Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Anti-Trump candidates retreat — NDRC affiliate supports challenges in three districts — Senate GOP shuns Stewart
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2018 08:04:31 -0600
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By Daniel Strauss | 06/14/2018 10:00 AM EDT

With Zach Montellaro
 
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)
 
LAST STAND - "This is the new Republican Party" by POLITICO's Edward-Isaac Dovere: "Put a blond combover on the elephant. Take down the pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. It's over. It's Donald Trump's GOP. The anti-Trump candidates are fleeing, and the ones who stick around are getting trampled. 
 
"The chill has gone out among whoever's left: there's no more speaking up, and if there is, it's just for the sake of a speech, a protest quote that quickly disappears. They chalk it up to party loyalty, or staying unified for the midterms. They say they still believe in the principles, but they don't tend to do more than say the words. Then, when the microphones are off, they confide. They complain. They nurse fantasies that there's a reckoning coming, that maybe this will all end with the Republican Party nominating someone like Eisenhower. Or at least like Paul Ryan. 
 
"And each time they watch another of their own go down, they wince, try to move on. Don't look back. Try to forget. 'This business is a lot like being a professional fighter: Over the course of it, you get a lot of shots to the head, and sooner or later, you're knocked out,' said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), mourning fellow Rep. Mark Sanford's loss in Tuesday's primary." Full story. 
 
THE CAVALRY - "Cole: GOP members 'racing' to help Roby in primary" by Campaign Pro's Scott Bland and Jennifer Scholtes: "Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said in an interview that House Republicans are marshaling behind Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) ahead of her primary runoff against ex-Rep. Bobby Bright, the Democrat-turned-Republican Roby defeated in 2010. 'It was announced today at the Republican political conference ... that a fundraiser was being done for her, members are being encouraged to participate, and so a lot of members are racing to her defense,' Cole said, noting that he had donated to Roby. 'If you know Martha Roby, you like Martha Roby.'" Full story. 
 
NDRC GETS IN - "NDRC affiliate challenges House districts in 3 states" by Campaign Pro's Maggie Severns: "The National Redistricting Foundation, a 501(c)(3) group affiliated with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, is supporting challenges to congressional maps in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, seeking to create additional majority-minority congressional districts for African-American voters in each state. The suits, filed by groups of citizens in each state, challenge redistricting bills that passed in each state in 2011. They allege the laws violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. ... Read the complaints for Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana." Full story. 
 
MCCONNELL GROUPS ACTIVATED - "McConnell-aligned groups launching ads in three states" by Campaign Pro's James Arkin: "Republican outside groups allied with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are launching new ads in three top Senate races, according to Advertising Analytics. One Nation, a nonprofit organization, is airing ads in Missouri and Arizona starting Thursday, while Senate Leadership Fund, an affiliated super PAC, is launching its first ad of the cycle in Indiana. 
 
"In Arizona, One Nation is putting at least $505,000 behind ads, according to data from Advertising Analytics. It is the first spending there this cycle from a group allied with Senate GOP leadership. The advertising will address border security, according to contracts filed with local TV stations, though it's not clear which candidate it will be about. ... In Missouri, One Nation has previously spent $1.4 million on an ad praising Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley but has booked new ad reservations starting Thursday that take the group's total spending over $2 million, per Advertising Analytics." Full story. 
 
PERSONNEL NEWS - Morning Score is getting a new author: Zach Montellaro, who has been on the POLITICO Playbook team for over a year, is taking over your favorite morning newsletter next week! Send him tips and ideas - or just commiserate about the struggling New York Mets - at [email-masked]. And you can follow him on Twitter at @zachmontellaro.
 
Days until the 2018 election: 145 
 
Upcoming election dates - June 26: Colorado, Maryland, New York (congressional), Oklahoma and Utah primaries and Mississippi and South Carolina primary runoffs. 
 
Upcoming filing deadlines - New Hampshire: June 15. - Rhode Island: June 27. - Delaware: July 10.
 
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, @danielstrauss4, @maggieseverns and @jamesarkin. 
 
FIRST IN SCORE - EMILY's List backs Bush in CO-03: EMILY's List announced Thursday that it's endorsing state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush in her primary bid to take on GOP Rep. Scott Tipton, per a statement from the group. 
 
NEW THIS MORNING - WEB WARS - CLF attacks Pelosi in new digital ad: The Congressional Leadership Fund released a new digital ad attacking Nancy Pelosi as "Negative Nancy," using her comments about the economy. "Hip hip hurray, unemployment is down," the clip says. Watch the ad here. 
 
NO LOVE LOST - "Senate GOP shuns Stewart in Virginia" by POLITICO's Burgess Everett: "President Donald Trump may be excited about Corey Stewart's primary win in the Virginia Senate race, but Senate Republicans certainly aren't. The Senate GOP's campaign arm hasn't endorsed Stewart, who has made defending Confederate monuments a central plank of his political career. And its chairman said that the committee has 'no plans' to spend any money on Stewart in his race against Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). 
 
"'At the senatorial committee we're focusing on Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota, Montana, West Virginia and Florida. There are great races around the country. [Virginia] is not the map,' said National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Cory Gardner (R-Colo.). 'We have a big map this year, and what I've laid out in races that I've talked about, Virginia's not on it.' Other Republicans expressed ignorance of Stewart. 'No idea who he is. Not at all,' added Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.).
 
"The feeling is mutual. Stewart held a press conference outside the NRSC in May to rail against party leaders for not supporting his campaign." Full story. 
 
BIG SPENDING - "RAGA reserves $4.7M of TV time in three battleground states" by Campaign Pro's Daniel Strauss: "The Republican Attorneys General Association is reserving $4.7 million in TV advertising time in a trio of battleground states for the general election. RAGA, the umbrella organization for Republican attorneys general, is reserving advertising in Arizona, Nevada and Ohio. The organization is investing $1.4 million each in Ohio and Nevada each and $1.9 million in Arizona. They are the group's first fall TV reservations of 2018. ... 
 
"The $1.9 million in Arizona is meant to boost Attorney General Mark Brnovich. In Ohio, RAGA is spending in support of state Auditor Dave Yost, the attorney general nominee there. And in Nevada, the group is spending to boost Wes Duncan, who won the GOP nomination on Tuesday and will compete against Democratic state Sen. Aaron Ford." Full story. 
 
POLL NUMBERS - "Ohio Quinnipiac poll: Brown comfortably ahead, Cordray locked in tight race with DeWine" by Daniel and James: "A new Quinnipiac University poll of Ohio found Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown with a comfortable lead for reelection but former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine locked in a much tighter race. Brown leads Rep. Jim Renacci 51 percent to 34 percent in the Senate race, according to the poll, including a sizable 21-point advantage among independent voters. ...
 
"Cordray, the Democratic nominee, had 42 percent to DeWine's 40 percent in the governor's race. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed said they had a favorable opinion of Cordray while 15 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion. Another 51 percent said they hadn't heard enough about him. Meanwhile, 39 percent said they had a favorable opinion of DeWine while 31 percent said they had an unfavorable view of him. Another 27 percent said they hadn't heard of the Ohio attorney general and Republican nominee for governor." Full story. 
 
- "Cuomo ahead of Nixon by 35 points in latest Siena poll" by Politico New York's Bill Mahoney: "Gov. Andrew Cuomo is much more popular among New York Democrats than his celebrated primary challenger Cynthia Nixon, according to a Siena College Research Institute poll released Wednesday. Cuomo led Nixon 61-26 overall in the poll, and he came out on top in each of the 23 demographic categories broken out in the poll." Full story.
 
FIRST IN SCORE: ON THE AIRWAVES - Senate Majority PAC is launching a new ad in Montana attacking state Auditor Matt Rosendale: The 30-second ad goes after Rosendale for his Maryland roots and attempts to paint him as a carpetbagger. "Matt Rosendale likes to dress up as a Montanan, but he's really an East Coast millionaire developer," a narrator says. SMP is spending $600,000 on the ad. Watch it here. 
 
- Rep. Jacky Rosen releases Spanish-language ad ahead of World Cup: The new 30-second Spanish-language TV ad will run on Telemundo in Las Vegas starting Thursday, the first day of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. "This is our moment of pride, when our teams leave everything on the field," a narrator says, speaking in Spanish. "And here in Nevada, we will do the same. Jacky Rosen is the Democratic Congresswoman who is not afraid to stand up to Trump. Fighting for a path for Dreamers toward a secure future. And against Trump's dirty game of separating mothers from their children." Watch the ad here. 
 
CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It's becoming a cultish thing, isn't it?" - Sen. Bob Corker on the Republican Party's loyalty to President Donald Trump, according to The Washington Post. 
 
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