Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: McConnell plots 2016 strategy — Landrieu gets Saints spotlight, Cassidy gets Perry visit
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 09:08:45 -0600

By Kyle Cheney

With James Hohmann

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. (
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2016 WATCH - "McConnell preps for 2016 battle," by POLITICO's Manu Raju: "Mitch McConnell spent years charting the Republican path back to power - and now he's already plotting to make sure they don't lose it. The Kentucky Republican is quietly pushing his fellow Republican senators to beef up their political shops. He's considering a new super PAC that could spend millions on Senate races. And he's locking down operatives for another cycle who were key to GOP triumphs this month. The under-the-radar moves less than three weeks after the 2014 midterms and a month-and-a-half before McConnell takes over for Harry Reid makes clear the brutal reality in front of Republicans: Their majority
 could be short lived." 
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Nuggets from the story:

-- Incoming NRSC Chairman Roger Wicker (Miss.) indicated that he isn't expecting the party to be defending any open seats: "I don't expect any [GOP] retirements," Wicker said confidently in an interview. "I do not. I think we are excited about the chance to govern, the chance to legislate as the founders intended, I think there's a lot of enthusiasm, yes."

-- "[North Carolina Sen. Richard] Burr, who is up for reelection for a third term in 2016, has just $720,000 in cash in a state where more than $100 million was spent in the 2014 North Carolina Senate race, in which Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan narrowly lost to Republican Thom Tillis. But despite the lack of money, Burr said he plans on running and even seemed ready to take on Hagan if she were to run against him. 'Repeats in North Carolina, historically, don't work too well,' Burr said in an interview. 'You have to ask yourself, how many people will write a check to somebody who just lost?'"

-- "In recent interviews, two Democratic senators who lost this year - Arkansas' Mark Pryor and Alaska's Mark Begich - punted on their intentions to run in 2016 in their respective states, though they didn't rule it out. 'We'll see,' Begich said when asked if he'd run against Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in 2016."

-- "Steve Kingmaker," by POLITICO's Maggie Haberman and Jake Sherman: "Iowa Rep. Steve King, one of the GOP's most divisive figures on immigration, is approaching a moment of maximum impact. And Republicans looking to improve the party's standing with Latinos are nervous about what that could mean. Throughout next year, Republican hopefuls will face a litmus test: Seek approval from King, who represents a wide swath of caucus-goers, and risk being tethered to his views on immigration; or ignore him and risk King using his bully pulpit against them. So far, some major names among the potential GOP 2016 contenders are seeking King's approval ... King has already spoken privately with about 10
 potential presidential candidates, he told POLITICO in an interview last week, pressing them to detail their views on immigration." 
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-- "Rise of the Rust Belt Republicans," by James Hohmann and Jake Sherman, from Boca Raton, Fla.: "A real battle of Midwest heavyweights might be looming next year in the Republican Party between [Wisconsin Gov. Scott] Walker, [Ohio Gov. John] Kasich, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. The four heartland governors are all considering bids for the GOP presidential nomination, looking to run as Rust Belt success stories who can revive the party's Reagan Democrat coalition and speak to the middle class in a way Mitt Romney could not ... Any of the four could also be in the mix of the vice presidential sweepstakes ... Republicans have nominated several Midwesterners for vice
 president, but the last time the party nominated a governor from the region for president was in 1936, when Kansas Gov. Alf Landon lost to Franklin Roosevelt." 
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LOOSE END - Barber asks secretary of state to halt canvassing: Rebuffed by a pair of local counties, Democratic Rep. Ron Barber is asking Arizona's secretary of state to intervene in the fight and halt the canvassing of votes in the 2nd Congressional District. The Tucson Sentinel reports: "In a letter Friday, Barber&#39;s team said that there were 147 ballots improperly rejected from the count in Pima County, and 20 such ballots in Cochise County. 'There is no dispute that these voters were properly registered to vote and were fully qualified to do so as Arizona citizens, yet their ballots remain uncounted,' wrote attorney Kevin Hamilton." 
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RUNOFF ROUNDUP --

-- Jindal, Cassidy at odds: Gov. Bobby Jindal's mired in low approval ratings at home, and some Republicans wonder if he's become a drag on Republican Bill Cassidy's Senate campaign, which is in the midst of a runoff. The Associated Press reports that some Republicans are urging Jindal to steer clear of the contest, which polls have show could be a runaway for Cassidy. 
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-- Landrieu to commemorate adoptions ahead of Monday Night Football: Sen. Mary Landrieu will get a high-profile assist from the New Orleans Saints tonight, when she appears with team brass and supporters of National Adoption Month. The event is slated to begin during Monday Night Football pre-game festivities, shortly before the Saints kick off against the Baltimore Ravens. Landrieu plans to join Chad and Marsha Hardbarger, adoptive parents of six children, as well as the vice chair of the Saints' board. The event is scheduled for 7 p.m.

-- Perry stumping for Cassidy tomorrow: Rick Perry will headline three rallies for Republican Senate candidate Bill Cassidy in Louisiana on Tuesday. The outgoing Texas governor will appear in Lafayette, Baton Rouge and Covington. Cassidy, the frontrunner over Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu going into the Dec. 6 runoff, also plans to cast his ballot early. He'll vote at the Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge at 8 a.m. Central Tuesday. Then he'll hit the road with Perry. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida will campaign with Cassidy tomorrow, and GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina will campaign with him Sunday.

While Oregon bucks the trend and Greg Orman stays in the conversation, here&#39;s POLITICO&#39;s Morning Score: your daily guide to the 2014 midterms and beyond.

Days until the Louisiana runoff: 12; Days until the Iowa caucuses: 411; Days until the 2016 election: 715

Thanks for joining us. We're eager for your news and feedback. Email us at 
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HINDSIGHT - "Midterm elections get a yawn but not in Oregon," by the Associated Press's Terrence Petty and Jonathan J. Cooper in Portland, Ore.: "Average voter turnout across the country was horrible during this year's midterms: about a third of those eligible to cast ballots did so, according to Associated Press tabulation of preliminary data from local officials and state election authorities. That's the lowest turnout in at least five decades. But turnout surpassed 50 percent in a handful of states: Maine, Wisconsin, Colorado, Alaska, Minnesota, and Oregon. During each election over the past 10 years, these states have often been among the top performers." 
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2016 WATCH, CONT'D - "Hispanic Voters Are Important for Republicans, but Not Indispensable," by The New York Times' Nate Cohn: "The Republicans have a path to the White House without Hispanic voters. It's just a harder one ... 2016 Hispanics will represent just 12 percent of eligible voters, and between 9 and 10 percent of actual voters. That's a lot, but it's not large enough to grant or deny Republicans the presidency ... Mr. Obama won by a 3.9-point margin in 2012. So even if the next Republican presidential candidate received the magical 40 percent of Hispanic voters that Mr. Bush received in 2004 ... it still wouldn't erase Mr. Romney's deficit in the popular vote ...Hispanic voters
 are disproportionately concentrated in noncompetitive states like Texas and California." 
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ACROSS THE MAP - Quick takes from races across the country:

SENATE--

Kansas: Greg Orman may have lost big in his race to unseat Sen. Pat Roberts earlier this month, but the independent candidate reached out to supporters this weekend to suggest he's not planning to cede the spotlight just yet. "Just because the election is over, it doesn&#39;t mean we stop talking about the issues," he wrote, urging allies to read his op-ed in the Kansas City Star about the president's recent immigration announcement. "President Obama just announced a big change to our immigration system. Immigration was a major issue in this past election, and on the campaign trail, I saw first-hand how working Kansans, small businesses, and our economy were affected by both parties&#39;
 failure to pass any legislation on immigration," he wrote.

HOUSE --

LA-06: An independent poll by JMC Analytics and Polling shows Democrat Edwin Edwards trailing by 26 points to Republican Garrett Graves. 
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY:"I do get a chuckle sometimes when I read various comments and people say there will never be another black president because of Obama ... And I say, well, Obama&#39;s half white. Does that mean there will never be another white one, either?" - Ben Carson to evangelical conservatives in Iowa on Saturday, via Bloomberg Politics's John McCormick.

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