Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Dems’ election bill clears House committee — Harris bails on NC-09 rerun — Lightfoot, Preckwinkle advance to Chicago mayoral runoff
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
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Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2019 09:02:48 -0600
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02/27/2019 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 Campaigns Pro 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         
- House Democrats' major voting and ethics reform bill, H.R. 1., cleared committee on Tuesday. It is expected to head to the House floor soon.

- Republican Mark Harris will not run in the new election in NC-09. The redo election was called after a hearing last week laid out an extensive fraud case against an independent contractor working for Harris.

- Tuesday's Chicago mayoral election: Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle advanced to an April 2 runoff to succeed retiring Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Good Wednesday morning. We've been using a new format for Score for the past couple months (mainly, the "Quick Fix" section at the top) and I want to hear your thoughts about it. 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: 251

Days until the 2020 election: 615
          THE TOPLINES         
THE NEXT STEP - House Democrats took a major step in advancing their promised voting and ethics reform bill H.R. 1, or the "For the People Act". By a 6-3 party line vote, the bill advanced our of the House Administration Committee.

"It is expected to come to the floor in the coming weeks, according to a Democratic aide familiar with the proceedings and End Citizens United Executive Director Tiffany Muller, whose organization has been strongly pushing the legislation," I wrote from the markup. "It is expected to pass the House, having already secured 227 co-sponsors, all Democrats."

Republicans offered dozens of amendments during the markup, all of which were shot down on party line votes. The most contentious one was one offered by Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), which would prohibit the practice of "ballot harvesting." Republicans cited the NC-09 election as a reason to pass the amendment, while Democrats said the GOP was conflating a bad actor in North Carolina manipulating ballots with California voters being allowed to cast absentee ballots by mail up until Election Day.

The bill is likely dead-on-arrival in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has railed against it. But expect to hear about H.R. 1 for years to come, especially from this Congress' freshman class. "I think there is a sentiment in this town right now that, 'We just got to get past this H.R. 1 s---, and then we can go back to normal order,'" freshman Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) said earlier Tuesday. "No, there's no going back."

Join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues at the State Department on March 6-7, 2019, for the 9th annual International Women's Day Forum. As part of the day's programming, Anna Palmer co-author of POLITICO's Playbook, will lead a fireside chat with actress, singer, dancer and activist Keke Palmer, who has dedicated her life to philanthropy and activism for young girls. The full agenda and registration are available HERE.
          IN THE TRENCHES         
NC-09, FOREVER - Mark Harris is out of the re-do election. "Given my health situation, the need to regain full strength, and the timing of this surgery the last week of March, I have decided not to file in the new election," Harris said in a statement, per Campaign Pro's Laura Barr&oacute;n-L&oacute;pez. Harris said he would back Stony Rushing, a Union County commissioner, in the GOP primary. 

- The race is also on in NC-03, to replace the late GOP Rep. Walter Jones. The News & Observer's Brian Murphy has a look at the field.

PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - The chairs of the early state Democratic primaries are working on an agreement that would have presidential hopefuls avoid waging social media disinformation campaigns against each other. "The eventual agreement aims to lay out norms and rules the campaigns should follow with regard to disinformation tactics and cybersecurity as the crowded Democratic presidential primary campaign takes shape," POLITICO's Natasha Korecki reported. "The goal is to have 2020 campaigns agree to forego illicit online campaign tactics like those used against Democrats in the 2016 presidential campaign, including the use of fake social media accounts, the spread of disinformation, hacking
 and the use of hacked materials."

- Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is locking down her home state, trying to secure major donors across the state. "She has already held more California fundraisers than any other candidate for president," POLITICO's Maggie Severns reported. "And with many top Democratic donors waiting for the crowded primary field to winnow before singling out a candidate for support, Harris' efforts to win over her state's money could not only boost her campaign but starve some of her rivals."

Her campaign also announced the backing of statewide elected officials, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, POLITICO California's Carla Marinucci reported. Gov. Gavin Newsom had previously endorsed Harris.

- Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) campaign is getting a major shakeup. Three top strategists from his 2016 run - Tad Devine, Mark Longabaugh and Julian Mulvey - are leaving his campaign over creative differences. "We just didn't have a meeting of the minds," Longabaugh told NBC News' Alex Seitz-Wald.

- A group of former staffers for Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) wrote an open letter saying recent reporting detailing her behavior toward her staff doesn't "adequately describe our thoughts," saying she is "a mentor and friend."

- Vice President Joe Biden has made job offers in New Hampshire and South Carolina, National Journal's Hotline's Hanna Trudo and HuffPost's Maxwell Strachan reported. Biden also said that he had a family meeting and his family wants him to run, but while he's in the "final stages" of deciding, he's "not there yet," at a panel at the University of Delaware, per CNN's David Wright.

REPLACING RAHM - Chicago will elect its first black woman mayor in an April 2 runoff, after Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle were first and second, respectively, on Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune reported. Bill Daley, the son and brother of former mayors, was eliminated after a third-place finish.

IF YOU'RE ASKING ... - Midwestern Democratic governors have some advice for presidential candidates who want to recapture their region. In interviews with Campaign Pro's Daniel Strauss, Democratic Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, and Tony Evers of Wisconsin "stressed in uncharacteristically pointed language the importance of drilling down on issues that affect people every day, like health care, education and infrastructure, to reassemble a winning Democratic electoral map in 2020."

2016 REDUX - Hillary Clinton is not in the 2020 Democratic primary, but her shadow consumes it. "In recent months, a parade of ambitious Democrats has held private sessions with Mrs. Clinton, who has counseled them about the unmatched rigors of the campaign trail and hardships of facing Mr. Trump," The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher and Lisa Lerer reported, listing eight hopefuls she has already talked to. "In her conversations, Mrs. Clinton signaled that she has no plans to endorse someone in the primary, say those who have spoken with her, but is eager to help the eventual nominee."

CAMPAIGN CASH - Party committees are leaning on members with leadership roles to fill their coffers. "Top Democrats on several of the most powerful congressional committees each transferred at least $500,000 from their campaign committees and/or leadership PACs to the DCCC," a new analysis from Issue One's Michael Beckel and Amisa Ratliff found. "The top Republicans on these four influential committees likewise contributed significant sums to the NRCC".

FIRST IN SCORE - AD WARS - Allied Progress, a progressive watchdog group, is launching a campaign targeting Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), calling for an investigation into now-Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta's role in a plea deal for a billionaire pedophile. The six-figure campaign, which included a smaller digital buy earlier this month, will have full page ads in their home-state newspapers and targeted ads on social media. Graham, Tillis and Sasse are up for reelection next year; Grassley isn't up again until 2022.

POLLS POLLS POLLS - A Quinnipiac poll in Texas gave Republican Sen. John Cornyn a net-positive approval rating, with 43 percent approving of the job he is doing and 26 disapproving (1,222 Texas voters, Feb. 20-25).

PRIMARY PROBLEMS - Randy Feenstra, one of the primary challengers to Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) got a meet-and-greet with D.C. power players. "The event is not a fundraiser, but it's being organized by the Republican fundraising firm Gula Graham, according to the invitation," POLITICO Influence's Theo Meyer. "'The response has been overwhelming to meet with State Senator Feenstra," Mike Gula, a co-founder of Gula Graham, wrote in an email to PI."

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Oh my god, just say yes!" - an audience member at Biden's panel, interrupting him to urge him to run.
    
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