Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score, presented by Sinclair Broadcast Group: PRIMARY NIGHT: Barksdale wins Democratic Senate nod in Georgia — Crane, Ferguson make GA-03 GOP runoff in GA-03 — Gonzalez, Arrington win House primary runoffs in Texas
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 08:02:03 -0600

By Theodoric Meyer | 05/25/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With Kevin Robillard, Elena Schneider, Maggie Severns and Kyle Cheney

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)

ELECTION RESULTS - Trump wins Washington state: Donald Trump marched closer to the Republican nomination on Tuesday, winning Washington state's primary unopposed. With the win, the mogul closed in on earning the 1,237 pledged delegates he needs to claim the nomination, a threshold he's certain to cross on June 7. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e8a459f9d614dcd1375f8ebcab1bab45ed6cdae8c10cc76ccacc6791e5c78463

- Crane, Ferguson advance to GOP runoff to replace Westmoreland: State Sen. Mike Crane and West Point Mayor Drew Ferguson advanced to a July 26 GOP runoff after finishing first and second in GA-03. Crane and Ferguson both had 27 percent of the vote ... Businessman Jim Pace came in third with 23 percent of the vote and four other candidates split the remainder. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e8a459f9d614dcd1b2d2e3104da0ce3b2e99404fe5b7dcc258183055ff6cf8be

- Barksdale will face Isakson in Georgia Senate race: Jim Barksdale, a wealthy financier, secured the Democratic nomination by a narrower-than-expected margin on Tuesday to face GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson in Georgia. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Barksdale - who's loaned his campaign $1.1 million so far - led with 54 percent of the vote. Cheryl Copeland, a project manager who raised little money, took 42 percent, while a third candidate picked up the rest of the vote.

- Gonzalez wins Democratic primary in TX-15: Self-funding attorney Vicente Gonzalez won Tuesday's Democratic primary runoff to replace retiring Rep. Ruben Hinojosa in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. Gonzalez had 66 percent with all precincts reporting. Gonzalez, who had picked up support from a few sitting members of Congress, flooded the airwaves. He loaned his campaign over a million dollars and ran one of the top-spending House efforts in the entire country. The seat is safely Democratic.

- Arrington wins primary runoff to replace Neugebauer in TX-19: Former Texas Tech University Vice Chancellor Jodey Arrington won the GOP primary runoff to replace retiring GOP Rep. Randy Neugebauer. Arrington had 54 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Lubbock Mayor Glen Robertson when the Associated Press called the race ... The 19th District is a safely Republican seat. ... Arrington had the backing of the biggest names in Texas' old guard, including former Gov. Rick Perry and former President George W. Bush.

- Collins, Loudermilk beat back primary challenges: Republican Rep. Doug Collins won his primary in Georgia's 9th District, despite a challenge from former Rep. Paul Broun, who once represented about half of the district. Collins had 62 percent of the vote to Broun's 22 percent when The Associated Press called the race. And freshman GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk also won his GOP primary without a runoff, besting four challengers in suburban Atlanta.

See primary results here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1b2ac1716740a3ac852784cc889f8bb83d444e5c0810361da6f7976e7163ed63

Days until the California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota primaries, North Dakota's Democratic presidential primary and North Carolina's rescheduled House primary: 13. 

Days until the 2016 election: 167.

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 joust about style: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

** 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! **

ONE STEP BACK - Dem Gilbert drops challenge to Bishop in MI-08: Democrat Melissa Gilbert, the former "Little House on the Prairie" star challenging GOP Rep. Mike Bishop in Michigan's 8th District, announced late Tuesday she was dropping out of the race. Her decision is a step backward for the Democratic Party, which hoped to add Bishop's GOP-leaning seat to their battleground map in 2016 and has been touting new battleground recruits of late. Gilbert cited health issues stemming from a 2012 accident as her reason for exiting the race. She had also faced criticism over unpaid taxes and comments she made in 2009 about filmmaker Roman Polanski's rape of a 13-year-old girl. Michigan's filing
 deadline passed last month, and state Elections Director Chris Thomas told The Detroit Free Press that Gilbert would remain the only Democrat on the Aug. 2 primary ballot. 

UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT - DeSantis under fire for fundraising off IRS impeachment effort, by POLITICO's Rachael Bade: "Rep. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Republican recently tapped to lead the IRS impeachment hearings, has been raising campaign money off the high-stakes inquiry into [IRS Commissioner John Koskinen's] alleged misconduct - a move that's earning bipartisan condemnation on the Hill." DeSantis is one of five Republicans running for the open Florida Senate seat. "While many congressional investigators at least try to give the impression that their probes are not politically motivated, DeSantis seems to have little reservation about mixing his Senate run with a politically explosive
 action like impeaching the head of a major federal agency. Privately, a number of Republicans said it's cause for concern." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=72c85f496994934f8889d3aea7d7ce76e81d15a95c7aed6059ef52c25db858d4

PRIMARY PROBLEMS - "Can Sanders' money swamp Wasserman Schultz?" by Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: "Suddenly, Tim Canova is the most famous primary challenger in America. With Bernie Sanders' unexpected endorsement on national television, Canova, a lawyer from Hollywood, Fla., got a dramatic boost for his liberal challenge to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In three days since Sanders endorsed him, Canova's phone has been ringing off the hook, he's been all over the national news, and his campaign is suddenly grabbing the attention of national Democrats." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=acbc8c5c929027e541a4711e453b611cfa7b1b6ec650268fa865b0af5ba076ac

MORE MONEY, MORE SCRUTINY - "In Wasserman Schultz race, Canova fixing plagiarism problem," by POLITICO Florida's Marc Caputo: "Amid the thousands of words outlining his campaign's important issues, congressional candidate Tim Canova had two sentence fragments that spelled potential trouble for the Democrat: Plagiarism. So Canova's campaign pledged to update the 'On the Issues' section of his campaign website on Tuesday when the two instances - one involving a New York Times piece about voting rights and another from a consultant's analysis of alternative energy - were brought to his attention by POLITICO Florida."

- "While the Canova campaign said it's moving on, the incident is indicative of how every word of his will be scrutinized ... A Wasserman Schultz supporter first flagged the issue for POLITICO Florida - a sign of the vetting to come for Canova, a political newcomer in Florida's 23rd Congressional District." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=acbc8c5c929027e56bd26c6dbe22e711a051b157d6380f83a8bbe41c458add32

THE NO. 2 SPOT - Gregg picks Hale as running mate in Indiana governor's race: Democrat John Gregg has chosen state Rep. Christina Hale as his running mate in the Indiana governor's race, The Associated Press reports. Hale is one of the party's few young stars in a state government dominated by Republicans, and many Indiana Democrats had urged Gregg, 61, to select her. "She would add much-needed energy to the campaign and ease concerns about Gregg's conservative record on social issues while a member of the Indiana House," The Indianapolis Star's Matthew Tully wrote back in March. 

FIRST IN SCORE - Feingold drops $3.6 million on fall TV reservations: Democrat Russ Feingold has reserved $3.6 million worth of statewide broadcast television in the Wisconsin Senate race, according to a media-buying source. It's the first part of his fall buy. The reservation starts on Aug. 10 and runs through Election Day.

AD WATCH - End Citizens United PAC targets four Republican senators: End Citizens United PAC, which backs Democrats who support campaign finance reform, is going after four Republican senators who are opposed to a new corporate contribution disclosure proposal. The ads will target Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Richard Shelby of Alabama and John Boozman of Arkansas.

MORE TV LISTINGS - Giffords group ad hits Ayotte on gun votes: Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun control group formed by ex-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, is attacking New Hampshire GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte for opposing efforts to close the background check loophole for gun purchases with a new "seven-figure" ad buy in the state. The 30-second TV ad's narrator says that "nearly nine in 10 Granite Staters" want to close the background-check loophole and accuses Ayotte of standing "with the Washington gun lobby." The ad will run for "at least" three weeks and begins airing Wednesday. Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d28380ed38e362b61106f60ea6e712cf7b2f3caab32b732019d6705f55cbb84c

- Graham airing first ad in Colorado Senate race: Republican Jack Graham will start airing his first TV ad Wednesday, with five weeks to go until Colorado's Senate primary. The ad features Graham positioning himself as a businessman "with a track record of getting things done," he says to the camera in the ad. Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d28380ed38e362b64041639702a73dc3667f521f5e46dff1ec42ab3442fc3ab8

- Super PAC backing Holding in NC-02 hits the air: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=20b50a5dd0d8368dc50d7355f32a97f9dc979467a449952f9f102b144259881c

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Trump campaign rift gets personal," by POLITICO's Kenneth P. Vogel and Ben Schreckinger: "The internal struggle for control of Donald Trump's presidential campaign is getting personal, with allies of feuding campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and chairman Paul Manafort increasingly turning to shadowy tactics to try to sully their rivals. .... Lewandowski's enemies around the campaign, after months of circulating rumors about his personal life, had a hand in planting a suggestive item about his emotional argument with a campaign staffer in a New York tabloid, according a person with direct knowledge of how the item came to be." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=20b50a5dd0d8368dc81f07a8d1a09b768431fb0fa941bdf4c9fbdd5b657198ed

- "Clinton's allies dig in for scorched earth ad campaign," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti: "Hillary Clinton's campaign team and her allies don't expect Donald Trump to stop dominating national cable news or occupying television studio couches anytime soon. They just hope to own the commercial breaks. ... Democrats are preparing for a scorched-earth general election in which they increasingly believe they'll have to carpet bomb the presumptive GOP nominee over the swing state airwaves to combat his singular ability to get in front of a camera. ... Strategists close to the pro-Clinton effort believe the real estate tycoon's mastery of so-called earned media presents a new kind of
 challenge - one that demands meeting him where he lives, before anything else." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=20b50a5dd0d8368d68186349bbae1fd7ac3798f25c5ff1f07f9e864a163502bb

- "Hillary's summer of scandal," by POLITICO's Josh Gerstein: A flurry of events set to unfold in the coming days and months could push back into the headlines the controversy over Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, providing plenty of fodder for Donald Trump and his 'Crooked Hillary' attack line. Republicans are hoping for - and in some cases plotting - a summer of scandal for Clinton that helps tarnish and distract her presidential campaign as she tries to build momentum for a fall showdown with the Manhattan billionaire." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=20b50a5dd0d8368d9bf31e939611496083175b28ac2a5c133c199b0522d5eb1b

- "Four months after fundraiser, Trump says he gave $1 million to veterans group," by The Washington Post's David A. Fahrenthold: "Almost four months after promising $1 million of his own money to veterans' causes, Donald Trump moved to fulfill that pledge Monday evening ... as he came under intense media scrutiny." Trump "organized a nationally televised fundraiser for veterans' causes in Des Moines on Jan. 28. That night, Trump said he had raised $6 million, including the gift from his own pocket. 'Donald Trump gave $1 million,' he said then. As recently as last week, Trump's campaign manager had insisted that the mogul had already given that money away. But that was false: Trump had
 not." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=20b50a5dd0d8368dab66b849a021908b06a62d32a322af6eba60daedb3e21db8

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "There have been a lot of meetings over the past 48 hours about what color plate do we deliver Debbie Wasserman Schultz's head on." - An unnamed Democratic senator, who told The Hill that Wasserman Schultz might be removed from her role as the Democratic National Committee's chairwoman ahead of the convention. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=20b50a5dd0d8368d25071436770392c6ca7abb8b642c84371b3e7075ca46e260

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