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By Elena Schneider | 01/17/2017 10:00 AM EDT


With 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)

INAUGURATION KICK-OFF - "Trump's divided state of America," by POLITICO's Edward-Isaac Dovere: "Donald Trump has done more since being elected to court Vladimir Putin than the 74 million Americans who voted for other presidential candidates - or the tens of millions who didn't vote at all. Many Democrats and Republicans alike argue that's contributing to the incoming president's historically low, and falling, approval ratings, and could set the country on course for a fractious four years of distrust and division while damaging the institution of the presidency. Trump, who is most at home stirring and then surfing controversy, spent much of the 10-week transition revving up supporters still
exulting in his win. He boasts in private and public about how he pulled off the upset, taking to Twitter to mock Democrats and anyone else upset that he won. There was a thank you tour, but no listening tour." Full story.

POTENTIAL 2018 VERSIONS - "Thiel considering bid for California governor," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt: "Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire and outspoken Donald Trump supporter, is considering a 2018 bid for California governor, according to three Republicans familiar with his thinking. Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, has been discussing a prospective bid with a small circle of advisers, including Rob Morrow, who has emerged as his political consigliere. Morrow has worked at Clarium Capital, the San Francisco-based investment management firm and hedge fund that Thiel started. Those who have been in touch with the 49-year-old entrepreneur are
skeptical that he'll enter the race. He is a deeply private figure, and California is unfriendly territory for a Republican - particularly a pro-Trump one. The president-elect won just over 30 percent of the vote there." Full story.

- "Talk radio's Laura Ingraham eyes Senate bid," by the Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard: "Knowledgeable sources said that several party insiders have approached the media giant to run and that she is considering it. In preparation for a bid, her business partner, Peter Anthony, has begun buying website domains for Ingraham to use should she decide to move forward. It includes: ingrahamsenate.net, ingrahamsenate.com, ingrahamforvirginia.com and ingraham2018.com. Ingraham wouldn't comment on any run." Full story.

- Pro-Trump Minnesota pillow mogul not ruling out gubernatorial campaign, via Alpha News MN's Andrea Mayer-Bruestle: "... The idea of running for office is appealing to him as well. He believes that Minnesota 'is right on the threshold of breaking out of what we've been suppressed by so long because of the democrat liberals in this state.'" Full story.

- AND ON THE DEMOCRATIC SIDE - "John Morgan noncommittal on governor run," by the Pensacola News Journal's Will Isern: "Orlando personal-injury attorney John Morgan talked down a potential run for governor Friday, but didn't rule it out entirely during a speech in Pensacola. 'I never said I had intended to run for governor,' Morgan told reporters before a Panhandle Tiger Bay Club luncheon. 'I'm thinking about it because you see these early polls and think, "Oh my God, they like me," but maybe they just want me to be governor because they don't want to have to see my commercials anymore.'"

Days until the 2017 election: 295.

Days until the 2018 election: 659.

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

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

RIFT CITY - "Democrats sweat Clinton vs. Sanders rift," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti: "The Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders rift is bubbling up in gubernatorial primaries. It's pulsing through the race for Democratic National Committee chairman, and shaping state party leadership contests from Hawaii to Maine. Long after the Democratic presidential nomination was settled, the bruising 2016 primary fight continues to divide the party, hindering Democrats' ability to unite and prompting national party leaders to tiptoe around the issue in the hopes of avoiding an outbreak of Sanders-Clinton proxy wars. The bitter defeat at the hands of Donald Trump has exacerbated the tensions, leading
to the rise of "Bernie would have won" and "Bernie's challenge helped sink Hillary" camps, even if the battles are rarely framed in such explicit terms. Now, with the chairmanship of the DNC and party nominations in multiple 2017 races at stake, some Democrats are desperately trying to strike a balance and remind rank-and-file activists of the real enemy." Full story.

EARLY POLL DATA - Gillespie ahead in Virginia governor matchups: "A new Mason-Dixon poll shows Republican Ed Gillespie with a narrow advantage over Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and a wider lead against less-known former Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello. Gillespie and Northam are in a tight race, with the Republican taking 44 percent of the vote to Northam's 41 percent. Gillespie earns 45 percent of the vote to Perriello's 36 percent when they are matched up in a general election trial heat. And while Northam leads Republican Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chair Corey Stewart, 45 percent to 37 percent, Perriello and Stewart run close in the poll, 40 percent to 38 percent." Full
story.

- And some seed money ... The RGA gave $5 million to start a super PAC to "boost the eventual GOP nominee," the largest single donation in Virginia history, per The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

ON THE HILL - "Trump, Price and Hill GOP at odds on Obamacare," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett and Jennifer Haberkorn: "Donald Trump and his pick to lead the Obamacare repeal effort, Rep. Tom Price, share a vision that the current health care system needs to be completely uprooted. But the two men have articulated wildly divergent visions for what comes next - and that's making it hard for Hill Republicans to figure out where to start on a coherent replacement plan once Obamacare is gone. ...Congressional Republicans are caught in between, racing to repeal Obamacare while receiving mixed signals from the incoming administration about what will replace it. Several key Republicans have already
indicated Price's approach won't undergird the legislative process." Full story.

CLEARING THE DECKS - Walker retires presidential debt ahead of 2018 decision: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is weighing whether or not to run for a third term in 2018, has retired the debt left over from his abbreviated 2016 presidential bid. Walker's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination ended 2015 with over $1.2 million in debt, which he paid down over the course of 2016. Walker's last FEC report showed just over $140,000 of outstanding debt, but that was paid off by the end of the year, according to a memo prepared by Walker political adviser Joe Fadness. Walker and his political team had set a goal of clearing the presidential debt by the end of last year, and it frees
Walker to focus on a looming political decision: whether to run for a third term as governor next year." Full story.

FOLLOW THE MONEY - "Google and Facebook gave more to Republicans than to Democrats," by Silicon Beat's Ethan Baron: "In famously liberal Silicon Valley, two of the region's biggest tech giants have switched teams to Republicans over Democrats while their workers remain largely on the left. In 2016, a year of fabulously polarizing American politics, the political action committees for Google and Facebook gave more money to the red team than to the blue for Congressional races. Of the $1.5 million from Google's parent firm Alphabet, 56 percent went to Republican candidates and 44 percent to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That breaks down for House races as
$625,000 for Republicans and $512,000 for Democrats, and for Senate races as $190,000 for Republicans and $137,000 for Democrats." Full story.

TRANSITION SPEED READ - "'Never Trump' national-security Republicans fear they have been blacklisted," by The Washington Post's David Nakamura: "They are some of the biggest names in the Republican national security firmament, veterans of past GOP administrations who say, if called upon by President-elect Donald Trump, they stand ready to serve their country again. But their phones aren't ringing. Their entreaties to Trump Tower in New York have mostly gone unanswered. In Trump world, these establishment all-stars say they are 'PNG' - personae non gratae. Their transgression was signing one or both of two public 'Never Trump' letters during the campaign, declaring they would not vote for
Trump and calling his candidacy a danger to the nation." Full story.

- "Interior Nominee Promotes Navy SEAL Career, While Playing Down 'Bad Judgment,'" by The New York Times' Christopher Drew and Sean D. Naylor: "In his successful runs for state senator in Montana and then for Congress, Representative Ryan Zinke has promoted his 23-year career in the Navy SEALs as one of his main credentials, going so far as to put the SEALs' Trident symbol on his campaign bus. While he has portrayed his accomplishments in the Navy in glowing terms, Mr. Zinke, a Republican and President-elect Donald J. Trump's nominee for secretary of the interior, has acknowledged one "glitch": that he improperly billed the government for travel to his home in Montana when he was a midlevel
SEAL Team 6 officer in the late 1990s. He had to repay $211 for one of two trips, he has said, maintaining that the episode did not derail what he described as a "brilliant" career. But two retired admirals under whom Mr. Zinke served say his account understates the damage that it did. Mr. Zinke was in fact punished for abusing his travel expenses, they say, through an evaluation that prevented him from rising to senior levels in the Navy." Full story.

- "Trump slow to vet ultra-rich ambassador candidates," by POLITICO's Tara Palmeri: "Republican bundlers have been aggressively lobbying Donald Trump's transition team for plum diplomatic posts in Western Europe - but so far have been met with almost no vetting, according to transition sources and top donors, despite the past business troubles of some contenders. Trump's moneyed donors are especially driven to jockey now for the ambassador positions, given that President Barack Obama's current appointees have been notified that they have to vacate their posts by Jan. 20. The president-elect has also accelerated the timetable for some of the highest-profile ambassador slots, having already
named his representatives for Israel and China - longtime bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, respectively." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I, Donald Trump, am now the new sole owner of Monday Night Raw. I'm going to do stuff that's never been done before, that's never been seen before." -- Trump, in a staged announcement during a professional wrestling match in 2009, highlighting his long obsession with the sport.

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