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By Kyle Cheney

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While Jeb leans in and Pat McCrory faces questions, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: daily news, notes and essential information for the 2015 and 2016 election cycle.

Days until the 2015 election: 321; Days until the 2016 election: 692

Thanks for joining us. We're eager for your news and feedback. Email us at
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MAKING IT (SORT OF) OFFICIAL - "Jeb Bush announces he's exploring presidential run," by James Hohmann: "Jeb Bush announced Tuesday that he has decided to 'actively explore the possibility' of a run for president in 2016. In a Facebook post, the former Florida governor said he will establish a leadership PAC next month to let him travel and talk with voters about the country's future. The Republican said the move came after discussions with his family over Thanksgiving ... His move toward a run will also inevitably lead to questions about how he would be different than his brother, who left office very unpopular but who has seen his public standing improve over the past six years. Even many
conservatives were angry about the deficit spending under George W. Bush and overseas entanglements."
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RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE - "Jeb Bush's policy minefields," by POLITICO's David Nather, with Brian Faler, Kim Dixon, Sarah Wheaton, Bob King and Darren Goode: "Bush's problems with the right would go well beyond education and immigration. With Bush's announcement Tuesday that he's exploring a presidential bid, tea party activists are already looking through his record and criticizing his policies on taxes, spending and even Obamacare. Bush's very green record on preservation may also come into play ... Activists are giving Bush a hard time for a 2011 statement in which he didn't completely rule out tax increases in exchange for deeper spending cuts, as well as a
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comment last year that defunding Obamacare wasn't the right strategy to defeat the law - that it would be better to let the law fall apart on its own.
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"Can Jeb Bush win Iowa?" by POLITICO's James Hohmann: "The Bush family has had its share of disappointment and elation in Iowa and New Hampshire. George H.W. Bush finished a dismal third in the 1988 Iowa caucuses, before rebounding in New Hampshire. George W. Bush, however, won the 2000 caucuses, only to get thumped by John McCain in New Hampshire. Now, with Jeb Bush's announcement on Tuesday, a third Bush seems to be preparing to face the demanding voters of the first two states in the presidential selection process, with uncertain expectations. But a chorus of top Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire said that the former Florida governor may be a more formidable contender in the critical
early voting states than is widely assumed."
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WHAT JEB IS READING - "Money men cheer Bush news," by POLITICO's Anna Palmer and Kenneth P. Vogel and Maggie Haberman: In one swift move, Jeb Bush showed his fundraising prowess without raising a dollar. A number of tier donors reacted to the Republican's announcement on Facebook that he would "actively explore the possibility" of running for president with genuine enthusiasm - and even relief. Some of the GOP's top donors and operatives have been pushing Bush to get into the race, or were holding their breath and hoping he would - and they interpreted his Facebook post on Tuesday as a signal that all systems were go. It amounted to an instant impediment for possible rivals like Texas Gov.
Rick Perry, Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose chances of amassing a national fundraising network necessary to mount a credible campaign just dimmed."
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WHAT THE RIGHT IS READING - "Cruz on Jeb: GOP will lose with another moderate," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck: "Texas Sen. Ted Cruz insists he's a 'big fan' of Jeb Bush. But when asked Tuesday about the former Florida governor's move toward a presidential run, Cruz suggested the Republican party would lose if they nominate another relative moderate. Cruz, a deeply conservative Texas Republican and likely 2016 candidate himself, called Bush a 'good governor in Florida,' before warning against nominating a centrist Republican ... 'If we nominate another candidate in the mold of a Bob Dole or a John McCain or a Mitt Romney - and let me be clear, all three of those men, they're good men, they're
honorable men, they're decent men, they're men of character, they're war heroes - but what they did didn't work,' Cruz said in an interview in his Senate office."
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CAROLINA CONTROVERSY - "Carolinas Politicians Get Payouts From Lender," by The Associated Press' Michael Biesecker and Mitch Weiss: "Soon after taking office, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and U.S. Rep.
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Mark Sanford of South Carolina accepted six-figure stock payouts from an online mortgage broker accused by regulators of deceiving its customers. The two Republicans served as directors at Tree.com, the Charlotte-based corporate parent of the website LendingTree. As board members, they were entitled to large chunks of restricted company stock if they held their positions long enough. Both resigned after their election victories, which would have rendered their unvested stock worthless had the board not taken special action to provide them early payouts."

"McCrory and Sanford deny they did anything improper by accepting the stock payouts, which were not fully described in their ethics statements. Their timing and total value are only being revealed now, as the result of an Associated Press investigation into the company's financial records and interviews with Tree.com officials. Early vesting of restricted shares for departing directors is not unheard of in the corporate world. However, more than a dozen securities lawyers and ethics experts told the AP that such stock payouts are uncommon for elected officials, and raise significant concerns. These experts gave differing opinions about whether laws were broken."
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LIGHTER CLICK - Brad and Dallas Woodhouse - brothers and political opponents - got a scolding from their mother during a joint appearance on C-SPAN:
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END NOTES - "Texas A&M may name building after Rick Perry," by The Texas Tribune's Reeve Hamilton: The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents will meet on Thursday to consider renaming a historic building on the flagship College Station campus after a famous alumnus: Gov. Rick Perry. According to filing with the secretary of state's office, the regents will vote on whether to rename Texas A&M's generic-sounding Academic Building the 'Governor Rick Perry '72 Building.' They will also consider a resolution honoring Perry for his 'outstanding dedication and service' as the longest-serving governor in Texas history.
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It's the end of America as we know it." - Sen Dick Durbin, on the breakup of the original "Alpha House," per The New York Times:
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