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10/04/2016 07:35 AM EDT


By Heather Caygle (hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope)

HOUSE DEMOCRATS JOCKEY FOR LEADERSHIP GIG- Capitol Hill might be quiet right now but two seasoned House Democrats-Reps. Barbara Lee and Linda Sánchez-are still working behind the scenes to lock up a leadership position come November. The two lawmakers are squaring off in a bid to become caucus vice chairman, a sometimes obscure gig that's getting more attention this year because it's expected to be the only competitive House Democratic leadership race.

Lee's pitch to her colleagues is that her years of experience in various roles (she's led both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus in past years) make her ready to take on a leadership role. Sánchez, meanwhile, is taking a more "low key" approach in courting votes, in the style of her good friend, Rep. John Larson, who is leading her whip team and won his own vice-chair race that way a decade ago.

While both lawmakers have lined up impressive whip teams, many members are staying out of the race publicly, at least for now, not wanting to engender the same feelings that surfaced during the messy fight between Reps. Frank Pallone and Anna Eshoo over the House Energy and Commerce post in 2014. "When you have two people, two progressives, two women of color who are liked by members of the caucus, people don't want to read their name in the paper. It just creates all kinds of bad feelings," Larson said.

Rep. Lois Frankel, a Lee backer, agrees: "After the contest between Anna Eshoo and Frank Pallone, nobody wants to talk about it, nobody wants to be counted. People don't like that." Read the full story, courtesy of yours truly.

GOP MEGA-DONORS READY IMPEACHMENT PUSH- If you thought the conservative effort to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen wouldn't resurface, think again. Rachael reports: "Founded by GOP mega-donor Todd Ricketts, 45Committee will spend nearly $1 million on a week's worth of cable TV and digital ads encouraging voters to pressure Congress to impeach tax chief John Koskinen."

Widespread run: "Officials at the tax-exempt 501(c)(4), run by family owners of the Chicago Cubs, told POLITICO the ads will start Tuesday and air nationwide in every congressional district, from FOX to MSNBC to CNN and more. More could follow, they added, in an effort to keep the issue front and center."

Oh, the irony: "It's a somewhat ironic twist for the Ricketts family: Just two months ago, the family's Ending Spending PAC successfully 'primaried' ultra-conservative Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kans.) - taking out one of the most well-known members of the House Freedom Caucus who helped drive out ex-Speaker John Boehner. ... Now, however, the same family is supporting the Freedom Caucus' cause du jour, running ads that are sure to make Hill leaders and establishment-types squirm."

SO IS HE OR ISN'T HE? Sen. Kelly Ayotte walked back her comments last night after saying she "absolutely" thought Donald Trump was a good role model for kids during a televised debate earlier in the evening. Turns out she doesn't. Cristiano Lima with more: "'I misspoke tonight,' Ayotte wrote in a statement. 'While I would hope all of our children would aspire to be president, neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton have set a good example and I wouldn't hold up either of them as role models for my kids.'"

Ayotte's earlier sputter: "At the event the first-term Republican senator was asked if she would describe the Republican nominee as a role model and whether she would tell children to 'be like Donald Trump.' A sputtering Ayotte struggled to respond, before affirming that she would. 'I think that certainly there are many role models that we have and I believe he can serve as president, and so absolutely I would do that,' she said awkwardly."

'Use condom sense': Speaking of Ayotte, her campaign has been handing out free condoms at New Hampshire colleges to highlight an over-the-counter birth control bill she sponsored. The AP's Holly Ramer with more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6345a10f9b1f6cbea5771bc6aa26253c537694435f58304e15499b6d935b78f6

HAPPY TUESDAY, HUDDLE READERS. Welcome to Oct. 4. You're reading POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. Monday's most-clicked: The story about the dramatic ending of the Georgia-Tennessee game. I knew you guys loved football!

TODAY IN CONGRESS- Both the House and Senate are out.

AROUND THE HILL- How early is too early to head to Cups?

KAINE PLANS TO MAKE PENCE OWN TRUMP- Sen. Tim Kaine has a plan heading into tonight's VP debate: Force Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to defend all of Donald Trump's missteps and controversial comments. "I hope Tim makes Pence own every bit of Trump's radical, racist, misogynist agenda," said Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, Burgess reports from Farmville, Va. The only problem? Pence, unlike Trump, knows how to stick to a script.

More from Farmville: "The showdown in Central Virginia offers a major pivot point in the race. ...While Kaine merely needs to push Hillary Clinton's contrasting vision with Trump's and link Pence to his running mate, Pence himself has to do more than just stay out of the way. Like a baseball team down in the ninth inning, Pence needs to at least hit a single on Tuesday and give Trump an opportunity to rally later this month."

The Pence pivot may be hard for Kaine to pull off because the Indiana governor is no rookie when it comes to these things: "'Pence obviously spent 12 years on the Hill, four years as governor. He knows the issues as well. That may be [the] most constructive debate this season,' said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas)."

A FAN OF FANS- Hey, did you guys know former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist really likes fans? Well, if you didn't, you've probably been under a rock. But Crist sees the fan quirk as an asset, giving it a brief shout-out in his latest ad for the Fla-13 House race against GOP incumbent David Jolly. Check it out: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6345a10f9b1f6cbe6a6a3697cb9d871d1525ffbacb011499e90db627b2799b57

And fun fact, when your Huddle host was down there reporting on a Crist-Jolly story, an aide for the former governor actually unplugged my computer charger to run an extension cord for the Crist fan before a veterans' roundtable. My charger eventually found a new home but the fan was a great idea that day-the rest of us were sweating up a storm in the small building with an air conditioning unit that happened to not be working that day (smack in the middle of Florida summer).

RYAN SHRUGS OFF TRUMP TAX REPORT- House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday shrugged off a New York Times' report that Donald Trump may have legally avoided paying taxes for the last two decades, reports Paul Egan for the Detroit Free Press. "'I don't think it's that harmful,' said Ryan. ... 'I think people who don't like him are going to continue disliking him,' Ryan said of Trump."

HEADLINE DU JOUR: "Paul Ryan: So Handsome, So Sad," from BuzzFeed's McKay Coppins: "For years, Ryan has cultivated a reputation on both sides of the aisle as a paragon of decency, earnestness, and principle; that rare creature of DC who seems genuinely guided by good faith. To many in Washington - including no small number of reporters - Ryan's support for Trump is not merely a political miscalculation, but a craven betrayal. As one senior GOP Hill staffer put it, 'Your heroes always let you down.'"

"Capitol Hill staffers have expressed pity for Ryan's well-regarded press secretary, AshLee Strong, who is often tasked with drafting and disseminating these statements. 'I can't imagine having to do that,' said one GOP communications adviser on the Hill. 'It would just be soul-sucking.'"

CAN'T STOP, WON'T STOP- Ohio Sen. Rob Portman may be running well ahead of challenger Ted Strickland but that doesn't mean he's slowing down anytime soon. Burgess with the dispatch: "Portman raised $4.5 million in the third quarter, campaign aides said, leaving him $7.6 million on hand. That's significantly less than Portman had at the end of last quarter, but he's in the midst of a massive $15 million ad buy. He has no plans to scale that air campaign back despite his lead, campaign sources said, and he's attempting to blow out Strickland by as much as possible."

LAWMAKERS TAKE NOTE- Celebrity and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio thinks if you don't believe in climate change, you don't deserve to be in office. Anthony Adragna has more: "'The scientific consensus is in and the argument is now over,' the Academy Award-winning actor said during a discussion during the White House's South by South Lawn event. 'If you do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in facts, or in science or empirical truths and therefore, in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to hold public office.'"

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER- Stacey Goers (a proud alum) was the first to guess that Miami (Ohio) is the university that counts a U.S. President, a speaker of the House, a Super Bowl-winning quarterback, and two Super Bowl-winning coaches among its graduates.

TODAY'S TRIVIA- Stacey with today's question: Which member of Congress was a field director of the Virginia Health Department's Division of Shellfish Sanitation before being elected to his current role? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in tomorrow's Huddle. Get at me: hcaygle@politico.com

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