Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score, presented by Sinclair Broadcast Group: Trump puts GOP House control in question — DSCC posts $6.2 million, Senate Leadership Fund $1.1 million in February — Angle returns to challenge Heck in Nevada Senate
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2016 08:02:03 -0600

By Elena Schneider | 03/21/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With Theodoric Meyer 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)

HOUSE FIRE - "Trump puts GOP House majority in jeopardy," by Campaign Pro's Theodoric Meyer and Elena Schneider: "Donald Trump is on the verge of two things once thought to be impossible: winning the Republican presidential nomination, and putting Republicans' historically large House majority in danger. ... The House GOP's leading indicators - its most vulnerable members, like Reps. Bob Dold and Carlos Curbelo - are already sounding the alarm against Trump and his rhetoric on women, Hispanics and other groups. The party's outside groups are preparing an intensified fundraising push to help defend the chamber. The respected Cook Political Report downgraded Republicans' chances in 10
 districts Friday. And while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has been stung by overzealous predictions in past years, won't say outright that the majority is in play, the party is clearly thinking about it."

Key quote ... "The idea that Trump is going to help with federal races is like putting lipstick on a pig," said Jason Roe, a California-based Republican strategist and a former spokesman for Marco Rubio's presidential campaign. "To deal with that, most people with a brain are cutting and running, redirecting resources from the presidential to keeping control of Senate and House." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d79156870e9f5352c463b410cf6ca9075239b04d0b320987315466636cdc53a3

FIRST IN SCORE - DSCC tops NRSC in February fundraising: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $6.2 million last month, beating its Republican opposite by $1.4 million. The NRSC raised $4.8 million in February, ending with $16.2 million in cash on hand. The DSCC has more than $15.2 in cash on hand, with $1 million in operational debt, according to a committee aide. 

- The DCCC raised $7.1 million in February, with $37 million in cash on hand, POLITICO reported last week. The NRCC raised $6.3 million, with $39 million in cash on hand. 

PRESIDENTIAL FUNDRAISING - Cruz raised $12 million in February; Kasich raises $3.4 million in February - Sanders [$43.5 million] far outpaced Clinton [$30 million] in February fundraising - Pro-Clinton super PAC fundraising fell in February - Anti-Trump super PAC raised $4.8 million in February - Pro-Cruz super PACs ramped up in February - Kasich super PAC finished February with $2.5 million - Club for Growth nets $4 million for Trump fight - Rubio entered homestretch with cash to burn - Rubio super PAC raised $25 million last month.

- Inside Rubio's up and down February: The Florida senator left the Iowa caucuses with a surge of momentum that his campaign translated into a big cash haul -but that fundraising went up in smoke after Chris Christie smacked Rubio for repeating lines at a Feb. 6 debate and Rubio then finished fifth in the New Hampshire primary Feb. 9. Rubio's February FEC report tells the story of his massive momentum shifts in February; see it charted here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d79156870e9f5352f3fe0f782385e288395028883921008b539d9db452807383

Days until the Arizona and Utah primaries and the Idaho Democratic caucuses: 1.

Days until the 2016 election: 231. 

Thanks for joining us. You can email tips to the whole Campaign Pro team at [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked] and [email-masked].

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally about karma: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @kyledcheney.

GUESS WHO'S BACK, BACK AGAIN - Sharron Angle, the arch-conservative who lost to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in 2010's Nevada Senate contest, will run again for the seat in 2016, setting off a contested GOP primary in one of the country's key battleground Senate races. "The people know who I am - they know I am the anti-establishment candidate," Angle told The Associated Press on Friday. "I'm counting on the grassroots one more time." Angle also told the news service she wanted a Donald Trump-Ted Cruz presidential ticket. Angle will face Rep. Joe Heck, who has the backing of the national and state Republican establishments, in a June 14 primary. The winner will face Democrat Catherine
 Cortez Masto, Reid's chosen successor.

SENATE CASH DASH - Senate Majority PAC raises $1.4 million in February: Senate Majority PAC, Democrats' premier super PAC in Senate races, pulled in $1.4 million in February, giving the super PAC $6.4 million in cash on hand. The biggest check came from the American Federation of Teachers' PAC, which gave $500,000. The super PAC spent about $331,000 in the month, including a $200,000 contribution to VoteVets Action Fund, a nonprofit that backs Democratic candidates.

- Senate Majority PAC to air ads in Ohio: Days after Freedom Partners Action Fund started a $2 million media buy against Democrat Ted Strickland, the Democratic group announced it will begin its own $640,000 ad campaign in Ohio on Tuesday. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d79156870e9f5352321b8544aa83ffcc854673e2482b6dd9bf241c22b62a5cb6

- Senate Leadership Fund brings in just under $1.1 million: $1 million of that came from Petrodome Energy, the Texas oil and gas company owned by W.E. Bosarge Jr. SLF donated $30,000 to American Crossroads, part of its network of outside groups under Steven Law, and had over $13.2 million on hand after February.

- House Majority PAC's donors revealed: House Majority PAC raised close to $1.2 million in February, as Campaign Pro reported on Thursday. The super PAC's FEC report, filed on Friday, reveals that most of the money came from three donors: Bernard Schwartz, a top Democrat donor who gave $500,000; Jon Stryker, a Michigan billionaire and frequent Democratic donor, who gave $250,000; and the International Union of Operating Engineers' PAC, which gave $250,000.

FIRST IN SCORE - House Majority PAC adds two: House Majority PAC, the flagship Democratic super PAC in House races, has hired two new staffers to work on independent expenditures: Trent Armitage and Jerah Smith. Armitage comes from the Virginia House Democratic Caucus, where he was the executive director. Smith worked as Rep. Raul Ruiz's campaign manager in California last cycle.

** A message from Sinclair Broadcast Group: Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest and most diversified television broadcasting company in the country today, delivers not only TV, the primary medium for reaching potential voters, but also targetable digital (mobile, video, email, social media and native) ad solutions. Contact Alan Brittan @ 703-236-9673. Sinclair, busy - Making Political Ads Work! **

FIRST IN SCORE - GETTING THE NOD - Bend the Arc Jewish Action PAC will endorse its first Senate candidates in 2016: Democrats Tammy Duckworth in Illinois and Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, according to the group. "Our plan is to raise $15,000 for each Senate candidate we endorse and between $5,000 and $10,000 for each House member. We have close to 200,000 in pledges from our leadership committee members and our plan is to raise half a million this cycle," said Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block, the group's director. He emphasized that the group isn't a single-issue community, but they're focused on candidates who "stand up for" immigration reform, racial justice, working families and women's issues.
 They also expect to make more endorsements. 

REDISTRICTING NEVER SLEEPS - Supreme Court to hear Virginia redistricting case Monday: "The Supreme Court on Monday takes up a long-running political fight about whether ... Republican lawmakers packed African American voters into Democratic Rep. [Bobby] Scott's district to comply with the Voting Rights Act or to make surrounding districts more hospitable to white candidates," the Washington Post's Robert Barnes and Jenna Portnoy report. "... A panel of federal judges said the commonwealth's plan veered from partisan gerrymandering aimed at protecting incumbents - for which the Supreme Court has shown a high tolerance - into racial gerrymandering, which the Constitution forbids. In a sense,
 said Nathaniel Persily, an election-law expert at Stanford Law School, 'the Voting Rights Act is on a collision course with the Constitution.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d79156870e9f5352eab53f3b089b86e95a441cf016a7cb2784f46e922bce366f

- North Carolina member asks FEC to set new contribution limit for rescheduled primary: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d79156870e9f53523a9147efb1b176a0f36aa725b3e38c06deeaea8350026135

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Is Cruz already too late to stop Trump?" By POLITICO's Shane Goldmacher: " ... Election day is still two days away in Arizona, but well more than half of Republicans expected to vote in the state's primary Tuesday have already cast their ballots - complicating Cruz's attempts to overtake Donald Trump as both make a late push for the state's lucrative, winner-take-all prize of 58 delegates. ... This raft of early voting represents a particular challenge for Cruz, whose team acknowledges he is likely climbing out of a hole, even though the campaign first put an Arizona team in place last September." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d79156870e9f5352f60059fcbd2354bfcb9d24840171ebcd3a9338e626e5af62

- "Trump plans AIPAC surprise," by POLITICO's Eli Stokols: Over the nine months of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has yet to step to a podium and read from a script. That changes Monday, when he is set to address more than 18,000 people attending the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington. He's also looking to surprise the crowd with something else: substance. ... As he closes in on the Republican nomination, the unconventional and controversial candidate is taking steps to address concerns about his seriousness and whether he has the policy chops and intellectual curiosity to be commander in chief." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d79156870e9f53524229908279ed42a3289f66b1e9ca54bc04090bab40e4b53d 

- "In sharp rebuke, Anti-Defamation League announces it will 'redirect' previous donations from Trump," by The Washington Post's Jose A. DelReal: "... a prominent Jewish religious organization on Sunday announced that it will 'redirect' money that the billionaire has donated in previous years to anti-discrimination education programs and urged other groups to do the same. Trump has donated $56,000 in the past 10 years, according to the Anti-Defamation League's estimates, and has attended events held by the group." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d79156870e9f5352deaed253134938c3ab0b41c525dff523b076ad71a1a7559a 

- "Man who pulled protester revealed as Trump security," by POLITICO's Kenneth P. Vogel and Ben Schreckinger: "Donald Trump's campaign blamed an unidentified man for manhandling a protester at a Saturday afternoon rally in Tucson, but POLITICO has learned that the man was in fact part of Trump's own security detail. During the rally, the man introduced himself to Tucson police officers as a member of Trump's security team during a discussion about the large contingent of protesters at the rally, according to a source who witnessed the exchange in the upper level of the Tucson Convention Center. The source said the man, dressed in a dark pullover embroidered with the logo for 'Trump National
 Doral' resort, also could be seen directing uniformed security personnel inside the convention center, which hosted the rally." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d79156870e9f53525712982510aa25e3aa30e57d82b4ad112e5f33c46438309d 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Gig'Em. I said Gig 'Em. Wow. Never say die. Lessons for all of us. #HelloCleveland." - Kasich chief strategist John Weaver, reacting to (and trying to draw a parallel with) Texas A&M's comeback victory in the NCAA basketball tournament Sunday night.

** A message from Sinclair Broadcast Group: The race for influence in the 2016 election cycle is gaining speed. Everyone is looking to reach as big of an audience as possible and get significant portions of that audience motivated and educated enough to vote and mobilize probable supporters. As the pace quickens, more will be trying to find an edge to influence voters their way. Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest and most diversified television broadcasting company in the country today, can help you break through the clutter. Utilizing both TV, the primary medium for reaching potential voters and targetable digital (mobile, video, email, social media and native) ad solutions, Sinclair
 Makes Political Ads Work! The bottom line is the bottom line - winning elections. At the Sinclair Broadcast Group, we have the ad tools necessary to help you to persuade, enlighten and activate voters. Contact Alan Brittan, Sinclair's Director of Political Ads for more details @ 703-236-9673. **

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