Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: McCrory concedes, ending last outstanding November '16 contest — GOP has spending edge in Louisiana Senate runoff advertising — Trump alums seek their own posts
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2016 09:04:42 -0600
List-Id: <1376319_6135125.xt.local>

By Kevin Robillard | 12/06/2016 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)

28 DAYS LATER - McCrory concedes North Carolina gubernatorial race, by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "North Carolina GOP Gov. Pat McCrory has conceded the governor's race to Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, after a prolonged canvassing of votes that stretched almost a full month after Election Day. 'Despite continued questions that should be answered regarding the voting process, I personally believe that the majority of our citizens have spoken and we should now do everything we can to support the 75th governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper,' McCrory said in a video statement. McCrory is the first governor in the history of North Carolina to lose a bid for reelection." Read more
 here. Watch the concession video here. 

- "Human Rights Campaign poll: HB2 sank McCrory with Trump voters," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "A national poll shared with POLITICO shows a majority of Trump voters backing gay marriage and believing the issue is settled. A separate poll of North Carolina voters found the number one reason given for voting agaisnt McCrory was his support of HB2, a law critics lambasted as discriminatory toward gay and transgender people. The polls, conducted Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and paid for by the Human Rights Campaign and Equality North Carolina, portray an electorate that is willing to punish politicians who vote against gay rights, as opposed to one that felt gay rights were too
 central to the Democratic agenda in 2016. 'Whatever message voters sent Tuesday, Nov. 8, they did not signal any kind of retreat from LGBTQ equality,' the pollsters wrote in a memo." Read more here. 

THE LAST HURRAH - Republicans have massive ad spending edge in Louisiana Senate runoff: There's still a few 2016 contests on the books, of course: Louisiana's Dec. 10 runoff elections. And the GOP has a big advantage in TV and radio spending in the Senate race between Republican John Kennedy and Democrat Foster Campbell, according to a media-buying source. Over the past week, Kennedy and ESAFund have spent over $690,000 over the last week to about $434,000 for Campbell and his Defend Louisiana PAC. And over the next week before the Dec. 10 election, Republicans have $904,000 worth of TV ads booked already to Democrats' $417,000.

- "NRSC radio ad in Louisiana attacks Foster Campbell," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "The NRSC is out with a new ad attacking Democrat Foster Campbell over his support for Obamacare and other issues in Louisiana's Senate runoff. The minute-long radio ad is backed by a small buy. It opens by attacking Campbell over Obamacare, then moves on to energy issues and concludes by labeling the public service commissioner 'another Hillary Clinton, Obamacare-loving, energy-taxing liberal Louisiana doesn't need.'" Full story.

PARTY OF ONE? - "Trump's GOP takeover begins," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt: "His staffers are lining up to run for offices up and down the ballot. Loyalists are looking to dislodge state party leaders who are perceived as insufficiently committed to the president-elect. And a top Trump aide has emerged as a leading contender to become the next chairman of the Republican National Committee. Less than a month after Election Day, the party that once kept Trump at arm's length is gradually being commandeered by him, a turnabout that GOP establishment forces could have scarcely imagined just a few months ago. ... Over the weekend, Jane Timken, an Ohio Republican who raised money for the
 president-elect, wrote a letter to state GOP officials informing that she would be challenging Matt Borges, the highly effective state party chairman who clashed bitterly with Trump's campaign. ... Among the Trump-inspired candidates are Alan Cobb, a longtime campaign staffer who served as Trump's national director of coalitions and is now in discussions about running for a soon-to-be vacant Kansas congressional seat." Read more here. 

BIDEN HIS TIME? - Speaking to reporters in the Senate, Vice President Joe Biden said he'll make a presidential bid in four years, although it was unclear if he was serious. "Yeah I am. I am going to run, in 2020," he said. Asked if he was serious, Biden paused and said: "I'm not committing to not running. I'm not committing to anything. I learned a long time ago fate has a strange way of intervening." Read more here. 

Days until the 2017 election: 339.

Days until the 2018 election: 703. 

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].

SPARE CHANGE - The DCCC and DGA are sticking with their chairmen next year, they announced Monday. Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy will continue to lead the DGA, with DGA vice-chair and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee likely to take over for the crucial 2018 elections. And New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Lujan was elected to a second term as DCCC chair without opposition.

ELECTORAL COLLEGE SHENANIGANS - "Rogue electors brief Clinton camp on anti-Trump plan," by POLITICO's Kyle Cheney and Gabriel Debenedetti: "Advocates of the long-shot bid to turn the Electoral College against Donald Trump have been in contact with close allies of Hillary Clinton, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions, but the Clinton camp - and Clinton herself - have declined to weigh in on the merits of the plan. ... The Democratic electors have already revealed that they're close to a consensus pick for whom they will vote: Ohio Gov. John Kasich." Read more here. 

2018 WATCH - "Tim Scott leaning against gubernatorial bid," by POLITICO's Seung Min Kim: "Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) hasn't yet slammed the door shut on running for governor back home in South Carolina, but he seems to be getting there. ... On Monday evening, he said he doesn't "have the fire to move forward yet" with a gubernatorial bid in South Carolina and signaled that a final decision could come soon. 'I have not ruled it out,' Scott told reporters on Monday. But 'today, I believe I can do more good in the Senate than I think I can as governor, and I'm going to pray about it for another couple of days and just be as frank as I'm being right now.'" Read more here. 

CABINET COURTING - "Top Dems urge Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp to turn down Trump," by CNN's Manu Raju and Ted Barrett: "Senior Senate Democrats are putting pressure on their red-state colleagues to turn down any offer from Donald Trump to serve in his administration, warning that their party could suffer if they join forces with the incoming president. ... 'I certainly hope they stay with us,' Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told CNN on Monday. 'We need them. America needs them.' ... At a private caucus meeting last Thursday, incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told his colleagues that he didn't have any issues with them having private conversations
 with Trump. But in the wake of news that Heitkamp planned to meet with Trump the next day, he urged them to keep him and his caucus informed of any commitments they planned to make with the new president." Read more here. 

- "Gen. John Kelly seen as leading contender for DHS," by Eliana Johnson: "Retired Marine General John Kelly has emerged as the top contender to lead President-elect Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security, according to three sources close to the transition. ... At the Department of Homeland Security, a massive bureaucracy created in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Kelly would become a key player in Trump's plans to secure the border and crack down on illegal immigration." Read more here. 

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "New pro-Trump group takes form, with Kellyanne Conway possibly at the helm," by the Washington Post's Matea Gold and Ed O'Keefe: "Senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said in an interview Monday that she is considering leading a group being formed that will provide 'a surround-sound super structure' to bolster the new administration's political and policy goals. The entity, whose legal structure has not yet been determined, will serve as the outside hub to support President-elect Donald Trump's agenda. Discussions about the formation of the group have been underway for several weeks. People familiar with the planning said that some helping organize the as-yet
 unnamed group have a working motto: 'Unleash the Potential,' a moniker to describe the quick start they are expecting of Trump administration and the Republican-led Congress in the first part of 2017." Read more here.
 
- "Flynn under fire for fake news," by POLITICO's Bryan Bender and Michael Hanna: "As Donald Trump's national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn will have to advise the president of the veracity of foreign and domestic threats, separating those that require immediate policy action from propaganda or misinformation. But Flynn himself has used social media to promote a series of outrageous conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama and their inner circles in recent months - pushing dubious factoids at least 16 times since Aug. 9, according to a POLITICO review of his Twitter posts. ... Now some say Flynn's fondness for spreading fake news casts doubt
 on his fitness to serve as the White House's national security adviser, suggesting that he either can't spot a blatant falsehood or is just ideologically bent to believe the worst of his perceived enemies." Read more here. 

- "China hawks rally to Trump," by POLITICO's Michael Crowley: "Asia experts in both parties say that Trump's tough-on-China stance - including his precedent-breaking phone call with Taiwan's president on Friday - dovetails with a boiling conservative desire to reframe the U.S.-China strategic relationship after eight years of Democratic rule.While Trump's early overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin have drawn warning shots from senior Repu blicans like Senator John McCain, most national security conservatives cheered Trump's Taiwanese call, and support his broader call for a more confrontational approach to China." Read more here. 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The Cubans are s***ing themselves." - "A businessman who regularly meets with Cuban government officials," to the Miami Herald about Donald Trump's election. 

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