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By Elena Schneider | 02/16/2017 10:00 AM EDT


With Scott Bland, Kevin Robillard and Daniel Strauss

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)

NEW TODAY - "DSCC hires senior staff," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "The DSCC had previously announced former Elizabeth Warren campaign manager Mindy Myers as its new executive director. Myers ran the committee's independent expenditure arm last cycle. Tracey Lewis, who worked as Warren's deputy campaign manager in 2012 and was the primary states director for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, will serve as deputy executive director. ... Dan McNally will serve as the DSCC's political director after managing Sen. Michael Bennet's successful reelection in Colorado in 2016. Missayr Boker, who was the assistant political director at NARAL Pro-Choice America, will take over as
campaign director. Catherine Algieri will run the committee's digital, direct mail and telemarketing programs after serving as the DSCC's marketing director last cycle. Stephanie Nielsen moves from the DCCC, where she was deputy research director, to serve as the Senate committee's research director. Lauren Passalacqua, the committee's press secretary in 2016, takes over the communications director role. And Ben Ray, who was the communications director for American Bridge and for former Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, will be the DSCC's senior adviser for communications."

- " ... The DSCC's silence during the transition and the first month of Trump's presidency has caused grumbling among Democratic operatives and campaigns. Certain typical committee resources for campaign managers, like a fully-staffed research department and tracking of potential GOP opponents when they are in D.C., have not been available. The committee still hasn't announced a finance director hire. ... Two Democratic operatives with knowledge of the situation said that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took an unusually large role in an exhaustive and wide-ranging hiring process, sitting in on interviews for top positions. Coordinating Schumer's schedule with Van Hollen's, sources
said, led to repeated delays." Full story.

OFF WE GO - Field set for GA-06 race, the first congressional special election of the Trump era: See the full list of 18 candidates here, via Georgia's secretary of state. (The Atlanta Journal Constitution also has short capsules on each.) Republican Karen Handel, a 2010 gubernatorial candidate and 2014 Senate candidate, is a notable late entrant, while GOP state Rep. Betty Price, the wife of HHS secretary (and the district's former representative) Tom Price, stayed out. The all-party primary will be on April 18; if no candidate gets a majority, as is likely with 18 candidates, the top two will advance to a June 20 runoff.

- AND A 2018 'NO' - Rep. Sean Duffy not expected to run for Senate, Roll Call's Simone Pathe reported: "Wisconsin Rep. Sean P. Duffy is expected to pass on a run for Senate in 2018, according to Republican sources inside and outside Wisconsin. An announcement could come as early as Thursday. The four-term congressman had been expected to be a top contender to take on Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin next year."

FIRST IN SCORE - American Action Network polling pushes GOP legislative agenda: The nonprofit aligned with House Republican leadership is out with a polling memo with some good news for President Trump. 81 percent of those polled, per the memo, say Trump is following through on his campaign promises. Another 59 percent said Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch "deserves a Senate confirmation vote." The memo also highlights descriptions of GOP tax and regulatory reform proposals that garner majority support - testing messages for Trump voters who didn't vote in 2014 and specific sales pitches for both legislative goals.

- On a generic 2018 ballot, 45 percent of respondents said they would vote for a Democrat and 41 percent said they would support a Republican. (The memo says that the GOP retains a 46-43 advantage in "districts targeted by the DCCC or NRCC.) AAN hired five polling firms to complete the research, including American Viewpoint, GS Strategy Group, OnMessage Inc., Public Opinion Strategies, and Tarrance Group, interviewing 1,000 registered voters on February 7-9, 2017. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Read the full polling memo here.

- MEANWHILE - "Trump's Russia scandal threatens GOP agenda," by POLITICO's Seung Min Kim, Burgess Everett and Rachael Bade. Full story.

Days until the 2017 election: 264.

Days until the 2018 election: 629.

Thanks for joining us. You can email tips to the Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com, krobillard@politico.com and dstrauss@politico.com.

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet about campaigns and string cheese. @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin and @danielstrauss4.

TECH STEP - "Democratic firm updates voter-data tool to harness anti-Trump protests," by Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: "After the update, users will be able to use Street Canvassing, a function within MiniVan, to take down new names and contact information from participants at an event or protest, instead of recording data points on names already in the system." Full story.

ON DEFENSE - Perriello criticized, apologizes for 9/11 comment: The Washington Free Beacon's Brent Scher was the first to report on the potentially damaging gaffe, where Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello compared Trump's election to a "political and constitutional September 11." Perriello quickly apologized on Twitter, but that didn't stop Republicans from pouncing. RGA Chair Scott Walker called on Perriello to apologize directly to the families of victims of the terrorist attacks. GOP candidate Denver Riggleman, who served in Afghanistan, said the comments could only be made by "someone without any perspective grounded in loss and sacrifice for our great nation."
Read more here. Watch the video here.

VOTE TO WATCH - Four 2018 Senate Democrats, one independent take NRA position in fight over Social Security rule: In a vote yesterday to repeal an Obama-era regulation barring people on Social Security disability for mental health issues from owning guns, four Democrats up for reelection in 2018 - West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Montana Sen. Jon Tester, Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly and North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp - voted to strike down the rule, which gun rights advocates say denies due process rights. A notable vote to keep the rule came from Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. See the full roll call vote here.

- TENT WATCH - "Protester urges Tom Perez to back Democratic primary challengers," by the Washington Post's David Weigel. Full story.

AIR RAID - Judicial Crisis Network releases anti-Tester ad: "Judicial Crisis Network's latest TV ad focused on the Supreme Court nomination fight targets Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, calling him an overly partisan politician who has 'changed' since he came to Washington. 'Tester supports Obamacare,' the narrator in the ad says. 'Even the hated individual mandate. And dangerous sanctuary cities? He's fine with them. Now Jon Tester is creating gridlock, threatening to obstruct Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Neil Gorsuch has bipartisan support. A qualified judge with a record of being fair and always applying the Constitution just as it was written.' The initial buy behind the
ad, which started today on TV and digital platforms in Montana and will run for a week, is $350,000."

SHOT/CHASER - "Republicans mock Charlie Crist as a boozer," by The Tampa Bay Times' Adam C. Smith: "The big-hearted folks at the National Republican Congressional Committee today delivered a gift box to U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg. It included a bottle of Finlandia vodka - a reference to Politico report that he was spotted drinking Finlandia and OJ on an afternoon flight to Washington earlier this month - and a stopwatch - since he missed one of his first votes this year because he mistimed his walk to the House floor." Full story.

- How much does a bottle of Finlandia vodka cost? $18.49. How much did the NRCC spend to keep FL-13 a Republican district in 2016? $0.

DEPT. OF COUNTERPRODUCTIVITY - "Rohrabacher Staffer, 71, Knocked Unconscious By Protesters Delivering Cards," by CBS LA: "Orange County Congressman Dana Rohrabacher says a 71-year-old staffer at his Huntington Beach office was knocked unconscious during a protest, but the protesters say they were delivering Valentine's Day cards. The 'assault' on Rohrabacher's district director, Kathleen Staunton, happened Tuesday afternoon during a protest by a group calling themselves Indivisible OC. Police confirmed they were called to the scene, but made no arrests." Full story.

PATRIOT PROGRAM - NRCC names 10 members to Patriot incumbent-defense program: "The NRCC named 10 Republicans to its Patriot Program for vulnerable incumbents today, with the first wave of additions notably excluding a handful of incumbents who handily won reelection in 2016. Five members are freshmen who won in competitive districts, and another four are veterans defending swing seats. Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who squeaked out a win in a district that was competitive for the first time, is the tenth member. ... [T]he full list includes: Reps. David Valadao (CA-21), Steve Knight (CA-25), Darrell Issa (CA-49), Brian Mast (FL-18), Jason Lewis (MN-02), John Faso (NY-19), Claudia Tenney
(NY-22), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-08), Will Hurd (TX-23) and Barbara Comstock (VA-10)." Full story.

ADMINISTRATION SPEED READ - "Labor nominee Puzder withdraws," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett, Tara Palmeri and Marianne Levine: "Andrew Puzder withdrew his nomination Wednesday to be secretary of labor after Senate Republicans informed the White House that he lacked the votes to be confirmed. GOP senators advised the White House that Puzder could not pass through the narrowly divided Senate, sources said, and shortly thereafter the White House confirmed his intention to pull out. ... Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns Hardee's and Carl's Jr., becomes President Donald Trump's first Cabinet nominee to withdraw. He could lose only two GOP votes in order to be approved, and multiple
Republicans had reservations about him. Moving forward on a nomination sure to fail would have been far more damaging to Trump, Puzder and Senate Republicans than his eventual withdrawal." Full story.

- "Will top cop Chaffetz actually police Trump?" by POLITICO's Kyle Cheney and Darren Samuelsohn: "Rep. Jason Chaffetz has taken some baby steps lately toward policing the Trump White House, chastising Kellyanne Conway for her hawking Ivanka Trump products and questioning the president's security protocols at Mar-A-Lago. Now some Republicans are urging the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to plow full speed ahead - never mind that it's a fellow Republican on the receiving end of his scrutiny. 'I made efforts to hold, as a junior member, to hold the Bush administration accountable at a number of junctures where I felt they could've been better served if we
had pushed hard,' said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a former chairman of the oversight panel. ...Should Chaffetz take that advice, it would mean setting aside historical precedent under which committee leaders have been deferential to presidents of the same party. That natural partisan inclination has held true under Democratic and Republican administrations. But those oversight traditions appear to be shifting, if slightly, as Trump's early stumbles - and some seamier questions about his ties to Russia - have caused heartburn on Capitol Hill." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "When I've been asked about it, it's not something that's out of the realm. Right now, other things are my focus. If one day I feel like that's the greatest way I can help people, then that's what I'll do. But that's not yet. Not this day." - Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, on running for president, via GQ.

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