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By Kyle Cheney

With Katie Glueck

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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ON THE DOCKET - "High court reasserts Voting Rights Act in Alabama decision," by Campaign Pro's Tarini Parti: "The Supreme Court stopped just short of ruling Alabama's redistricting plan unconstitutional on Wednesday, but it sent a clear message to lawmakers across the country that the Voting Rights Act can't be used to justify maps that predominately group voters together based on their race. In a 5-4 ruling, the high court sided with black lawmakers and Democrats in Alabama in throwing out a lower court's decision that upheld the GOP-drawn state legislative map ... The case was brought by African-American lawmakers in Alabama who argued that the Republican-controlled Legislature packed
thousands of black voters into existing majority-black state legislative districts to secure a GOP-advantage in the other districts."
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INDIANA UPDATE - Coats chief of staff in: Former Indiana GOP chairman Eric Holcomb will roll out his bid to succeed his boss, Sen. Dan Coats, at noon in Indianapolis today. Holcomb, a Navy veteran, also previously advised Gov. Mitch Daniels and managed his 2008 reelection campaign. He signaled his interest in the seat shortly after Coats announced his retirement on Tuesday, and Coats had high praise for him, though he stopped short of an official endorsement.

- Lugar out: Coats' retirement won't lead longtime former Sen. Richard Lugar to make another bid to rejoin the chamber. Though Lugar hadn't been on the GOP's short list of potential Coats successors, Campaign Pro reached out to the Lugar Center and confirmed that the six-term Republican won't be making a comeback. "Sen. Lugar appreciates any thoughtful consideration some might have mentioned in regards to a potential return to the Senate. Currently, the Senator is busy with his work here at The Lugar Center and other commitments in Washington, D.C., and Indiana and will not be running in 2016," said Lugar spokesman Nick McCormick.

ANATOMY OF AN ENDORSEMENT - "How to win the heart of a New Hampshire activist," by POLITICO's Ben Schreckinger from Portsmouth, N.H.: "Renee Plummer, vice president of Two International Group ... and her husband Danny are members of a small club of Republican activists - about 100 in all - who hold the keys to the New Hampshire primary, and thus perhaps the White House. Their power derives not from their checkbooks but their address books ... Winning Renee Plummer's endorsement means coming to a bland conference room in an office park near the Portsmouth International Airport and over a lunch of sandwiches fielding questions from business owners, military veterans and anyone else from
Plummer's sprawling regional network who feels like dropping by. Rick Perry's been here. So has Rand Paul. So has Lindsey Graham."
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As senators take tricky votes and Hillary brings in the nerds, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: daily news, notes and essential information for the 2015 and 2016 election cycles.

Days until the 2015 election: 222; Days until the 2016 election: 593

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

BIDEN TIME - "Where's Joe?" by POLITICO's Edward-Isaac Dovere: "Early-state Biden loyalists are getting anxious. Staffers are trying to hold them off, while quietly staying in the loop with the Democratic National Committee about possible primary debate schedules. They acknowledge that reworking his travel plans in February to put him in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina in the space of a week might have looked a little too eager ... he doesn't want to step back from the job he's got, even if that means letting go of the dream of a Biden presidency for the sake of promoting the Obama presidency.
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NEW VENTURE - GOP strategists David Polyansky and Ashlee Rich Stephenson this week launched a consulting firm called Just Win Strategies. Polyansky and Stephenson, operatives with deep ties to Iowa, are advising Scott Walker's 2016-focused political committee, "Our American Revival," and previously guided Joni Ernst's 2014 Senate victory in the Hawkeye State and Gov. Mary Fallin's easy reelection in Oklahoma. Their firm, based in D.C. and Texas, will offer candidates consulting services and strategic counsel.

ON THE HILL - "Senate vote-a-rama: A charade with consequences," by POLITICO's Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett: "Republicans will have to go on record against giving minimum wage workers a raise and potentially vote against a bill with the stated purpose of defending pregnant workers from discrimination. Democrats will take sides on Iran's nuclear talks, with Republicans daring them to side against Israel. And both parties are trying to outdo the other on how much they love Medicare. The Senate's famous budget vote-a-rama on Thursday won't change any laws - far from it, it's a daylong, only-in-Congress charade, the main purpose of which is to make the other party look bad and score
political points." A look at the likely flashpoints:
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- First in Score: Dems plan Medicare offensive: National Democrats are hopeful that Rep. Paul Ryan's budget - and its major changes to Medicare - quickly becomes an albatross for vulnerable Senate Republicans who've voted for versions of it in the past. In a memo issued this morning, the DSCC attempts to pick a Medicare fight with GOP Sens. Ron Johnson, Rob Portman, Kelly Ayotte, Pat Toomey, Mark Kirk, Richard Burr and Roy Blunt, highlighting the top Democratic targets' votes in support of the Ryan budget. The committee also suggests these Republicans are being coy about their past support, now that they're preparing for reelection. The memo:
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THE TECH PRIMARY - "Hillary's nerd squad," by POLITICO Pro's Darren Samuelsohn: "Hillary Clinton is assembling a technology team that signals a significant departure from her 2008 presidential run, led by President Barack Obama veterans and geared toward recasting her analog-era image ... The presumptive Democratic front-runner is building a New York-based campaign that senior party operatives say could ultimately be staffed with more than 1,000 data geeks, techies and digital gurus ... Clinton's growing operation also will include longtime aide Katie Dowd as the campaign's digital director, EMILY's List's Jenna Lowenstein as a digital deputy and Matt Ortega in a central role connecting the
communications and digital teams."
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It's going to be very difficult, very, very difficult. You have to learn to be humble and recognize he was given a great opportunity and he disappointed a lot of people." - Rep. Charlie Rangel to TMZ Sports on the challenge New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will have recovering his reputation among New Yorker.
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