Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: How Ron Johnson pulled off the Senate upset of the cycle — Trump transition tumult — Issa lead remains over 4,500 votes in uncalled CA-49
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2016 09:03:45 -0600
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By Theodoric Meyer | 11/16/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With Christine Sexton and Scott Bland

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)

TRANSITION TUMULT - "Power battles bog down Trump transition," by POLITICO's Eli Stokols: One week after winning the presidency in a stunning upset, Donald Trump is already botching the transition, insiders say. The daunting task of filling top Cabinet posts appears to be a chaotic scramble inside Trump Tower, with competing power centers jockeying for position and influence as a steady stream of names both realistic and not gets floated to a baffled media. 'It's an absolute knife fight,' said one Trump insider. 'But that just makes it Tuesday.' Through it all, Trump has remained uncharacteristically quiet, secluded in his penthouse apartment and office space on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
 His only public comments came in the form of a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday night and a few stray tweets each day." Full story.

- Vice President-elect Mike Pence has "ordered the removal of all lobbyists from the transition team, said one transition team member with knowledge of the decisions," The Wall Street Journal's Michael C. Bender, Damian Paletta and Jay Solomon report. Former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, who was heading up national security efforts for the Trump transition before he was forced out on Monday, "was told he was being replaced because everyone who was brought in by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the transition team's original chairman, was being ousted, according to a person familiar with the conversation. Frank Gaffney, a Reagan administration veteran, was brought in to assist on national
 security issues, as has GOP U.S. Reps. Pete Hoekstra and Devin Nunes." Full story.

INSIDE THE UPSET - "How Johnson and Trump boosted each other to Wisconsin victory," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: GOP Sen. Ron Johnson won an unexpected victory over former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold in the Wisconsin Senate race. Johnson's campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, credits Trump with helping Johnson pull out a victory - and Johnson with helping Trump. "The presidential candidate appears to have caused a turnout spike in the rural counties, while Johnson helped convince Republican suburbanites who weren't in love with their party's presidential nominee to show up and pull the lever for both men. The outcome: Johnson upset Democrat Russ Feingold, surprising virtually everyone
 but his own team, and Trump triumphed over Clinton. 'We turned our people out to vote - and they voted for Ron Johnson and Trump,' Ankney said." Full story.

Days until the 2017 election: 355.

Days until the 2018 election: 720. 

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CALIFORNIA UPDATE - Issa lead shrinks by just 52 votes after another 8,000-plus are counted in CA-49: GOP Rep. Darrell Issa is winning an even higher share of late-counted votes from Orange County than he did on election night, as Orange and San Diego counties continued working their way through late ballots Tuesday. Issa's lead now stands at 4,576 votes (117,848 to 113,272), just down from 4,628 yesterday, because Issa again won over 64 percent of the new ballots in Orange County while Applegate won 54 percent in San Diego. There are more San Diego ballots outstanding, but Applegate has to win greater shares in both counties to catch the incumbent. See the latest count here.

STILL ONE LEFT - "Boustany endorses Kennedy in Louisiana Senate runoff," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett and Kevin Robillard: "Louisiana Republican Rep. Charles Boustany is endorsing state Treasurer John Kennedy ahead of a December runoff for the state's Senate seat, a move that could help the Senate GOP lock down 52 seats next year. The Republican Louisiana congressman narrowly missed the two-way runoff, coming in third behind Kennedy and Democrat Foster Campbell. Republicans had been worried that Boustany wouldn't endorse Kennedy, given how important the seat is for enacting the GOP's agenda." Full story.

ANNALS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE - Louisiana GOP appeals campaign finance case to Supreme Court: The Republican Party of Louisiana is appealing a case to the Supreme Court that could overturn the "soft money" limits on contributions to political parties. The move isn't a surprise: the Louisiana GOP's lawyer, Jim Bopp, said the party would appeal after a three-judge panel ruled against the party last week. But the odds of the court abolishing the limit - which would allow donors to give unlimited amounts to state parties for independent expenditures, just as they can to super PACs - may be higher now that Donald Trump will be appointing the next Supreme Court justice. In an interview, though, Bopp
 said that he hoped to win over the liberal Justice Stephen Breyer as well, citing Breyer's vote two decades ago in a similar case, Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. FEC.

- Here's POLITICO Magazine's piece on the case.

IT'S 2018 ALREADY - Scott says running against Nelson is 'an option' in 2018: "Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday said he would consider running for U.S. Senate again Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018 when his tenure as Florida governor ends. 'It's an option,' said Scott, who is in Orlando attending the annual conference of the Republican Governors Association. 'But, right now, my whole focus is how do I do my best job as governor.' ... In the past, Scott has refused to commit as to whether he will run for the U.S. Senate, so the open-ended answer is a departure for the Republican governor, who was elected in 2010 on an anti-government, anti-Obamacare agenda." Full story.

- Wisniewski launches run for New Jersey governor (2017): "Democratic state Assemblyman John Wisniewski announced Tuesday he is running for governor, hoping to succeeded Gov. Chris Christie, the man whose political career he rocked by spearheading the investigation into the Bridgegate scandal," NJ.com's Matt Arco reports. "Wisniewski, who served in the Assembly since 1996 and once headed the state's Democratic committee, declared in an email he's 'proud to announce I'm running for governor of New Jersey' and asked supporters for donations." He'll face Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive, and Jim Johnson, a former Treasury Department official, in the Democratic primary. Full story.

- Noem to face Jackley in South Dakota governor's race: "Attorney General Marty Jackley said Tuesday that he's forming a political committee with about $700,000 in the bank as he prepares to run for governor in 2018. ... Jackley's disclosure came a day after U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem declared her own run," The Associated Press' James Nord reports. "Both Republicans were moving ahead of a change in state law that limits how much money they can transfer from existing campaign accounts into bids for new political office. The law that goes into effect Wednesday prohibits governor candidates from accepting more than $4,000 in contributions from a single person or political committee in a calendar
 year." Full story.

- More on the brewing 2018 gubernatorial races here.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Trump's vast web of conflicts: A user's guide," by POLITICO's Darren Samuelsohn: "Donald Trump's new hires should brace themselves for a full immersion in government ethics school. They're going to need it given the president-elect's sprawling business empire and his lack of interest in selling off his companies and properties outright. The Republican's appointees will be running departments and agencies with direct ties to their boss' businesses and wider political interests, from an IRS audit into his tax records to National Labor Relations Board enforcement of cases involving his hotel workers to the FBI's investigation into the suspected Russian cyberespionage
 aimed at influencing an election that Trump just won." Full story. 

- "Trump protesters plan to build 'tea party of the left,'" by POLITICO's Ben Schreckinger: "The protests that have roiled American cities since Election Day aren't going anywhere. But rather than Donald Trump, the first political casualties they claim may be establishment Democrats. Leaders of the groups organizing some of the first outbursts of direct action in response to Trump's surprise election are making plans to take to the streets through January's Inauguration and beyond. In frantic behind-the-scenes phone calls, text messages and Slack chats, they're also planning to channel the energy unleashed last week into electoral politics, starting with Democratic primaries, to build what
 one organizer called a 'tea party of the left.' 'Our big goal is to support primary challenges against those Democrats who negotiate with Donald Trump,' said the organizer, Waleed Shahid, a veteran of Bernie Sanders' campaign who is working for a group called AllofUs, launched in September." Full story.

- "How Bannon flattered and coaxed Trump on policies key to the alt-right," by The Washington Post's David A. Fahrenthold and Frances Stead Sellers: "The clearest public sense of how [Donald Trump and Stephen Bannon] plan to work together - and what policies Bannon will probably try to push - came over the course of nine one-on-one interviews on Bannon's radio show between November 2015 and June of this year. In those exchanges, a dynamic emerged, with Bannon often coaxing Trump to agree to his viewpoint, whether on climate change, foreign policy or the need to take on Republican leaders in Congress. At times, Bannon seemed to coach Trump to soften the harder edges of his message, to make
 it more palatable to a broader audience, while in other cases he pushed Trump to take tougher positions." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "A thought: if Trump declared me a mortal enemy in the primary I probably wouldn't accept a fireable position from him." - Amanda Carpenter, a former Ted Cruz aide, in a tweet following reports that Donald Trump was considering naming Cruz as his attorney general.

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