Alaska governor's office announced Monday... Soon after the emails are released, msnbc.com plans to scan them and put them online in a public archive, restoring the electronic records to electronic form. This archive will be co-sponsored by Mother Jones magazine, which also requested the documents back in 2008, and with Pro Publica, the nonprofit investigative newsroom. A similar archive was created by msnbc.com for a smaller batch
 of Todd Palin emails last year."
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MORE PALIN - IN CALIFORNIA - Democratic congressional candidate Janice Hahn used her first ad of the runoff election in California's 36th District to tie her opponent, Craig Huey, to Sarah Palin. Huey didn't campaign with Palin. He doesn't even invoke her. But that doesn't stop Hahn from wielding Palin's name as a way of describing Huey as way to the right on abortion. The ad: "Sarah Palin and Craig Huey -- Which would ban a woman's right to choose in every case? Both Palin and Huey. But which one called Planned Parenthood a 'murder mill?' Only Craig Huey."
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ELECTION DAY IN VEGAS - GOODMAN DYNASTY? Carolyn Goodman, the wife of colorful Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, enters tonight's municipal election as a favorite to succeed her husband in the city's top job. Her opponent, Chris Giunchigliani, trails in the polls. Jon Ralston summed up the election in a tweet yesterday: "Nice coincidence: @GoodmanforMayor and relatively unknown husband having anniversary bash downtown on eve of #lvmayor election. #coronation"
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY - "&alpha;&rho;&iota;&theta;. &Sigma;&chi;?&lambda;&iota;&omicron;," Newt Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler, on his boss's luxury cruise in the Mediterranean. That's Greek for "no comment."
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