Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Blackburn jumps into Tennessee Senate race — Murphy resigns from Congress — Republicans weigh backing new ad disclosures
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2017 08:04:26 -0600
List-Id: <1376319_7094973.xt.local>

By Maggie Severns | 10/06/2017 10:00 AM EDT

With Zach Montellaro, Elena Schneider and 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)
 
Morning Score will not publish on Monday, Oct. 9. Our next Morning Score newsletter will publish on Tuesday, Oct. 10. Please continue to follow Campaign Pro issues here.
 
YOUR TENNESSEE FRONTRUNNER - "Blackburn enters Tennessee Senate race, as Haslam passes," by Kevin Robillard: "Tennessee GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn announced she would run for Senate on Thursday, the same day her biggest potential primary challenger, Gov. Bill Haslam, opted out of the contest. In her announcement video, Blackburn takes aim at the upper chamber she hopes to join and boasts about her conservative credentials. She says the Senate Republican majority's failure to repeal Obamacare is a 'disgrace' and calls the Senate 'dysfunctional' and 'enough to drive you nuts.'" Full story.
 
- The New York Times' Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns: "A battery of Republican senators had telephoned Tennessee's governor, Mr. Haslam, a popular and wealthy establishment figure, and invoked Mr. Moore's primary election victory to argue that the identity of the party was on the line, according to a Republican official familiar with the line of argument. Mr. Corker and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee led the charge. ... In a sign of their determination to retain the seat, establishment-aligned Tennessee Republicans immediately began trumpeting R. Brad Martin, a former state legislator and onetime chief executive of Saks as a potential candidate." Full story. 
 
- Club for Growth endorses Mark Green: The Club for Growth immediately endorsed state Sen. Mark Green to replace Blackburn after she announced her Senate bid. 
 
SPECIAL ELECTION SIREN - "Tim Murphy resigns from Congress," via POLITICO's Rachael Bade and Jake Sherman: "Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), the embattled anti-abortion lawmaker who allegedly encouraged his lover to terminate a pregnancy, on Thursday announced his plan to resign from office later this month - just a day after announcing his plan to retire following the 2018 election."
 
- Here's what's next: "In Pennsylvania special elections, the state central committees for both parties select primary nominees, rather than through a primary vote. ... Two Republican candidates announced their bids on Thursday - state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler, a former judge and Iraq War veteran, and state Sen. Kim Ward. Local operatives also named state Rep. Rick Saccone, who's currently running for the U.S. Senate, as another potential candidate. Three Democrats were already vying to take on Murphy before he resigned, including Pam Iovino, a veteran who picked up an endorsement from VoteVets on Wednesday. But Democratic operatives said they expect more candidates to jump in, naming Matt
 Smith, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, state Rep. Dan Miller and Westmoreland County Commissioner Ted Kopas." Full story.
 
HARD TARGET - Swing Left targets Ryan's district: The progressive fundraising organization Swing Left will target House Speaker Paul Ryan's district in 2018 and raise money for whichever Democratic candidate wins the nomination to take on Ryan. Hosts of the progressive podcast Pod Save America announced the move on Thursday night during a live taping. Swing Left has raised over $1.8 million for Democratic challengers this year. 
 
- The DCCC's first ad campaign targets Ryan, too: "Paul Ryan and Washington Republicans," the ad says, "it's the same thing every time." The six-figure ad buy will run on MSNBC and CNN nationally, along with a three-week radio ad campaign in 11 to battleground districts, including those of: Reps. French Hill (AR-02), Martha McSally (AZ-02), Jeff Denham (CA-10), David Valadao (CA-21), Brian Mast (FL-18), Mike Bost (IL-12), Kevin Yoder (KS-03), Andy Barr (KY-06), Bruce Poliquin (ME-02), Don Bacon (NE-02) and Will Hurd (TX-23). Watch the ad here. Full story.
 
FULL DISCLOSURE - "Lawmakers weigh pushing Facebook, Twitter to share who buys political ads," by POLITICO's Elana Schor, Kyle Cheney and Ashley Gold: "Republicans in Congress are weighing joining with Democrats to demand greater transparency for political ads on Facebook and Twitter, as both parties look for ways to prevent a 2018 repeat of Russia's election meddling last year. ... though Republicans have historically opposed regulating political speech, some now appear open to new rules amid pressure to act against Russian influence before the 2018 midterms. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), who both sit on the intelligence committee where Warner is the top
 Democrat, said in interviews this week that they're looking at the proposal he and Klobuchar have crafted." Full story. 
 
Days until the 2017 election: 32.
 
Days until the 2018 election: 396. 
 
Thanks for joining us! You can email tips to the Campaign Pro team at [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked] and [email-masked].
 
You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @danielstrauss4 and @maggieseverns. 
 
Q3 FUNDRAISING - VA-SEN: Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine raised $1.8 million in the third quarter and has a whopping $8.4 million on hand. 
 
 IL-06: Democrat Kelly Mazeski announced raising $415,000 in the third quarter and has over $325,000 on hand for the crowded primary to face GOP Rep. Peter Roskam.
 
- KS-02: Democrat Paul Davis announced raising over $400,000 for his run for the open Republican-held seat.
 
- NY-01: Democrat Perry Gershon raised $500,000 since launching his campaign, but did not release his cash on hand total. 
 
- NY-19: Democrat Antonio Delgado announced raising $400,000 for his run against GOP Rep. John J. Faso.
 
BIG VIRGINIA NUMBERS - A new poll from the Washington Post/Schar School gives Democrat Ralph Northam a sizable lead over Republican Ed Gillespie in the run for governor. Northam is up 53 percent to 40 percent, with Libertarian Cliff Hyra pulling 4 percent. The poll was in the field from Sept. 28 through Oct. 2, with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. More numbers.
 
-The Republican Governors Association released a memo disputing the survey: The memo, written by OnMessage's Wes Anderson and Kayla Dunlap, notes the Post's survey missed the gubernatorial race in 2013. It also questions the number of Democrats included in the survey and argues the number of voters interviewed by cell phone is too high. "For these reasons, we believe this survey has failed to meet many of the standards required to be considered an accurate survey and should be taken with a pound of salt, maybe even more," the duo writes. Read the full memo here. 
 
BANNON'S NEXT PROJECT - "Ex-convict Michael Grimm: Steve Bannon is 'very excited' to get me re-elected to Congress," by Newsweek's Celeste Katz: "Michael Grimm is dead certain of these things: He didn't deserve that prison time. He can recapture his old seat representing New York in Congress. And he'll get back to Washington with the enthusiastic support of one Mr. Steve Bannon. 'We're definitely going to work together. ... And I can say that Steve Bannon was very excited about it,' Grimm told Newsweek in an exclusive interview after his Wednesday sitdown on Capitol Hill with the former chief strategist to President Donald Trump." Full story.
 
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE - "Top GOP Senate recruit courts Bannon after threat," by POLITICO's Kevin Robillard and yours truly: "The Republican establishment pick to take on Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill quietly reached out to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon last week - the latest step taken by concerned Republicans to counter Bannon's threats to wreak havoc across the Senate landscape in 2018.
 
"Two Republican sources said Attorney General Josh Hawley, a soft-spoken 37-year-old with an Ivy League pedigree who is expected to officially announce a run soon, called Bannon late last week. ... On the call, Hawley reminded Bannon of their mutual friends, including the Mercer megadonor family, which bankrolls much of Bannon's political work. Hawley met with Robert Mercer last fall when he was running for attorney general, one Republican close to Hawley said." Full story.
 
AD BREAK - The American Action Network is launching a $2 million buy on tax reform in California, North Carolina and Florida, per McClatchy's Katie Glueck. 
 
FROM THE FEC FILES - Clyburn amends campaign reports to the tune of $300K: South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn's campaign recently refiled several years' worth of FEC reports after finding they overstated Clyburn's campaign balance by, as of the most recent filing, $342,904. The campaign committee told the FEC the balance listed with the FEC had been off since 2009.
 
- Defending Main Street brings in $300,000: The moderate Defending Main Street super PAC reported raising $300,000 in September, in the form of three $100,000 contributions from PACs associated with the Air Line Pilots Association, the International Union of Operating Engineers and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. 
 
ICYMI - "A New Pro-Trump Super PAC Takes Aim at the Republican Establishment," via The Atlantic's Rosie Gray: "A group of pro-Trump media figures are launching a super PAC aimed at making an impact in the 2018 midterms. Jeff Giesea, Mike Cernovich, and Jack Posobiec, organizers of the 'Deploraball' party to celebrate President Trump's inauguration earlier this year, are behind the super PAC, which is being called #Rev18. The trio plans to back anti-establishment primary challengers in the midterms." Full story.
 
- Tennessee Rep. Craig Fitzhugh announces gov. run: Fitzhugh, a Democrat, released a video announcing his run for governor on Thursday. "This is the field I played on in high school, in West Tennessee," Fitzhugh says in the ad. "It was one of the first integrated teams in the South. To me, it just felt right to be playing alongside the kids I grew up with."
 
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "We look forward to seeing how national Democrats can spin yet another special election loss into a so-called 'moral victory,'" NRCC chairman Steve Stivers said in a statement about the forthcoming special election to replace departing Rep. Tim Murphy. 
 
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