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By Theodoric Meyer

With Steven Shepard 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://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=376005041bbb7f0d1a282d44f4a75a26ac8c6abccb509ca4a72235e3d138b110
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RULING IT OUT - Top GOP prospect says he won't challenge Bennet: Colorado GOP Rep. Mike Coffman won't challenge Sen. Michael Bennet next year, he told a local newspaper Monday, marking a blow to GOP Senate recruiting efforts. 'It certainly was an option I was looking at,' Coffman told The Denver Post. But he said he could get more done in his current job, where he sits on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. "I've emerged as a national leader on veterans' issues," he said.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=376005041bbb7f0dcbfe6ac3da339eba23699ee0031795c5c346116f066f1dc0
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ALSO RULING IT OUT - West Virginia congressman won't run for governor: The GOP field for West Virginia governor is getting a lot clearer: Rep. David McKinley announced Monday he won't give up his safe seat to run for governor,and state Senate President Bill Cole is set to announce his own gubernatorial ambitions today. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is also considering a bid. On a conference call with reporters, McKinley said he wanted to stay in Congress to focus on energy issues, but acknowledged he was 'tempted' to enter the gubernatorial contest. Coal billionaire Jim Justice, the state's wealthiest resident, is running for governor as a Democrat. State Senate Minority Leader
Jeff Kessler is also weighing a bid.

STAY, WARREN, STAY - "Top pro-Warren group says she's out," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti: "After a half year of circulating petitions, staging rallies, opening offices in states with early presidential contests, and gathering 365,000 signatures, Run Warren Run is acknowledging what's been clear to others for a while: Elizabeth Warren isn't running for president. And now, it's closing up shop. Run Warren Run, the effort jointly operated by the liberal groups Democracy for America and MoveOn, will shut down next Monday after delivering its final petition to Warren's Senate office."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=376005041bbb7f0d9b6e41b376711d1276015e10261e931645a31cd49f552cc4
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-- The group's co-founders explained in a POLITICO Magazine op-ed:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5f2f1ce9e4bda63eb95f105d5d8604d7e8f44b01fa1b47b0a69602f7bc9cd29e
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FIRST IN SCORE - Rick Santorum is near the bottom of the GOP presidential polls, but he's picked up his first congressional endorsement. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) has endorsed the former Pennsylvania senator. "I am excited to work with Congressman Barletta to help take back America!" Santorum said in a statement (exclamation point included).

MISSISSIPPI SPECIAL - Today's election devoid of drama: Hope for an interesting race died three weeks ago when Walter Zinn - the only Democrat in a field of more than a dozen - qualified for the head-to-head runoff. Polls close at 8 p.m. EDT tonight, after which Republican Trent Kelly should be headed to Congress. Kelly was endorsed Monday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5f2f1ce9e4bda63e4bada7cfed80a28a62d49cf6576d47e86b69bf7b29d47ace
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As a potential Senate candidate blasts his fellow Democrats and Run Warren Run calls it quits, here's Campaign Pro's Morning Score: daily news, notes and essential information for the 2015 and 2016 election cycles.

Days until the 2015 election: 159; Days until the 2016 election: 530.

Thanks for joining us. Email tips to the whole Campaign Pro team at
mailto:sshepard@politico.com
sshepard@politico.com ,
mailto:kcheney@politico.com
kcheney@politico.com ,
mailto:eschneider@politico.com
eschneider@politico.com ,
mailto:krobillard@politico.com
krobillard@politico.com and
mailto:tmeyer@politico.com
tmeyer@politico.com .

FIRST IN SCORE - DSCC HITS LOPEZ-CANTERA FOR SUPER PAC SET-UP: In a release this morning, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will criticize Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera for borrowing Jeb Bush's strategy of setting up a super PAC before officially announcing his campaign, allowing him to coordinate with it. Campaign finance watchdogs have harshly criticized the practice. "It's no surprise that Carlos Lopez-Cantera is already flirting with the boundaries of campaign finance law even before he announces his candidacy for Senate," the DSCC's Sadie Weiner will say in a statement. "Lopez-Cantera knows that he will need his own personal Super PAC to prop up his candidacy, and
it's clear that he's willing to push any legal boundary to boost his campaign."

FUNDRAISING TACTICS - "Rep. Alan Grayson blasts fellow Democrats on trade bill," by POLITICO's Lauren French: "Florida Rep. Alan Grayson is slamming members of his own party for supporting a controversial trade bill - and looking to raise a little campaign money while he's at it. In an email obtained by POLITICO, Grayson urged supporters to 'petition your government to redress your grievances' over an upcoming vote on legislation that would give President Barack Obama new powers to fast-track a massive trade deal with Pacific nations through Congress. ... The email links to a fundraising website for the liberal group ActBlue that asks for donations of $10 to $2,700 and features Grayson's
picture. The email is signed 'Courage, Alan Grayson.' Grayson is considering challenging Rep. Patrick Murphy for the Democratic nomination in the Florida Senate race."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5f2f1ce9e4bda63e848e6cb8b1dc4d4bd840951c57a34b4c30d2f84bc9de0222
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PICKING TARGETS - EMILY's List puts 15 incumbents on notice: The pro-Democratic women's group has named 15 GOP representatives on its first "On Notice" list: Reps. Rod Blum (IA-01), Mike Coffman (CO-06), Barbara Comstock (VA-10), Carlos Curbelo (FL-26), Rodney Davis (IL-13), Dan Donovan (NY-11), Cresent Hardy (NV-04), John Katko (NY-24), John Kline (MN-02), Steve Knight (CA-25), Martha McSally (AZ-02), Bruce Poliquin (ME-02), Tim Walberg (MI-07), David Young (IA-03) and Lee Zeldin (NY-01).

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "PATRIOT Act meltdown strains McConnell-Paul bond," by POLITICO's Manu Raju and Burgess Everett: The Senate majority leader is continuing to back Sen. Rand Paul, his fellow Kentucky Republican, for president, despite Paul's demolition of McConnell's effort to prevent authorization for a surveillance program from lapsing on Sunday night. The two men have "spent five years forming an unlikely alliance - they couldn't be more different stylistically, and on some key issues, ideologically - and neither seems prepared to allow this low point to become the end point in their relationship."
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-- "Did Paul's NSA gambit work?" by Campaign Pro's Kyle Cheney: "Paul is working to succeed where his father failed: building a coalition of libertarian-minded activists without alienating traditional Republican Party voters who prefer proactive engagement abroad. Paul's stand against the PATRIOT Act, which he's long railed against, appears aimed at the former set, said Tom Rath, an influential New Hampshire Republican. It also fits into his effort to appeal to less-traditional Republican voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, which will likely determine whether his presidential bid survives the first weeks of 2016. It comes at a time when Republicans have been reconsidering their support for
increasingly invasive domestic spying efforts, fueled in part by the leaks of former federal contractor Edward Snowden."
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- "Sanders pleads for more debates," by POLITICO's Dylan Byers: "Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee requesting more primary debates, including inter-party debates among candidates from both parties. In a letter to DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Vermont senator argued that the candidates 'should engage in a series of debates beginning this summer,' in order to increase voter turnout. ... For Sanders, a relatively little-known candidate with limited resources, more debates would mean more free air time and publicity."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5f2f1ce9e4bda63e8eca10cb96cbffe4bde774ff50f41f8e433b2e13d9254930
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-- "Secret effort to sell Hillary to rich liberals," by POLITICO's Kenneth P. Vogel: "The memo was prepared for Clinton enforcer David Brock ahead of an April major donor meeting in San Francisco. But the concerns it reveals about liberal donors' coolness toward her presidential candidacy - with some even holding out hope for a robust primary challenge from the left - are just as acute today, Clinton allies say."
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-- "Lindsey Graham, in announcing White House run, gets personal," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck in Central, S.C.: "[A]s he announced his presidential bid Monday here in the tiny town where he grew up, Lindsey Graham sought to knock down the notion that he's a creature of Washington, telling a personal story that's largely been overlooked over the course of his two decades in the House and Senate."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5f2f1ce9e4bda63e776e4ac3e4101110df9a684f26b57c3affe52b5548b65f8c
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-- Even though he's a sitting South Carolina senator, New Hampshire is key to Graham's candidacy, NH1's Paul Steinhauser writes.
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-- The Nevada state Legislature adjourned sine die early this morning without taking up a bill establishing a presidential primary, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
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IN MEMORIAM - The death of Beau Biden, the former Delaware attorney general and the eldest son of the vice president, on Saturday has generated an outpouring of remembrances and pieces on his close-knit family. The New Yorker posted one of the most elegant on Monday evening, by Evan Osnos, a staff writer who wrote about the elder Biden for the magazine last year. "In a town where 'family' is often brandished as a political prop, the Bidens have never attracted a cynical reading," Osnos writes. "In their tragedy, their striving, their survival, and their improbable optimism, the Bidens are a deeply American family - a clan that, even as it edged into privilege, has never looked out of reach
or out of touch."
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- And a moving piece from POLITICO's Edward-Isaac Dovere:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f71ba186a468b0ee645eea83ebd1a1e39719c50fc7d21949f91467a00cced62
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f71ba186a468b0ee645eea83ebd1a1e39719c50fc7d21949f91467a00cced62

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The bird provides an effective control on the squirrel population, so in some ways, it's really a great thing." - Tom Auer, a conservation data specialist at the National Audubon Society, on the red-tailed hawk that's been spotted on a ledge on the East Wing of the White House. It has killed at least one squirrel to date, and Morning Score will alert readers if it kills again.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f71ba186a468b0e80c90e80cff4940ce3f0b913c2ccce2504265d7bb7403c29
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3f71ba186a468b0e80c90e80cff4940ce3f0b913c2ccce2504265d7bb7403c29


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