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By Kyle Cheney

With James Hohmann, Tarini Parti, Kevin Robillard and Caitlin Emma

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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EXCLUSIVE - Grimes internal shows her still even with McConnell, by Campaign Pro's James Hohmann: Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes is up two points on Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, a virtual tie in a race that's critical to Democrats' hopes to retain control of the Senate. The poll by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman shows grimes with 42 percent support to McConnell's 40 percent, inside the survey's 2.3-point margin of error. The poll of 1,800 likely voters was taken from Sept. 19 to Sept. 27. It found McConnell's job approval sagging, while Grimes was about even. The Mellman memo:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9591157204ab1210e32da06b50900fe6fdc4f3b5bc2cf722f3ac7cca9c5ca100
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First in Score - GOP poll shows yawning lead for Comstock in Virginia 10th:
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- DGA zooms in on Michigan education cuts: The DGA is going up with an ad today hammering Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder for cuts to the state education budget. The ad, supported by a six-figure buy on broadcast and cable networks, is running statewide. It features comments from local teachers ripping the reductions. "Rick Snyder did cut a billion dollars from education," one says. "We know, because we see it every day." Up soon:
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- Freedom Partners runs ads in tight House races: Freedom Partners Action Fund is launching six-figure ad campaigns supporting Republicans and ripping Democrats in three hard-fought House races. In Florida's Second Congressional District, the group is up with a contrast spot depicting Republican Steve Southerland as a supporter of the middle class and Democrat Gwen Graham as a reliable Democratic vote and Obamacare supporter. A spot in Florida's 26th Congressional District calls Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia untrustworthy and fiscally irresponsible. And a third spot in West Virginia's Third Congressional District labels Democrat Nick Rahall as a supporter of President Barack Obama's "war on
coal." FL-02:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1e67e26a974f6673cf9b9d0c0c85fa46a27ba7aadb17603450cd39999e206642
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1e67e26a974f6673cf9b9d0c0c85fa46a27ba7aadb17603450cd39999e206642 ; FL-26:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6fe670656f59845652190d68d05283e222a5c63ed0b38050ea9f309f7465cd3e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6fe670656f59845652190d68d05283e222a5c63ed0b38050ea9f309f7465cd3e ; WV-03:
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CASH RACE - GOP scuttled in bid to raise Wall Street cash: Republicans seeking to unleash Wall Street spending on a slew of close races were shot down Tuesday by a federal court judge. In a 21-page ruling, District Court Judge Beryl Howell tossed a lawsuit, filed in August by the New York and Tennessee GOP, arguing that the parties should have filed their suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals. "[T]his court is not the proper forum for their challenge," she said. Republicans have argued the agency has no authority to regulate federal campaign contributions and that its restrictions violate the First Amendment right to free speech.
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SCORE INSIGHT - Exactly a year ago, Obamacare's disastrous rollout and Republicans' self-immolating government shutdown promised to be the defining issues of the 2014 midterms - or so the political class declared with near unanimity at the time. Now, those issues are just two among many talking points that have contributed to a relatively shapeless election season. It's a reminder, as Democrats and Republicans celebrate their one-year anniversary of choice, that a year is an eon in politics.

- RNC seeks to revive Obamacare angst: Republicans are hoping the memory of last October's Obamacare misery is still fresh for some voters, though. The RNC is out today with a web video satirizing the health law's impact on health care costs - and Democrats' political fortunes.

"ObamaCare is as unpopular as ever. This law is still hurting our nation as it has increased the cost of healthcare and limited options for doctors," RNC chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.
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As Republicans strive for a bigger House win and Chris Christie prepares for his next Iowa trip, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the 2014 midterms.

Days until the election: 34

Thanks for joining us. We're eager for your news and feedback. Email us at
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kcheney@politico.com or find us on Twitter at @
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kyledcheney .

DAVIS, ABBOTT SQUABBLE OVER ETHICS - During the second (and final) televised debate of the Texas' governor's race, Attorney General Greg Abbott and state Sen. Wendy Davis had their sharpest exchange over Abbott's oversight of the Texas Enterprise Fund - the pool of cash Texas uses to woo businesses. Davis claimed Abbott abused his powers to keep documents related to the fund secret and repeatedly noted he received $1.4 million in campaign donations from fund beneficiaries. Unlike in the first debate, when he mostly ignored Davis' attacks, Abbott fired back by accusing Davis of personally profiting from a land deal funded by the program. The Abbott campaign called Davis'
reaction a 'meltdown' in a post-debate release.

PERSONNEL UPDATE - Boehner spokesman/GOP utility man Michael Steel will be back on the campaign trail this fall. The word from Boehner's political office: "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."

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TODAY ON POLITICO - "GOP sets sights on bigger House gains," by Alex Isenstadt: "House Republicans have been destined for modest gains in the midterms despite a favorable political environment. Now, just five weeks until Election Day, the party is raising its ambitions, jumping into Democratic strongholds long thought to be beyond the GOP's reach. The goal: Achieve their biggest House majority since Harry Truman's presidency ... In the coming days, the House GOP campaign arm will launch a polling project to gauge whether to invest in three other blue congressional districts that have only recently come onto the national radar, according to two sources familiar with the deliberations. Two of
them comprise the eastern, more liberal half of Iowa. The other is in Obama's native Hawaii."

"The stakes are high: Republicans are trying to achieve a governing majority, something that has eluded John Boehner in his tenure as speaker. If they can meet their 11-district goal, Republicans will have 245 seats, their largest delegation since 1949."
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- "Dems cry hypocrisy on GOP attack ads," by Jake Sherman: "House Democrats who helped Republican leaders raise the debt ceiling in recent years are receiving a strange thank you: attack ads. The National Republican Congressional Committee and a few GOP groups are running advertisements criticizing Democrats for taking votes that helped Speaker John Boehner pass bills to avoid a calamitous default on the U.S. debt in 2013 and 2014 ... [A] handful of senior Republican and Democratic insiders both on and off Capitol Hill scoffed at the ads, saying they were hypocritical and represented poor strategy."
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- "Manchin boosts fellow red-state Dems," by Burgess Everett: "President Barack Obama's flagging approval ratings are keeping him off the campaign trail ... but Democrats battling for political survival have another surrogate ready to work: Joe Manchin. The West Virginia senator, perhaps the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, went shooting on Tuesday with Sen. Mary Landrieu ... Though his plans are still being finalized, Manchin mentioned Georgia, North Carolina and Arkansas as places he'd want to campaign for Michelle Nunn and Democratic Sens. Kay Hagan and Mark Pryor, respectively. Those states might welcome a Democrat who famously shot through a copy of a Democratic cap-and-trade
bill in a television advertisement."
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2016 WATCH - Christie swing for GOP governors ending (once again) in Iowa: New Jersey Gov. and RGA chairman Chris Christie will swing through Los Angeles today for an RGA event and stump for Doug Ducey in Arizona on Thursday. Friday morning, he'll hit two events for Bob Beauprez in Colorado. But none of these stops will draw the gaze of the national media like his 5 p.m. Friday swing through Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Christie will campaign for Gov. Terry Branstad in the critical presidential primary state, although Branstad carries a dominant lead in most polls.

- Bill Clinton pinch hits at Maryland fundraiser for Brown: With Hillary Clinton tending to her newborn granddaughter, Bill filled in at a Maryland fundraiser for Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Anthony Brown yesterday. The Washington Post reports that the gathering included 450 guests who paid between $250 and $4,000.
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FROM POLITICO MAGAZINE: Alaska politics blogger Amanda Coyne takes a deep dive into the state's hot Senate race between Sen. Mark Begich and Republican challenger Dan Sullivan. "On paper - with a Harvard undergrad and a Georgetown law degree, a stunning Alaska Native wife (also with a Harvard degree) and three beautiful daughters - Sullivan seems the ideal candidate ... But this is his first political campaign, and compared with Begich, he's a newcomer to the state. All told, as the Begich campaign is all too happy to point out, Sullivan has spent just 12 full-time years in Alaska."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=53982fdeeda6c919a52b80684442e3cf81a0d173384f348e7e329ff896b01a52
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Generation Opportunity takes anti-Obamacare effort online: Generation Opportunity, the conservative anti-Obamacare outfit aimed at young voters, is up with a web ad campaign in Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina and New Hampshire today, urging young voters there to contact their Democratic senators and urging them to oppose Obamacare.

THE UNDERCARD - A fiercely contested race between California's education chief, Tom Torlakson and challenger Marshall Tuck, is ripping apart Democrats with competing philosophies on the direction of public education in their state and the country. POLITICO Pro Education reporter Caitlin Emma reports that Tuck is netting the support of celebrities - Kristen Bell, Joel McHale, Dax Shephard and Adam Scott - for a new campaign spot:
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "'I'm not John Kerry - I'm Tom Brady.' " - Mitt Romney, on what he told a confused passerby while on the campaign trail in Arkansas, per The New York Times's Mark Leibovich.
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