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<p>By Alexander Burns (Twitter: @aburnspolitico) <br />
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<strong>BREAKING AT THE QUARTER -- RGA BLOWOUT -- FIRST IN SCORE</strong>: The Republican Governors Association raised just under $19 million in the second quarter of 2010 and ended the month of June with $40 million in the bank, according to an RGA source. The massive haul brings the campaign committee's total for the first six months of the year to a towering $28 million -- a fresh notch in Mississippi Gov. and RGA Chairman Haley Barbour's political belt. "This will enable us to expand the playing field, and we're going to need to, because we're competitive in almost every one of these races," an RGA official said. The committee spent some $10 million on races in the last quarter, largely on independent expenditure campaigns funding television ads in Wisconsin, Ohio, Massachusetts and Colorado. In each of those states, the RGA mounted multi-week, seven-figure advertising offensives on broadcast television. <br />
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The RGA doesn't operate under the same fundraising rules as federal campaign committees, but to illustrate just how massive that cash on hand total is: at the end of May, the RNC, NRSC and NRCC had a combined war chest of $42.7 million, compared with $40 million at the end of the quarter for the RGA alone. <br />
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As the White House plays down Colorado, Bob Ehrlich picks a running mate and the DNC gets closer to a convention city, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily cheat sheet for the 2010 midterm elections. <br />
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<strong>THE QUARTER CLOSES -- WHAT TO LOOK FOR</strong> -- The second-to-last full fundraising quarter of the 2010 campaign closed last night and candidates for federal office will announce their fundraising totals over the next few weeks. Here are the top five groups we'll be watching as the reports roll in: <br />
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(1) Everyone in Florida, where each Senate candidate has something different to prove. Can Charlie Crist survive as an independent? Can Marco Rubio raise money for a general election? Can Kendrick Meek keep up? (2) The put-up-or-shut-up Senate challengers, who have to perform now or never. Will Colorado's Andrew Romanoff and Arizona's J.D. Hayworth raise enough money to actually compete in the home stretch? (3) The marginal GOP recruits, who will have to prove they're financially competitive if Republicans want to take back the House. We don't just want to know how heavyweights like Pat Meehan (PA-07) are doing -- what's going on for Martha Roby (AL-02) and Jon Runyan (NJ-03), and the like? (4) The freshman Dems, many of whom had superb numbers in the first fundraising quarter. Vulnerable lawmakers like Tom Perriello (VA-05) and Betsy Markey (CO-04) need to sustain that high level of support. (5) The lightning rods -- lawmakers like Minnesota's Michele Bachmann and Florida's Alan Grayson, who raised a simply preposterous amount of money last quarter thanks to their national fan bases and could do it again. <br />
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<strong>FIRST OUT OF THE GATE</strong>: Louisiana Sen. David Vitter's campaign put out a vague fundraising announcement last night, declaring he'd raised "more than $1 million" for the quarter and ended June with "more than $5.5 million cash on hand." Vitter had about $5 million on hand at the end of the first quarter of the year. <br />
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<strong>CROSSROADS DELIVERS</strong>: The conservative 527 group American Crossroads, organized by GOP eminences including Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, raised a strong $8.5 million last month along with an associated group, American Crossroads GPS, putting the groups in a better position to deliver on their lofty goals for the 2010 cycle. American Crossroads president Steven Law told POLITICO's Ken Vogel that's just "a down payment on what we expect to do in the months ahead, and we're going to continue to be just as aggressive in July." Vogel has more: "GPS will focus its issue campaigns on the implementation of the Democratic healthcare overhaul and stimulus package, as well as the national deficit and debt ... The Crossroads 527 has already spent $360,000 on ads attacking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's reelection campaign in Nevada. And, in June, it announced 10 other Senate races in which it planned to air ads criticizing the Democratic candidate or boosting the Republican, including Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington state." <a target="_blank" href="http://politi.co/bepjAd ">http://politi.co/bepjAd</a> <br />
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<strong>DEMS WIN IN THE HOUSE</strong>: Lawmakers voted 237-192 last night to pass the Wall Street reform bill, sending the legislation to the Senate where it faces a possible filibuster. For Democrats, this is almost the best of both worlds: they're a step closer to a major substantive accomplishment, but they also get to keep a popular issue alive and use it as a bludgeon against reluctant GOP incumbents -- and challengers, too. President Obama released a statement last night calling the process of enacting reform "a long fight against the defenders of the status quo on Wall Street, but today's vote is a victory for every American who has been affected by the recklessness and irresponsibility that led to the loss of millions of jobs and trillions in wealth." <br />
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<strong>A SPECIAL AFTER ALL?</strong> West Virginia legislators could consider passing a law to move the special election for the late Sen. Robert Byrd's seat to this November, Charleston Mayor Danny Jones suggested yesterday. From West Virginia Metro News: "'Senator Byrd died. That's something we can't change,' Mayor Danny Jones said Wednesday. 'We need to have a successor.' A Special Session for lawmakers on education is scheduled to resume on July 19th at the State Capitol. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said her interpretation of the state law indicates the Governor should appoint someone to fill the Senate seat until 2012. ... If asked, the Legislature could look at the law and clarify it which would possibly lead to a Special Election this year for the Senate seat for the remainder of Senator Byrd's current term." <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/cnyof8 ">http://bit.ly/cnyof8</a></p><p><strong>AWKWARD -- ON AIR FORCE ONE</strong>: White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton played down the split between President Barack Obama and former President Clinton over the Colorado Senate race. A reporter asked whether Obama, who has campaigned for incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet, was "at all offended by Bill Clinton's endorsement of [Andrew] Romanoff," prompting Burton's reply: "I have not talked to him about it. It sounds to me like just a difference of opinion in a primary." <a target="_blank" href="http://politi.co/9r2zte ">http://politi.co/9r2zte </a><br />
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<strong>POLL OF THE DAY -- THE FUNDAMENTALS</strong>: Independent voters favored Republicans by a 12-point margin in the month of June, according to Gallup, breaking for a generic GOP House candidate over a generic Democratic House candidate, 46 percent to 34 percent. That means that since March, Republicans have held an average edge of 10 points on the generic ballot, among independents. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/aVbEf9 ">http://bit.ly/aVbEf9 </a><br />
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<strong>THE BIG MAP</strong> -- with POLITICO's Zachary Abrahamson: <br />
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<strong>SENATE</strong>: <br />
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<strong>CONNECTICUT</strong>: Former Gov. Lowell Weicker, a liberal Republican-turned-independent, won't endorse or vote for state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's Senate campaign, blasting the Democrat for misrepresenting his military service record. "I think anyone who dissembles their military service dishonors those who served and those who died in service of the United States and does not commend them to be a United States senator," Weicker said in an interview with "Face the State." <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/apeJJM ">http://bit.ly/apeJJM </a><br />
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<strong>ILLINOIS</strong>: Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is out with a new TV spot that aims to keep Republican Rep. Mark Kirk's history of biographical exaggerations in the spotlight, days after Kirk held a press conference in an attempt to put that issue to rest. The commercial shows a montage of media clips fact-checking Kirk's record, beginning with a television anchor saying: "Mark Kirk is caught in a lie." <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/csCzn1 ">http://bit.ly/csCzn1</a> <br />
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<strong>KENTUCKY</strong>: A month after losing the Democratic primary to state Attorney General Jack Conway, Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo says he won't endorse either candidate in the November general election. Speaking to the Lexington Herald-Leader before a poverty forum on Wednesday, Mongiardo refused to throw his support behind either Conway or Rand Paul, explaining: "I have spoken with Jack Conway the week after election day and haven't heard from him since." <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/ay3xDy ">http://bit.ly/ay3xDy</a> <br />
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<strong>HOUSE:</strong> <br />
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<strong>ID-01</strong>: GOP nominee Raul Labrador did little to heal the rift between his campaign and national Republican leaders on Wednesday, when Labrador's campaign declined to soften critical remarks the candidate made in April about Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential bid. "McCain is the problem with the Republican Party," Labrador said then, adding: "I would not support McCain in Arizona ... I would support [primary challenger former Rep.] J.D. [Hayworth]." <a target="_blank" href="http://politi.co/dmiPyF ">http://politi.co/dmiPyF</a> <br />
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<strong>MA-10</strong>: Republican state Rep. Jeff Perry's campaign is struggling with allegations that he did not stop a male colleague in the police force from strip-searching a pair of young women, 20 years ago. The women in each incident filed lawsuits against Perry and his subordinate, reports POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt ; one suit was settled out of court and in the other a court ruled Perry was not at the scene. Perry is running in a primary against former state Treasurer Joe Malone for retiring Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt's district. <a target="_blank" href="http://politi.co/auaPEJ ">http://politi.co/auaPEJ</a> <br />
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<strong>MN-06</strong>: Former Vice President Walter Mondale stepped to the plate for Democrat Tarryl Clark this week, putting his name on a fundraising mailer to Clark's supporters that jabbed Rep. Michele Bachmann's "celebrity" and spotlights her "unconscionable defense of BP." Mondale, who held one of the state's Senate seats from 1964 to 1976, urged donors to contribute "before midnight" and the close of the second quarter fundraising cycle. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/baPH6h ">http://bit.ly/baPH6h</a> <br />
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<strong>GOVERNORS</strong>: <br />
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<strong>FLORIDA</strong>: Wealthy health care executive Rick Scott's campaign released a memo Wednesday tearing into GOP primary rival Bill McCollum on social issues, attacking him over his support for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign. The memo faulted McCollum, the state attorney general, for backing the "pro-abortion and pro-homosexual" Giuliani in Florida's presidential primary. <a target="_blank" href="http://politi.co/c7A4BS ">http://politi.co/c7A4BS </a><br />
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<strong>MARYLAND</strong>: Former Gov. Bob Ehrlich chose Mary Kane, a former Maryland secretary of state and the wife of a former state GOP chairman, as his running mate Wednesday. The Baltimore Sun suggests that with the pick, Ehrlich has "signaled that he intends to make a major push for votes in Montgomery County - where Ms. Kane lives." <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/cquGLx ">http://bit.ly/cquGLx</a> <br />
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<strong>MICHIGAN</strong>: Republican state Attorney General Mike Cox launched a pair of television ads yesterday aimed at rebutting charges that he stopped an investigation into former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's improprieties. The ads, airing in the Detroit area, feature law enforcement testimonials supporting Cox's claim that he conducted a thorough investigation of a rumored 2003 party at Detroit's Manoogian Mansion involving Kilpatrick, a stripper and the mayor's security detail. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/aR6koU ">http://bit.ly/aR6koU</a> <br />
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<strong>2012:</strong> <br />
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THE FINAL FOUR: The Democratic National Committee announced the four finalist cities for the site of the 2012 Democratic convention: Charlotte, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Cleveland. DNC Chairman Tim Kaine said in an e-mail that over the summer "our team will visit these four cities to determine which is the best locale to host our 46th National Convention." <a target="_blank" href="http://politi.co/a7PeTQ ">http://politi.co/a7PeTQ</a> <br />
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<strong>AFTER THE BUZZER</strong>: Tim Pawlenty endorsed a slate of six South Carolina Republicans yesterday, sending donations to each of the party's major congressional candidates as well as Sen. Jim DeMint and gubernatorial nominee Nikki Haley. He gave to Spartanburg County Solicitor Trey Gowdy, who ousted Rep. Bob Inglis in the 4th Congressional District, as well as Rep. Joe Wilson; state Rep. Tim Scott, the expected successor to Rep. Henry Brown; and state Rep. Jeff Duncan, the expected successor to Rep. Gresham Barrett. Pawlenty was in South Carolina this week to raise funds for the state party and state Sen. Mick Mulvaney, the challenger to Democratic Rep. John Spratt whom Pawlenty had previously endorsed. <a target="_blank" href="http://politi.co/duI5F1 ">http://politi.co/duI5F1</a> <br />
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<strong>BACK TO MICHIGAN</strong>: Mitt Romney is visiting Grosse Pointe next Friday, July 9, to campaign and raise funds for Rep. Pete Hoesktra's campaign for governor. He's scheduled to attend a $200- and $500-a-head luncheon at a private residence, according to a Hoekstra campaign announcement.</p><br>
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