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By Kyle Cheney and Elena Schneider

With Steven Shepard, Theodoric Meyer and Sandhya Raman

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. (
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TODAY ON CAMPAIGN PRO - 8 questions on the morning after the first quarter ended: "Election Day is 19 months away - but the end of the first fundraising quarter of this year, which passed Tuesday night, is the first high-stakes moment for many 2016 Senate and House contenders ... here are the top questions the Campaign Pro team is hoping to answer by the April 15 reporting deadline - do Sens. Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Michael Bennet and Richard Burr pick up the fundraising pace? Does Kamala Harris post a scary-huge fundraising quarter? And how are the most vulnerable House freshmen faring?
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0586c3fcc4f28a1e84571b2c2a69c5f471cd10bd54d851ac7eab0b94b9ffe892
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0586c3fcc4f28a1e10c8716e41a8c3714b749c342fbab70f29802b4999370a0f

- Sen. Mark Kirk is preparing to report a $1-million-plus first quarter haul, his camp leaked to the Chicago Sun-Times late Tuesday:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0586c3fcc4f28a1e4a45695abae764f1bfaf7e5ff8b3a199402e8730dd46982d
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PAGING BERNARD SHAW? - Last night's final Chicago mayoral debate featured spirited attacks from both Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, but it will probably best be remembered for a "Kitty Dukakis" moment. Moderator Phil Ponce of WTTW-TV, a public-TV outfit, asked Garcia: "Your son has been arrested numerous times, and court records describe him as a gang member - repeatedly. In 2013, he was charged with a felony for attacking an off-duty police officer. Is he still a gang member?"

Garcia said his son had "turned his life around," and he was "proud of him." "We tried to be as loving and as caring and as supportive of my son as possible. He's made some mistakes. I'm not proud of it. Perhaps all the love that we gave him wasn't enough. Gladly, my son learned from his mistakes. He has four children that he's raising. He is a chef, and he mentors kids in the community. He turned his life around. I'm proud of him."

After Ponce again pressed Garcia about whether his son was still in a gang - and Garcia said no - Emanuel rose to his defense. "Can I say one thing? I don't actually think this is a fair line of questioning," the mayor said to applause. The crowd booed Ponce after he continued to push Garcia on the issue.

Two other key exchanges:

- In a debate over Garcia's stewardship over a nonprofit he once ran - Emanuel charged the group ran a deficit during Garcia's time there - the challenger claimed Emanuel "helped usher in" the recession last decade "due to his time at Freddie Mac" between serving in the Clinton White House and coming to Congress in the early 2000s. "Singlehandedly, I ushered in the recession," Emanuel said, bemused. "Only you and my mother think that."

Emanuel, up 28 points in Tuesday's Chicago Tribune poll, then took a victory lap. "I know something about recessions, which is why President Obama asked me to be his chief of staff in the worst recessions since the greatest depression," he said. "And when I came to be mayor, in 2011, it was still a recession, and we worked our way through: Not only four budgets without a property tax [increase], cutting the structural deficit in half, and now Chicago's number one in corporate relocations, number one in job creation, and [the] number one city in families moving in. And also the number-one Little League team in America.

- Garcia scored points when he asked Emanuel why he hadn't personally met with residents around O'Hare International Airport upset about noise pollution. "What about meeting with them? I went and met with them. You used to represent them [in Congress], you should go and meet them. What's so hard about that?"

As candidates staff up in Ohio and Harry Reid plays pundit, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: daily news, notes and essential information for the 2015 and 2016 election cycles.

Days until the 2015 election: 216; Days until the 2016 election: 587

Thanks for joining us. We're eager for your news and feedback. Email us at
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kyledcheney and
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@ec_schneider .

** A message from Fuels America: Ethanol tax breaks expired in 2012. Oil company tax breaks started during the Wilson Administration and continue without end. Washington has been picking oil as a "winner" for more than a century. The Renewable Fuel Standard levels the playing field so that homegrown, American fuels have access to the market. Learn more:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0586c3fcc4f28a1efad8d247c625087cb8e2b05e72ac0db9114c65cbce5a1b6f
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0586c3fcc4f28a1efad8d247c625087cb8e2b05e72ac0db9114c65cbce5a1b6f **

BILL CLINTON'S FIRST 2016 ENDORSEMENT - It isn't Hillary. The former president endorsed former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland's Senate bid on Tuesday, a move allies say was a nod to their decades-long relationship. Strickland is the Democratic establishment's choice to challenge GOP Sen. Rob Portman, but he's still got a primary on his hands. Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld entered the Senate Democratic primary before Strickland, but the establishment has been trying to muscle him out since in favor of Strickland.

- Speaking of Strickland: The former governor landed two high powered consulting firms to handle his TV and direct mail presence, AKPD and the Strategy Group, respectively. The two firms have deep ties to the former Obama campaign and continue to cement Strickland's position as the frontrunner in the early primary field.

- Speaking of former Obama aides: Sittenfeld's campaign consultant, 270 Strategies, has transitioned out of the Cincinnati city councilman's campaign for Senate, handing the keys to an in-state group of advisers, Campaign Pro has learned. The departure comes on the same day that the Democrat announced the hire of veteran Ohio consultant Dale Butland as a top adviser to his primary campaign against former Gov. Ted Strickland. Bringing on 270 Strategies was originally seen as a coup for the 30-year old Sittenfeld, who amassed a high-profile string of former advisers and supporters of President Barack Obama when he launched his campaign.

OUTLIERS - The House Dems who are bucking their party: The Upshot at The New York Times takes a look at the Democratic House members who have noticeably shifted away from their party heading into the 2016 election cycle:"A few members of this group, which numbers fewer than a dozen, are congressional veterans like Collin Peterson of Minnesota, who survived a tough challenge in 2014 and is voting with a majority of his fellow Democrats 64 percent of the time, down slightly from the previous Congress. But most are new to the House and have known life only in the minority, with Republicans controlling the schedule and agenda. These Democratic lawmakers have voted against Democratic legislation
such as the alternative budgets proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus."
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2016 PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS JUMPING THE GUN? - A good-government group is accusing four potential presidential hopefuls of violating campaign finance laws by building campaign infrastructure without formally "testing the waters" for a bid. In complaints filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission, the Campaign Legal Center contends that Republicans Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum and Scott Walker - as well as Democrat Martin O'Malley - have been essentially leading shadow campaigns in violation of federal law. The POLITICO story:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0586c3fcc4f28a1edafee2e53b471c7770e98e26ffc50d6cba023ac525eceedd
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2016 GOP - "N.H. conservatives plan anti-Jeb caucus," by POLITICO's Ben Schreckinger: "Taking aim at Jeb Bush, a group of leading New Hampshire conservatives and libertarians are preparing to stage their own caucus three months before the state's first-in-the-nation primary - and then unify behind the winner. Sick of the string of centrist GOPers who've dominated the state's primary in recent years - including John McCain (twice) and Mitt Romney - conservatives and libertarians are hoping to defy the conventional wisdom that the Granite State is moderate-friendly turf between the evangelical-dominated Iowa caucuses and socially conservative South Carolina.
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REID THE PUNDIT - Reid may be retiring, but he's not giving up his megaphone quite yet. On Tuesday, the Senate Minority Leader handicapped for the 2016 presidential race on CNN, weighing in with some word association on the likely candidates. On Jeb Bush: 'I think he doesn't know who he is. Out of all candidates we've mentioned, I hope he loses.'On Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.): "I like that guy. He is so nice." On Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): "Whenever I need to know what's going on with Republicans - call Lindsey." On Hillary Clinton: 'I think the country is ready for a woman.' On Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): Reid declined to say if he thought Rubio would make a good president, but he liked
his family ties to the Las Vegas area.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Ted Cruz and I disagree on virtually everything. But on a personal basis, he's been very nice to me. I don't think he stands much of a chance, but I admire his tenacity for thinking he does." - Sen. Harry Reid on CNN

** A message from Fuels America: The Renewable Fuel Standard is providing American consumers with growing access to a range of homegrown, renewable fuel options that cost less than regular gasoline while delivering higher octane and better engine performance. Without the RFS, oil companies - who control the retail fueling infrastructure through their supplier contracts - would have a free hand to block these less expensive fuels from coming to the market.

No one is asking Congress to 'pick winners and losers.' What America's renewable fuel producers are asking for, however, is a chance to make our product available to consumers. Learn more:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0586c3fcc4f28a1efad8d247c625087cb8e2b05e72ac0db9114c65cbce5a1b6f
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0586c3fcc4f28a1efad8d247c625087cb8e2b05e72ac0db9114c65cbce5a1b6f **

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