Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Dems’ Senate hopes rest on thin bench in purple states — Meet Kate Brown, Oregon’s unexpected governor — The perils of 'reply all'
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 09:03:54 -0600

By Kyle Cheney

With Jonathan Topaz and Ben Schreckinger

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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TODAY ON CAMPAIGN PRO - "Dems' farm teams languish even with Senate in play," by Campaign Pro's Kyle Cheney and Tarini Parti: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec544fd2d88e309d1cac1aed1c4d6356d85c67dca96c65beaae 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec544fd2d88e309d1cac1aed1c4d6356d85c67dca96c65beaae 

MEET OREGON'S NEW GOVERNOR - "Incoming Oregon governor faces challenges ahead of 2016 special," by POLITICO's Jonathan Topaz: "When Kate Brown is sworn in as Oregon's new governor next week, she'll be making considerable history, becoming the first openly bisexual governor in the U.S. and only the second woman to lead the Beaver State. It's a profile that is likely appealing to national Democrats, who count only two other women among their 18 sitting governors. And Oregon political experts on both sides of the aisle, as well as her former political opponents, identify Brown as a capable, tough-nosed politician who has a much more friendly, outgoing and dynamic personality than the mercurial
 and introverted John Kitzhaber, who announced his resignation amid a corruption scandal on Friday."

"But while the 54-year-old Brown, the current secretary of state, was widely perceived as a leading candidate to run to succeed Kitzhaber in 2018, Oregon political insiders also say her tenure as secretary of state could be a political liability. Others openly worry if her past struggles with administrative issues make her a less-than-ideal interim governor when a state needs stability and competence. Her upcoming two years as governor will be an opportunity to establish herself as a major force in the state and a formidable candidate in the special election in November 2016." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec5fecea7a5702ac1c91d8fddd61b20b7ed6e19afafab80a4f0 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec5fecea7a5702ac1c91d8fddd61b20b7ed6e19afafab80a4f0 

 - ICYMI, the story of Kitzhaber's unceremonious departure: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec55c729a57b81e8b6f3acf990419844072f311cc99c459d97b 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec55c729a57b81e8b6f3acf990419844072f311cc99c459d97b 

As the O'Malley fills out his campaign and a Democrat bows out in Ohio, here&#39;s POLITICO&#39;s Morning Score: daily news, notes and essential information for the 2015 and 2016 election cycles.

Days until the 2015 election: 260; Days until the 2016 election: 631

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

THE PERILS OF "REPLY ALL" - Over the weekend, POLITICO published a 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec5018143eb65d194e2ca742b9aa72818f9b3a264b7c12031c5 
story  about how Republican presidential hopefuls have largely avoided discussing the same-sex marriage dispute in Alabama. One notable exception is Ben Carson, who defended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's instructions to defy a federal court ruling permitting same-sex marriages in an email to POLITICO from a spokesman, Armstrong Williams. The day after the story published, Carson's top campaign official, Terry Giles, wrote Williams to discuss the statement, which he suggested caused an "uproar" in the Carson camp and risked making the potential presidential candidate look "anti-gay." Giles copied POLITICO on the email - presumably by accident.

"Normally I get copied on these so I know. This last thing came up because our organization went into an uproar over the term 'spokesman' and the fact they had no idea who that was," Giles wrote to Williams. "Anyway, handled now. Please make sure your team copies me on any statements made and Ben and I both agree we have to emphasize his view of gay rights and civil unions so he does not get painted as anti gay."

After POLITICO reached out to Giles and Armstrong for comment, Giles said Carson "is very supportive of gay rights." "There is no question that certain members of the press have attempted to twist Dr. Carson's position regarding Same Sex Marriage to make it sound as if he is anti-gay," he wrote in an email. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

STAFFING UP - O'Malley PAC makes slate of hires: Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's PAC has hired Michael Kurtz - who served as national finance director for Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes' 2014 Senate bid - as a fundraiser, a spokeswoman for the PAC confirmed. Before joining Grimes's campaign, Kurtz served as mid-Atlantic finance director for the Democratic National Committee and worked on both of President Obama's presidential campaigns. Two other Obama alumni, Sam Salustro and Hannah Burke, are also now working for O'Malley's O'Say Can You See PAC, his spokeswoman, Lis Smith, confirmed.

STRAW POLL SHUFFLE - "Iowa GOP may move straw poll to new venue," by POLITICO's James Hohmann: "The quadrennial Ames Straw Poll may not actually be in Ames this August. The Republican Party of Iowa is increasingly serious about holding its widely attended pre-caucus event at a location other than the campus of Iowa State University, where it's been held since 1979. There's a pervasive feeling in the establishment wing of the party that the public, land-grant university gouged the state party to rent event space in 2011, charging hundreds of thousands of dollars - and party chairman Jeff Kaufmann has pledged that the state GOP will not lose money on the event in 2015." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec5a62ac0c7047854d10fce1f555831ff58a4939004838b472e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec5a62ac0c7047854d10fce1f555831ff58a4939004838b472e 

THE NUMBERS - "Early state polls show wide-open GOP primary," by POLITICO's Nick Gass: "The Republican field for 2016 remains wide open in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to a new set of NBC News/Marist polls, with Hillary Clinton still the overwhelming favorite among Democrats. In the general election, Clinton leads hypothetical matchups against former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in Iowa and New Hampshire, but trails Bush 48 percent to 45 percent and ties Walker at 46 percent in South Carolina. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec50d875cff1c59fe3f931df5c26aab14dca28c839ba7fdcbce 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec50d875cff1c59fe3f931df5c26aab14dca28c839ba7fdcbce 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Because of sympathy for Mark Kirk I don&#39;t know of a serious candidate who would challenge him besides me." - Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), telling The Hill he might primary Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who suffered a stroke three years ago. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec582d80ac8d47df4d79d39b85a82ae510736cf622c7daa9601 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=35f3007619386ec582d80ac8d47df4d79d39b85a82ae510736cf622c7daa9601 

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