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By Theodoric Meyer | 04/28/2016 10:00 AM EDT


With Elena Schneider and 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)

PACMEN - "High-powered GOP operatives form super PAC to beat Guinta," by Campaign Pro's Scott Bland: "A group of well-known Republican operatives is launching a super PAC bent on defeating embattled GOP Rep. Frank Guinta in his September primary and boosting Republican challenger Rich Ashooh in his place. The new group, Granite Voices PAC, is managed by a quartet of high-powered strategists. Former New Hampshire Republican Party executive director Matt Mowers, who directed Chris Christie's New Hampshire presidential campaign efforts, will be the general consultant; Mitt Romney ad-man Russ Schriefer will handle media; Charlie Spies, the attorney for Romney's and Jeb Bush's super PACs, will
serve as legal counsel; and Simon Thomson, who directed John Kasich's presidential campaign in New Hampshire, will be the group's treasurer. 'With public trust in Congress plummeting, Rich Ashooh is the antidote for everything that is wrong with Washington, D.C.,' Mowers said in a statement."

- "The group already has financial commitments in the six figures and hopes to raise more for a TV, radio, digital, and mail campaign backing Ashooh against Guinta," who faces lingering questions (and calls to resign) after a 2010 campaign finance violation. "Single-candidate super PACs are more common at the presidential level, but more and more are popping up in Senate and House races in 2016. The consultant roster involved with Granite Voices suggests the group will be well-funded." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe79280bdab08261952067630c00a4388ad4ef2e769b50186fa90b

BALLOT BOUNCEBACK? - "Colorado Republicans: Keyser likely to make primary ballot," by Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: Jon Keyser will likely climb back into Colorado's Senate GOP primary via a legal challenge this week, attorneys and GOP observers say. But it won't be without a bruise or two to his campaign. 'I think it is likely that he will prevail since there's a strong bias among judges to allow people and issues on the ballot,' said Scott Gessler, a former secretary of state who said he personally supports Keyser but is not working for the campaign. ... That's what happened in 2012, when Gessler's office rejected a GOP congressional candidate's petitions to get on the ballot but a
judge overturned the ruling. Mario Nicolais, the attorney who successfully contested that case, called Keyser's case a 'slam dunk.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe7928fb1fc2ca19fde7f7fed613f015d6ecaca0231e0ee2e5579b

Days until the Indiana primary: 5. Days until the 2016 election: 194.

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

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally about demon sheep: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, and @theodoricmeyer.

You're Invited: POLITICO's State of the Race Event - Mike DuHaime, Stephanie Cutter, Kevin Madden, April Ryan and POLITICO's Mike Allen discuss major narratives playing out on the campaign trail in the final stretch before each party announces its nomination. Monday, May 2 - 2:45pm; Washington Hilton - 1919 Connecticut Ave NW. RSVP: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe7928fc13bc302358f3c1422d8a6c17812383ed041f6506afedd8

THE SCORE INTERVIEW - "Q&A: Tim Canova in Florida's 23rd District," by Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: Democratic House candidate Tim Canova went on a fundraising spree in the first quarter, hauling in half a million dollars. He'll need that and more as he prepares to challenge Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, in her Florida district this summer. Campaign Pro spoke with Canova about his Democratic litmus tests, how he'll make his money machine sustainable and more:

- Why did you decide to take on the DNC chairwoman? Ultimately, it dealt much more with her record in Florida than her national record - a real dissatisfaction with her representation of the district. First, I'm a law professor at NOVA Southeastern, the only law school in her district. I've been teaching international trade law for years and got involved in ... lobbying against the TPP and I could not get any response from her office whatsoever. I sent emails to a legislative aide in Washington, and nothing came back to me. This went on for weeks. ...

- What's the most important litmus test for Democrats going into primaries? I firmly believe we need to clean up money out of politics. They talk about overturning Citizens United, but they're taking so much money that there's no realistic chance they'll do something. It's just not going to happen. I think that should be a litmus test for insurgents to challenge incumbents in both parties.

- How do you feel about this being called a proxy war? I think it minimizes my life's work, quite frankly. ... I'm not really a member of Bernie Sanders' army. Is he the leader of the progressive movement? Well, he's running for the highest office, but it's a wide ranging movement. And I do disagree with him on important issues. I think he stumbled on Israel. You could say I'm a stronger supporter of Israeli security. Read the full interview: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe792889339fe976789e78172c9917f10b98a9f038c0cdd95db3e3

REPORTING PROBLEMS - Stutzman failed to disclose private plane trip to FEC: GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman, who will face Rep. Todd Young in the Indiana Senate primary next week, is facing more campaign finance difficulties. Stutzman failed to report $1,100 in campaign expenses to the FEC, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports, "including a private plane trip last month from a friend with a real estate development business. His campaign acknowledged to The Hill that the trip wasn't reported on forms submitted to the [FEC] and said the costs have yet to be reimbursed. It characterized the lack of disclosure as an oversight, saying it didn't get an invoice for the flight." Stutzman repaid his
campaign for expenses related to a family trip to California earlier this month after The Associated Press reported that he'd described the trip as a vacation in pictures posted on Facebook. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe79287c02abb6d638cdf101f7c3bd09f90cddf587c0bbeeedc85e

AIR WAR - Chamber boost Toomey with ad featuring ex-Eagle: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's new TV ad for GOP Sen. Pat Toomey features an endorsement from Philadelphia Eagles legend Vince Papale, whose story was the basis for Mark Wahlberg's movie "Invincible." "When I played for the Eagles, I fought my hardest to make a difference for the team," Papale says. "And my friend Pat Toomey is making a difference, too. He fights for Pennsylvania because he's one of us. Washington bureaucrats and red tape? Fuhgettaboutit! Pat puts people before politics." More here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe7928f3ce586c710baf48dd28b99347229df38ee969f67cc9f900

NEXT CYCLE - Williams will seek NRCC chairmanship in 2018: Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) will run for the National Republican Congressional Committee's chairmanship next cycle, he told The Hill's Scott Wong on Wednesday. Williams "has been buttonholing GOP colleagues, urging them to back his leadership bid. He described the response as 'fantastic,' adding he has time to hit the road and raise cash with his grown children taking over the family business. It's not the first time Williams, a two-term House member and former Texas secretary of state, has eyed the NRCC job. In 2014, Williams contemplated challenging incumbent NRCC Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) but ultimately decided against it."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe792888667256bcc06a32d43452fda56d441712404c4d9ea6e530

MAIL MODEL - "Postal Service study: Political mail potent with younger voters: "Polling and focus group data ... for the United States Postal Service found that young voters respond well to political messages delivered in a surprisingly old-fashioned way: through the mailbox. The Postal Service and the American Association of Political Consultants (which both have an interest in the direct mail business) collaborated on a new white paper that argues that an 'exclusive focus on digital channels would miss an important opportunity for communications outreach: direct mail.' The presentation" argues that mailers "can prime voters for more effective digital contact."

- "The study argued that direct mail can 'hit [millennials] in their homes where the campaigns know they live,' driving them to do more follow-up research online. Millennial voters 'anticipate and instantly read mail' at rates similar to older voters, the study found, going against conventional wisdom." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe792818b2cdb53b93752fd28613be5641ac8418d8acfd82ee6efa

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "What Bernie Sanders wants," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti in West Lafayette, Ind.: "Quietly acknowledging that a direct path to the Democratic nomination is all but blocked, Bernie Sanders and his advisers are zeroing in on making policy changes to the party platform and reforming the presidential nominating process. The Vermont senator and his closest aides have been considering convention end-game scenarios for months, and they have already been in contact with the convention's organizers to talk through the logistics of July's party gathering in Philadelphia. But after Clinton's muscular wins in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, and Delaware on Tuesday,
Sanders' team has turned to the task of pulling Clinton and the party platform to the left in the time before the convention." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe7928da3c4a101c7ccd6bc67c0e0645d6fe50f96a11adbebe6c64

- Why Cruz rolled the dice on Fiorina, by POLITICO's Shane Goldmacher, Katie Glueck and Alex Isenstadt: "In tapping Fiorina, the Cruz campaign hopes to shake up a hardening political narrative of Trump's inevitability, to stem the bleeding after six straight losses, and to lift his fortunes in the coming key contests of Indiana, where the surprise announcement was held, and California, where Fiorina first planted her political roots. ... One person familiar with the decision said the Cruz campaign had deliberated for the past two weeks whether to pick Fiorina, including polling the potential ticket, examining it for prospective strengths and weaknesses."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe7928adb751c8c95b14c96ea013a322c6ac235ff3e247ed9b340a

- "GOP senators in denial about Trump," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett: "Donald Trump declared himself the presumptive Republican nominee after his romp across the Northeast Tuesday night. Republican senators trying to save their majority this fall apparently didn't get the message. Fully aware that the GOP nominee could make all the difference in whether they keep or lose their slim, 54-seat Senate majority this fall, Republicans of all ideological stripes clearly aren't ready to accept the bombastic TV reality star as their standard-bearer. A dozen GOP senators interviewed on Wednesday acknowledged only that Trump is doing well." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe79285a57e0dfb2adc484bb08e35f570755d0d6815697bef83c81

- "Cruz campaign loses out on cruzfiorina.com," by POLITICO's Darren Samuelsohn: "Earlier Wednesday, as news broke that [Ted] Cruz planned to tap the California businesswoman as his vice presidential partner, GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak made the snap decision to scoop up the site cruzfiorina.com. In an interview, the Austin, Texas-based Republican operative said he initially offered a broker $100 for the site but ended up paying a "more modest sum" to get it." The Cruz campaign went with cruzcarly.com instead. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe79284ab03b9ff5b0a6d0ac74ea23bd887b88b2d39833316e19e8

- In other website news: Priorities USA Action, the lead super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton, is launching a new digital ad campaign targeted to people Googling Donald Trump or Canada. The ads encourage voters not to move to Canada and direct them to a new website, dontmovetocanada.com.

- And if you missed it yesterday, Julia Ioffe has a killer profile of Melania Trump in GQ: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe7928760b34c7abd78cfa68f7104248312a541555bf1ef0ceeee3

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "You folks are taking a look at the most prepared man in history to step in as president of the United States." - Bobby Knight, the legendary Indiana University basketball coach, endorsing Donald Trump on Wednesday. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=433fa93e7bbe7928b87dcd7ea5495d63757b619286a71a60cdb8888dbd82d76a

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