Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Northam and Fairfax refuse to resign — Klobuchar and Warren officially launch presidential bids — O’Rourke counterprograms Trump
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
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Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2019 09:03:14 -0600
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02/11/2019 10:00 AM EDT
        
By ZACH MONTELLARO ([email-masked]; @ZachMontellaro)

        
Editor's Note: This edition of Morning Score is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Campaign subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro's comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here.
          QUICK FIX         
- A second woman accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of assault (which he denied), while the state party and top Democrats called on him to resign. Both he and Gov. Ralph Northam are refusing to step aside.

- Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) both officially announced they're running for president.

- Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke will speak at a rally in El Paso tonight, countering the president's first MAGA rally of the year.

Good Monday morning. Email me at [email-masked] or DM me at @ZachMontellaro. 

Email the great Campaign Pro team at [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], and [email-masked]. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @DanielStrauss4, @JamesArkin and @lbarronlopez.

Days until the 2019 election: 267

Days until the 2020 election: 631
          THE TOPLINES         
IN VIRGINIA - Virginia's top Democrats are spiraling. On Friday, Meredith Watson accused Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of raping her when they both attended Duke University, POLITICO's Marc Caputo, Anita Kumar and Maggie Severns reported. Fairfax denied this allegation. "It is obvious that a vicious and coordinated smear campaign is being orchestrated against me," Fairfax said in a statement, saying he will not resign. He also called for the FBI to investigate the allegations of Watson and Vanessa Tyson, who previously accused him of sexual assault, per POLITICO's Quint Fogerty.

Democrats called on Fairfax to resign following the second allegation, after holding off following the first one. "While the Lieutenant Governor deserves due process in this matter, it is in the best interest of the Commonwealth that he goes through this process as a private citizen," state Democratic Party chair Susan Swecker said in a statement. The state legislative black caucus also called on Fairfax to resign, as did a bevy of national Democrats. One delegate said he would introduce articles of impeachment today if Fairfax did not resign, and lawyers for both women said they'd be willing to testify, per NBC4's Christian Paz and Julie Carey.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ralph Northam insists that he will not step aside despite his blackface scandal, and a Washington Post/Schar School poll found Virginians split, 47 percent to 47 percent, on whether Northam should resign. In an interview with The Washington Post's Gregory Schneider, he said he will stay in office and focus on racial "equity" in the state, and that's he's begun reading seminal works on race in America. Northam also said he is setting up a "reconciliation tour" to talk to residents of the state. In a Sunday appearance on CBS This Morning, Northam said it is the 400-year anniversary of "indentured servants" arriving from Africa before being corrected by Gayle King, who called
 it slavery.
          IN THE TRENCHES         
PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - Klobuchar dove right in to the presidential race, announcing her candidacy in the bitter cold and snow in Minneapolis. She's the first Midwesterner to officially get in. "I don't have a political machine. I don't come from money. But what I do have is this: I have grit," Klobuchar said at her announcement rally, per POLITICO's Elena Schneider (who learned firsthand that pens freeze in the cold). "I have ... all of you who are willing to stand up and say people matter." She was joined by many Democratic Minnesotans: Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Sen. Tina Smith and Reps. Angie Craig and Dean Phillips.

The week leading up to Klobuchar's rollout featured a number of stories detailing allegations of staff mistreatment. "She demeaned and berated her staff almost daily, subjecting them to bouts of explosive rage and regular humiliation within the office," BuzzFeed News' Molly Hensley-Clancy reported. "She yelled, threw papers, and sometimes even hurled objects." HuffPost's Molly Redden and Amanda Terkel reported that then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid spoke to her about her treatment of staff in 2015. They also reported it once led a local union to urge labor officials to not endorse Klobuchar. She addressed the stories in a gaggle after her speech: "Yes, I can be tough. Yes, I can push
 people, I know that," she said. "I have high expectations for myself, I have high expectations for the people that work for me. But I have high expectations for this country."

- Warren, meanwhile, has launched a full-blown presidential run, ending her exploratory phase with an announcement rally in Lawrence, Mass., per POLITICO's Natasha Korecki and Stephanie Murray. Warren also picked up the endorsement of three fellow Bay Staters: Sen. Ed Markey and Reps. Joe Kennedy and Lori Trahan. 

In her first trip to Iowa as an official candidate, Warren directly challenged President Donald Trump. "Here's what bothers me: By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be president," she said, per The Boston Globe's Liz Goodwin. "In fact, he may not even be a free person."

- O'Rourke gets a major spotlight tonight, leading counterprogramming to Trump's rally in El Paso, Texas. O'Rourke will head a march through the city and speak at a rally across the street from the president's, The Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek reported. 

- Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet hinted that he may get in, on Meet the Press: "I think having one more voice in that conversation that's focused on America's future, I don't think would hurt."

- Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan is heading to Iowa and New Hampshire as he considers a run, BuzzFeed News' Henry Gomez reported.

- Presidential campaigns are turning their attention to the Golden State. Campaign advisers have begun speaking to "Democratic strategists with California campaign experience - asking about the state's delegate math, ballot-collection practices and early voting," POLITICO's David Siders reported.

YEAR OF THE WOMAN 3.0 - With Warren's and Klobuchar's entrance into the race, there are now more women seeking the presidential nomination than at any point in history. "It's also a convergence of the political forces unleashed by the Trump era. The president's style, rhetoric and policies have generated a backlash among women that has turned the traditional gender gap between the parties into a chasm," POLITICO's Natasha Korecki and Charlie Mahtesian wrote.

RIP - Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican who represented NC-03, died Sunday. Jones had been in hospice care after suffering a fall recently and had been battling an undisclosed illness since before the start of 116th Congress. The News & Observer's Brian Murphy has more on his career. Jones served in a safe red district; Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is empowered to call a special election.

COURTING CONTROVERSY - Freshman Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar drew a sharp rebuke from her caucus after she suggested that GOP support for Israel is based off campaign donations from a prominent Jewish group. "Omar's comments touched upon a long-running, and particularly ugly, thread of the anti-Semitic movement - that Jewish money fuels backing for Israel in the United States and elsewhere," POLITICO's John Bresnahan reported. "A freshman Democrat, Max Rose of New York, said, 'Congresswoman Omar's statements are deeply hurtful to Jews, including myself.'"

UNTIL WHEN? - A fun parlor game: How long will the Democratic presidential primary go on? There's some disagreement between top party officials. New Hampshire chair Ray Buckley told me and National Journal's Josh Kraushaar on C-SPAN's Newsmakers that he thinks the party will settle on a nominee by Easter 2020, while Iowa chair Troy Price left open the possibility for a contested convention.

THE DEM COALITION - Planned Parenthood is losing the executive director of its political arm, Deirdre Schifeling, and its director of political outreach, Wendi Wallace, as some worry about new president Leana Wen's change in the organization's focus, BuzzFeed News' Ema O'Connor and Ruby Cramer report. 

UP NEXT - The NRSC is taking a renewed look at challenging Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) thanks to the chaos in his state. "Whereas two weeks ago it was a reliably Democratic state, today everything is in flux," NRSC Executive Director Kevin McLaughlin told Maggie and Anita.

- Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, who switched parties from Republican to Democrat and had been considering a Senate run, told KTAR that he won't jump into the special election against appointed GOP Sen. Martha McSally.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I now leave you in control of the greatest nation of mankind and pray God gives you the wisdom to understand the responsibility you hold in your hands," former Rep. John Dingell reflecting on his life the day he died.
    
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