Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Trump fires acting AG over defense of immigration order — Trump urges Scott to run for Senate in Florida — Gosar considers Flake challenge — RGA raised $61 million in 2016
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
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Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2017 09:02:03 -0600
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By Elena Schneider | 01/31/2017 10:00 AM EDT

With Theodoric Meyer

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)

YOU'RE FIRED - "Trump fires defiant acting attorney general," by POLITICO's Josh Gerstein: "President Donald Trump fired the nation's acting attorney general Monday night after she refused to defend an executive order he issued last week restricting immigration in the name of national security. In an act of high political drama just 10 days after taking office, Trump replaced Obama administration appointee Sally Yates with the U.S. Attorney in Alexandria, Va., Dana Boente. 'The acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States. This order was approved as to form and legality
 by the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel,' a White House statement said. 'Ms. Yates is an Obama Administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.'" Full story. 

 - Here's why ... "Acting Attorney General Orders Justice Dept. Not to Defend Refugee Ban," The New York Times' Matt Apuzzo, Eric Lichtblau and Michael D. Shear: Full story. 

WILL RICK ROLL? - "Trump coaxes Rick Scott to run for prized Florida Senate seat," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt: "President Donald Trump is personally urging Florida Gov. Rick Scott to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018 - and the loyal Trump ally looks increasingly likely to take the leap. Trump and Scott speak about once a week and on several occasions have talked about the race, according to two sources briefed on the talks. The two have known each other for two decades, and Trump likes Scott's record as governor and as a health care tycoon. 'We need you in the Senate. We need business guys like you,' Trump told Scott in a recent phone call, said one source who'd been briefed
 on it, paraphrasing the conversation. The person added that the president had signaled that he would help the governor raise money." Full story.

- MORE SENATE WATCH - "Gosar eyes primary challenge to Flake," by the Arizona Capitol Times' Jeremy Duda: "Add Congressman Paul Gosar to the list of potential challengers U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake might face in next year's Republican primary. Gosar ... said people have asked him to consider running ... and he's considering it. 'People are not happy. And you know, when people ask, I'm a dentist, and so I listen to what the problem is, I take in the information and make wise decisions. So I've made no decision, but that's where we go,' Gosar [said] ... [State Treasurer Jeff] DeWit said he hasn't made any decisions about the U.S. Senate race. 'I have no idea what the future holds at this time. I
 know that a lot of Republicans are very disappointed that Senator Flake was so critical of our president,'" DeWit said. Full story.

FIRST IN SCORE - RGA raises $61 million in 2016: The RGA's total topped its fundraising hauls from 2008 and 2012, setting a record for the committee in a presidential year. Republicans will be on defense in 2018, as they defend 28 seats over the next two years. But the RGA didn't release its cash on hand numbers. "This fundraising success allowed the RGA to grow our already large majority to 33 Republican governors - the most since 1922 - and is a direct result of the hard work and bold leadership from our Republican governors," said RGA Chairman Gov. Scott Walker in a statement. "With a solid foundation to build upon, these figures ensure the RGA will be able to defend our incumbents and
 elect a new class of Republican governors over the next two years."

Days until the 2017 election: 280.

Days until the 2018 election: 644.

Thanks for joining us. You can email tips to the whole Campaign Pro team at [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked] and [email-masked]. 

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin and @maggieseverns.

PLAN B - "What's next for Obama's Cabinet?" by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "Former President Barack Obama's first wave of Cabinet officials plucked a slew of sitting Democratic governors, senators and other officeholders from their posts. But the Cabinet that finished the Obama administration was stocked with Democrats now seen as potential candidates for those offices in the future. " Full story.

SCORE INTERVIEW - Sidie "leaning toward" another run in KS-03: Democrat Jay Sidie, who lost his race against Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) last year, is making preparations for another run in a suburban district that Hillary Clinton narrowly won. Sidie jumped into the race last year with the encouragement of the DCCC after Donald Trump clinched the GOP nomination and ended up losing to Yoder by 10 points. "I didn't lose by much," Sidie said in an interview. "Kevin was extremely scared at the end." He's convinced that he can win a rematch if there's a backlash against Trump's presidency. "I knew that if I lost in '16 I'd be back in '18, probably," he said. "I looked at it as a long-term
 commitment." More here.

HOUSE CALL - "Trump's fast start likely puts the House in play in 2018," by Inside Elections' Stuart Rothenberg: "President Donald Trump is off to a fast start, but that aggressiveness could produce the same sort of reaction that Barack Obama's fast start did in 2009: It could lead to a midterm election in which voters apply the brakes. In 2010, voters told President Obama that he had gone too far, too fast, with health care reform, a $787 billion economic stimulus package, the bailout of the banks, cash for clunkers and a generally liberal agenda. The result was a GOP landslide ... The final result was a Republican gain of 63 seats, a number unimaginable a year earlier. Trump's supporters
 surely are pleased with his populist rhetoric and actions, and relieved that he is keeping his campaign pledges. But others, who opposed him or voted for him only because they disliked Hillary Clinton, will find his agenda and approach disturbing, even alarming, and they will likely turn out in November 2018." Full story. 

 - RELATED - "What is and isn't in the DCCC's first target list:" "The DCCC's first 2018 strategy memo cited 59 potential battleground district targets for House Democrats in 2018, including a mix of familiar faces and open seats - and, notably, only one upcoming special election. The early list is just that: early, and subject to change. But it includes one pending special election, for GOP Rep. Tom Price's 6th District in Georgia, and not another, for GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke 's at-large Montana seat. Both men have been nominated for President Donald Trump's Cabinet, but despite some recent statewide wins for Democrats in Montana, the close presidential result in Price's district merited
 inclusion in the DCCC's first target list. The DCCC's memo includes 23 GOP-held districts that Hillary Clinton carried and another 10, including Price's, that Clinton lost by 4 points or less." Full list of the targeted seats. 

ADMINISTRATION SPEED READ - "Trump's Supreme Court pick gets personal," by POLITICO's Shane Goldmacher and Eliana Johnson: "President Donald Trump's two finalists for the Supreme Court offer him a choice between a pair of competing personal narratives: an Ivy League pedigree and a blue collar history. With the president lacking any consistent judicial philosophy, those close to Trump are emphasizing their candidate's life story as they attempt to sway Trump toward either Neil Gorsuch or Thomas Hardiman. Gorsuch has the resume of a man seemingly destined for the high court: the son of a Reagan Cabinet member, a graduate of Harvard and Oxford, and a clerk for two Supreme Court justices who
 has worked in the Justice Department and spent a decade on the federal bench. In conservative legal circles, he is favored as a worthy intellectual heir to the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Hardiman has blue-collar roots that his backers say would make him a quintessential Trump nominee: a native of a working-class industrial town in Massachusetts, the first in his family to graduate from college, and upwardly mobile without passing through the corridors of the Ivy League. He would be the only sitting justice who did not attend Harvard or Yale." Full story. 

- "Gingrich, Giuliani to lead group pushing Trump's agenda," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt: "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will co-chair a newly formed outside group that is devoted to promoting President Donald Trump's agenda. Gingrich said in an interview he would help to oversee Great America Alliance, an independent, pro-Trump political nonprofit. It will also be co-chaired by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who, like Gingrich, was an early and outspoken Trump supporter. The organization will advocate for Trump's policy priorities, including his Supreme Court pick, which Trump says he will announce Tuesday evening." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The past couple of days have been like watching an octopus put its socks on in the morning," former Rep. Mike Rogers said on CNN, per Brian Stelter's tweet.

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