Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Feingold State Department documents won’t pop before 2016 election — Post-Labor Day ad roundup — House Freedom Caucus looks to flex its muscle inside the next Congress
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2016 08:01:57 -0600

By Elena Schneider | 09/08/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With Kevin Robillard, Maggie Severns, Theodoric Meyer and Ken Vogel

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)

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE - "Feingold State Department documents unlikely to come out before election," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "Republicans looking for evidence of alleged political activity by Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold while at the State Department likely won't get their hands on Feingold's State documents until a month after the 2016 election, as a 20-month-old FOIA request has languished through the political season. ... The Wisconsin GOP has alleged Feingold violated the Hatch Act by discussing a potential bid with Democratic leaders while he was still serving as a special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa. The law bars partisan political activity by government
 employees. ... In late August, the State Department's Freedom of Information office emailed the NRSC to say the estimated delivery date for their request for Feingold's correspondence was December 2016." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961f2ed57742424f1ab62b9e8aad3b56db24ae62df7db2d8690d

FIRST IN SCORE - Kirkpatrick out with new positive ad in Arizona: Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick is going up with a new TV ad today in the Arizona Senate race, a positive spot that casts Kirkpatrick as a no-nonsense, boots-wearing Westerner. "We want a senator who's independent and stands up against the special interests, not a senator who has changed and gone Washington," the ad's narrator says. "Ann Kirkpatrick. She'll put her foot down and put Arizona first." The Kirkpatrick campaign is spending six figures to air the ad statewide on broadcast and cable. The ad follows a spot from GOP Sen. John McCain and the NRSC that started airing on Tuesday attacking Kirkpatrick for not being
 independent enough. Watch the Kirkpatrick ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961fa505ca0c0d445bb074f2e91166ef11a8027818fe24fab5be

ICMYI - "Ad roundup: Political ads fly post-Labor Day," by Campaign Pro's Maggie Severns: "Labor Day is just two days behind us, but Senate, House and gubernatorial campaigns are already unloading TV ads at a fast pace as the home stretch of the 2016 election begins. There are more television ads airing, and they're cropping up in some overlooked places. Many candidates for the House of Representatives are going up on the airwaves for the first time, while in the otherwise sleepy Louisiana Senate race, where Rep. John Fleming is beginning a seven-figure buy." 

- Sampling: CO-06: Democrat Morgan Carroll, whose campaign says it plans to air at least $1.4 million in TV ads before Nov. 8, says in her first ad that she is "running because Congress is broken and you deserve better." ... MN-08: The DCCC and NRCC both began airing new attack ads, as Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan faces a repeat challenge from Republican Stewart Mills. See dozens of new ads here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961f4dfdfba3f128bee5d03dd6b4c86c3473fe237d275122b146

TRUMP ATTACK - New DCCC ad blasts MN-03's Paulsen for backing Trump: The DCCC's latest ad, against GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen in the Minneapolis suburbs, is one of those spots we've been expecting all year: "What does it say about Erik Paulsen, whose presidential candidate has a long history of racism and discrimination, degrades women, and mocks the disabled?" a narrator says over clips of Donald Trump and an image of Paulsen labeled, "Erik Paulsen supports Donald Trump." The ad then plays a clip of Paulsen: "I'm going to vote and have said I plan on voting for the nominee." Watch here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961f5e59be00faa45267ac18aa227f6e47ca5b8df044a1089903

Days until the 2016 election: 61.

Days until the New Hampshire and Delaware congressional primaries: 5.

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 turning to Netflix: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer, @maggieseverns.

GET SMART QUICK. SAVE TIME. BE AN OFFICE HERO: Introducing POLITICO Pro's DataPoint - a library of downloadable infographics that distill highly-contested elections, as well as complicated legislative and regulatory processes. Include infographics in your own presentations or share them directly with your members, clients or colleagues. Ready to see DataPoint in action? Download your complimentary graphic: "Three in 10 Voters Will Vote Before Election Day."

2018 PRIMARY PREVIEW? - "Freedom Caucus eyes biggest power grab since Boehner," by POLITICO's Heather Caygle and Rachael Bade: "The House Freedom Caucus is eyeing its biggest power play since it pushed out John Boehner as speaker last year. Members of the group of far-right agitators are considering a plan to run one of their own as a candidate for the Republican Study Committee chairmanship election this fall in a bid to push the conservative group further to the right. Seizing control of the Republican Study Committee would be the latest show of clout for the group of about 40 conservatives, which in its mere two-year existence has upended the House Republican Conference and infuriated
 GOP leaders with its no-holds-barred legislative tactics." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961fa310766e07538070d07a4cbfebe06e776aa68f78c8cf6d93 

NEW THIS MORNING - Get real-time campaign finance alerts from ProPublica: ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative news outlet, is launching a new site this morning in partnership with Google News Lab that pulls together a variety of election data on House and Senate races. The most useful feature for Score readers is probably the ability to get email alerts on given race. Want to get an email anytime an outside group makes an independent expenditure in, say, the Pennsylvania Senate race? Or when a new poll comes out, or the Cook Political Report changes its race rating? Just sign up: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961fe09e3638d25f4c359eb028b84c2db481f1fa8998ff5dc1bc

- ProPublica will also be monitoring the polls on Election Day, working with reporters on the ground in 34 states to monitor polling places for unusually long lines, malfunctioning voting machine and other troubles in real time.

DAT CASH MONEY - "At McConnell's urging, rank-and-file GOP donate to NRSC," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett: "Mitch McConnell has Republicans feeling good enough about their chances of keeping the Senate that he's gotten the rank-and-file to open up their wallets. GOP senators pledged about $3 million in donations for the NRSC at a party meeting today as McConnell implored his troops to do all they can to save their majority, sources familiar with the meeting said. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota alone pledged to transfer $2 million to the NRSC out of his pile of cash, sources said. Several other Republicans made pledges of more than $100,000. A number of senators also said they would explore
 further donations over the following week." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961fbb136c4f1f37cbcd74c315502606556896841d7c26ff6139

- FEAR WILL KEEP THE LOCAL SYSTEMS RAISING MONEY - "Dems sound alarm on Senate majority," by The Hill's Alexander Bolton: "The campaign chairman for Senate Democrats on Wednesday warned his colleagues that if the elections were held today, the party would gain only three Senate seats, according to lawmakers who were in the room. ... One lawmaker stressed that Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) made the statement to motivate his colleagues to work harder to raise money and mobilize voters, adding that he said winning back the Senate is still possible. ... A second lawmaker who attended the lunch interpreted Tester's comments as meaning Democrats are guaranteed to pick up at least three seats and that
 more are within reach, including toss-up races in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and North Carolina." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961ff1e5b20ab7385f1001e13f59ae34e9a4575d1b951827f2c1

POST-ELECTION MANEUVERINGS - "Stivers endorsed by potential rival for NRCC chairmanship," by POLITICO's Rachael Bade: "Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) on Wednesday picked up an endorsement from a potential rival, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), in his bid to lead the House GOP's campaign arm in the next Congress. Many had speculated that Hudson would run to replace National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.). Hudson has a strong relationship with younger members and is close with the huge Texas delegation after serving as chief of staff for two lawmakers from the Lone Star State." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961ffa4b03439d3050220cf25cd2de60126f75d67079a3eb4924 

INTERNAL AFFAIRS - GOP NY-22 poll has Tenney 33, Myers 27, Babinec 23: More here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961fd720f52d0dac369da90752f94707b423f87758792ff2189d 

AFTER THE TEA PARTY - Many of the conservative groups involved in harnessing the tea party movement have either faded or moved on to other causes. But American Majority, which helped train tea party activists to get-out-the-vote and run for office themselves, is still at it. The non-profit group, founded in 2008 by Ned Ryun (son of former Congressman and pioneering distance runner Jim Ryun), is marking its 1,000th in-person activist training in Milwaukee on Sept. 10. In all, it's trained 33,936 activists, 3,462 candidates, including 142 people who have been elected to office in Wisconsin alone. Ryun told Playbook that "while the right loves to talk about its ideas, the left organizes to
 win. We're working to try and emphasize what we think it takes for conservatives to actually win."

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "NBC's Lauer puts Clinton, Trump on defensive in Commander-in-Chief Forum," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti in New York: "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump each immediately found themselves on the defensive as they faced off at the general election's first candidate forum Wednesday night, as the former secretary of state was forced to justify her private email arrangement at the State Department and her vote to authorize the war in Iraq - while the businessman was confronted with his qualifications for the White House, his past controversial statements about the military, and his apparent ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961f9318c02e940a0175ef768c2d2821215b461881cad3b2d8e8 

- "Trump shakes up Florida campaign team," by POLITICO's Marc Caputo in Miami: "Donald Trump shook up his struggling Florida campaign team this week, replacing longtime supporter Karen Giorno with veteran Sunshine State campaign operative Susie Wiles. The shakeup was weeks in the making and capped a frustrating month for Florida Republicans - many of whom clashed with the feisty Giorno as they bellyached about the Trump campaign's strange inertia and seeming inability to open up field offices, while Hillary Clinton's campaign opened 51 of the get-out-the-vote centers." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961f58e0ad68b405621af06fa0e55e8cc81199d61a6254806862 

- "Trump bragged that his money bought off politicians. Just not this time," The Washington Post's David A. Fahrenthold and Rosalind S. Helderman: "The Republican nominee is facing new scrutiny over a 2013 episode where his pay-to-play theory of politics seemed to work perfectly - and casting it, instead, as an innocent transaction with no strings attached. Back then, Trump's charitable foundation gave a $25,000 donation to a group backing the reelection of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Then, Bondi's office made a decision that benefited Trump: It declined to pursue an investigation into fraud claims against Trump University. That case fits an old pattern in Trump's political giving.
 Unlike wealthy executives who spread their money broadly - loyal to the same candidates or ideologies year after year - Trump's gifts have been tightly focused on his own personal and business needs." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=62d2cdac0b5d961fe08a6c4b6cbad307ae7d2d67a01ef89a8634c976022c6694 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "@HillaryClinton was angry + defensive the entire time - no smile and uncomfortable - upset that she was caught wrongly sending our secrets," Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus tweeted last night after the Commander-in-Chief forum. 

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