Subject: POLITICO’s Morning Score, presented by Pandora: Westmoreland latest to retire — Ayotte, Hassan tied in new robopoll — Moderate Democrats flee Obama on guns
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 2016 09:00:57 -0600

By Theodoric Meyer | 01/08/2016 09:59 AM EDT

With Elena Schneider, Scott Bland and Kevin Robillard 

The following newsletter is an abridged version of Campaign Pro's Morning Score. For an earlier morning read on exponentially more races - and for a more comprehensive aggregation of the day's most important campaign news - sign up for Campaign Pro today. (http://www.politicopro.com/proinfo)

SOON THERE WILL BE NO ONE LEFT - GOP Rep. Lynn Westmoreland to retire: GOP Rep. Lynn Westmoreland announced his retirement on Thursday, saying in a statement that "it is time to pass the torch to our next conservative voice. Washington, D.C. is a much different environment in 2016 than when I was elected in 2004. I know all too well the challenges the new representative will face, and pledge to offer my support and guidance to the next candidate." Westmoreland's district is safely Republican, but the election to replace the 65-year-old lawmaker may still be hard-fought. A trio of open GOP primaries in Georgia last cycle devolved into proxy fights over Republican leadership, with some
 candidates running on a pledge not to vote for John Boehner for speaker of the House.

- Multiple sources mentioned GOP state Sens. Josh McKoon and Mike Crane as possible candidates for the seat in the 3rd District, south of Atlanta, while state Reps. David Stovers and Matt Ramsey and Westmoreland chief of staff Matt Brass were also mentioned.

FIRST IN SCORE - Ayotte, Hassan tied in new poll: A new poll of the New Hampshire Senate race from Public Policy Polling shows GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan tied, with Ayotte with 44 percent support and Hassan with 42 percent. Fourteen percent of voters polled were undecided. But Hassan's favorability is stronger than Ayotte's. Forty-eight percent approve of Hassan's job performance, while 39 percent disapprove; 41 percent approve of Ayotte's performance, while 43 percent disapprove. Hassan also appears to have a major edge on one key issue. Eighty-three percent of voters said they support criminal background checks for all gun purchases, a step Ayotte opposes. The
 same percentage supports blocking people on the terrorist watch list from buying a gun. 

- The governor's race is also deadlocked. The poll found that 42 percent would generally vote for a Democratic candidate and 42 percent would generally vote for a Republican. GOP Executive Councilor Chris Sununu is by far the best known of the four declared candidates, with roughly one-third of voters having a positive opinion of him, one-third possessing a negative opinion and one-third unsure. None of the other candidates -Democrats Colin Van Ostern and Mark Connelly and Republican Frank Edelblut - are known by more than 25 percent of the electorate. In head-to-head surveys, Sununu tops both Democrats while Edelblut trails both. bit.ly/1OD3J0P

Days until the Iowa caucuses: 24. Days until the 2016 election: 305.

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AN ANNOUNCEMENT - POLITICO Magazine's "Obama Issue" is out today: Days before President Obama will deliver his final State of the Union address, POLITICO Magazine releases a standout issue on America's 44th president and his hotly contested, historic presidency. Glenn Thrush, Michael Grunwald, Rich Lowry, Michael Eric Dyson, and Michael Crowley are just some of the contributors to this must-read issue. Read here http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1697e1ba4d8dcb1a7c918ed6636ce1e076ce502b300464da1979c9fc3d714290 or grab a print copy at a Starbucks around D.C.

THE GUN DEBATE - "Moderate Dems run from Obama," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett and Lauren French: "Barack Obama will never be on the ballot again, but his new plan to combat gun violence is causing a fresh round of worries among centrist Democrats looking to disentangle themselves from his legacy before they again face voters. ... While a small number of House moderates like Reps. Gwen Graham of Florida and Brad Ashford of Nebraska will be on the ballot alongside Democrats' presidential nominee, likely Hillary Clinton, this fall, the far more troubling election for Democrats will occur in 2018. In that midterm, five Senate Democrats will be up for reelection in strongly conservative states
 from Indiana to Montana to West Virginia." politi.co/1Rds8Ms

- And Obama is pushed back forcefully against Democrats who won't support him: "I will not campaign for, vote for or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support common-sense gun reform," the president wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times today. But the Democrats who disagree with Obama on guns - such as North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the only Democratic senator to vote against a pair of gun-control amendments after the San Bernardino shootings last month - may also be among the least likely to benefit from his presence with them on the campaign trail. nyti.ms/1mJN0xU

NEW LINES - Federal court: Virginia must use new congressional map in 2016: politico.pro/22OmjsL

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Donald Trump's big tent," by Campaign Pro's Scott Bland: "Republicans explain away their unwelcome poll-leader by dismissing his supporters as a loud but narrow network of angry white men and celebrity chasers. It's not true. A POLITICO review of private and public polling data and interviews with GOP pollsters shows a coalition that certainly begins with conservative, blue-collar men now extends to pro-choice Republicans, independents and even registered Democrats unnerved, primarily, by illegal immigration. Indeed, the uncomfortable truth, for the pundits and fellow Republicans who turned their noses up at Trump, is that his appeal has spread over seven months
 so far beyond a rabble-rousing, anti-establishment rump to encompass the very elements of the American electorate the GOP has been eager to reach. And while it's no majority, it's a bigger group than anything the rest of the fragmented Republican field has galvanized." politi.co/1MWZo2N

- "Megadonor Dick Uihlein gives $1 million to Ted Cruz's super PAC," by CNN's Theodore Schleifer: "Dick Uihlein, one of the top Republican megadonors nationwide, has decided to back Ted Cruz's presidential campaign and has donated $1 million to his super PAC. Uilhlein committed on Wednesday evening, according to Drew Ryun, a super PAC official with Keep The Promise PAC. 'He is one of the top five courted GOP donors,' Ryun told CNN. 'For us to land him is a good shot in the arm for Ted, and it really sets the stage going into Iowa.'" cnn.it/1ODts9b

- "Insiders: Clinton and Cruz aren't sure bets in Iowa," by POLITICO's Steve Shepard: Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz are poised to win the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses - but haven't yet locked the state down. And Donald Trump has the edge among Republicans in the three other states that will vote next month, including a commanding advantage in New Hampshire. That's according to the first survey of 2016 of members of the POLITICO Caucus - our panel of the top activists, strategists and operatives in the four early-voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. With only 24 days of campaigning before Iowans gather to cast the first ballots in the presidential nominating process, wide
 majorities of insiders in the state said Clinton and Cruz would win if the caucuses were held today. But when asked whether both candidates have the win in the bank, many cautioned that things still could change." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1697e1ba4d8dcb1a6aa44f202966c76d295199c2d81de98d838734304575b60b

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty ... these types of guys ... they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road." - GOP Gov. Paul LePage of Maine. A spokesman later said LePage's remarks were not about race. bit.ly/1PMM0TF

CORRECTION: Thursday's Morning Score mischaracterized the Democratic primary in FL-18. It has not cleared since Randy Perkins' entrance; Democrats Jonathan Chane and Priscilla Taylor remained in.

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