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By Daniel Strauss | 12/19/2017 10:00 AM EDT


With Zach Montellaro, Kevin Robillard, and Elena Schneider

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)

WORTH WATCHING - "Franken urged to reverse his resignation," by POLITICO's Edward-Isaac Dovere: "At least four senators are urging Al Franken to reconsider resigning, including two who issued statements calling for the resignation two weeks ago and said they now feel remorse over what they feel was a rush to judgment. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who urged Franken not to step down to begin with - at least not before he went through an Ethics Committee investigation - said the Minnesota senator was railroaded by fellow Democrats." Full story.

FOR YOUR RADAR - Hawley to vote on housing tax credits: Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, the likely GOP candidate to face Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2018, is set to vote today on whether to eliminate a tax credit program that helps finance the construction of low-income housing throughout the state. Hawley sits on the Missouri Housing Development Commission, which is set to vote on Gov. Eric Greitens' plan to zero out the credits. What makes this interesting? Well, for one, it's an example of Greitens forcing an issue onto Hawley's plate that the attorney general might not want to deal with. And guess who happens to be the single largest user of the tax credits in the state.
A company owned by McCaskill's husband, Joseph Shepard. The issue, which could end up slightly awkward for both McCaskill and Hawley, is a sleeper for their likely face-off in 2018.

WEB WARS - Club For Growth attacks 'the Fincher that taxed Christmas': CFG Action Tennessee, the Club for Growth arm backing Rep. Marsha Blackburn in the state's Senate contest, is out with a Christmas-themed digital ad attacking fellow Republican Rep. Stephen Fincher for supporting a tax on Christmas trees. "Yes, boys and girls, in 2013 President Obama proposed a tax on Christmas trees," the male narrator says in the ad. "And do you know who backed the Obama Christmas tree tax? Congressman Stephen Fincher, that's who."

DIANE BLACK STAFFS UP - Rep. Diane Black has assembled a set of top Republican operatives to run her Tennessee gubernatorial campaign. The team was confirmed to Morning Score. Matt Parker is the campaign manager. In 2016 he ran President Donald Trump's effort in Florida. He previously worked with Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Louisiana Republican Party. Lance Frizell is serving as senior adviser. He has worked for the Tennessee Republican Party, the Tennessee House Caucus, and served as chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. Jordan Young is also a senior adviser for the campaign. Young served as deputy chief of staff to Ramsey and executive director of the
Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus. Chris Hartline is the campaign's communications director. Prior to that he was press secretary and communications director for the House Budget Committee under Chairman Black and has also served as war room director for Scott's reelection campaign.

Days until the 2018 election: 322

Upcoming election dates - Arizona 8th District special primary: Feb. 27. Texas primaries: March 6. Pennsylvania 18th District special election: March 13. Illinois primaries: March 20.

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

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PRIORITY ALERT - Priorities USA Chairman Guy Cecil penned a memo based on the results of surveys from a $2 million ad blitz the group conducted last month. Cecil writes: "The results have been striking: After voters are exposed to ads about the tax plan, the job approval numbers for the incumbent drops, and voters are more inclined to vote against the incumbent in next year's midterm elections. These findings show that Congress should not move forward with the Republican tax plan. ... Priorities collected 12,237 responses from voters in 20 House districts where our ads appeared. We also surveyed voters in Nevada (whose senator, Dean Heller, voted for the plan and faces reelection next
year). According to the survey, our ads accounted for a 3-point drop in lawmakers' job approval numbers. Also, the percentage of voters who said they would vote to reelect the incumbent was 3 points lower among those who saw the ads."

ICYMI - "Rebelling Republican suburbs offer Democrats path to House control," by The New York Times' Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns: "The mounting backlash to President Trump that is threatening his party's control of Congress is no longer confined just to swing districts on either coast. Officials in both parties believe that Republican control of the House is now in grave jeopardy because a group of districts that are historically Republican or had been trending that way before the 2016 election are slipping away. ... From Texas to Illinois, Kansas to Kentucky, there are Republican districts filled with college-educated, affluent voters who appear to be abandoning their usually
conservative leanings and newly invigorated Democrats, some of them nonwhite, who are eager to use the midterms to take out their anger on Mr. Trump." Full story.

POLLING DATA - Generic ballot shows GOP down 8 points in CA-39: An internal poll released by Democrat Gil Cisneros' campaign shows Republicans trail a generic Democrat by 8 points, 45 percent to 37 percent. In a hypothetical match-up, GOP Rep. Ed Royce leads Cisneros (who's running against a handful of Democratic opponents) by 4 points, 48 percent to 44 percent, with 8 percent are undecided. Trump is largely unpopular in the suburban district, as 56 percent view him unfavorably. Check out the full polling memo here.

STAFFING UP - Bacon adds personnel in NE-02: Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) announced that Mary Jane Truemper will serve as his campaign manager and Dean Dennhardt will serve as finance director, according to a statement from his campaign.

- End Citizens United adds staff: End Citizens United announced that it's adding four new staffers across several departments, including Courtney Corbisiero, who served as Hillary Clinton's digital director in Wisconsin, as digital director; Scott Fay as deputy political and PAC director; Lynn Jorden as research director for ECU's independent expenditure; and Andrew Laskar as national finance director. Jordan Wood, who served as ECU's national finance director, will now serve as political director.

ADMINISTRATION SPEED READ - "Sen. Kennedy says Trump called him after grilling of judicial nominee went viral," by POLITICO's Nolan D. McCaskill: "President Donald Trump phoned Sen. John Kennedy over the weekend and told him to do his job when White House staff send over an unqualified nominee for Senate confirmation, the Louisiana Republican said Monday. 'The president and I get along fine, and he has told me, he said, 'Kennedy, when some of my guys send somebody over who's not qualified, you do your job,'" the senator recalled in an interview Monday morning with WWL-TV. 'And I said, "Thank you, Mr. President." And I intend to do that.' In a viral video posted by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
(D-R.I.) and viewed more than 8 million times, Kennedy grilled Matthew Petersen, a member of the Federal Election Commission and a judicial nominee for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. A White House official confirmed Monday that Petersen had withdrawn from consideration for the post after coming under fire for his performance at the hearing." Full story.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I'm not running as an impeachment candidate and I don't think Jerry Nadler is either." - Rep. Zoe Lofgren said in reference to the jockeying between her and Nadler to be the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, which has historically led the impeachment process.

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