Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: GOP hopes voters ignore Trump conflicts — Lujan to lead DCCC again, with Maloney heading review — Louisiana early voting favors Kennedy
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2016 09:03:24 -0600
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By Kevin Robillard | 12/05/2016 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)

THE NEXT FRONTIER - "GOP wagers Americans don't care about Trump's conflicts," by POLITICO's Darren Samuelsohn: "Republicans see the same ethically-challenged complications lurking in Donald Trump's business portfolio that Democrats are squawking about. They just think Americans don't care about these entanglements anymore. Indeed, the GOP is so easily dismissing Democratic threats of investigations and ethicists' calls for divestment out of a belief that the political landscape has shifted. Voters rewarded Trump in part on the idea that success in business will equal success in government, and Republicans are therefore unwilling to encourage the president-elect to put distance between the
 Oval Office and Trump Tower, or between himself and the children who serve him as trusted advisers.".

- It's Newt! And he's weighing in: "'This is a great test case between the pre-Trump and post-Trump worlds,' said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a prominent early GOP backer of the president-elect. 'In a pre-Trump world dominated by left- wing ideas, anyone successful is inherently dangerous and should be punished for trying to serve the country.' The American people,' Gingrich added, 'knowingly voted for a businessman whose name is inextricably tied to his fortune. ... I 'd say to the left wing, get over it.'" Full story.

MEET THE NEW BOSS ... - "Luj&aacute;n's path cleared to lead DCCC again," by POLITICO's Heather Caygle: As DCCC chairman Ben Ray Luj&aacute;n "on Friday announced a list of planned reforms for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a potential rival, New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, said he would not seek the post after floating a possible bid a day earlier. Instead, Maloney is taking the lead on an election post-mortem report that he and Luj&aacute;n will present at a Democratic Caucus retreat next year. ... Luj&aacute;n is pledging to increase member involvement in the committee's operations, including upping lawmaker-driven recruitment of Democratic candidates. The New
 Mexico Democrat said he'd also make the DCCC more transparent - a long-running complaint of members who say the committee staff is beholden only to leadership - and look at overhauling polling operations." The actual caucus election is today. Read more here. 

THE SUPREMES - "Supreme Court hears cases about use of race in redistricting," by The Associated Press' Mark Sherman: Two major redistricting cases from North Carolina and Virginia are before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. "The claim made by black voters in both states is that Republicans packed districts with more reliably Democratic black voters than necessary to elect their preferred candidates, making neighboring districts whiter and more Republican. A lower court agreed with the challengers in North Carolina that two majority-black congressional districts were unconstitutional because their maps relied too heavily on race. The state appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing in part
 that it made districting decisions based on partisan politics, not race. ... In Virginia, a court upheld 12 state legislative districts and rejected a constitutional challenge, even though lawmakers made sure that at least 55 percent of the eligible voting-age population in each district was African-American." Democratic election attorney Marc Elias is arguing both cases. Read more here. 

Days until the 2017 election: 340.

Days until the 2018 election: 704. 

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].

Kevin and Scott are handling Score while the rest of the Campaign Pro staff gallivants around the Southern Hemisphere. But you should still follow all of us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

DOING SOMETHING? SAY SOMETHING - Switching jobs now that the election's over? Starting a new consulting firm? Get in touch, and we'll get it in Score: [email-masked] or [email-masked].

EARLY BIRDS - Early vote favors Kennedy in Louisiana Senate race: With early voting over in Louisiana's runoff elections, Republican John Kennedy appears well-positioned in the Senate race. Turnout was down 33 percent from 2015, when Gov. John Bel Edwards upset GOP Sen. David Vitter, and 46 percent of the electorate was Democratic, down from 52 percent in the 2015 runoff. Only 24 percent of voters were black, compared to 30 percent in 2015. More from JMC Analytics here. 

- Meanwhile, Trump and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence both endorsed Kennedy over the weekend. More from NBC News here. 

NO LABELS' $50 MILLION GAMBIT - "Group Launches Effort to Protect Moderate Candidates From Primary Challenges," by The Wall Street Journal's Rebecca Ballhaus: "No Labels is launching a coalition of super PACs that aims to raise $50 million to support centrist lawmakers in Congress by promising to protect them financially in the 2018 elections. ... Led by founder Nancy Jacobson, No Labels' effort has already notched the support of four billionaires - investor Nelson Peltz, hedge-fund manager Louis Bacon, investor Howard Marks and former hedge-fund manager John Arnold - as well as six other donors from both parties. On Monday, 200 business leaders and another 40 members of Congress are
 convening in Washington to discuss the effort." The coalition will likely focus on about two dozen races in 2018. Read more here. 

- 2016 primary scoreboard: Five House members and zero senators lost primaries in 2016. Ideology only played a major role in one: GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp's defeat in KS-01, after Rep.-elect Roger Marshall charged that his tea-party views were getting in the way of representing the district. The other casualties were all directly tied to redistricting (GOP Reps. Renee Ellmers and Randy Forbes), indictment (Democratic ex-Rep. Chaka Fattah), or both (Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown).

CABINET COURTING - "Trump revels in the secretary of state show," by Shane Goldmacher and Alex Isenstadt: "President-elect Donald Trump is no closer to choosing his secretary of state, but he is making the most of auditions - as suitors sell themselves on television and in private Trump Tower sessions - that have become the kind of public spectacle that Trump relishes. After initially narrowing his list to four finalists, Trump expanded it anew over the weekend, with interview invitations given to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and retired Navy Admiral James G. Stavridis for this week. ... three transition sources said [Tennessee Sen. Bob] Corker's chances have diminished in recent days."
 Read more here. 

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Trump gets back on the trail," by POLITICO's Annie Karni: "President-elect Donald Trump is a salesman who draws strength from the adulation of crowds; a dazzling showman who feels most relaxed when commanding full cable coverage; and someone who can grow bored quickly, people close to him say, when he's not the center of the action. That makes his planned 10-city "thank you" tour that kicked off on Thursday in Cincinnati about a lot more than expressing simple gratitude to his supporters. The roaring return to a campaign trail that no longer exists is part candidate management, part reminder to vulnerable Democrats in the Senate of the grassroots army behind
 Trump. But perhaps most notably, it's an early peek at how the real estate mogul and former reality television star can be expected to behave when he's installed in the White House." Read more here. 

- "Bull in a China shop: Trump risks diplomatic blowup in Asia," by Michael Crowley: "Donald Trump startled foreign policy watchers Friday by speaking with the president of Taiwan, a break with more than 35 years of U.S. policy that is likely to infuriate China. The United States and Taiwan have a strong but unofficial relationship, and Trump's phone call, confirmed by his transition team Friday afternoon, raises questions about whether the president-elect intended to signal a policy shift that could antagonize Beijing even before he takes office. ... The call is the latest of several post-election conversations between Trump and foreign leaders that have raised alarms about whether the
 president-elect understands or cares about diplomatic protocol. One former senior Obama White House official who handled foreign policy said on Friday that world leaders may be wondering whether to take Trump's words literally. 'This has all the earmarks of randomness on the U.S. side,' said a former senior diplomat who served in the George W. Bush administration." Read more here. 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Oh God no." - Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones, who lost to Democratic Rep. Ami Bera in November, on whether he'd consider running for Congress again.

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