Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Battle to lead NRCC hits overdrive — Push for Democratic votes couldn't save Ayotte in New Hampshire — Rep. Kristi Noem jumps into South Dakota gubernatorial race
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2016 09:03:23 -0600
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By Elena Schneider | 11/15/2016 10:00 AM EDT

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)

LEADING THE FUTURE - "Battle to lead NRCC hits overdrive," by POLITICO's Theodoric Meyer and Rachael Bade: "The race to take over National Republican Congressional Committee has kicked into overdrive, as two lawmakers with contrasting visions for the organization battle it out just hours before the election. Multiple sources say Rep. Steve Stivers, currently an NRCC deputy chair, appears to have the votes to succeed Oregon Rep. Greg Walden as chairman. Stivers ran the NRCC's Patriot Program that helped save almost all of its 20 most vulnerable Republicans. He has conducted in-person meetings with more than 200 lawmakers and has about 150 people committed to voting for him, a source familiar
 with his whip count tell POLITICO. But Rep. Roger Williams is making a last-ditch effort to win the job, in part by capitalizing on members' loathing of annual dues requirements. The former finance director for George W. Bush's Texas operation is running on a platform of capping rank-and-file members' NRCC dues to $200,000 - and a promise to further reduce that total for select members in tough primaries. A number of lawmakers and former NRCC officials worry this could blow a $30 million hole in the NRCC's war chest." Full story.

POST-ELECTION QUARTERBACKING - "Same-day registrants, ticket-splitting troubles blamed for Ayotte loss," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "... Ayotte and Hassan competed in the nation's closest Senate race, decided in Hassan's favor by a mere 1,011 votes. That's not surprising; strategists in both parties long expected the contest to be a nail-biter. But they also expected Ayotte to run well ahead of Donald Trump in her bid for a second Sente term. She didn't, wining just 47.9 percent of the vote to Trump's 47.3 percent. (Hassan also ran ahead of Hillary Clinton, winning 48 percent of the vote to 47.6 percent for Clinton in the presidential race.) Instead, Ayotte's campaign became an
 example of just how hard it has become to get voters to split their tickets in large numbers. Ayotte reached out to New Hampshire's liberal voters on a slew of issues: She backed President Barack Obama's signature initiative to fight climate change, sponsored legislation she said would ensure equal pay for women and over-the-counter birth control. But none of it was enough to win over significant numbers of Clinton voters. In New Hampshire and every other state on the 2016 Senate map, the candidate whose party won the state on the presidential level also claimed the Senate seat." Full story. 

2018 BEGINS - Rep. Kristi Noem enters South Dakota gubernatorial race: Republican Rep. Kristi Noem jumped into the open race, now that GOP Gov. Dennis Daugaard is term limited out. Noem said she'd officially kick off her race in the new year, since "we all need a break from politics," she said in a web video released Monday night. The video features Noem, talking directly to the camera, saying that she wants to work with president-elect Trump on tax reform, repealing Obamacare and a new farm bill while she's still in Congress. And looking ahead to the gubernatorial race, Noem said she's got "both the business and the policy experience that we need in Pierre. Ready to work on day one." Watch
 the video here. 

- Former Florida state House Speaker Will Weatherford to decide on gubernatorial run by year-end, via the Tampa Bay Times. Weatherford: "I think I have to make a decision in the next 45 days internally. Between now and the end of the year I need to decide. Politically, the timing is really good. On a personal front, I have an 8-year-old, a 6-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a 2-year-old and a bunch of businesses that I'm involved in, so it's hard to know if now is the right time. ... Bob Buckhorn's a great guy. I think he's done a tremendous job as mayor of Tampa. I'm a huge fan of his. I think he's a very viable candidate for governor, and you'll never hear me say a bad thing about him. I think
 Gwen Graham is a really good candidate. And so for myself and other Republicans from around the state of Florida, if they think we're just going to dance through 2018 and continue to control the governor's mansion, I don't believe that's the case." Full story.

Days until the 2017 election: 356.

Days until the 2018 election: 721. 

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 continue to tweet about politics and occasionally about Vogue covers: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL - Scott Jones shows up for new member training: Republican Scott Jones still trails Democratic Rep. Ami Bera for his Sacramento suburbs-based seat, but the Sacramento County sheriff still showed up for new member training on Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Both Jones and a Bera aide confirmed to Campaign Pro that they expect more details on the new vote tally on Wednesday. "It won't necessarily be decisive," Jones told the Wall Street Journal. "But if it trends away from me, then it would be a lot more difficult to overcome that."

- The Associated Press still hasn't called the race between Republican Rep. Darrell Issa and Democrat Doug Applegate, but Issa has extended his lead to 4,630 votes (just over 2 percentage points) in CA-49 on the strength of new votes counted in Orange County. Earlier Monday, additional San Diego County ballots had briefly helped Applegate narrow the margin, but he won 55 percent of the new batch of ballots there while Issa carried a smaller batch of Orange County ballots with 64 percent. There are tens of thousands more ballots out in both counties, with the bulk coming from San Diego.

AND IT'S ON - "Tim Ryan weighs challenge to Pelosi as Democrats reel," by POLITICO's Heather Caygle and John Bresnahan: "Rep. Tim Ryan is considering challenging long-time Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for the Democrats' top House leadership post, as the party grapples with its Election Day debacle. While Ryan probably can't beat Pelosi, his potential candidacy comes as another group of roughly 30 House Democrats is seeking to postpone Thursday's leadership elections. They want to to conduct a review of Democrats woeful performance, which fell well short of their own expectations. The members are not supporting Ryan's candidacy, although the twin efforts highlight the disquiet within
 Democratic ranks. A senior Democratic aide called Ryan's move 'a publicity stunt,' saying it's doubtful he'll actually runs. Ryan only paid half of his $200,000 party dues this cycle, the aide said. Not so, a spokesman for Ryan responded." Full story.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Short list emerges for RNC chair," by POLITICO's Shane Goldmacher and Kyle Cheney: "Donald Trump's campaign manager and deputy campaign manager, Mitt Romney's niece and a host of other GOP officials are all in the running to become the next chair of a Republican Party that is at the peak of its power. Reince Priebus, the outgoing chairman of the Republican National Committee and Trump's incoming chief of staff, is expected to have an outsize voice in picking his successor, even though incoming presidents typically choose their preferred party chairman. People close to Priebus say he would not have left the RNC - which he helmed for a record six years - if it
 risked falling into the hands of someone he opposed, such as former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Among the names most under discussion for party chairman are David Bossie, who served as Trump's deputy campaign manager and is an RNC member; Priebus ally Matt Pinnell, the RNC's liaison to state parties; and Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chair of the Michigan Republican Party and niece of 2012 nominee Mitt Romney." Full story.

- "Fear rises that Bannon could bring the 'alt-right' into White House," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck: "Donald Trump's newly named chief strategist, Steve Bannon, came under fire Monday from a wide swath of American leaders and organizations, from conservative operatives to minority-rights groups, all of whom are deeply concerned that Bannon will foster an extremist "alt-right" mentality inside the hallways of the White House and normalize ideas that had thrived only on the fringes of society. Before joining Trump's campaign as its CEO in August, Bannon served as executive chairman of Breitbart News, identifying his outlet this summer as "the platform for the alt-right," a group known for
 white-nationalist and anti-Semitic politics. His appointment Sunday to one of the two most senior roles in the White House was Trump's first major staff announcement, and has united a spectrum of conservatives and liberals, Muslims and Jews alarmed by how much his ideas are likely to shape the administration of the president-elect." Full story.

- "Clinton digital chief: Democrats to target Facebook's fake news," by POLITICO's Nancy Scola: "The Clinton campaign's chief digital strategist on Monday blamed Facebook for enabling the spread of misinformation about the Democratic nominee - and said Democrats in and out of government have been looking at how to tackle the 'big problem' of fake news on the social network. ... Critics on the left say false headlines on Facebook harmed Hillary Clinton and helped swing the election to Donald Trump." Full story.

- "Two presidential electors encourage colleagues to sideline Trump," by POLITICO's Kyle Cheney: "Two Democratic members of the Electoral College have launched a radical last-ditch attempt to stop Donald Trump from winning the presidency. Bret Chiafolo, a Washington state elector who has already declared his opposition to Hillary Clinton, and Michael Baca of Colorado have launched what they've dubbed "Moral Electors," an attempt to persuade 37 of their Republican colleagues to bail on Trump - just enough to block Trump's election and leave the final decision to the House of Representatives." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I wanted to be a journalist, because I like to ask questions. And I like the idea that someone might feel responsible for answering them." - "Gwen Ifill, in a 2009 interview with Julian Bond for the Explorations in Black Leadership Series, PBS reported.

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