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By Theodoric Meyer | 08/29/2016 10:00 AM EDT


With Kevin Robillard, Elena Schneider, Maggie Severns and Scott Bland

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)

PRIMARY PREVIEW - "Ward's McCain challenge powered by tea-party B-team," by Campaign Pro's Theodoric Meyer: "When tea party Republican Richard Mourdock toppled longtime Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar in a 2012 primary, he had help from the Club for Growth, the National Rifle Association and other national conservative groups. Kelli Ward has none of that. The former state senator challenging GOP Sen. John McCain in Tuesday's Arizona primary is the most prominent anti-incumbent Senate challenger running in 2016. But she has failed to attract the kind of support that might have given her a better shot at taking out McCain. Instead, Ward has relied on the backing of a smattering of second-tier
PACs, a stream of positive coverage from Breitbart News, endorsements from a handful of House firebrands like GOP Rep. Jim Bridenstine, and a late super PAC donation from Robert Mercer, the enigmatic conservative megadonor who spent millions backing Ted Cruz in the primary and is now supporting Donald Trump." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e1773385f554aea5446e17cfd5b5473e3a1aaf67b22fac0bc185626d

- "Why McCain refuses to go maverick on Trump," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett in Phoenix: "John McCain has held his tongue for more than a year as Donald Trump dubbed him a loser and 'not a war hero.' ... The stinging personal criticism has both parties speculating that McCain will finally blow his top once he dispatches his conservative challenger in a primary election on Tuesday. Don't count on it." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e1773385286c3af3fd38070330ffe14950305582a9dc813762257dd0

- Arizona Grassroots Action PAC, a super PAC supporting McCain, is out with a new digital ad this morning mocking Ward yet again. It's based around what appears to be an old recording of Ward singing Patsy Cline's "Crazy." "Conspiracy Theorist. Entertainer. Paranoid. Desperate," reads the text that appears onscreen at the end of the ad. "One way not to describe Kelli Ward? U.S. Senator." Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e1773385fd811223c7040b2936d271ff294adf0902e132bea830871a

- "The U.S. Senate primary that never was," by POLITICO Florida's Matt Dixon: "At Saturday's opening of a Republican Party of Florida volunteer office in Jacksonville, Sen. Marco Rubio stood in front of a large American flag making the case that voters should cast ballots before Election Day. He was clear, though, that he was in town to open an office that would help lay the groundwork for a campaign that is focused on November - not Tuesday's primary. ... Over the summer, the campaigns of Rubio and [Democratic Rep. Patrick] Murphy have unleashed a barrage of narrative-setting attacks against each other because each was clearly perceived as the front-runner" in their respective primaries.
Rubio expects to dispatch the multimillionaire Carlos Beruff on Tuesday without much trouble, and Murphy is equally confident he'll beat Rep. Alan Grayson. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e177338569354dfe86b4698aecbea8ff3877cdde023abba345de0337

Days until the 2016 election: 71.

Days until the Arizona and Florida congressional primaries: 1.

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, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and almost as often about Chance the Rapper: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

BAYH PARTISANS - "U.S. Chamber turns its back on Bayh," by The Indianapolis Star's Maureen Groppe: Evan Bayh, one of the more business-friendly Democrats during his two terms in the Senate, helped the U.S. Chamber of Commerce fight government regulations after leaving office in 2011. He also worked for a private equity firm and served on multiple corporate boards. But now the world's largest business group wants to block Bayh from returning to the Senate. The U.S. and Indiana chambers of commerce will be touring the state Monday to announce their support for GOP Rep. Todd Young over Bayh in Indiana's Senate race. The group, which spent $1 million on ads to help Young win the GOP primary, is
spending at least that much in statewide ads beginning Monday." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e1773385745338f9deff34a15ccb2cae172ef28c528152d8ce5f29e9

- Reminder: The U.S. Chamber hasn't supported a Democratic senator for reelection since the passage of Obamacare. The last Democrat the Chamber endorsed for Senate was Joe Manchin, then West Virginia's governor, when he ran for the late Robert Byrd's seat in 2010.

FIRST IN SCORE - Internal poll: Faso 46, Teachout 41 in NY-19: Republican John Faso holds a narrow lead among likely voters over Democrat Zephyr Teachout for an open swing seat in New York's Hudson Valley, according to an internal poll conducted for the Faso campaign by McLaughlin & Associates. Faso's 5-point lead is almost exactly in line with voters' preferences on a generic ballot in the survey. The poll was conducted between Aug. 8 and Aug. 10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. GOP Rep. Chris Gibson is retiring. Here's the full polling memo: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e17733857015739fce967caec246deb3270f1bf90d05d1862b322060

- Teachout, meanwhile, took a day off campaigning on Sunday to get married. She wed Nick Juliusburger in a small ceremony in Dover Plains, N.Y. The Teachout campaign says she's not taking any more time off to celebrate, despite what a Teachout campaign staffer said last week. "One of the craziest things, I think, that a candidate could do is, like, suspend their campaign for any duration of time when you're coming down to a few days before the election," the staffer, Elliot Sakach, said at an event in Albany on Thursday, according to a video recorded by a GOP tracker. "And in the next couple weeks, she's going to pause her campaign to go get married." But Alexis Grenell, a Teachout
spokeswoman, said Teachout would be campaigning every day this week. "She is on the campaign trail this week and will be talking to voters at a series of events all over the Hudson Valley and the Catskills," Grenell wrote in an email. "There are absolutely no plans to suspend her campaign."

PRIMARY COLORS - Virginia GOP decides by one vote to hold primaries, not convention, to pick 2017 nominees: "Virginia Republicans will pick their 2017 nominees for governor and other statewide offices in a primary instead of a convention, the party decided Saturday in an about-face that infuriated some grass-roots activists and could have an impact on the presidential election," reports The Washington Post's Laura Vozzella. "The decision was made in a 41-to-40 vote after a passionate, hour-long debate ... The switch to the primary embittered some grass-roots activists because the party had recommended making its 2017 picks by convention - a format that tends to favor conservative candidates
- just over a year ago." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e1773385ef10c1a3d6364cb2e33c0c330f22b3d502b06c8d9984d3f3

FIRST IN SCORE - Senate Majority PAC out with new contrast ad in Pennsylvania: Senate Majority PAC, the flagship Democratic supper PAC in Senate races, is up with a new ad in Pennsylvania contrasting Democrat Katie McGinty and incumbent GOP Sen. Pat Toomey on environmental issues, abortion rights and gun control. The ad attacks Toomey for wanting to "criminalize abortion" and notes he opposes an assault weapons ban and has an A rating from the National Rifle Association. Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e17733851a63ccbcbcc0c848fda5e8bb9172ec57060bcd7cc3172e40

AIR WAR - New Ayotte ad features homeowner testimonial: New Hampshire GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte's reelection campaign is out with a new ad featuring a homeowner the incumbent helped save from foreclosure. The woman, Barbara Mousette, was a victim of identity theft and went to Ayotte for help. Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e1773385a33cef87dd6da35f6af1a34043981508a13be90b7ff5df41

- NRSC debuts new TV ads in Pennsylvania and Nevada: The NRSC started airing two new attack ads this weekend, one targeting Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada and another going after Democrat Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania. "Catherine Cortez Masto's office approved the early release of dangerous drunk-driving offenders from prison," the narrators says in the first ad, calling Cortez Masto's judgment "impaired." The second ad attacks McGinty for supporting Philadelphia's status as a "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants. Watch the Cortez Masto ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e1773385de5b752d4a3413ef6161f25912b595b32d79937e18af9046 Watch the McGinty ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c9f979050568c474e0cc2fe77beea9b9700931f9d72e219292653efaba733285

- Super PAC backing Blunt goes up with attack ad: Heartland Resurgence, a super PAC run by Gregg Hartley, a lobbyist and close friend of GOP Sen. Roy Blunt, is going up with TV ads today attacking Democrat Jason Kander, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Chuck Raasch reports. "The ad asks 'Who is Jason Kander?' and attacks the Missouri secretary of state as "just another liberal politician" and supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. ... Hartley said he hopes to expand the $120,000 early ad buy in central Missouri to a 'high-six-figures' statewide campaign to run into early October." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e17733858befa7ad97dc42ab294dd84c13fef165c0e81531f6449bfc

FIRST IN SCORE - Gibson to endorse Tenney in NY-22: Retiring GOP Rep. Richard Hanna has declined to get behind state Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, the Republican nominee to fill his upstate New York seat. But GOP Rep. Chris Gibson, who represents a neighboring district and is also retiring, has no such qualms. He's endorsing Tenney in Oriskany, N.Y., this morning.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - Trump campaign planning $10 million ad buy: "Donald Trump's campaign is planning its biggest ad buy to date, upward of $10 million on commercials airing over the next week or so," The Associated Press reports. "The campaign expects the ads to begin airing as soon as Monday in nine states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, where the campaign has already been on the air, along with New Hampshire, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e177338510c9a401f638ba95a1f4703b4f20423bc26708742758aed4

- "Could undecided voters swing the election?" by POLITICO's Steven Shepard: "They tend to be younger than older. They are less likely to identify with either of the two parties. And they strongly dislike both major-party candidates. They are 2016's undecided voters - or at least those who tell pollsters they won't choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. ... Even as Clinton builds a consistent lead in the weeks following the national party conventions, this bloc of voters - which usually ranges between 8 and 20 percent of voters - could still tip the scales in November." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e17733850782ed4c4b04c86d49cc75bea8ea5c541ce8f57856eedbab

- "White retiree influx helps keep Florida in play for Donald Trump," by The Wall Street Journal's Arian Campo-Flores and Paul Overberg in The Villages, Fla.: "Fast-growing minority communities give Democrats an increasing advantage in Florida, one of the most heated battlegrounds in the presidential election. A different and little-noted demographic trend is helping to keep the state competitive for Donald Trump: a new influx of white retirees." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e1773385c30ead51688a32ee6d2276d38c1d3b29f5af7b4e1b74171d

- "Trump's new aim: Poison a Clinton presidency," by POLITICO's Edward-Isaac Dovere: "The Clinton delegitimization project is now central to Donald Trump's campaign and such a prime component of right-wing media that it's already seeped beyond extremist chat rooms into "lock her up" chants on the convention floor, national news stories debating whether polls actually can be rigged, and voters puzzling over that photo they think they saw of her needing to be carried up the stairs. ... 'Some of the campaign and allies' conspiracies are designed to delegitimize her personally. Most are simply designed to spread fear and mistrust. And I am sure if she wins, the right wing will continue to
spread these theories,' said Clinton senior adviser Jennifer Palmieri." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e17733850782ed4c4b04c86d49cc75bea8ea5c541ce8f57856eedbab

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Not only does he want 100 million viewers, he wants to be a showstopper at the Roman Colosseum, the main event at WrestleMania." - Former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg, on the presidential debates. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cdc4f62e177338585fa3706a0aa074b1f3ef773b0ca20578498dc1d3927fa65

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