Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Last chance to vote: Louisiana runoffs Saturday — Post-general FEC reports show millions in last-gap fundraising, spending — Sena to lead DCCC
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
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Date: Fri, 09 Dec 2016 09:04:21 -0600
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By Maggie Severns | 12/09/2016 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)

IT'S ALMOST OVER - Saturday Louisiana runoff marks (electoral) end of 2016: Louisiana's Saturday runoff election will mark the last of the 2016 down-ballot races. President-elect Donald Trump will be in Baton Rouge today, where he'll appear with GOP state Treasurer John Kennedy at an airport hangar. Kennedy is expected to win the race with ease. But Democrat Foster Campbell is countering Trump's star power by harnessing disenfranchised Democrats both in Louisiana and across the country, The Advocate reports. 

- One final debate: Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle and former police captain Clay Higgins capped off their intra-Republican Party LA-03 runoff with a "hotly contested, hour-long congressional debate at KATC's studio Thursday afternoon," The Advertiser's Ken Stickney reports. "... The two made pointed appeals to their own, perceived political bases," with Angelle emphasizing his government experience and Higgins emphasizing that he doesn't come from government. "But the undertone of the debate was decidedly nastier, with Angelle hammering at Higgins' personal life throughout the debate and accusing him of criminal conduct. Higgins hotly denied that, and said Angelle's ad campaign
 against consisted of 'lies' and suggested his opponent was a political crony enriched by soft jobs such as his board work for Sunoco Logistics." More here.

- Candidate says winning a seat will help him pay $100k in child support: Also via The Advocate, Higgins' ex-wife released a recording of Higgins saying winning his election will help him pay more than $100,000 he owes in child support.

- In also-open LA-04, "North Louisiana looks likely to elect one of the Louisiana Legislature's most socially conservative members to Congress," the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Julia O'Donoghue writes. "... State Rep. Mike Johnson (R) is expected to easily defeat Democrat Marshall Jones, an attorney and businessman, for the congressional seat centered around Shreveport and northwest Louisiana." More here.

- Polls close at 8 p.m. local/9 p.m. Eastern Saturday night.

FINANCIAL TIMES - "Adelsons gave $15 million to GOP super PAC weeks in late October," by POLITICO's Theodoric Meyer: "GOP megadonors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson gave $15 million to Senate Leadership Fund, Republicans' main senate super PAC, two weeks before Election Day, according to the super PAC's post-election FEC filing. ... The super PAC raised $39.7 million in total between Oct. 20 and Nov. 28, the period covered by the report. ... Other big donors included Stephen Schwarzman, the Blackstone co-founder, who gave $2.2 million; Paul Singer, hedge fund magnate and GOP megadonor, who gave $2 million..." More here.

- Senate Majority PAC raised $18.2 million: Senate Majority PAC pulled in $18.2 million in the final weeks of the election, including seven-figure checks from several Democratic megadonors. The top donor: the hedge funder Jim Simons, who gave $2 million on Oct. 26 and another $1 million a week later, bring his total for the cycle to $8 million. Alexander Soros, the philanthropist and son of George Soros, gave $1.25 million, and his fellow megadonors Fred Eychaner and Donald Sussman each gave $1 million. The super PAC spent $29.2 million between Oct. 20 and Nov. 28. 

- Congressional Leadership Fund raises $7.4 million: Congressional Leadership Fund brought in $7.4 million in the final weeks of the election and immediately afterward. The top donor: Annette Simmons, the widow of the late Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, who wrote the super PAC a $1 million check less than a week before the election. The super PAC spent $20.7 million between Oct. 20 and Nov. 28.

- House Majority PAC raised $7.2 million: House Majority PAC raised $7.2 million in the final weeks of the election. The top donor: George Soros, who gave $1 million on Oct. 26 and followed up with another $150,000 days later. The super PAC spent $18.2 million between Oct. 20 and Nov. 28.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS - "DCCC taps Sena as executive director," by POLITICO's Theodoric Meyer: "DCCC chairman Ben Ray Luj&aacute;n has selected Dan Sena to be the DCCC's executive director for the 2018 election cycle. Sena has been the deputy executive director leading the committee's data, analytics and field efforts. Sena, the first-ever Latino to hold the executive director post, managed nearly 1,900 field staff in more than two dozen districts during the 2016 election. Like Luj&aacute;n, Sena hails from New Mexico. He has previously managed New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall's reelection campaign in 2014 and served as the Democratic Governors Association's political director." More here. 

- "AFL-CIO endorses Ellison for DNC chair," by Daniel Strauss and Marianne Levine: "The AFL-CIO is endorsing Rep. Keith Ellison to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Thursday. ... The AFL-CIO endorsement is a coup for Ellison given its prominence as one of the most high profile and influential labor organizations in the country. An endorsement seemed imminent when a week earlier [President Richard Trumka] circulated a straw poll ballot among Executive Council members asking whether the labor groups should endorse Ellison for chair. The options in the straw poll, which closed Dec. 6, were either to vote for the Minnesota congressman, to abstain, or to 'make no endorsement at
 this time.'" More here.

Days until the 2017 election: 336.

Days until the 2018 election: 700.

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].

Maggie Severns filling in with your Friday Morning Score. Theo Meyer will be back at it on Monday and in the meantime, do follow the team on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

POLITICO EVENT - Cornerstones of Democracy: The Future of the Parties and the Press: The election of 2016 marked a rupture for traditional institutions of American democracy. The political parties have been thrown into turmoil by the rise of populism, while the news media grapples with attacks on their credibility. Join POLITICO for a high-level conversation about the future of the parties and the press. Wednesday, Dec. 14 - Doors at 8 a.m.,The W Hotel. RSVP: here.

DOING SOMETHING? SAY SOMETHING - Starting or joining a new consulting firm? Got work to tout from your current firm? Get in touch, and we'll get it in Score: [email-masked] or [email-masked].

2018 WATCH - Establishment swings back over Hatch poll: Both Sen. Orrin Hatch and Senate Leadership Fund president Steven Law struck back at a poll conducted by the tea party-aligned Senate Conservatives Fund that painted Hatch as vulnerable in Utah, via the Salt Lake Tribune. "We've helped disqualify substandard candidates recruited by Senate Conservatives Fund in the past and would have no hesitation in doing so again," Law said in a statement on Thursday. 

- Sources say Messer is preparing Indiana Senate bid: GOP Rep. Luke Messer is readying a Senate run against Democrat Joe Donnelly, The Hill's Scott Wong reports. "Messer, who just won his third House term, shares a history with Pence. In 2000, Pence defeated Messer in a GOP primary race for a House seat - an outcome that would propel Pence to Congress, House leadership, the governor's mansion and eventually the vice presidency. The two men would later patch things up and become good friends," Wong writes. GOP sources said an announcement is unlikely to come before 2017. Full story here. 

- Rep. Tim Ryan is still eyeing a gubernatorial bid in Ohio, via Kyle Cheney: Ryan "declined to give a timeframe for a decision - 'I don't want to put myself in a box,' he said - but suggested he'd 'step away from everything for a couple weeks' and then reevaluate," Kyle reports.

BUT FIRST, 2017 - "Wittman drops out of Virginia governor's race," by POLITICO's Maggie Severns: Republican Rep. Rob Wittman dropped out of the Virginia gubernatorial race today, saying he wants to stay on Capitol Hill for the time being ... Republicans in the state have wondered for weeks if Wittman would drop out, and some operatives have urged him to do so to help clear the way for Gillespie." More here. 

COLOR OF MONEY - Reports find gender, race gaps in donations: PACs fund female candidates running for open seats less than men, a joint study by Center for Responsive Politics, Common Cause and Representation2020 finds. GOP women also draw more negative ads run by outside spending groups than other candidates, and receive the least funding on average from top individual donors, the report found. An analysis by the progressive group Demos meanwhile found that 92 percent of donors to federal candidates were white in 2014. Among donors giving more than $5,000, 94 percent were white, according to the report.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Trump launches war on unions," by POLITICO's Ted Hesson: "Labor leaders, who spent tens of millions of dollars campaigning against Trump, said after the election they'd give him a chance to deliver on his pro-worker agenda. But the cease-fire eroded in just the past 24 hours. ... 'It's part of a larger agenda, and you can see it playing out in terms of his picks, which is to destroy the labor movement,' said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United. ... Trump won the election with the help of union household voters in key states, such as Ohio and Michigan. In the soul searching after the election, labor needed to decide whether to stand with or
 against him." More here. 

- "Trump 'originals' say they're getting frozen out," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt and Ken Vogel: "As President-elect Donald Trump builds out his administration, the loyalists who helped launch his campaign and powered its stunning early victories are growing worried they won't be getting plum jobs. ... The concerns have become so intense that Karen Giorno, a Trump aide who oversaw his successful Florida campaign during the Republican primaries, recently had a telephone conversation with the president-elect in which she expressed concern that Trump loyalists wouldn't be getting White House roles." More here.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY (FRIDAY EDITION): "I don't know what you can say about a day when you see four beautiful sunsets ... This is a little unusual, I think." - Late astronaut and Sen. John Glenn, who died Thursday, on his Mercury flight in which he became the first American to orbit the Earth. (via USA Today)

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