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By Seung Min Kim (
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com or @seungminkim)

With an assist from Burgess Everett

MORAN'S DRIVE FOR GOP SENATE - My colleagues Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan have a profile up this morning on National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Sen. Jerry Moran, who's hoping to lead Republicans to a Senate majority this fall: " 'I would never have come to the United States Senate with the expectation that I'm going to head the NRSC,' the longtime House member said in a wide-ranging, 30-minute interview from the group's Capitol Hill headquarters. 'It was the realization that nothing's happening here ... I don't have an ability to change who the leader is unless I have Republican majority.'"

--"Moran was not an obvious choice for the NRSC job. He's an affable but reluctant media participant who lacks the partisan bomb-throwing pedigree many assume is essential to the job. The 60-year-old doesn't have the grass-roots sway of estranged NRSC Vice Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas or the New York donor connections of Vice Chairman Rob Portman of Ohio. But after two disappointing election cycles that saw Republicans fumble opportunities to take the Senate, Moran's NRSC is in strong position to lead Republicans to net the six seats they need to retake control of the chamber after eight years of Democratic rule."

--Moran is increasingly confident in saying it will happen, emphasizing the GOP's momentum and even - in careful terms - using the 'w' word. 'The trends still are favoring Republicans. The so-called wave has the potential to increase,' Moran said, noting that early on, there was 'significant skepticism' about the GOP's ability to pull it off this year. 'I remember, you know, conversations about: 'Is Susan Collins really going to run? Yeah, Arkansas's becoming a Republican state, but you don't have a candidate.'"
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--The Wall Street Journal's Patrick O'Connor writes about the source of Moran's concerns as campaign chief: "The chairman of the Senate Republicans' campaign arm worries that his party may not have raised enough money to capitalize on a favorable political environment, potentially ceding some winnable seats. 'It is the challenge we face as Republicans,' Mr. Moran said in an interview on C-SPAN's 'Newsmakers,' which is set to air on Sunday. 'We are not raising the money that the Democrats and their allied organizations who support Democrats are raising and spending in races.'"

--"Senate Democrats have raised roughly $30 million more than Senate Republicans at this point in the election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."
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CORNYN'S WORKING IT -- Once a campaign committee chair, always a campaign committee chair. Following in the footsteps of electorally-tuned Senate leaders and former Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee chairs Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, Minority Whip John Cornyn is continuing to work it for other Republicans even as he faces his own (token) reelection challenge.

--"Two nights ago I was Boston with Scott Brown, so we raised $300,000 at that event," he told us on Thursday. "Been to West Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and will continue to look for opportunities to help other candidates."

OBAMA PROMISES IMMIGRATION MOVE BY YEAR'S END - I write about the president's vow to Latinos last night to take executive action on immigration, which he stressed will come after the election but before the end of the year: "Obama, speaking at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute gala, appeared to acknowledge the deep frustration between his administration and the broader Hispanic community, who have fumed over his decision to punt executive action until after the midterm elections after fretting from Senate Democrats. 'If anyone questions where my heart is, or whether I want to have this fight, let me put those questions to rest right now,' Obama told the audience. 'I am not going
to give up this fight until it gets done.'"
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--Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) rebuttal post-speech: "The president's promise isn't about making the best policy or enforcing the law-it's an admission that his pledge to not uphold the law in the future would be bad for his party now. The president is required to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not-as he has admitted--make them up as he sees fit."

CONGRESS DROPS TO 7% APPROVAL - Huddle actually thinks that seems high (We kid, we kid). From the Associated Press: "Most people remain dissatisfied with those in power. Just 7 percent of likely voters approve of the way Congress is handling its job, 42 percent approve of President Barack Obama's job performance. Asked how they feel about his administration, 58 percent are dissatisfied or angry, while 74 percent were dissatisfied or angry with the Republican leadership in Congress."

--"Asked which party they'd like to see win control of Congress, 45 percent of likely voters prefer Republicans and 42 percent the Democrats. In their own districts, those surveyed are evenly split: 33 percent back a Democratic candidate, 33 percent a Republican, 10 percent another candidate and 23 percent are undecided. In those places where Senate campaigns are nearly impossible to avoid, voters aren't bullish on the GOP's chances of taking the Senate. Among likely voters in 10 states with competitive Senate races, 52 percent think the Democrats will hold the Senate while 49 percent think the Republicans will take control. These voters are also evenly split on which party
ought to control Congress, 44 percent favor each party."
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THAT WAS QUICK - The Hill reports that the arrival of Ebola in the United States has already sparked a political war: "Ebola is becoming an issue for the midterm election campaign, with several Republicans using the spread of the virus to the United States to criticize President Obama's leadership ... Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) told The Hill on Thursday that the Obama administration could have prevented Ebola from entering the U.S. if State Department officials had been more vigilant against the threat ... Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) said Thursday that lawmakers don't know what resources are needed to control Ebola because "there is no person to go to, to tell us how all this is going
to be funded."
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TRANSITIONS (TEMPORARILY) - Per our friends at Morning Score, Boehner spox Michael Steel will hit the campaign trail in the Tar Heel State. From Boehner's political operation: 'Steel will be helping the Republican team in his home state of North Carolina from now until the election. In addition to serving as Boehner's press secretary since 2008, and press secretary for Ways and Means Republicans under then-Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.) and the House Republican Policy Committee under then-Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), Steel has was the press secretary for Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan in 2012, and helped on several other campaigns, including Governor Romney's presidential primary run
in 2007 and 2008, a House race in Colorado in 2006, and Sen. Tom Coburn election in Oklahoma in 2004.'

And married flaks Alex Conant (Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.) and Caitlin Conant (Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio) are in Iowa to boost Republican Joni Ernst's bid for the Senate seat in the Hawkeye State. Yahoo News:
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THANK GOODNESS IT'S FRIDAY, OCT. 3, 2014 and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. The luminous Lauren French is taking over Huddle next week, so please send those tips, suggestions, comments, complaints, and corrections to
mailto:lfrench@politico.com
lfrench@politico.com . If you don't already, please follow us Twitter @laurennfrench and @seungminkim.

My new followers include @CMGirouard and @SenateComedian.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Super busy ... no, just kidding.

HOUSE WANTS NEW CONTEMPT FOR HOLDER - POLITICO's Josh Gerstein: "A House committee is asking a federal judge to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of court for failing to comply with a deadline a judge set to turn over documents related to the Justice Department's response to Operation Fast and Furious."

--In a motion filed Thursday afternoon, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson to fine Holder personally if he doesn't comply with an order Jackson issued in August requiring him to turn over non-privileged documents responsive to a committee subpoena by October 1. House lawyers even suggest it may be necessary to throw the attorney general in jail to get him to abide by the court order."
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CRUZ TO FAA: DO YOUR PART - The freshman senator, whose home state of Texas is dealing with the United States' first case of Ebola, fires off a letter to the FAA. POLITICO's Kathy Wolfe writes: "The FAA so far has responded to concerns about Ebola by saying it is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is taking the lead on responding to the threat. 'Due to the Obama administration's unclear approach to addressing the threat of the Ebola virus, Americans - particularly the Texans who have possibly been exposed - deserve specific answers to how the administration is addressing travel to and from the countries impacted by the disease,' Cruz said in a
statement that accompanied the letter."
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GOWDY'S LOW-KEY STYLE FOR BENGHAZI PANEL - The story from The Huffington Post's Sam Stein and Ryan Reilly (with bonus photo of Gowdy in some slick Ray-Bans): "[W]hen House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced that Gowdy would chair a special investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, Democrats reacted with eye-rolling ... But as quickly as the guffaws started, they stopped. Months passed with barely a peep out of the usually vocal Gowdy.

--"Skeptics saw it as the logical evolution of a manufactured crisis -- once the headlines died down, so too did the actual work. But Gowdy's office said the lack of pomp is by design. 'When all is said and done, Chairman Gowdy intends to lead the committee in a manner that produces a final accounting that is worthy of the sacrifice made by the four brave Americans we lost in Benghazi and worthy of the trust of all our citizens regardless of their political leanings,' Gowdy's spokesman, Jamal Ware, told The Huffington Post. 'He has said repeatedly, to anyone willing to listen, he wants this process to be viewed as fair.' The truth about the committee's progress likely lies
somewhere in the middle. Some Democrats worry that Gowdy's patient approach is just a ruse, and that he'll pounce more forcefully once the 2016 campaign comes around and Hillary Clinton is running."
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HOUSE CONCERNS ON IRAN - The Journal's Michael R. Crittenden: "More than 350 House members are calling on U.S. negotiators to demand greater transparency from Iran over its nuclear program, upping the pressure as Western powers prepare to reconvene talks with Tehran over the next two weeks. House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) were among the 354 House members who signed a letter sent Wednesday to Secretary of State John Kerry. In the letter, which was released by the top Republican and Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the lawmakers said they were concerned with Iran's refusal to
cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency."
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REINDEER FARMER WAGES COMEBACK - Michigan Republican Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, one of just four members of the House to lose renomination this cycle, confirms that he'll launch a write-in campaign to keep his seat. Roll Call: "Bentivolio said he wanted to send a message to his former GOP opponent, businessman and Republican nominee David Trott, who he alleged has continued attacking him, his family and his staff after their Aug. 5 primary. 'After they won the race, they kept up the attacks, but they expanded it beyond me' ... Bentivolio said around three weeks after the primary, one of his staffers came to him upset about social media posts directed at her from the Trott campaign, and he
reached out to the campaign to issue a warning."
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COCHRAN PHOTO-SNAPPER INDICTED - The Associated Press from Jackson, Mississippi: "The man accused of taking illicit photographs of the bedridden wife of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran has been indicted on burglary charges. Clayton Kelly was served Wednesday with an indictment charging him with one count each of burglary, attempted burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary ... Police say Kelly photographed Rose Cochran, without permission, in a Madison nursing home and posted her image online."
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THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Jonathan Orr of Virginia Commonwealth University was the first person to correctly respond that Rebecca Felton was the native Georgian who was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Orr has today's question: Who was the first president to cast the opening pitch of a baseball season? You MUST name the president and the two teams that were playing that day. The first person to correctly answer the question - all its parts -- gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email
mailto:skim@politico.com
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