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By Theodoric Meyer | 08/15/2016 10:00 AM EDT


With Kevin Robillard, Scott Bland, Elena Schneider and Maggie Severns

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)

COUNTER-OFFENSIVE - "The GOP establishment strikes back," by Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: "A collection of Republican donors and operatives loosely organized around several super PACs decided this summer to adopt newly aggressive tactics against GOP 'obstructionists' - or as John Hart, a former aide to ex-Sen. Tom Coburn, calls them: 'Rebels In Name Only' - after years of growing tea-party influence in Republican primaries and the halls of Congress. ... Different groups and people involved have slightly different priorities, but the biggest goals were to both win specific primaries - Huelskamp's clashes with House GOP leadership were well-known - and send a broader message. ...
'Absolutely, we're being targeted, absolutely,' said Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, a House Freedom Caucus member who's seen a group called Right Way PAC drop $211,000 on negative radio ads and mailers (and promise more to come) ahead of his late-August primary. 'Over and over again [this year], you see the same thing with them.'"

- Key quote: "The establishment's position was always ... [focused] in competitive seats, in situations where we believed [a different] candidate gave us a strategic advantage. It was never ideological. But now you're seeing more and more activity in these safe seats," said Brian O. Walsh, a GOP strategist and former National Republican Congressional Committee political director involved in these efforts. "It's like when you have a health problem," Walsh continued. "First, you try to ignore it, see if it gets better. Then you try to treat it with meds. Now you just have to radiate it." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c64dc217328a48e3114c3cfbb2f198c342ef3e76c1da343ab4

FAMILY FEUD - "Rand Paul backs Liz Cheney's primary challenger," by POLITICO's Darren Samuelsohn: "Rand Paul is taking another stand in 2016, this time by endorsing one of Liz Cheney's opponents just days before a wide-open House Republican primary in Wyoming. The Kentucky senator has a long-standing feud going with Cheney's father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and that disagreement is again coming to the surface on the eve of an eight-way congressional contest that Paul wants to make into a referendum on the George W. Bush administration's foreign policies. Paul's pick to replace retiring four-term GOP Rep. Cynthia Lummis is Wyoming state Sen. Leland Christensen, a former sheriff,
county commissioner and Army special operations forces soldier." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c68faa743ad0129ec99f2ed340c1e9e413bc060e65eb8981b9

NEW THIS MORNING - New Portman TV ad criticizes Strickland's record on drugs: GOP Sen. Rob Portman's campaign is out with a new TV ad critiquing Democrat Ted Strickland's record on the issue he's made the centerpiece of his reelection campaign: fighting Ohio's drug overdose epidemic. "There are things you need to know about Ted Strickland," Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer says in the ad. "As governor, Strickland cut funding for drug treatment and prevention. Now, Ohio is in the midst of a heroin epidemic that tragically takes more than 1,000 lives a year. Strickland slashed mental health services, making it tougher for guys like me to keep you safe." Plummer then urges viewers to
support Portman. Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c6fe326ec24b45f3fc9c2683482bb8941fc957de8986d95990

- PRIMARY ALERT - Arizona super PAC launches $600,000 anti-McCain/pro-Ward ad campaign: KelliPAC, which is backing Republican challenger Kelli Ward for Senate in Arizona, is running a new contrast spot backed by $500,000 on TV and another $100,000 of digital advertising. The ad's narrator says McCain "betrayed us on amnesty," "joined with liberals to bail out Wall Street" and "supported Hillary's disastrous war in Libya." On Ward, the ad says "conservative Kelli Ward" is "rock solid on the border and conservative principles." McCain "has let Arizona Republicans down for too long, but now we have Kelli Ward, a bold conservative leader who will fight for our values and always put Arizona
first," super PAC chairman Doug McKee said in a statement. Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c651d18eb4f218adaeebf91bf33545a759d6958c4af472a40a

Days until the 2016 election: 85.

Days until the Alaska and Wyoming congressional primaries: 1.

Thank 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 mseverns@politico.com.

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and almost as much about the Rio Olympics: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

WEEKEND PRIMARY - Hanabusa wins comeback in HI-01 primary: Former Rep. Colleen Hanabusa all but assured herself of a congressional comeback Saturday night in Hawaii, winning the open 1st District Democratic primary with just over 80 percent of the vote. Hanabusa won two terms in the Honolulu-based district in 2010 and 2012 but left the seat open in 2014 to challenge appointed Sen. Brian Schatz in a Democratic primary, which she narrowly lost. But first-term Democratic Rep. Mark Takai, who replaced Hanabusa in the House, died in July after fighting pancreatic cancer, and Hanabusa leapt into the race to replace him. Results here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c65acfad54d3bc10a3e061509b668a028acd03c911b332150a

SHIFTING PRIORITIES - One Nation cancels Ohio TV time: One Nation, the Senate-focused GOP nonprofit affiliated with Senate Leadership Fund, has canceled $2.8 million worth of Ohio TV ads that were slated to run soon, one of the latest signs that Republicans feel GOP Sen. Rob Portman has made progress in the crucial Senate battleground state. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c6872dd44f593245b440dbbaf480ed33df8d23239e7f4332af

ANOTHER APPEAL - Sanders sends another down-ballot fundraising email: Bernie Sanders, whose fundraising emails generated hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democratic House candidates earlier this year, sent out another one on Friday. The note urged Sanders supporters to give to Zephyr Teachout, who's running for an open swing seat in New York's Hudson Valley; Rep. Rick Nolan of Minnesota, who's facing a tough GOP challenger; and Pramila Jayapal, who's facing off against another Democrat for an open seat in Seattle. But it's unclear whether Sanders' appeals will pack the same punch now that he's not an active candidate anymore.

WAY DOWN THE BALLOT - "Ballot initiatives could tip the balance in swing states," by POLITICO's Darren Samuelsohn: "A growing number of hot-button ballot measures - covering everything from pot to guns - are rippling across the battleground state landscape, raising the prospect that several of them could tip the presidential election in a handful of the most closely contested races. Hillary Clinton and her third-party rivals Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are expected to benefit the most in Arizona, Maine and Nevada from initiatives that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Donald Trump and Republicans are counting on the National Rifle Association's heavy spending to defeat
ballot measures that seek mandatory background checks for gun purchases this fall in two of those states - Nevada and Maine." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c65a0ea3d46b003f1af6140f9621c9ed6fc2db897c4dab4443

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Trump hires the B team," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck: Donald Trump, already lagging behind Hillary Clinton in ground game organizing, is also facing a quantifiable talent gap in key battleground states, starting at the top. And that's according to his fellow Republicans. Veteran Republican operatives and key leaders from several critical battleground states say that at best, they've never heard of Trump's state directors or have only limited familiarity with them - and at worst, they know them, and question their ability to do the job. "The Clinton campaign is very strong in New Hampshire," said Ryan Williams, who served as a longtime aide to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt
Romney and has extensive experience working in New Hampshire. Of Trump's New Hampshire state director, Matt Ciepielowski, he said, "I've been doing campaigns in New Hampshire since '08, I haven't come across him." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c6380c32deaf17265f41f12ca2454e28b54883f9cdd4e527a0

- In North Carolina, meanwhile, "it's unclear where exactly the [Trump] campaign is based," BuzzFeed News' Rosie Gray and Tarini Parti report. "The office in Fayetteville that had been used for the primary, where Trump held a rally last week, appeared to be shut down when a reporter visited it last week, and an office in Raleigh that had been used during the primary was being used by the local GOP but didn't appear to be serving as a headquarters. 'The Trump campaign is in the process of moving,' said Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party. 'They do sometimes work out of my building but it is hit or miss.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c627e8f55140dbd715801aa09b23fbdc44024de056381e020d

- "Secret ledger in Ukraine lists cash for Donald Trump's campaign chief," by The New York Times' Andrew E. Kramer, Mike McIntire and Barry Meier in Kiev, Ukraine: In Ukraine, "government investigators examining secret records have found [Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's] name, as well as companies he sought business with, as they try to untangle a corrupt network they say was used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections during the administration of Mr. Manafort's main client, former President Viktor F. Yanukovych. Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych's pro-Russian political party from 2007 to
2012, according to Ukraine's newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c6cf1919820c8fc82828863c89b9abb45690e27e81797f27f0

- Former Trump campaign manager and Manafort archrival Corey Lewandowski retweeted the story last night.

- "Tim Kaine's rude awakening," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett and Edward-Isaac Dovere: "Tim Kaine likes to say he's never lost an election. Then there's 2010. Kaine himself wasn't on the ballot that year. But as the chairman of the national party, he was at the helm as Democrats were decimated up and down the ballot: Republicans netted six governorships, six Senate seats, 63 House seats and control of the chamber. They also gained 20 state legislative chambers, including Southern statehouses that hadn't gone Democratic in generations. Meanwhile, Kaine skirted blame for all of it, despite being the Democratic National Committee chair in the worst Democratic blowout in a generation."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c61067c13ea3d3d925101d3fa6a469180e3fedafd1a6d1e080

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "To be frank, it felt a bit like a colonoscopy: I didn't like it, but it was our tradition in South Carolina." - Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), on the uncomfortable but necessary task of publicly releasing his tax returns when he ran for governor. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92cf59ef247b46c60b831ed510768f79db385e6a4ea882e2e7598b5bbdd4c0b9

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