Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Trump nonprofit warns GOP senators to get in line — Koch network leader calls health fight 'humbling' — DeWine announces Ohio governor run
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2017 08:03:35 -0600
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By Elena Schneider | 06/26/2017 10:00 AM EDT

With Kevin Robillard
 
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)
 
WARNING SHOTS - "Pro-Trump group's health care offensive warns GOP senators to get in line," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt: "A new campaign by top White House allies targeting the GOP's most vulnerable senator over health care sends a loud message to those resistant to the Trump agenda: We're coming after you. America First Policies, a White House-backed outside group led by the president's top campaign advisers, has launched a $1 million attack against Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who on Friday announced that he opposed the Senate's recently unveiled Obamacare repeal plan. ...The offensive is aimed at both punishing Heller and at swaying his vote, and it is a stunning act of political
 retaliation against a member of the president's own party - one who faces a perilous path to re-election in 2018. Senior Republicans, many of whom are deeply worried about Heller's political standing and increasingly nervous about the midterms, were shocked and spent the weekend measuring the possible fallout." Full story.
 
HONEST FEEDBACK - "Koch-backed group calls health fight in Congress 'humbling,'" by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "The head of the the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity admitted to donors on Sunday that the group was caught 'flat-footed' by the fight in Congress to replace Obamacare, as the group seeks to influence Republican proposals it says do not go far enough to repeal the 2010 law." Full story.
 
THIS WEEK ON THE HILL - "Senate Republicans skeptical Obamacare repeal can pass this week," by POLITICO's Elana Schor and Seung Min Kim: "Senate Republicans are casting doubt on their leaders' plans to vote this week on repealing Obamacare, with lawmakers from all wings of the party so far withholding support from the massive reshaping of the health care law that they campaigned on for seven years. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky faces problems from seemingly every corner of his conference, and - from wary moderates to conservatives and even leadership allies - few Republicans were willing Sunday to predict the Senate repeal bill could pass this week, before lawmakers leave
 Washington for a weeklong July 4 recess." Full story.
 
2018 WATCH - "Ohio AG Mike DeWine announces 2018 run for governor," Associated Press: "In the era before President Donald Trump, Republican Mike DeWine's status as an easy favorite to win Ohio's governor's race would have been assured. The 70-year-old attorney general, who announced his long-anticipated bid Sunday, is one of the state's most familiar and high-profile public figures, a former U.S. senator and lieutenant governor with a big wholesome-looking family, an extensive political network and $2.5 million already in the bank. But it remains to be seen how DeWine's traditional political profile will play in a national political climate that's been upended by President Donald Trump."
 Full story.
 
Days until the 2017 election: 134.
 
Days until the 2018 election: 498.
 
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. 
 
COLORADO SPRINGS CHRONICLES - Abbott warns GOP donors about Texas turning blue: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doesn't have a clear Democratic opponent, and his approval ratings are strong. But he still told GOP donors at the Koch network's annual seminar at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs that they should fret about Democrats gaining ground in his home state. "People really take Texas for granted," he told the crowd, noting billionaire Democratic donor George Soros had recently invested heavily in the Harris County District Attorney's race and Texas was one of just a handful of states where Hillary Clinton did better in 2016 than Barack Obama did in 2012. "If Texas, California and New
 York are all blue, then Bernie Sanders will be a middle-of-the-road type candidate," Abbott said. He said his campaign has already hired field organizers, and plans on investing heavily in the ground game.
 
- Kochs warn of energized left: At a strategy session in front of about 400 donors, Freedom Partners official Emily Seidel warned that Democratic enthusiasm would make for the hardest midterm cycle Republicans have faced in recent memory. "This midterm election cycle is far more difficult than in recent years," Seidel said. She said liberal political groups were seeing donations booming, and had growing budgets to match the network's largesse. "We are facing a reinvigorated left." 
 
HOT DOC - Democracy Corps recommends attacking health bill over process, focus on pre-existing conditions: A new memo from Democracy Corps summarizing surveys for Women's Voices. Women Vote Action Fund has recommendations on how Democrats should best attack an already-unpopular health care bill. The memo recommends focusing on the provisions making it more difficult to get insurance if you have a pre-existing conditions, since that attack was the most effective in getting bill supporters to change their minds. It also says attacking the bill for backroom deals was effective at moving swing voters. Read the full memo here. 
 
NEW PAC ALERT - Two veteran Democratic strategists, longtime Ted Kennedy aide Steve Kerrigan and former Colorado Democratic Party chair Rick Palacio, are launching Stronger States, a new federal PAC focused on state and local races that will work on "strengthening state and local party committees, providing results-driven resources to Democratic candidates, and partnering with candidates, state parties, and progressive allied organizations."
 
EXPANDING THE PROFILE - Dem megadonor Tom Steyer adds health care to his brand, by POLITICO California's Victoria Colliver: "California billionaire activist Tom Steyer made his name as an environmental activist, worked with Democratic groups to register a million new voters and redefined green politics with high-profile campaigns on climate change and clean energy. Now as he weighs a run for public office, he's adding health care - specifically drug prices - to his brand. ...The former hedge fund executive, 59, is backing a California effort to force drug manufacturers to give notice of price increases, a move Steyer sees as a first step to reining in drug costs and curbing the power of
 corporate interests." Full story.
 
CAMPAIGN FINANCE GOING LOCAL - "Milwaukee donor funded more than one-third of Virginia transgender candidate's primary victory," by Campaign Pro's Maggie Severns: "Danica Roem, a transgender Virginia House candidate, got major help to beat out three other Democrats to win her party's nomination during last week's primary - from Milwaukee. More than one-third of the money Roem has raised for the race - as of the most recent filing deadline - comes from Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, who also chairs the board for the pro-LGBT Victory Fund. Though they're both connected through the Victory Fund, Roem says she can't recall ever meeting Abele, who has twice wired eye-popping donations
 to her small-dollar state government race - to the tune of $10,000 and $15,000. Abele, who is not gay or transgender, said he was drawn to her race because it has symbolic significance." Full story.
 
- "Christie donors gave more to Murphy than to Guadagno and Ciattarelli combined," by POLITICO New Jersey's Matt Freidman and Brendan Cheney: "In the race for New Jersey governor, Democratic nominee Phil Murphy is casting Republican Kim Guadagno's candidacy as a third term for Gov. Chris Christie. But ... [a] POLITICO New Jersey analysis of the most recent campaign finance data available found that the donors who gave to Christie's gubernatorial campaigns contributed just short of $464,000 to Murphy - about 10 percent of the roughly $4 million raised from donors. Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and U.S. ambassador to Germany, self-funded his $20 million primary campaign ... Despite
 serving as Christie's second-in-command for the past 7 1/2 years, Guadagno, the GOP gubernatorial nominee, received significantly less from those who gave to Christie, taking in about $311,000 from them during the primary. Ciattarelli, the Republican runner-up, received just over $143,000 from Christie doors." Full story.
 
- "Bloomberg's Next Anti-Washington Move: $200 Million Program for Mayors," by The New York Times' Alexander Burns: "Michael R. Bloomberg will throw his financial might into helping beleaguered American mayors, creating a $200 million philanthropic program aimed at backing inventive policies at the city level and giving mayors a stronger hand in national politics. Mr. Bloomberg intends to announce the initiative on Monday in a speech to the United States Conference of Mayors in Miami Beach, where he will castigate federal officials and state governments around the country for undermining cities. He plans to describe the program, called the American Cities Initiative, as a method of shoring
 up the global influence of the United States despite turmoil in Washington." Full story.
 
YOUR (FINAL?) DAILY GEORGIA - "The GOP's one-man fire brigade," by POLITICO's Eliana Johnson: "Karen Handel wasn't the only big winner in Tuesday's special election. Republican operative Corry Bliss, who heads the super PAC officially blessed by House GOP leadership, arguably had just as much riding on the outcome." Full story.
 
- "Destroying Jon Ossoff: the adman's view," by Axios' Jonathan Swan speaking to Republican operative Bob Honold, runs through the ad-by-ad progression of the NRCC TV campaign against Ossoff in GA-06. Full story.
 
CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I didn't come here to ride the back bench and get a fancy business card." - GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who's departing Congress on Friday, to The Salt Lake Tribune. 
 
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