Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: AFTER SUPER TUESDAY: House primaries post-mortem with NRCC and Congressional Leadership Fund — Kirkpatrick to go after McCain on Dream Act
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2016 09:01:52 -0600

By Theodoric Meyer | 03/03/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With Kevin Robillard and Elena Schneider

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)

SUPER TUESDAY POST-GAME - Congressional Leadership Fund President Mike Shields talks with Campaign Pro's Scott Bland: Despite the volatility of the presidential race, House and Senate incumbents batted 1.000 in their primaries Tuesday night. The member with the closest call, though, was Rep. Kevin Brady, the Texas Republican who succeeded Speaker Paul Ryan as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Brady won 53.4 percent of his primary vote, just a few points away from getting pulled into an unpredictable, low-turnout May runoff with one of his challengers. That's why the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with the GOP leadership, decided to get involved his
 primary just days before the election, spending over $175,000 to boost Brady, according to FEC reports.

- "This is the first time that the Congressional Leadership Fund has played in a primary," Mike Shields, the group's president, said on Wednesday. "This does mark a new chapter for us ... We're primarily focused on winning fall elections and beating Democrats. But we certainly reserve right to get involved in primaries to meet goals there." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a33646029a06b509067fa6fa901629452132ea5d266d708df2f410939861700b

- Top strategist for House Republicans' campaign committee talks Super Tuesday with Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: Rob Simms, the National Republican Congressional Committee's executive director had a "pretty darn good night" Tuesday, after his incumbents in Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas swept their primaries. The victories soothed anxious hand-wringing that a record-setting presidential primary electorate might take some of its anger out on members of Congress in their first wave of 2016 primaries.

- What about the general election, though? Could Donald Trump put the House - where Republican have a huge majority - in play if he's the nominee? "I think we were set up to have an extraordinarily competitive cycle, regardless of the dynamics at the top of the ticket," Simms said. "That's largely a byproduct success we've had in the last three cycles. We are defending 26 seats that Obama has won, so we knew from the beginning that this was going to be very competitive and so did our members." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2186cfe8a89ffdb40605d6ce6723681670125e437af36da779ea63593bc9b2ad

Days until the Louisiana primary, the Kansas caucuses, the Nebraska Democratic caucuses and the Kentucky and Maine Republican caucuses: 2. Days until the 2016 election: 251.

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TV TIMEOUT - Super PAC returns to air for Hollingsworth in IN-09: A super PAC backing businessman Trey Hollingsworth's run for Indiana's open 9th District is going back on the air to attack one of Hollingsworth's opponents, state Attorney General Greg Zoeller. "Remember the pro-amnesty immigration bill? Look who was there," the ad's narrator says, showing an image of a press conference. "Career politician Greg Zoeller." The super PAC, Indiana Jobs Now, also released an internal poll showing Hollingsworth and Zoeller tied.

- Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fa62534a13b34c342bd61b211b9ef6ce9447e241dd01de26708085e3d2222185

- End Citizens United PAC goes up with TV ads attacking Blunt: End Citizens United PAC, which backs Democrats who support campaign finance reform, is going up with a new TV ad criticizing GOP Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Chuck Raasch reports. Blunt, like other Republicans, has said he wants to wait until after the presidential election to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. "Washington politicians are stopping the conversation, blocking any nomination, refusing even to meet with the nominee, all for political gain," the narrator says in the ad. "Call Senator Blunt. Tell him to stop protecting his job and started doing it." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2186cfe8a89ffdb4590b1adf6dfb01502116e0685b875f850b0dc7e3161535c2

- Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2186cfe8a89ffdb4451dc939a86514b4190cb8688509818cb2b9ffeb08c67fc4

ON THE RADIO - Feingold radio ads hit Johnson on trade: Democrat Russ Feingold's campaign is airing radio ads in Wisconsin attacking GOP Sen. Ron Johnson for supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The 60-second ad opens with a narrator ticking off the damage trade deals have allegedly done to Wisconsin, including lower wages and 75,000 jobs lost. "Now Wall Street and corporate America want a new trade deal: the TPP," the narrator says. "And Senator Ron Johnson is helping Washington Insiders ram it through." The ad shifts to emphasizing Feingold's Senate vote against the original North American Free Trade Agreement and his opposition to the deal. 

- Listen to the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2186cfe8a89ffdb45fb96115d97c0a26810d88d32084daff35a69dac6798359e

LINES OF ATTACK - Kirkpatrick plans to go after McCain over Dream Act: Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who's challenging GOP Sen. John McCain in Arizona, is planning to go after McCain during the campaign for changing his position over the years on the Dream Act, a bill that would allow children who came to the United States illegally remain in the country. "His position on immigration literally depends on who he is talking to and whether he is on the ballot," Kirkpatrick said in an interview. McCain has championed the legislation several times, but Kirkpatrick's campaign pointed to other times at which he's come out against it - including in 2010, when a McCain spokeswoman told National
 Review that he opposed the bill. 

- Lorna Romero, a McCain campaign spokeswoman, called that Kirkpatrick's comments "empty rhetoric." "John McCain has always stated that one important part of reforming our broken immigration system is providing a pathway to citizenship for young children who were brought into this country illegally by their parents," she wrote in an email. "He believes our charge should be protecting vulnerable populations, not permanently punishing a child for unknowingly breaking the law." 

POLLING UPDATE - Poll: Guinta remains unpopular in NH-01: GOP Rep. Frank Guinta is still deeply unpopular after suffering through a campaign finance scandal last year, according to a new WMUR poll. Only 19 percent of respondents viewed Guinta favorably, while 46 percent viewed him favorably. Dan Innis, a former University of New Hampshire business school dean, and state Rep. Pam Tucker, who are challenging Guinta in the GOP primary, were both mostly unknown. Guinta's leading Democratic challenger, former Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, was better-liked; 38 percent viewed her favorably, and 34 percent viewed her unfavorably. The poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, had a
 margin of error of plus or minus 5.2 percentage points.

- GOP candidates better-known than Democratic candidates for N.H. governor: None of the potential New Hampshire gubernatorial are well known, according to the WMUR poll, but the Republicans are known better. On the Republican side, state Executive Councilor Chris Sununu was viewed favorably by 25 percent of respondents and unfavorably by 19 percent, and Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas, who's considering a run, was viewed favorably by 20 percent and unfavorably by 15 percent. On the Democratic side, none of the candidates were viewed favorably by more than 13 percent of respondents, or unfavorably by more than 10 percent. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

- Full results: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2186cfe8a89ffdb48f5a6f6dc93969303481a0ca3b699795bfb7f73373798a83

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Trump speech roils CPAC," by POLITICO's Kenneth P. Vogel: "Donald Trump's Saturday speaking slot at the Conservative Political Action Conference is prompting an acrimonious backlash from the conservative critics desperately trying to mount a last-ditch campaign to block the GOP presidential front-runner from winning the party's nomination. A top aide to Trump rival Marco Rubio has accused CPAC organizers of being in the tank for Trump and clearing the way for his acceptance into mainstream conservatism, while an anti-Trump super PAC is pressuring organizers to rescind their invitation to the surging GOP front-runner. Potentially complicating matters further,
 sources tell POLITICO that Trump has made multiple donations ― including a $50,000 check last year ― to the American Conservative Union, the group that organizes CPAC." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2186cfe8a89ffdb40f4fb259c6ef054457040071797a52f190dc46fa0df98f98

- The League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund and Priorities USA Action are partnering on a $274,000 direct mail effort targeting a half-million Democratic primary voters in Florida and North Carolina ahead of the March 15 primaries. "The mailer calls on voters to 'Join me in Building on the Progress We've Made Under President Obama,'" accoridng to LCV release, using a quote from Hillary Clinton as she runs on continuing the Obama administration's policies.

- "GOP fight to be Trump's only foe intensifies," by The Wall Street Journal's Reid J. Epstein: "On a Wednesday call with donors, [Marco] Rubio's campaign manager, Terry Sullivan, called [John] Kasich 'selfish' for remaining in the race. Mr. Sullivan said Mr. Rubio's donors who know Mr. Kasich should contact him and urge him to end his campaign. 'No one is doing more to help Donald Trump than John Kasich,' Mr. Sullivan said, according to a person on the call who provided notes to The Wall Street Journal. 'He is not getting delegates for himself, just for Trump.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2186cfe8a89ffdb4e19c7f7a10cc102ae193ee1b0d45dcccc79eb50e33e782bc

- "Wall Street readies big Trump assault," by POLITICO's Ben White: "Paul Singer, the billionaire hedge funder and top GOP donor, is ready to shell out to support Our Principles PAC, a super PAC dedicated to stopping Donald Trump, according to a source close to the group. "This person said Singer, who is worth close to $2 billion, is fully dedicated to making sure the group has all the funds it needs to inundate the airwaves in Florida and other states not viewed as entirely friendly to Trump, a group that includes Illinois, Missouri, Arizona, Wisconsin and other states in the Northeast and West. ... 'The money is not going to be a problem. We will raise what we need to do what we need to
 do,' the person close to the new anti-Trump PAC said. 'Yes there are people who are skeptical but there are just as many ready to write big checks. The question is only whether Trump truly is really Teflon.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2186cfe8a89ffdb4e359aa8876ead80cba778eb1c6c1e16e6c3860a5c534882f

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I would sooner vote for Josef Stalin than I would vote for Donald Trump." - Max Boot, a foreign policy adviser to Marco Rubio. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2186cfe8a89ffdb46d405ef491a0d71c0ead158fdbe41f1887a3e9ee2cf19086

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