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By Elena Schneider | 12/22/2015 09:59 AM EDT


With Kevin Robillard

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)

DEADLINE-DAY PRIMARY - Sen. Richard Burr picked up a Republican challenger, 2014 candidate Greg Brannon: Brannon, a Republican obstetrician who won 27 percent of the GOP primary vote in North Carolina last year, filed to run against Burr in the March primary. Brannon posted a video of him signing paperwork to run Monday, and tweeted that "now is not the time for go-along-to-get-along Republicans."

- But Paul Shumaker, Burr's consultant, hardly seemed ruffled by the news. "The only surprise is that with his fraud judgment still hanging over his head that he'd get back in the political ring," Shumaker said, referring to a pending health fraud suit that Brannon is currently involved in. Even though Brannon picked up a sizable portion of the 2014 primary vote, Shumaker said the environment in 2016 is different. "He's starting late in the game, he's raised no money ... and going up against an incumbent who has spent over 20 years building the GOP party in NC, and who is very well-known and extremely well-funded. It's a whole different set circumstances."

- Those factors will clash, though, with a longer-term environmental shift that has seen outsider candidates rise in the presidential race this year and three flawed challengers drag GOP Senate incumbents under 50 percent of their primary votes last year.

THREE'S COMPANY - "Three-state poll: Rubio struggles, Trump benefits from big GOP field," by POLITICO Florida's Marc Caputo: For the first time, Ted Cruz ties Donald Trump in South Carolina, and he's also tied for second with Marco Rubio in the Florida senator's home state, according to a memo on the three surveys, which were conducted after last week's debate. The polls were commissioned by Associated Industries of Florida, a pro-business lobby that tracks the race for its largely Republican membership.

- "Data from all three states confirm that Senator Cruz and Rubio find themselves deadlocked in a heated battle for second place, with their image numbers potentially serving as a leading indicator they could become the front runners before too much longer," according to the AIF memo, authored by the association's vice president of political operations, Ryan Tyson, who declined comment.

- South Carolina head-to-head race: Cruz and Trump are tied at 27 percent. Rubio and Ben Carson roughly tied at 12 percent and 11 percent each, respectively. Bush had 7 percent support; 5 percent backed other candidates and 11 percent were undecided. New Hampshire head-to-head race: Trump leads with 24 percent, followed by Cruz at 16 percent, Rubio at 14 percent, Chris Christie at 13 percent and Bush at 9 percent. The other candidates pull a combined 13 percent of the vote and 11 percent are undecided. Florida head-to-head race: Trump leads with 29 percent (4 percentage-point loss since AIF's August Florida poll); followed by Cruz 18, who gained the most since August, 15 percentage points.
Rubio is essentially tied with him at 17 percent (a gain of 10 points), followed by Bush at 10 percent (a loss of 3 points). http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f66d1705793e0f52c72aaa14d62abf7d28637f42a6f0a1a324116c435252f73

Days until the 2016 election: 322.

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

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PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning Score is taking a newsletter publishing hiatus for the holidays! We'll be off starting Dec. 24 through Jan. 3. Our next newsletter will publish on Jan. 4. Please continue to follow Campaign Pro stories here.

SCORE INTERVIEW - GIANFORTE: "We're going to focus on the economy": Last month at the Republican Governors Association conference in Las Vegas, Campaign Pro caught up with Montana GOP gubernatorial candidate and tech billionaire Greg Gianforte. Here's a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Q: Why are you running for governor? A: "Montana's such an awesome state. But we're 49th in the country in wages and we've been exporting our kids for decades. Susan and I are parents of four, and like a lot of Montanans, we'd like to have them around the table on Sunday. But that's not currently happening."

Q: Democrats seem to be eager to paint you as religious kook, for lack of a better term. How do you respond to that? A: "I'm very clear. I'm a Christian. My faith in God is very important to me. I'm running because we're 49th in the county in wages, and we're going to focus on the economy."

Read the rest here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f66d1705793e0f54343c0bae9bee907869de8f3cfb1d59191aba12f7c34aa81

POLITICAL PERKS - "Hockey, cigars, 'Star Wars' and campaign cash," by POLITICO's Isaac Arnsdorf: How does a member of Congress raise money in a hectic holiday month when must-pass bills are on the table and 17 presidential candidates are prowling D.C. for donations? It pays to be creative. ...Event listings obtained by POLITICO from the DCCC and its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, offer a snapshot of the influence economy at full seasonal roar. They show fundraising gimmicks bringing in from $250 to $5,000 per person - parties with frills like video games, Korean barbecue, mojitos, oyster shooters, Veuve Clicquot champagne and bourbon tastings."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f66d1705793e0f5b0172b36af98a806b06ce70788dbd19ef82a126d9cc0e5e0

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Trump's attacks on Clinton get very, very personal," by POLITICO's Ben Schreckinger: "Donald Trump is taking his criticism of Hillary Clinton into new territory. The Republican frontrunner mocked his Democratic counterpart for a "disgusting" bathroom trip she made during Saturday night's debate and said Barack Obama "schlonged" her in the 2008 primaries at a raucous rally here on Monday night. For Trump - who comments often on Clinton's penchant for pantsuits, has insinuated she is in a lesbian relationship with close aide Huma Abedin, and insists she doesn't have "the strength or the stamina" to be president - Monday's remarks take his focus on her personal life
to a new level of intimacy. Remarking on Clinton's late return to her podium after using the bathroom during a commercial break at this weekend's Democratic debate, Trump said, 'I know where she went. It's disgusting I don't want to talk about it. It's disgusting.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f66d1705793e0f565e5d51071c8d98778555b8147aee60e8f26b929cf9b175e

- "In New Hampshire, Marco Rubio fights rivals' depiction of him as a passive campaigner," by the New York Times' Jeremy W. Peters and Patrick Healy: "... Mr. Christie, who is on a statewide tour of his own, taunted Mr. Rubio over the weekend for not answering voters' questions. He then boasted how he would stick around until every last one was exhausted. 'This is not like a Marco Rubio thing where you get three questions and then he leaves,' Mr. Christie said, causing a few smiles to break out in the audience. 'We actually stay here. And we answer questions for a while. So raise your hands up.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f66d1705793e0f5fc96fca8083d70c4b5ce68dbe173606d9f28dc2c59c16d3f

- "Republican Ben Carson's presidential campaign burns through cash," by the Wall Street Journal's Reid J. Epstein: "Internal campaign budget documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show a political operation hemorrhaging cash. Mr. Carson's team raised $8.8 million in October and spent $9.5 million - putting the retired neurosurgeon's effort under water months before the first early-state voters caucus and cast ballots. The budget documents also undermine the Carson campaign's Nov. 1 claim that it raised $10 million in October - a figure Mr. Carson himself talked up on Twitter." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f66d1705793e0f5525855defbf59bf78694d4ae8e8788ca8fb30f9f70e364be

- "Talk radio rallies around Ted Cruz," by POLITICO's Hadas Gold: "Conservative talk radio likes to flirt with Donald Trump, but its hosts are showing their commitment to Ted Cruz. ... And with tens of millions of listeners - and a large slice of likely GOP primary voters - at stake, the backing of these right-wing opinion-makers is significant. Their preference for Cruz, in fact, suggests the upswing in his standing in Iowa and national polls has some durability. ... Talk radio shifted into Cruz defense last week after Trump called the Texan "a little bit of a maniac" in the Senate. Mark Levin, a former Reagan administration official dubbed "The Great One" by Sean Hannity, took to social
media to lambaste the poll leader for insulting Cruz." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f66d1705793e0f5f2b087f22f8f3ea9014a97344566a3320350ccfadd1f0d92

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Barack Obama has radicalized the American people." -Ted Cruz, employing an interesting turn of phrase in a conversation with National Review about the growth of conservatives within the Republican Party. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f66d1705793e0f53aa4a7fd87000b1d5331be2f435ee92fb17cab23874574f7

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