Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Colorado Republicans scrambling for a Senate candidate — Rep. Steve King picks up a challenger
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2015 08:01:09 -0600

By Elena Schneider

With Theodoric Meyer and Kevin Robillard

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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ROCKY MOUNTAIN RECRUITING - The latest on the GOP's quest to find a candidate to take on Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, for Campaign Pro subscribers: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc08f2bb245fbb58b76ae38ae28d32ae7c1b0f30c3f041084f23 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc08f2bb245fbb58b76ae38ae28d32ae7c1b0f30c3f041084f23 

GARAGE SALE - Feingold abandons fundraising pledge: Former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday his past pledge to raise the majority of campaign funds from Wisconsin donors "makes no sense now." The Hotline reported earlier Thursday that slightly less than half of the Democrat's second-quarter itemized contributions, 43 percent, came from donors who listed Wisconsin addresses. 'Every single election is different based on the reality of the campaign finance law at the time,' Feingold said. 'What I did in the past is to offer a pledge or a series of proposals for a six-year term.'

- GOP Sen. Ron Johnson's camp pounced, telling the paper that Feingold is "becoming an example of exactly what's wrong in politics." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc084c90d993236ec9dc5e5436d5fc5ccb8b1fdc8fc2ce69b4ee 
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KING CHALLENGER - Democrat Kim Weaver will launch a longshot bid to unseat GOP Rep. Steve King tonight at the Wing Ding fundraising dinner in Clear Lake, Iowa, according to two Iowa Democratic sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Weaver, a long-term care ombudswoman, sits on the state's Democratic central committee and 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc0841182dbe44a2602993d44d8c33c4aacd4a264b47f8821ac7 
has been described  by The Des Moines Register as "popular with activists statewide." But she faces a tough road to unseating King, an outspoken immigration hawk who has represented the largely rural 4th District since 2002.

Days until the 2015 election: 81. Days until the 2016 election: 452.

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FIRST IN SCORE - Candidate one-on-one - Mary Thomas, who's running in a Republican primary in Florida's 2nd District, recently sat down with Campaign Pro on a trip to Washington. She called herself the "true conservative," in the race, a distinction she hopes to draw from her primary opponent, Dr. Neal Dunn, who&#39;s been criticized by Republicans for his donations to Democratic campaigns.

On beating Rep. Gwen Graham: "We're both wives, we're both mothers, we're both attorneys. But I'm also a true conservative, and I'm a first-generation American, so I can relate with a lot more people and they relate to my story more than another candidate."

On House leadership: "I think we need leadership from the President on down, so I would not vote for Boehner."

On an uncertain Florida congressional map: "I'm really running [in] the district as it now. If we have to make adjustments, we will. But I think we need to let the legislature do its work, and see how the map lines play out."

- Speaking of redistricting - "Florida state Senate mulls district changes as state House passes base map," by POLITICO Florida's Matt Dixon in Tallahassee: "With the final week of the Florida Legislature's redistricting special session in the books, the state House and Senate have yet to hash out a final plan on how to redraw the congressional districts the Florida Supreme Court invalidated last month. ...Under that map, two incumbents could face far tougher reelection prospects: Tallahassee Democrat Gwen Graham would be left with a North Florida district President Barack Obama lost by 30 percentage points, while Orlando Republican Dan Webster would get a district Obama won by 22
 percentage points. But the Senate committee is still considering changes to the base plan." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc081cb308cee734bb5b51a22d30794cdd8fd0f8545cb83b2cb2 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc081cb308cee734bb5b51a22d30794cdd8fd0f8545cb83b2cb2 

- "Brown offers fiery rhetoric, but no data, for claims on new district," by POLITICO Florida's Marc Caputo in Tallahassee: "Fighting to save her congressional district, Florida Rep. Corrine Brown publicly addressed two state legislative committees on Thursday and predicted the new seat drawn by legislators will disenfranchise minorities. But Brown, an African American Democrat elected in 1992 to a heavily Democratic seat, offered no data to back up her claims and instead spoke of racial injustice ... Brown's current district, which zigs and zags from heavily black areas in Jacksonville to Orlando, has been held up as a poster child for gerrymandering. Because so many African Americans vote
 Democrat, her current district helps "bleach" adjacent districts, making them more white and more Republican, giving the edge to the GOP, which also controls the Legislature, where the maps are drawn." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc0884c5b84be48fec9ac88af73a545d00847f3fc94fcc8a8bce 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc0884c5b84be48fec9ac88af73a545d00847f3fc94fcc8a8bce 

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Insiders: Rick Perry will be first to drop out," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck: "Forty percent of early-state Republicans and nearly half of early-state Democrats believe Rick Perry will be the first candidate to drop out of the presidential race. That's according to this week's POLITICO Caucus, our weekly bipartisan survey of the top strategists, activists and operatives in Iowa and New Hampshire. 'No money and cannot gain traction, even though he has the best record and a superb message,' lamented an Iowa Republican. 'Best retail politician I have ever seen, yet not able to pick up interest against a strong field. Where was this guy last time around?'" 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc08f112306e6e246e9fff5edbc1f97fe369bff5630b27b971e3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc08f112306e6e246e9fff5edbc1f97fe369bff5630b27b971e3 

- "Insiders: Trump can't win early states," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck: "Six in 10 Republican insiders in the early states say Donald Trump can't win Iowa or New Hampshire. ... 'Telling a pollster you support Trump is whiskey courage. Most of them will sober up enough to realize they aren't going to walk into a ballot booth and vote for a misogynist jerk,' agreed a New Hampshire Republican, who like all participants was granted anonymity in order to speak freely." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc080eb7def7662d87cbc85b49aafac5617416e21d5de9f8d615 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc080eb7def7662d87cbc85b49aafac5617416e21d5de9f8d615 

- "Kasich putting the squeeze on Bush," by POLITICO's Kyle Cheney: "There's a fresh face in New Hampshire and his name is John Kasich. The Ohio governor is no political newbie, having first made his way into national politics in the early 1980s as a freshman congressman, but he was a late entrant to the 2016 Republican race with limited name recognition and plenty of ground to make up against Jeb Bush, whose establishment lane Kasich has been trying to horn in on. He's been storming New Hampshire, on TV and in person, with vigor, hoping for a meeting of the moderate minds and spirits in the state will help him catch fire. ...And that double-digit gap between Kasich and Bush? Gone, with the
 two establishment Republicans now in a statistical tie, according to a New Hampshire poll released on Tuesday." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc08692baf13b132643d6819078d2382b681b9910409b6c3db52 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc08692baf13b132643d6819078d2382b681b9910409b6c3db52 

ALL IN THE FAMILY - "Jeb defends his brother&#39;s Iraq War legacy," by POLITICO's Eli Stokols in Davenport, Iowa: "Jeb Bush, wrestling with his brother's legacy of the Iraq War for the second time in three days, again sought to cast blame on the Obama administration for its failure to achieve a 'fragile but secure' peace in the region that has been overrun by ISIL militants. As he did in his speech Tuesday night outlining his own approach to combating ISIL in Iraq and Syria, Bush glossed over his brother's decision to go to war in Iraq - and while acknowledging that mistakes were made, he seemed to view the war itself in positive terms. ...'We can't unilaterally go into countries,' he
 said." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc0867690e57b8002ce9af838598af69a179b2ac70383a2a2fc3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc0867690e57b8002ce9af838598af69a179b2ac70383a2a2fc3 

FEEDING THE BEAST - "Iowa has an anger problem," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck: "Iowans are mad as hell, and they know who to turn to - Donald Trump. Outsider candidates have a history of gaining traction among Hawkeye State GOP caucus-goers fed up with Washington and establishment candidates more broadly. The Iowa agitation was loud and clear in the CNN/ORC poll released on Wednesday showing Trump soaring with voters, despite a slew of highly controversial remarks made in the past few weeks, with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, another political outsider, coming in second." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc08d7854613235439e41141103fb9fcd9afa15da96315e8f4fc 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc08d7854613235439e41141103fb9fcd9afa15da96315e8f4fc 

- But what about that CNN poll? Campaign Pro's Steve Shepard dives into the methodology - and why some Republicans think the polls overstate Trump's strength in the low-participation caucuses. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc082c9c849d21801cdbb51e56df65295611592910d7ba22bd71 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc082c9c849d21801cdbb51e56df65295611592910d7ba22bd71 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "We are not a call-in radio show." - Fox News host Chris Wallace, on not accepting phone interviews with GOP presidential candidate, Donald Trump 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc0805fe0e739c4e2e64281981c3962c597260aa77835591a87d 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3ccf0e793c67fc0805fe0e739c4e2e64281981c3962c597260aa77835591a87d 

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