EMAIL DETAILS

By Alexander Burns (@aburnspolitico, aburns@politico.com)


FIRST IN SCORE - ROMNEY PLANTS HIS FLAG: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will announce a major commitment of resources to Iowa Republicans today, putting a total of $41,500 into 38 new campaigns in the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus state. Romney, who has already endorsed former Gov. Terry Branstad's comeback bid, will back Story County Treasurer Dave Jamison for Iowa state treasurer, Council Bluffs City Councilman Matt Schultz for secretary of state and former Hill aide Brenna Findley for attorney general. He's endorsing five candidates for state Senate, including incumbent Iowa Senate GOP Leader Paul McKinley and Whip David Johnson, and 24 candidates for the state House, including GOP Leader Kraig Paulsen and Assistant Leaders Dave Deyoe and Renee Schulte. Each of those candidates will receive between $500 and $2,500 from Romney's Free and Strong America PAC.


AND FOR THE FEDS: In federal campaigns, Romney's formally endorsing Sen. Chuck Grassley and Reps. Tom Latham and Steve King, as well as GOP House challengers Ben Lange, who's running against Rep. Bruce Braley; Mariannette Miller-Meeks, running against Rep. Dave Loebsack; and state Sen. Brad Zaun, the challenger for Rep. Leonard Boswell. Each House candidate will end up with a $2,500 donation from Romney's PAC, which also previously donated $5,000 to Grassley. "By electing candidates like these, we will finally get people back to work and turn out troubled economy around," Romney said in a statement. He's due to visit Iowa at the end of the month.


As Linda McMahon trips, Lee Fisher prepares for the worst and Gallup earns those page views, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily cheat sheet for the 2010 midterm elections. Brought to you today from the 9th Congressional District of Massachusetts.


FRIDAY STANDINGS - BETTER OFF NOW? The month of September is over and by the end of the weekend there will be fewer than 30 days left before Nov. 2. Here's Morning Score's weekly take on how some of the most important candidates and campaign actors should answer the question: Are you better off now than you were seven days ago?


YES: (1) Former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, who held strong, double-digit leads in two state polls testing her Senate odds against Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes; (2) Pro-gun Democrats, among them Reps. Joe Donnelly, Steve Kagen and Paul Kanjorski, and Indiana Senate candidate Brad Ellsworth, who won valuable support from the incumbent-friendly NRA; (3) California superlawyer Gloria Allred, who proved she's still one of the cleverest folks in show business, whatever you think of the charges she's made against former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.


NO: (1) Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, whose Taliban-themed attack on Dan Webster has turned into a long, bloody, fact-checking struggle with no clear end in sight; (2) New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, whose Quinnipiac-enabled flirtation with electability came to a quick end amid a flurry of threats and accusations hurled at reporters and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo; (3) The "likely voter," a category that grows hazier by the day, as reputable public polls produce increasingly divergent takes on the same races (Whitman up one or down nine? Alex Sink up seven or down two?)


GOV RACE PREVIEW - HURRICANE PERRY - Texas Gov. Rick Perry is staying on offense against former Houston Mayor Bill White with another ad aimed at one of the Democrat's signature accomplishments: His handling of Hurricane Rita. Perry's ad. Perry's commercial amplifies a charge he's repeatedly leveled, that White "profited off Hurricane Rita" by putting public money into the company BTEC. "He steered a taxpayer-funded contract to a company he had a financial relationship with. The company didn't even have the equipment Houston needed," Perry's ad blasts. "After Bill White helped the company, they helped him. He was invited to make a private investment in the company and pocketed over half a million dollars." White has denied the allegation, but ads like this one cut at his technocratic, solutions-man image. Perry's sharp kicker: "Bill White: He's in it for himself." Watch it here. http://bit.ly/couZQs


SENATE EXCLUSIVE - BABY ON BOARD: Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk hews close to a deficit-hawk message in his latest television ad, which opens with the image of a smiling infant looking at the camera. "She's only a few weeks old, but she already owes the federal government $43,000," a female narrator says. "Will she have a better life than us, or worse? How will she afford college? Her first home?" Kirk appears on the screen to deliver this pitch: "If you're as worried as I am about out skyrocketing national debt, runaway spending and the lack of jobs, I need your vote. I'll fight to spend less, borrow less and tax less, so our children have a better future." Watch it here. http://bit.ly/bQutYo


CABLE NEWS BOMB - "News Corp. gave $1 million to pro-GOP group - From POLITICO's Ben Smith: "[T]he parent company of Fox News, contributed $1 million this summer to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the business lobby that has been running an aggressive campaign in support of the Republican effort to retake Congress, a source close to the company told POLITICO. It was the second $1 million contribution the company has made this election cycle to a GOP-aligned group. In late June it gave that amount to the Republican Governors Association. ... Spokesmen for News Corp. and for Fox declined to comment on the chamber contribution, or on whether Fox chief Roger Ailes, a former GOP political operative, had a role in it. After the News Corp. donation to the RGA became known in August, the company denied that Ailes was involved, and a spokesman told POLITICO at the time that the contribution was made to support the Republican committee's 'pro-business agenda.'" http://politi.co/atxJdr


TODAY - From the White House guidance: "In the morning, at 9:00 AM PDT, the Vice President will attend an event for Representative Jerry McNerney in Oakland, California. Afterwards, the Vice President will travel to Orange County, California. At 12:30 PM PDT, the Vice President will attend an event for Senator Barbara Boxer."


CAMPAIGN CLICK: Carly Fiorina's campaign is welcoming Biden to California with a video contrasting Boxer's vote against war funding with Biden's campaign-trail denunciation of Democrats who "said they voted against the money to make a political point. Well there's no political point worth my son's life." Watch it here. http://bit.ly/cjHfPt PLUS - ACT SURPRISED: "In the morning, the President will receive the President Daily Briefing. ... Later, the President will make a personnel announcement in the East Room." More on that here. http://bit.ly/aOrQoB


POLL OF THE DAY: Alaska pollster Ivan Moore tested Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski's odds as a write-in candidate and found that her performance varies wildly depending on how the questions are asked. When Murkowski's name wasn't offered as an option in the poll, but voters were allowed to name her on their own, she took 18 percent of the vote, versus 43 percent for Republican Joe Miller and 28 percent for Democrat Scott McAdams. But in response to a second prompt -- "As you may have heard, Lisa Murkowski is running a write-in campaign for U.S. Senate. Knowing this, would your vote for U.S. Senate remain the same, or would you write in Lisa Murkowski?" - Murkowski's total jumped to 43 percent, Miller's dropped to 36 percent and McAdams's halved to 14 percent. Moore's takeaway: "I think if the election was held today, it would probably be close, but Lisa would win it." http://bit.ly/9x7rh5


EYE ON RHODE ISLAND: The governor's race is close, Providence Mayor David Cicilline is up and Curt Schilling is way, way down in a survey conducted for WPRI by Fleming & Associates. Democratic state Treasurer Frank Caprio is just three points ahead of independent former Sen. Lincoln Chafee in the gubernatorial race. Cicilline has a 19-point advantage over Republican John Loughlin in the race to succeed Rep. Patrick Kennedy, though that portion of the poll has a high margin of error of 6.2 percent. And Schilling, the former Red Sox pitcher who received a $75 million state loan guarantee for his video game company, has 54 percent of Rhode Islanders opposed to his venture. That's not just a quirky story, and WPRI's Ted Nesi notes the political significance: "Three of the four candidates for governor oppose the 38 Studios guarantee, which is strongly supported by the man they hope to succeed, Gov. Donald Carcieri.... The deal's lone supporter among the candidates is Republican John Robitaille, who said it was a tough call but the state's economic troubles made him decide it was worth the risk." http://bit.ly/cuFT9b


SENATE MUST-READ - FISHER'S TRIAGE - From the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Mark Naymik: "Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Lee Fisher is considering dumping 10 staff members, including his deputy campaign manager and political director, to free up money for additional television advertising, according to a campaign document obtained by The Plain Dealer. It is just one of seven scenarios spelled out in the document, but is the most dramatic example of the campaign's options. Most campaigns plan for multiple scenarios based on available funds. ... Other scenarios listed in the document do not include layoffs and discuss how they plan to deploy key political workers in central and Northeast Ohio. ... Fisher's campaign would not discuss the document obtained by The Plain Dealer. 'We've seen a significant uptick in our fundraising and response to our first ad as more people come to know Rob Portman's failed record in Washington,' spokeswoman Holly Shulman said." http://bit.ly/cgPjB5


REVERSE SMACKDOWN - MCMAHON GAFFES: Connecticut Senate candidate Linda McMahon is playing furious defense after making comments that left the window open to possible cuts in the minimum wage. "We ought to review how much it ought to be and whether or not we ought to have increases in the minimum wage," she said at a press conference in East Hartford at the NFIB. The Courant has more: "McMahon was asked if she knew what Connecticut's minimum wage is. She said she did not. (It is $8.25 per hour.) She was also asked whether any employees at World Wrestling Entertainment, the firm that she and her husband built, earned minimum wage. She said perhaps some interns did, but, again, she said she did not know. ... But by mid-afternoon, supporters of McMahon's Democratic opponent, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, seized on her remarks, using them to reinforce their portrait of a wealthy self-funding Republican who is out of touch with the concerns of Connecticut's working folks. ... McMahon's campaign later said that headline writers misinterpreted her remarks." http://bit.ly/aRJj6G


AD WATCH - ON THE NEWS: The SEIU is already attacking Meg Whitman over her former nanny's charge that she was mistreated as an undocumented worker. "Meg Whitman says she's a different kind of Republican, but Pete Wilson is in charge of her campaign," the union's Spanish-language ad warns. "Whitman attacks undocumented workers to win votes, but an undocumented woman worked in her home for nine years." http://politi.co/adSiIV


PLUS - FOSTER'S BACKUP: The National Association of Realtors PAC is on the air in Illinois's 14th Congressional District, backing up Democratic Rep. Bill Foster with an ad that calls him "a small businessman who understands what it takes to create jobs and help our communities - something Washington tends to forget." "Bill Foster is an independent voice for Illinois," the ad says, "with the small business experience we need right now." That's useful validation for Foster, who has attacked Republican challenger Randy Hultgren over his connection to an investment firm that Foster says benefited from the mortgage crisis. http://bit.ly/cie3mb


JUST FOR FUN - If Gallup was looking for placement on a prominent news aggregating website, this was the way to get it: The pollster tested President Obama against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a potential 2012 primary matchup. Obama had just a 15-point lead in Gallup's poll, drawing 52 percent support to Clinton's 37 percent. Frank Newport explains why: "Obama's strengths among Democrats in the hypothetical matchup with Clinton lie with college graduates and liberals, the latter of whom make up about 36% of this sample of 859 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Clinton does better among less well-educated Democrats and bests Obama among conservatives, who make up 22% of Democrats. Clinton does slightly better among women than among men." http://bit.ly/cPTyvR


CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Mr. Caputo should check his facts before making charges against Post personnel. In addition, Mr. Paladino should not be surprised by the media's interest in his families." - New York Post editor-in-chief and pluralization expert, Col Allan, responding to the Carl Paladino campaign's claim that Post photographers were prowling around his property. http://politi.co/9kOaPy

Go to Morning Score Now >> http://www.politico.com/morningscore


=================================

2010 Capitol News Company, LLC

Morning Score.

To unsubscribe, http://dyn.politico.com/Unsubscribe_auto.cfm?email=Hbiden@rosemontseneca.com&uuid=AE70CC48-1C23-CEB6-CA262D609FB059FD&alertID=17

================================