Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Tea party victories in Texas runoffs - Hall defeated in TX-04, Patrick ousts Dewhurst in lt. gov. race - RNC robocalls on VA scandal in ten Senate races - Cantor launches second ad against primary challenger
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 08:06:04 -0600

By Emily Schultheis (
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked] ; Twitter: @emilyrs) and Jose DelReal (
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[email-masked] ; Twitter: @jdelreal)

With help from Elizabeth Titus, Tarini Parti, James Hohmann, Byron Tau, Alex Isenstadt and Jake Sherman

The following newsletter is an abridged version of Campaign Pro&#39;s Morning Score. For an earlier morning read on exponentially more races - and for a more comprehensive aggregation of the day&#39;s most important campaign news - sign up for Campaign Pro today. (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76274a0a64644b9b9619fca7f60a23e7630ff61c82f6d7e99676 
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TEXAS RUNOFF RESULTS - HALL OUSTED BY CHALLENGER: Longtime Texas Rep. Ralph Hall became the first incumbent member of Congress to lose his job Tuesday night, when former U.S. attorney John Ratcliffe beat him, 53 percent to 47 percent, in the race for the state's 4th District. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, too, was ousted: just two years after losing the Senate runoff to Ted Cruz, he lost his reelection bid handily to tea party-endorsed GOP primary challenger Dan Patrick. As we noted yesterday, Texas is a bit of a different animal when it comes to the tea party: the movement's strength there hasn't waned as it has in other states and parts of the country, so it's less surprising that tea party
 candidates won there last night. Last night's results give insurgent tea party groups a victory on the board for 2014 heading into next week's Mississippi Senate primary. In other Texas runoff news, former CIA officer Will Hurd defeated former Rep. Quico Canseco in the competitive 23rd District, and Democrat David Alameel easily dispatched LaRouche candidate Kesha Rogers in the Senate primary.

FULL RESULTS TICKER:

--TX-04 GOP runoff (100 percent of precincts reporting): Ratcliffe 53 percent , Hall 47 percent 
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--TX-23 GOP runoff (95 percent of precincts reporting): Hurd 59 percent, Canseco 41 percent 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627677ae8f0f2cbe6d1c09d3ef3ce4775e04394c1252761df97 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627677ae8f0f2cbe6d1c09d3ef3ce4775e04394c1252761df97 

--TX-36 GOP runoff (100 percent of precincts reporting): Brian Babin 58 percent, Ben Streusand 42 percent

--Lieutenant governor GOP runoff (99 percent of precincts reporting): Patrick 65 percent, Dewhurst 35 percent 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627ecb2cfdb573da9b0473fe341d0fe81f80fe1af491d63ed91 
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--Senate Democratic runoff (99 percent of precincts reporting): Alameel 72 percent, Rogers 28 percent

FIRST IN SCORE - RNC ROBOCALLS ON VA SCANDAL: We've already seen the VA scandal trickling down to the campaign trail, with Democrats in red states and competitive races calling for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's resignation. Republican National Committee is launching robocalls in ten competitive Senate races today, planning to reach "tens of thousands" of households and calling on Democratic candidates to begin an investigation into the VA problems. "Now we&#39;re learning that this Administration&#39;s Department of Veterans' Affairs is failing our veterans.They are being denied the care they deserved and the Department is covering it up," the robocall script says. "Call [Senator] and tell
 him/her our veterans deserve an independent investigation - not another political cover up." The calls will target Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska), Mark Udall (Colorado), Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), Kay Hagan (North Carolina), Tom Udall (New Mexico), Jeff Merkley (Oregon), and Mark Warner (Virginia), plus Democratic Senate candidates Bruce Braley (Iowa), Gary Peters (Michigan), and Rick Weiland (South Dakota). Not on the list: red-state Democrats Alison Lundergan Grimes of Kentucky, Michelle Nunn of Georgia and Natalie Tennant of West Virginia, all of whom called for Shinseki's resignation last week.

NEW COTTON AD FEATURES WIFE: Campaign Pros saw it first: Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton's series of biographical ads have featured his mom, his dad and his former drill sergeant - and his latest, set to be released today, features his new wife, Anna. The pair were married back in March. "This is home: This house has been in my family for decades. Deep roots connect you to values, and values drive decisions," Cotton says in the ad, showing footage of him with his wife on the front porch of their home juxtaposed with old photos of family members there. "Washington, D.C. is making the wrong decisions today on just about everything, and it&#39;s hurting Arkansas. I&#39;ll stay connected to my roots -
 Anna will make sure of that." The ad was produced by OnMessage Inc. and will run on broadcast and cable in the Fort Smith media market. Watch: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76275acef34856bd0099f82ad32376ef4cf3cdd55d22e9e8526d 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76275acef34856bd0099f82ad32376ef4cf3cdd55d22e9e8526d 

As Michael Grimm lashes out, the Kentucky Senate race stays close and Beverly Young is in for '16, here&#39;s POLITICO&#39;s Morning Score: your daily guide to the 2014 midterms.

DAYS UNTIL THE ELECTION: 161.

Good Wednesday morning and welcome to the abridged version of POLITICO Campaign Pro's Morning Score. As always, send your tips, thoughts, and suggestions to 
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http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76273fb485c59807f6e55bb4102987fc14711de6d135fcb219fb 
Florida Republicans defend congressional map in court 

TODAY ON POLITICO - Defiant Michael Grimm lashes out at media: POLITICO&#39;s Alex Isenstadt has an exclusive interview with embattled GOP Rep. Michael Grimm: "Insisting he's not the 'bad boy' of Congress, the former Marine and FBI agent suggested that GOP leaders including Speaker John Boehner were acting 'politically' by refusing to back his reelection to a competitive Staten Island congressional district. Grimm, now literally running his own campaign after his lone full-time political aide departed last week, promised to prove his skeptics wrong. 'There's no question: I've been vilified by the press since the day I got here,' Grimm said in a tense 22-minute interview at Hinsch's Diner in
 Brooklyn. 'From the very beginning they had to figure out how to get rid of this guy.'" 
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FIRST IN SCORE - GOP POLL SHOWS KENTUCKY SENATE RACE NECK AND NECK: Mitch McConnell leads Alison Lundergan Grimes 47-44 among likely voters, which is just within the 4-point margin of error, according to a new poll. The automated poll, from Fritz Wenzel, who does work for Rand Paul but didn't conduct this poll for any client, was conducted Friday and Saturday with 608 respondents via landline-only calls. After handily beating Matt Bevin last week, the Senate Minority Leader's fav/unfav has improved to 55/42, while Grimes is at 51/42. Here are the toplines with a bunch more questions: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76273cf625edc3b245ac5e1a8a831b5590a23aed97ad55c933e3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76273cf625edc3b245ac5e1a8a831b5590a23aed97ad55c933e3 . Memo: 
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BEVERLY YOUNG WILL RUN FOR LATE HUSBAND'S SEAT IN '16: Beverly Young, outspoken widow of the late GOP Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, said Tuesday night that she'll run for her late husband's seat as a Democrat in 2016 against David Jolly, Young's former aide who won the seat in a special election back in March. "This county just can't fall to lobbyists and their deceit and manipulation," she said, per the Tampa Bay Times. "I'm not going to just sit back and have all Bill's had work just trashed to inside the Beltway politics. Ugh." Beverly Young was supportive of Jolly's campaign during the special, but she is no longer speaking to him after alleging he treated her husband's staffers poorly once
 he took office. Democrats fielded no candidate in the race against Jolly this year: Ed Jany, an independent who was backed by the DCCC, dropped out of the race earlier this month. The whole TB Times piece on Young is worth a read: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76273f396c0efb2f4d4a8818fbf1236f35ddefecf27803a73f28 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76273f396c0efb2f4d4a8818fbf1236f35ddefecf27803a73f28 

NEW POLLING - SNYDER, PETERS LEAD IN MICH.: The latest EPIC-MRA poll out of Michigan brings some good news for both parties: GOP Gov. Rick Snyder leads in his reelection bid, while Democratic Rep. Gary Peters is ahead in the Senate race. Snyder leads former Democratic Rep. Mark Schauer by 9 points, 47 percent to 38 percent. His lead is essentially unchanged since February, when he led by 8 points. In the Senate race, though, Peters posts a 6-point lead over former GOP secretary of state Terri Lynn Land, 44 percent to 38 percent: that's a 9-point improvement from EPIC-MRA's February poll, when he trailed Land by 3 points. A new Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll also shows a similar lead for Snyder
 over Schauer, 45 percent to 35 percent with 18 percent of voters undecided. The same poll has Peters leading Land, 40 percent to 35 percent with 23 percent of likely voters undecided. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d762730eafff24d90a4e8851a121e8185b20898fdb54e9c9acfcb 
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THE LATEST IN MISSISSIPPI - VIDEO SCANDAL HITS THE AIRWAVES: Any hope that state Sen. Chris McDaniel may have had about the Rose Cochran video scandal blowing over before the primary is gone. In fact, it could get worse: the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported Tuesday night that more people knew about the video of Sen. Thad Cochran's wife in her nursing home and that further arrests could be made (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d762704fd436ec84bd2ec43e916156f3b979f58a20ad7a8a662f0 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d762704fd436ec84bd2ec43e916156f3b979f58a20ad7a8a662f0 ). McDaniel has repeatedly said he and his campaign had nothing to do with the video that Clayton Kelly filmed of Sen. Thad Cochran's wife in her nursing home, but the challenger's new ad Tuesday - which called Cochran campaign ads on the scandal "outrageous" - underscores the extent to which McDaniel must still play defense on the issue (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627b73abb1f6fd196453c0ba3ed63c131c03ab2390e577eb3b9 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627b73abb1f6fd196453c0ba3ed63c131c03ab2390e577eb3b9 ). With just six days left until the primary, the biggest question is what else comes out about the timeline - and whether any arrests get closer to McDaniel's orbit.

NJ-03 - MACARTHUR LEADS; PALIN BACKS LONEGAN: Self-funder Tom MacArthur leads firebrand Steve Lonegan 43 percent to 30 percent in the GOP primary, according to a Tarrance Group poll for the American Action Network out Wednesday, ahead of next week&#39;s primary. That&#39;s an eight-point improvement in MacArthur&#39;s lead since April, the pollsters said: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76270f692c5562457a62397aedb89ab5d8bad2d519935495425e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76270f692c5562457a62397aedb89ab5d8bad2d519935495425e . Meanwhile, Sarah Palin came through for Lonegan again on Tuesday, as she did in his unsuccessful Senate run against Cory Booker in 2013, when Lonegan 'gave liberals a fright,' in the ex-gov&#39;s words. Palin wrote that Lonegan won the district last year by five points, although Lonegan has said it was eight points. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76275fc6caa3ee1354448a1601437358d25f09ae43d615f9f714 
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QUICK HITS ACROSS THE MAP - 

-GA-Sen: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is going up with another ad supporting GOP Rep. Jack Kingston in the runoff against businessman David Perdue. This one features former Dallas Cowboys player and UGA standout Herschel Walker. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76277f7b5e30cc732cc671e3557c8edf1ef38122fc121eb25e9d 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76277f7b5e30cc732cc671e3557c8edf1ef38122fc121eb25e9d 

-More GA-Sen: Former GOP secretary of state Karen Handel will endorse Rep. Jack Kingston in the Georgia Senate runoff today. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76270badd29c73fc87618ad834087e3847bfae32473d0adafc23 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d76270badd29c73fc87618ad834087e3847bfae32473d0adafc23 

-AK-Sen, AR-Sen: The Club for Growth released ads hitting Democratic Sens. Mark Begich and Mark Pryor for 'parroting Obama' on the Affordable Care Act. Alaska version: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627c61d10be46213104cc3107acf6cd1edb335d257d357c047e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627c61d10be46213104cc3107acf6cd1edb335d257d357c047e ,Arkansas version: 
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http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d762707216108f95d3387e01abc75eb6b4be0b5bf566743074ce8 

-HI-Sen: A new poll from the Honolulu Civil Beat and Merriman River Group finds Sen. Brian Schatz with a 5-point lead (44-39) over his Democratic primary challenger, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d762743e2c3667200882bc0f88d60affe4a2ffba19514edffba32 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d762743e2c3667200882bc0f88d60affe4a2ffba19514edffba32 

-IA-Sen: GOP candidate Joni Ernst released a biographical TV ad touting her Iowa roots. The 30-second spot comes one week ahead of the June 3 primary (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627dadd800e94d5429d6248e97d9d7416cfb51252351040e571 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627dadd800e94d5429d6248e97d9d7416cfb51252351040e571 ). Meanwhile, Senate Conservatives Action is supporting Joni Ernst with a 30-second TV ad backed by $108,590, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is boosting her as well (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627b2243633c4d0247df88241424b859733bcbf8eac56b8369d 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627b2243633c4d0247df88241424b859733bcbf8eac56b8369d ).

-FL-Gov: A new poll from WFLA-TV and SurveyUSA shows GOP Gov. Rick Scott up by a narrow 2 points over Democrat Charlie Crist. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627ba2dbc532a90baf6aa413f40e18138cd732ae03479d1cc72 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42b3baedb61d7627db243a23496f972ee1d730498b7e186ba56ba146271a5d24 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Nooo. That's silly. Noo. We're brothers. Noo." -Former Obama guru Jim Messina to the NYT's Jason Horowitz on his relationship with David Axelrod now that the two men are working with opposing sides in the United Kingdom parliamentary elections 
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