Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Health care wars start anew — GOP groups plan $7 million in spending on Georgia runoff — First outside spending in South Carolina special
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2017 08:06:22 -0600
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By Kevin Robillard and Elena Schneider | 04/27/2017 10:00 AM EDT

With Bianca Padr&oacute; Ocasio, Scott Bland and Daniel Strauss

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)

TAKE 2 - DSCC, DCCC, Priorities USA release digital ads, pounce on revival of GOP health care bill: "Priorities USA is out with a six-figure digital ad buy attacking the revitalized Republican plan to repeal Obamacare, looking to protect Democratic senators on the issue and sway moderate Republicans in the upper chamber. The super PAC ... will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on pre-roll, social and search ads in five states with potentially vulnerable Democratic senators in 2018: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio. The spots will also appear in two states, Nevada and Arizona, that are home to potentially vulnerable Republicans. And the ads will also run in Alaska and
 Maine, home to moderate Republican senators who could be pressured to vote against Obamacare repeal."

- Many Democratic attacks on the first iteration of Obamacare repeal, including Priorities' advertising at the time, focused on what they called the "age tax" and building up opposition among older voters. The new spots instead go after Republicans for supporting the so-called "mom tax," saying the legislation would allow insurance companies to classify pregnancy as a pre-existing condition and allow them to charge pregnant women $17,000 more in premiums.

- The DSCC, meanwhile, is revitalizing its "The Price" ad. A six-figure buy of search and Facebook ads will run in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, North Dakota, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Florida, West Virginia and Michigan. The buy will target "key persuadable voters and demographics of the midterm electorate including older Americans and women," the committee said. Full ad here. 

- "Obamacare repeal's exception for Congress stokes charges of hypocrisy," by POLITICO's Jennifer Haberkorn: "Democrats quickly pounced on the exemption for members, accusing the GOP lawmakers of hypocrisy. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it would release digital ads highlighting the issue in the districts of 30 potentially vulnerable GOP incumbents. ... The exemption would essentially preserve Obamacare coverage protections for politicians and their staffs while allowing states to opt out of such requirements. It stoked new controversy just as the GOP repeal plan gained the endorsement of the House Freedom Caucus because of White House-backed changes. The language was
 added by Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee, according to a House GOP aide, to ensure that the repeal plan isn't struck down by Democrats' parliamentary challenges if it advances out of the House." Full story. 

- The new iteration of the bill is designed to win the support of the House Freedom Caucus, and has already won the support of the Club for Growth. That makes the moderates and battleground-district members - the ones more vulnerable to Democratic attack - the ones to watch on this piece of legislation.

THE GOP WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA - And planned to spend $7 million: "Money continues to pour into Georgia's special House election, with the NRCC adding another $3.65 million of TV ad reservations before the June 20 election - bringing the group's total planned expenditure in the district to just under $6 million, according to two sources with knowledge of the buy. The Congressional Leadership Fund also confirmed today that it will spend another $3.5 million on the special election, bringing its total spending in the district to $6.5 million." Of CLF's cash, $2.5 million will go towards TV and a cool $1 million will go towards digital, mail and doorknocking. Full story.

- Fun fact: CLF's $6.5 million spend against Democrat Jon Ossoff is the most a group has ever spent on a single House race.

2018 WATCH - Nevada Democrat Marshall considering Senate run, by the Nevada Independent's Jon Ralston: "Ex-state Treasurer Kate Marshall said Monday she is mulling a political comeback as a candidate against Sen. Dean Heller in 2018. 'I'm evaluating the race,' Marshall, a two-term Democratic constitutional officer and failed congressional hopeful told me via text message. Marshall reportedly has the support of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who has touted Marshall's chances against Heller, widely considered the most vulnerable GOP Senate incumbent next year." Full story.

- MEANWHILE - A lesson in how not to win a Democratic primary? Also via Ralston: "Stephen Cloobeck, the largest national Democratic Party donor from Nevada and a potential candidate for governor in 2018, will announce Wednesday that he is endorsing Republican Sen. Dean Heller for re-election ... Cloobeck, who founded timeshare giant Diamond Resorts before cashing out last year, is expected to tout Heller's commitment to business and will call him 'the right person at the right time for the state of Nevada.' ... [Cloobeck] is still exploring a [gubernatorial] bid - and he can afford to self-fund if the Democrats do snub him." Full story.

- MORE 2018 WATCH: "Author, entrepreneur, Clinton adviser Alec Ross announces bid for governor," by Colin Campbell: "Ross, 45, of Baltimore, is the first Democrat to announce a bid in what is expected to be a crowded field of gubernatorial challengers. ... Ross wrote "Industries of the Future," a best-selling book on innovation, and served as senior adviser for innovation to Clinton when she was Secretary of State under President Barack Obama. He is a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University and co-founder of 'One Economy,' a nonprofit that helped deliver high-speed Internet and technology training to low-income communities. His wife is a Baltimore teacher, and they have three children who
 attend Baltimore public schools." Full story. 

- Noted: Ross has hired top-notch Democratic consultants. Global Strategy Group is handling his polling, and David Dixon of Dixon Davis is handling media. 

Days until the 2017 election: 206.

Days until the 2018 election: 570.

Thanks for joining us. You can email tips to the 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 @danielstrauss4. 

PRIMARY SPECIAL - Alabama judge Roy Moore to challenge Strange in Senate primary: "Suspended state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore announced Wednesday that he will run in this year's special Senate election in Alabama, kicking off a high-profile primary fight with appointed Sen. Luther Strange. Moore made the announcement at a press conference, according to the Associated Press. Former Gov. Robert Bentley in February appointed Strange to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions' vacant Senate seat. Since then, Bentley resigned amidst a sex scandal, and new Gov. Kay Ivey scheduled a special election later this year for the remainder of Sessions' term, which runs through 2020." Full story.

CORRECTION - Yesterday's Score incorrectly stated every Senate Democrat facing reelection in 2018 supported the Iran nuclear agreement. Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin opposed the deal.

PLAYBOOK THEFT - From Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman's afternoon Playbook Power briefing: "Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) announced at a closed House Democratic Caucus meeting this morning that he is releasing his post-election DCCC analysis Thursday night in a members-only meeting at the DNC headquarters. The report will have 28 suggestions for the DCCC, which has failed to take back the House majority for the last six years."

SPECIAL ELECTION WATCH - Hometown Freedom Action Network drops $113K for Pope in South Carolina: The Hometown Freedom Action Network, a sporadically active GOP super PAC, is spending $113,000 on ads supporting state House Speaker pro tem Tommy Pope ahead of next week's GOP primary in the race to replace Rep. Mick Mulvaney, according to an Independent Expenditure report filed with the FEC. The overwhelming majority of that cash is going towards the Columbia media market, with a cable buy in more expensive Charlotte. Their spot praises Pope as a "proven Constitutional conservative." Watch the ad here. 

- So what is the Hometown Freedom Action Network? The FEC doesn't offer many clues. In the past, it spent money in GOP primaries for Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and other. The group received tens of thousands of dollars last year from Citizens for a Working America. The last House race Citizens for a Working America made headlines for playing in? The 2010 contest in South Carolina's 5th District, in which Mulvaney defeated then-Rep. John Spratt during the GOP wave.

FIRST IN SCORE - CLF releases Snapchat filter in Montana: The Congressional Leadership Fund is launching a Snapchat filter geotargeted to Democrat Rob Quist's campaign event with Alyssa Milano at the University of Montana. The filter calls him "Lyin' Rob Quist." 

COOL FOR THE SUMMERS - Kurt Summers opts against gubernatorial run in Illinois, endorses Pritzker: For weeks, Chicago Treasurer Kurt Summers had the look of a potentially strong Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Illinois. In March, POLITICO's Natasha Korecki reported on an internal polling memo prepared by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for Summers and touting him as a strong contender. Later that month, Summers sent an email to supporters titled "New Leadership in Illinois" fueling further speculation that he'd decided to run for governor. And then on Tuesday Summers' team sent out a media advisory announcing a press conference the next day. But instead of jumping in, Summers
 endorsed businessman J.B. Pritzker, pulling himself out of the race to take on GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner.

ADMINISTRATION SPEED READ - "Inside Trump's quiet effort to revive the health care bill," by Tara Palmeri: "Interviews with 12 White House and Hill aides revealed clear differences between the brute-force approach Trump took the first time around and the second effort, which has been led from the White House by Vice President Mike Pence. It's featured less Presidential involvement, a softer sell to all sides and no fixed deadline - just the clear hope of getting a bill to the floor before Trump's first 100 days were up." Full story. 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Take a sip of your coffee, but looking kinda toward the bananas, and then kind of look down - and then look back up at him." - The man behind the camera in some delightfully entertaining b-roll of GA-06 Republican Karen Handel recently posted on YouTube.

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