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By Elena Schneider

With Kyle Cheney

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=67b85012ecdfb6dc91e143079ae4757570f2e09212b4958ea5322b4370a590b5
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FLORIDA SENATE RACE HEATS UP - "GOP race to replace Rubio could be bloodbath," by POLITICO's Marc Caputo in Miami: "The Republican race for Florida's soon-to-be open Senate seat has the potential makings of a primary bloodbath, pitting the establishment wing of the party and insurgent movement conservative groups against each other as they prepare to pick sides between Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and Rep. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis made his candidacy official Wednesday and unveiled the support of influential Washington conservative groups, one of which immediately bashed Lopez-Cantera, whose allies intend to start rolling out a leadership and super PAC in anticipation of a formal campaign
announcement in the coming weeks. The friendly fire from Team DeSantis is a hallmark of some of these groups, and it isn't lost on D.C. Republicans that many of his consultants and allies - Jamestown Associates, Senate Conservatives Fund and FreedomWorks - are the same crew that unsuccessfully backed now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's 2014 Republican primary opponent."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc89cf75b75ebb7a63c1fd2695693d7e9c82e66b9d943fea9c
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-- And DeSantis' seat is already up for grabs, Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider reports:
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THE WIDE-OPEN MISSISSIPPI-01 SPECIAL - In the final days before next Tuesday's special election to replace late Rep. Alan Nunnelee, the 13 candidates are crisscrossing the rural northern district, trying to build enough support to finish in the top two and advance to the runoff three weeks later. For the most part, the 12 Republicans agree with each other. "On 99 percent of things," said state Sen. Nancy Collins, one of the candidates. There is a lone Democrat, Walter Zinn, a political consultant, on the ballot - but in a district where Mitt Romney won by 25 points in 2012, it's likely a runoff will pit two Republicans against each other.

And it's stayed crowded. "This is a wide open race because no candidate has a lot of name identification or geographic base, so we've got a lot of good people in this race," said Boyce Adams, one of the candidates.

In alphabetical order, Campaign Pro listed the six real contenders - half of whom have been six-figure self-funders - to make it into the June 3 runoff. Several sources on the ground also acknowledged that Mike Tagert, the state's transportation commissioner, may be best positioned overall, but it's still wide open.

- Adams, the only candidate from the third-largest county in the district, is a software business executive and flight instructor who said he's seen the "decimation of this economy by regulation that's coming out of Washington." He loaned his campaign about $245,000 of his own money, according to his pre-special Federal Elections Commission filing (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc828b2662f2eac1a53d4bfe75f4dd32f25d80bdff2c161348
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc828b2662f2eac1a53d4bfe75f4dd32f25d80bdff2c161348 ).

- Collins, a former nurse and teacher, said Social Security and Medicare are central to her campaign. She also noted that Mississippi is the only southern state that hasn't sent a woman to Congress, "but I'm not running on being a woman ... I'm running because I'm the most qualified," she said.

- Sterner Jones, an ER doctor, put in just under $400,000 of his own money for the race, according to FEC filings (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc68131550f467e680a209ea177b18d1b1bc7bd68ec1efffd2
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc68131550f467e680a209ea177b18d1b1bc7bd68ec1efffd2 ,
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc8b021333b144a82d10bc1bf4efa08ada84ba315addf0c384
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc8b021333b144a82d10bc1bf4efa08ada84ba315addf0c384 ). He's making Obamacare and the debt central tenets of his campaign, as well emphasizing that he's "never been elected to office," according to his campaign website.

- Trent Kelly, a district attorney who serves in the National Guard, said he was surprised by the number of candidates, but not by their motivation, noting there's "a lot of dissatisfaction with the federal government as a whole, so people want to go up there and make a difference," he said. But he's excited to for Election Day, as is his family: "My third grader told me to stop running those ads because people keep telling me they see me on TV," he said.

- Greg Pirkle, a tax and corporate lawyer, said he wants to work on solving the tax code and the national debt. "Some of my opposition talks about abolishing the IRS. That's a soundbite, not a solution," he said. "It's not about abolishing something, but offering workable, usable solutions for a sustainable economy, and I know how to do that. They don't." He's also another self-funder who's loaned his campaign $100,000 of his own money, according to his FEC filing (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc36159b0f81e53bf808e69e70edbeb5925277d2af01cd8824
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc36159b0f81e53bf808e69e70edbeb5925277d2af01cd8824 ).

- Mike Tagert, the state's transportation commissioner and a Marine veteran, likely has the most statewide name recognition. At the agency, he "had to downsize," which he said demonstrates "the ability to prioritize and to run more efficiently." He raised more than $370,000 from contributions as of April 22, according to his FEC filing (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc671eca13326732b4ecd626bc3f2c7c5fe0b6eaf2c2026fec
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc671eca13326732b4ecd626bc3f2c7c5fe0b6eaf2c2026fec ).

-- Air war: A number of the campaigns have been on the TV airwaves since March. The top five spenders and their estimated grand totals, according to a campaign source, included: Jones ($217,000), Pirkle ($214,000), Tagert ($160,900), Adams ($149,500) and Collins ($125,000).

As Matt Bevin swerves around a car wreck and things get rocky for Black Rock, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: daily news, notes and essential information for the 2015 and 2016 election cycles.

Days until the 2015 election: 179; Days until the 2016 election: 550.

Thanks for joining us. We're eager for your news and feedback. Email us at
mailto:eschneider@politico.com
eschneider@politico.com or find us on Twitter at
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc38f358012d2c077707ecd94726df21ada5ebc062ba7c0461
@ec_schneider .

COMER SAYS 'NO PROOF' - Campaign Pro's Steven Shepard reported: "In an interview taped [Thursday] and set to air Saturday morning, Kentucky GOP gubernatorial candidate James Comer repeated denials of domestic abuse allegations leveled by a college girlfriend and said he thinks voters will tune out what he calls a 'dirty political trick.' WHAS-TV in Louisville aired excerpts of Comer's interview with reporter Joe Arnold on its 5 p.m. newscast tonight. In the clip, Comer reads for the first time the full letter from Marilyn Thomas, whom he dated when they were both students at Western Kentucky University in the early 1990s. The letter includes claims that Comer hit Thomas and drove her to and
from an abortion clinic to terminate a pregnancy. 'This is completely false,' said Comer, reacting to the letter. 'They have no proof other than one person who claims it happened.'"

-- WAVE-TV reports that the whole episode could be good news for Matt Bevin, comparing him to "a race-car driver avoiding a bad wreck."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=67b85012ecdfb6dc875429db9cde935a7c4abdf6f592087a6ad266776bf9a0a1
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CONFLICT OF INTEREST - "GOP consultant on hot seat over Rand attack," by POLITICO's Manu Raju: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and senior Republican officials are calling out a GOP firm that worked on a seven-figure ad campaign lashing Rand Paul over his foreign policy views. The problem? The firm's co-founder is also working for a McConnell-backed super PAC that's defending the GOP Senate majority in 2016, when Paul is also on the Senate ballot in Kentucky."
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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE - For Roll Call, Nathan Gonzales dives into the way the NRCC and the DCCC organizes outside groups - isolating from the committee, while still maintaining control of messaging and strategy.
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BUSH BUCKS - "Jeb Bush's big-money juggernaut," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt: "Jeb Bush is putting in motion an ambitious plan to develop a super PAC that would be unprecedented in its size and scope - a blueprint growing in scale and intensity as he nears the formal launch of his presidential campaign. The group, called Right to Rise, is said to be on track for raising an historic $100 million by the end of May, and its budget is expected to dwarf that of Bush's official campaign many times over. In interviews, more than half a dozen sources familiar with the Right to Rise plans described a juggernaut that was rapidly taking shape - from its likely headquarters in Los Angeles, 2,700 miles
from the Miami office where Bush was basing his campaign, to a new fundraising push aimed at expanding its ballooning coffers."
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MIXED REVIEWS IN BALTIMORE - "Ben Carson finds a skeptical audience in Baltimore," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck in Baltimore: "Republican leaders have talked obsessively about the need to appeal to more minority voters in 2016, after a disastrous showing in the last presidential election. But it wasn't until Thursday that a GOP presidential candidate actually visited this city, the country's current heart of racial tensions. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who lived here in Baltimore for 36 years, returned Thursday afternoon for a roundtable with a largely African American group of clergy members and businesspeople to discuss what his team called the "need for healing" following the death of
a young man in police custody, and the subsequent riots that tore through the city. ...to mixed reviews."
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SOME ARE STILL 'CONSIDERING' - POLITICO's Nick Gass reported: "Rick Santorum will announce whether he will make a run for president later this month at an event in his hometown of Butler, Pa., on May 27. 'Look, it was a great campaign last time,' he told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren on Wednesday night, referencing his 34-vote victory in the 2012 Iowa Republican caucus. 'We were clearly the underdog and we are starting out as looking at this race and we would be in the same position. And so we are very comfortable there.' Santorum said he is looking at a venue in the town approximately 35 miles north of Pittsburgh 'to sort of talk about what it was like growing up there and where America
needs to go in the future.'"

A HAWK CONSIDERS RUN, TOO - "Graham looking at June 1 to announce White House run, sources say," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck: "Lindsey Graham is telling donors that June 1 is the likely date for his presidential announcement, according to several sources familiar with the conversations. The announcement would likely take place in South Carolina, possibly near his home base of Seneca, according to the sources, which would enable the GOP senator to highlight a compelling personal story not widely known outside his home state. ...A spokeswoman for Graham said Thursday that she couldn't confirm any information about a potential announcement. The senator's team has previously suggested they were
looking at a mid-May time frame. ...Graham's hawkish views would almost certainly be a central feature of an announcement speech as he weighs a bid premised on his experience on defense and foreign policy."
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WHO RUN THE WORLD - "Democratic group pushes women to run in 2016," by POLITICO's Tarini Parti: "A group focused on recruiting Democratic women to run for office is launching a campaign Friday called "Follow Hillary's Lead" aimed at increasing by 20 percent the number of women candidates in 2016. Emerge America provides training, connections and support for women candidates seeking local and state office. It is backed by many Hillary Clinton supporters - including major Democratic donors, Susie Tompkins Buell and Eileen Donohue, who also hosted fundraisers for the former secretary of State in San Francisco this week. It started in the Bay Area in 2002, but the group now has chapters in 14
states and is timing its new campaign launch with Mother's Day weekend."
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "After many sleepless nights, various eye-twitching episodes and other anxiety ridden spasms, I have decided not to pursue the open seat for Congressional District 18." - Florida state Rep. Pat Rooney in his polite rejection of running for Rep. Patrick Murphy's open seat.


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