Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Down-ballot donor chase for GOP is on — Trump trailing in new Republican House internal from Romney district — New ads in Indiana, Ohio, and more
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2016 08:02:06 -0600

By Elena Schneider | 08/12/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With Maggie Severns, 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)

TAINTED BY ASSOCIATION - "Some GOP donors hesitate to back candidates who back Trump," by Campaign Pro's Theodoric Meyer: "[Tony] Fratto is one of a number of Republican donors who have vowed not to back any Republican House or Senate candidates who are supporting Donald Trump. That includes Rubio, who backed Trump in a taped speech at the Republican National Convention and has expressed a willingness to campaign with Trump." ... "'You have some donors that are giving to Trump,' said Mike Shields, who runs Congressional Leadership Fund, a top GOP super PAC involved in House races. 'And then you have some donors that say, "I'm worried about the top of the ticket, I want to make sure we
 protect the House."'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fbbdb01a43d6a25b4a51d0d96176984bcf4ed5a076a6362a4e1d82d039649745

- "GOP donors, fearful of Trump-fueled electoral rout, direct big money down-ballot," by the Washington Post's Matea Gold: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fbbdb01a43d6a25b8e8248562133b5af38effbc69f549b8e84a0fc5f2e781c24

- "Dozens of Republicans to urge RNC to cut off funds for Trump," by POLITICO's Anna Palmer: "More than 70 Republicans have signed an open letter to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus urging him to stop spending any money to help Donald Trump win in November and shift those contributions to Senate and House races. The letter comes as a number of Republican senators and high-profile GOP national security officials have come forward saying they cannot vote for Trump." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16ee832d947351029c4190f899fb6fde283a8d2e80c864e18b16 

SPEAKING OF WHICH - FIRST IN SCORE - Senate Leadership Fund attacks Bayh: Senate Leadership Fund is spending $1 million attacking Democrat Evan Bayh in Indiana with an ad that starts today and running through August 21st. The ad aims to rip up Bayh's bipartisan messaging: "Who voted with Obama up to 96 percent of the time? Evan Bayh," a narrator says. As photos of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appear on the screen on either side of Bayh, the narrator says, "when it counted, Evan Bayh voted with them, not with Indiana." The ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16ee811eca19b586075851c4635b2939bf37a23488012078caba

- ADDED AIRTIME - Major outside Senate TV coming to North Carolina: The conservative group One Nation will start airing ads in two key Senate states that haven't seen as much outside spending as others, North Carolina and Missouri, for ten days starting next Tuesday. More info here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16eef0304ad36f3a6a18a4af97a14cff2cdd2dfb3c8ea47df54b

DOWN-BALLOT DRAG (OR NOT) WATCH - Yoder leading but Trump dragging badly in Kansas internal: "GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas has a wide lead over Democrat Jay Sidie in a new internal poll, despite Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump in the usually Republican-leaning district. Yoder leads Sidie 53 percent to 36 percent among likely voters, per the survey conducted by Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies. Clinton has a narrow but statistically significant lead over Trump in the Kansas City-area district, with 44 percent support to Trump's 38 percent. (Mitt Romney carried the district with 54 percent of the vote in 2012.)" See the full polling memo here. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16eeabc211fa9c8c055144676a742e0bfbece86a71a7e94b8730

- The DCCC, meanwhile, took the poll as evidence that Sidie can catch up to Yoder, since Trump is doing poorly. "Congressman Yoder is sounding the alarms about his increasingly difficult path to reelection," Tyler Law, a DCCC spokesman, said in a statement. "Yoder's decision to embrace Trump and [unpopular GOP Gov. Sam] Brownback will cost him at the ballot box."

Days until the 2016 election: 88.

Days until the Hawaii congressional primaries: 1. Days until the Alaska and Wyoming congressional primaries: 4.

Thank 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 how a running Sen. Kelly Ayotte can't escape Trump mask-wearing protesters (OK, that was about politics, so here are some animals with British accents): @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

NEW THIS MORNING - U.S. Chamber of Commerce out with fourth TV ad in Ohio: The Chamber released an ad attacking Democrat Ted Strickland for his tenure as governor, marked by "job losses, higher taxes and wasteful spending." "89 cents. You can find that in your couch. Or your jeans. Or even under your floor mats. But as governor, Ted Strickland left only 89 cents in Ohio's Rainy Day Fund." The ad is "backed by a "seven-figure buy that will run in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland," per the group's spokeswoman. Watch the ad here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1c408827af9b614bd033cb15ef83f4aa2fa51344b953f15534bef7596ed79616 

BATTLEGROUND PRIMARY ALERT - Gowan drops out of AZ-01 GOP race, endorses Kiehne: Arizona state House Speaker David Gowan dropped out of the race for an open House seat in Arizona on Thursday, less than three weeks before the GOP primary. Gowan had struggled to raise money or gain support, but he framed his decision as a way to derail well-known Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's Republican candidacy. "For all of our various differences, what every other candidate in this race can agree on is that Paul Babeu must not be our nominee if we are to prevail in November," Gowan said in a statement. "The baggage he brings to the race simply cannot survive the millions of dollars that the Democrats
 will bring to this race and we have no reason to believe that the Republican Party will spend millions of dollars trying to save such a lost cause, particularly not with so many other critical races going on around the country."

GIFFORDS GROUP POLLS: GUN ISSUE COULD HURT AYOTTE, RUBIO - Two new polls conducted by Public Policy Polling for the pro-gun control group Americans for Responsible Solutions found New Hampshire Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan leading GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte 47 percent to 42 percent and Florida Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy nearly tied with GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, 40 percent to 42 percent. In each state, they also found a majority of voters also falsely believe the Republicans support universal background checks. "The average voter doesn't know," Global Strategy Group pollster Jef Pollock said on a conference call with reporters, citing polls that show 80 percent or more of voters backing
 universal background checks. "When you have a number that big that supports background check, people are consistently surprised that anybody could be against it."

OBAMA-WHAT? - "Obamacare loses its fire on campaign trail," by POLITICO's Jennifer Haberkorn: "A handful of moderate House Republicans in tight reelection contests have done something that most Republicans would consider unthinkable - renounce the GOP catechism on repealing Obamacare as they fight for their political lives. They say they oppose the health law but are reluctant to tear it up completely." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16ee2c32c4c782266dd9303c8fbb6f0c3206dcb9cb5477936e21 

MORE FROM YOUR LOCAL TV STATION - In Pennsylvania: "A new TV ad from a major labor union continues Wall Street-themed attacks on GOP Sen. Pat Toomey. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16eead1fa63798529ca6ad2a5ce8ad3d1ea2ce084c44fc3a3714 

- In ME-02: "House Majority PAC, the lead super PAC backing Democrats in House races, is going up with a new TV ad backing Emily Cain, who's challenging GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin in Maine. The ad is a rare positive spot from the super PAC, which, like other outside groups, often plays an attack-dog role. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16ee07e62a91a4f620dc7a8e6c971474c85f02a32408b8d8da0f 

FIRST IN SCORE - FreedomWorks endorses Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar: FreedomWorks PAC is backing Gosar, a House Freedom Caucus member, who's facing Ray Strauss, a Buckeye City Councilman and a pastor who hasn't raised more than $100,000 in the cycle so far. "Rep. Gosar understands that in order for America to prosper, Congress must pass pro-growth policies that reduce tax burdens and slash bureaucratic red tape," the group's chairman Adam Brandon said in a statement. 

THIS IS WHAT YOU POLL FOR - In Iowa: "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are locked in a statistical tie in Iowa, according to a new poll out Thursday. The Manhattan billionaire leads the former secretary of State by a single point, 41 percent to 40 percent, among likely voters who responded to the Suffolk University poll," POLITICO's Louis Nelson reported. The poll also shows Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley with a 10-point lead over his Democratic challenger, Patty Judge. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16eef0cb4c09c026d7b5f3cedaf6281a486f989ab475c5141980

STAFFING UP - Cambridge Analytica continues D.C. expansion: The fast-growing analytics firm has hired Emily Cornell to serve as its senior vice president of political affairs and Eric Grawien as a project manager in Washington. The firm also added Laura Hilger as its London-based director of research. Cornell spent four years in at the Republican National Committee and served as Scott Walker's deputy presidential campaign manager. Grawien formerly worked for Data Trust, while Hilger has worked in commercial market research.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Trump campaign, RNC plan pivotal meeting," by POLITICO's Marc Caputo, Ben Schreckinger and Kenneth P. Vogel: "Donald Trump's campaign and top Republican Party officials plan what one person called a 'come to Jesus' meeting on Friday in Orlando to discuss the Republican nominee's struggling campaign, according to multiple sources familiar with the scheduled sit-down. Though a campaign source dismissed it as a 'typical' gathering, others described it as a more serious meeting, with one calling it an 'emergency meeting.' It comes at a time of mounting tension between the campaign and the Republican National Committee, which is facing pressure to pull the plug on
 Trump's campaign and redirect party funds down ballot to protect congressional majorities endangered by Trump's candidacy." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16ee9cb0685518b5fe1214731743e188e5a406ea49c363fae2fa 

- "Hillary Clinton's climate army," by POLITICO's Andrew Restuccia: "Hillary Clinton has assembled a virtual army of formal and informal advisers on energy, the environment and climate change - and the names on the list indicate she fully aims to continue President Barack Obama's push to green the economy and take on global warming. The team of nearly 100 informal advisers, who have spent the past year compiling recommendations on everything from chemical safety and Everglades ... Besides offering a rough picture of who might claim high-level jobs in her administration, the massive collection of Clinton advisers contrasts sharply with Trump's campaign, which is relying on just a few outside
 experts such as Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm to help chart his energy agenda." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16ee572ebcfc680031244972f39305916468163337562c3fe9de 

- "Clinton eagerly cedes the spotlight to Trump," by POLITICO's Eli Stokols: "In what was billed as a major economic policy speech, Hillary Clinton drew a sharp contrast between her plan and Donald Trump's - but she colored softly, content to do or say very little that would divert the media's attention from her opponent. ...But Clinton's criticisms of the GOP nominee were notable in their cool, clipped delivery - not dripping with animosity or the urgency of a candidate in an actual fight. It's a deliberate strategy. ...amid Trump's continued self-immolation, Clinton's aim is to steer clear of the flames by avoiding national headlines." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=692579b428ab16ee905d6cf9de229e7b8db9f1019dac5dbb3ce95c25fb189bc4

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "What's everybody listening to?" President Obama tweeted with two summer playlists on Spotify. Wherever you stand on his policies, the man can make a playlist. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1c408827af9b614be84424e6de899c5abd12677b903a777a10322c1a60102882 

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