Subject: POLITICO’s Morning Score: GOP ‘voter integrity program’ stirs passions in La. -- Conservatives rethinking presidential strategy -- Cruz does NYC circuit
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:13:53 -0600

By Kyle Cheney

With Steven Shepard and 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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RUNOFF REPORT - "Republicans start &#39;Voter Integrity Program&#39; for Dec. 6 Senate runoff, Democrats question motives," by the Times-Picayune's Bruce Alpert: "In announcing the project, former Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, the program&#39;s chairman, said the plan is to get a group of volunteer poll watchers to 'prevent voter fraud and guarantee a fair and impartial election.' ... Stephen Handwerk, the Louisiana Democratic Party&#39;s executive director, said 'Landry&#39;s comments are part of a troubling pattern by the Louisiana Republican Party of making misleading claims that undermine public trust in our elections process and discourage voters from exercising their constitutional
 rights.'" 
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-- Cassidy books TV time: Bill Cassidy booked half a million in Louisiana broadcast time yesterday for the final week before the Dec. 6 Senate runoff. The Republican congressman bought $530,526 on broadcast and another $59,200 on cable. Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu is set to outspend Cassidy this week by about $56,000, $471,000 to $398,000. But for the final week, Landrieu has currently only reserved $286,190 in broadcast and nothing on cable, according to sources tracking the air war.

-- Begich hits up donors for Landrieu: Outgoing Alaska Sen. Mark Begich sent a fundraising email yesterday which allows donors to give to endangered Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu - or to pay off Begich's own campaign debt. Begich, who lost to Republican Dan Sullivan by a little more than two percentage points, urges his supporters to help out Landrieu in the letter. The bottom of the email notes that "Donations made to Alaskans for Begich will be used to pay debt." When you click on the link, you can put in how many dollars you want to donate to Begich and/or Landrieu - or choose to "split it." Begich had just over $700,000 cash on hand as of October 15.

-- Rice backs Cassidy: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has endorsed Cassidy, the Republican's campaign announced Tuesday. 'The United States is faced with challenges both foreign and domestic. It&#39;s ever critical to have leaders in Washington who will listen to the people, make decisions, and put us back on the right footing with the world," Rice said in a statement.

FEC filings from the House candidates: Monday night was the deadline for candidates in the Louisiana House runoffs to file their pre-runoff reports (Oct. 16-Nov. 16) to the FEC. Here's a roundup:

-LA-05: Republican Ralph Abraham: $128,000 raised, $172,000 spent, $94,000 cash on hand (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef7360922640362c75d946635607ef66642d1715495837dbc85b27 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef7360922640362c75d946635607ef66642d1715495837dbc85b27 ). Democrat Jamie Mayo: Unavailable on the FEC website early Wednesday.

-LA-06: Republican Garret Graves: $330,000 raised, $269,000 spent, $309,000 cash on hand (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef7360dfd4c0041b4df4ff04849a11762ad13de96265a323eb7eeb 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef7360dfd4c0041b4df4ff04849a11762ad13de96265a323eb7eeb ). Democrat Edwin Edwards: $62,000 raised, $53,000 spent, $121,000 cash on hand (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef7360e1f7db28e4c48876c45f90655bbd24b43a2d924aa40f46fe 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef7360e1f7db28e4c48876c45f90655bbd24b43a2d924aa40f46fe ).

While conservatives rethink their relentless primaries and Rand remarks on Ferguson, here&#39;s POLITICO&#39;s Morning Score: your daily guide to the 2014 midterms and beyond.

Days until the Louisiana runoff: 11; Days until the Iowa caucuses: 418; Days until the 2016 election: 713

Thanks for joining us. We're eager for your news and feedback. Email us at 
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kyledcheney .

PROGRAMMING NOTE -- Score will go dark for Thanksgiving and Black Friday, while our faithful readers nurse their turkey hangovers and recalibrate their engines for the 2016 cycle. We'll return on Monday, Dec. 1.

TEA PARTY RESET - "Is the tea party ready to chill out?" by Campaign Pro's Kyle Cheney:"Most of their candidates were crushed this year, even as their party won big. Now, many tea party activists are embracing a strategy for 2016 that's strikingly at odds with the movement's take-no-prisoners approach: restraint. In interviews, more than a dozen conservative leaders said the activist right needs to be pickier about which Republican incumbents it challenges in primaries, acknowledging its total wipeout in primary challenges to resurgent establishment Republicans.

"Joe Carr, who ran unsuccessfully in the GOP primary against Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, is one who urges a more cautious, strategic approach - even as he defends his decision to take on Alexander. 'As conservatives, we have to do a good job of choosing the battles that move the pendulum in the Senate more to the right,' said Carr, who maintains that Alexander is still more liberal than the voters of Tennessee. 'If we move the pendulum to the right, let's make sure we don't knock some of our own players out of the way unnecessarily.'" 
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-- Score exclusive: Conservatives also eyeing streamlined presidential process - Just like in Senate primaries, conservatives say they need a new approach to the presidential election to avoid splintering their support among too many candidates, a dynamic they said helped deliver the nomination to moderates in previous cycles. "That's a real, real concern," according to Viguerie. "I'm going to be doing what I can... about trying to get conservatives to winnow their support down to maybe two candidates."

Erick Erickson, the editor of the popular conservative blog RedState, described a "growing consensus that the internal squabbles are best left to mid-term elections." "[C]onservatives seem much more interested this time in consolidating quickly behind one candidate instead of having a plethora of candidates out there to choose from," he said in an email. "The thinking seems to be that the right needs a leader to lead the GOP and the only way to do that is consolidate behind someone so the big donors cannot push their guy across the line like with Romney."

Steve Deace, a prominent conservative talk radio personality, said nominating a "movement conservative" for president should be the right's singular focus because it would ripple to down ballot races and help carry other conservatives to victory. It was also, he said, lead to a campaign infrastructure that could help elect conservative candidates for a generation.

CRUZ IN NYC -- Sen. Ted Cruz made rounds in New York City on Monday, courting prominent Jewish donors and meeting privately with GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson for two hours, the New York Observer reports. Some highlights: "While one source close to Mr. Adelson claimed the casino owner liked Mr. Cruz but found the senator 'too right wing' and concluded he is a longshot to win the nomination, Mr. Adelson called the Observer after publication of this story to dispute that characterization of his reaction to Mr. Cruz."

"Another surprise is that Mort Zuckerman, the developer and owner of the New York Daily News who usually backs moderate Democrats, hosted Mr. Cruz for a lunch ... And then a final surprise show of interest in a candidate who would perhaps have appeared outside the usual centrist spectrum of Jewish political giving. Michael Steinhardt - the investing legend and megaphilanthropist who chaired the same Democratic Leadership Council that catapulted Bill Clinton to the White House - hosted Mr. Cruz at his investment firm's office." ... It was a whirlwind tour for a politician who has yet to turn 44. And somehow, Mr. Cruz wedged in time at the very end to meet with Elie Wiesel." 
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PAUL WATCHING - "Paul on Ferguson: Criminal justice reforms part of answer," By Tony Romm: "Sen. Rand Paul, a potential 2016 presidential contender, made a renewed call for reforming the criminal-justice system after a Ferguson grand jury opted not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. Paul said in an interview he didn't have 'specific thoughts on the actual decision,'... But the Kentucky Republican did say the situation reflects an 'undercurrent of unease out there related to poverty, related to drugs.' ... Paul did say that 'we ought to try for something constructive' moving forward." 
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OTHER 2016 RUMBLINGS --

Fiorina for President? The Washington Post examines the prospect of a run by former Hewlett PackardCEO Carly Fiorina and whether she has a path to surviving a GOP primary. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef736086c56fdd99ddf3849f738afc4775d2b135f55b69d981de38 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef736086c56fdd99ddf3849f738afc4775d2b135f55b69d981de38 

New Hampshire Senate: Shawn O'Connor, a political novice from Bedford who just moved to New Hampshire from New York City last year, is considering a bid for the Democratic nomination to take on Sen. Kelly Ayotte in 2016, WMUR's James Pindell reports. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef73606f58953bab27fe243832b29926006044c908697128d6bba0 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef73606f58953bab27fe243832b29926006044c908697128d6bba0 

POST-GAME ANALYSIS - "Are Democrats losing Latino enthusiasm? Troubling signs from 2014," by National Journal Hotline's Jack Fitzpatrick: "Rep. Jim Costa was thought to be headed for a safe race. The California Democrat represents a district that supported President Obama by a 19-point margin in 2012 .. So what happened? Costa nearly fell victim to a radically different midterm electorate. The total number of ballots cast in the race dropped 40 percent from 2012 to 2014, according to data compiled by Dave Wasserman of The Cook Political Report ... 

"Turnout also plunged in other heavily Latino districts, such as the one where Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney narrowly won reelection in a California district Obama won by 18 points in 2012. There, turnout was down nearly 47 percent between 2012 and 2014. In the state&#39;s 31st District, Rep.-elect Pete Aguilar, who was the heavy favorite in his race, won by just over 3,000 votes after a 52 percent drop-off of voters from 2012 to 2014. And Rep. Lois Capps, whose district Obama won by 11 points in 2012, won by fewer than 8,000 votes after a 32 percent drop-off." 
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BROKEN RULE - "Judge: FEC improperly narrowed disclosure rules," by The Associated Press: "The FEC impermissibly narrowed disclosure requirements for corporations and labor organizations that finance electioneering communications, the political ads that run close to an election, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. In setting aside an FEC regulation, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said the commission initiated a rulemaking in response to a Supreme Court decision, but that nothing in the Supreme Court case amounted to a basis for the FEC to narrow the disclosure rules Congress had enacted. She said the FEC regulation was arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law. Jackson said there was
 little or nothing in the administrative record that would support the FEC&#39;s decision to introduce a limit into the broad disclosure rules in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act." 
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I don't think I'm all that conservative." - Ted Cruz to New York City donors. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aa55d478b9ef73605b60fb5eb4d49ba9a9c927fa9e5c12aa8868cd7e47e513ba 
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