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By Daniel Strauss | 03/14/2018 10:00 AM EDT


With Zach Montellaro

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)

DEMOCRAT CONOR LAMB leads the PA-18 special election by 641 votes over Republican Rick Saccone, according to the latest vote count Wednesday morning. Here's the latest:

- Saccone hoped absentee votes from Washington County, counted early Wednesday, would cut into Lamb's lead. They didn't. Lamb actually netted votes from Washington County, growing his lead from 579 votes, to 641.

- Lamb and Saccone are only separated by 0.2 percentage points, but the window is closing for the Republican. All that's left to count now are absentees from Greene County, which only tallied 4,700 votes on Election Day. There are some provisional ballots, and overseas military ballots can still arrive at county election boards into next week and be counted. But few expect Saccone to actually catch Lamb in the vote count.

- Lamb and Democrats declared victory, but Republicans say, "Not so fast." Lamb took the state at his election-night event in Canonsburg to an introduction of "congressman-elect" and told the crowd, "It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it." Even though Lamb and the DCCC declared victory, the NRCC promised to "ensure that every legal vote is counted," with the committee's Matt Gorman saying, "Once they are, we're confident Rick Saccone will be the newest Republican member of Congress."

- There's no automatic recount threshold in Pennsylvania for congressional races, but supporters of Saccone can request a recount in the coming days. That's why The Associated Press hasn't declared a victor, though NBC News was ready to call Lamb the "apparent winner" shortly after 5 a.m. Wednesday.

THE LATEST, from Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider in Canonsburg, Pa.: Full story.

BAD NEWS FOR CUOMO - "Percoco found guilty on 3 counts in corruption trial," by POLITICO New York's Laura Nahmias: "A federal jury voted Tuesday to convict Joe Percoco, former senior aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on three out of six charges of bribery and honest services fraud but found two executives accused of bribing him not guilty of most of the charges, and remain deadlocked over the guilt of a third executive after more than a week of deliberation. Jurors found Percoco guilty of conspiracy to commit honest-services fraud, conspiracy to commit honest-services wire fraud, and solicitation of bribes and gratuities. The verdict, which is likely to carry jail time for a man once seen as a
'brother' to the governor, is likely to cast a pall over the Cuomo administration in a year in which Cuomo is seeking reelection to a third term and positioning himself for a potential 2020 presidential run." Full story.

MORE TAX ATTACKS - "AFP continues tax reform attacks in Indiana, Missouri," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "Americans for Prosperity, the conservative nonprofit backed by the Koch brothers' political network, is out with two new ads, continuing their attacks on Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) for opposing the Republican tax reform law. ... Both ads feature regular people talking about how the tax plan benefited them. In Missouri, a woman named Lindsay talks about receiving a $2,000 bonus because of the tax law. She says McCaskill calling the tax cuts 'scraps' is 'disrespectful.' In Indiana, a small-business owner named Cathy says Joe Donnelly 'let Hoosiers
down' when he voted against the tax cuts. Watch the Indiana ad here and the Missouri ad here." Full story.

FIRST IN SCORE - Missouri Rising Action is releasing a new digital ad highlighting McCaskill's past criticisms of President Donald Trump. Watch the ad here.

Days until the 2018 election: 238

Upcoming election dates - Illinois primaries: March 20.

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

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @danielstrauss4 and @maggieseverns.

ENDORSEMENT WATCH - "Atlanta's New Mayor Is Endorsing In Georgia's Democratic Primary And Black Democrats Aren't Happy About It," by BuzzFeed's Darren Sands: "Keisha Lance Bottoms plans to endorse in Georgia's Democratic primary for governor 'in the near future,' her office told BuzzFeed News, ending weeks of speculation over whether the newly elected and enormously popular Atlanta mayor might get involved in the most hotly contested intraparty, statewide race in the South [between Stacey Abrams and Stacey Evans]. ... Bottoms is also a staunch ally of former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, an Abrams adversary dating back, in part, to when Abrams ran a mayoral campaign against him when he sought
reelection. 'No one here was ever expecting Keisha to endorse Abrams,' an Atlanta-based political strategist told BuzzFeed News. Still, if Bottoms does endorse Evans, it will ruin the hopes that some black Democrats have harbored: Bottoms and Abrams working in tandem in the state's most powerful executive offices, as Democrats are hoping to turn Georgia blue in 2020." Full story.

THE BADGER STATE - "Holder to Wisconsin to pump judge race," by POLITICO's Edward-Isaac Dovere: "Eric Holder is heading to Wisconsin to campaign this week as Democrats there aim to turn a race for state Supreme Court into the next nationalized race after Tuesday's Pennsylvania special House election. The election is April 3, and Holder is backing Rebecca Dallet, a Milwaukee County circuit court judge. ... Holder, President Barack Obama's former attorney general, will do three events across Thursday and Friday, in Milwaukee and Madison. There won't be explicit campaign rallies: instead he'll do a roundtable discussion with Black Leaders Organizing for Communities on his first stop, then head
to the state capital for a Friday discussion on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to talk about activism and engagement in this year's elections." Full story.

- Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer's NextGen America announced a $2.5 million investment in Wisconsin for 2018 to mobilize young voters. According to a press release: "NextGen will register, engage, and turnout young voters across Wisconsin, with a focus on flipping Paul Ryan's seat in the 1st Congressional District, protecting the seat of Sen. Tammy Baldwin, and removing Scott Walker from the governorship."

TREND WATCH - "Abortion debate is over inside the Democratic Party," by McClatchy's Alex Roarty: "Nine months from Election Day, political veterans eyeing the House landscape struggle to even identify a single Democratic House hopeful - of the hundreds running - who openly opposes abortion rights. Their absence is a significant development for a party in places such as western Pennsylvania, where Democrats even recently would run self-identified 'pro-life' candidates (the state's Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, in fact, opposes abortion rights in some circumstances). And it's reshaping the cultural agenda of a party that, on everything from immigration to guns, has moved decidedly to the left in
the last decade - to the chagrin of some who worry it's reducing their appeal to some right-leaning voters." Full story.

STAFFING UP - Democrat Steve Sisolak brings on Christina Amestoy as press secretary. Amestoy previously served as communications director for the Democratic State Senate and Assembly Campaign Committee in New Jersey in 2017. During the 2016 cycle, she was the communications director and spokesperson for the Vermont Democratic Party.

- Senate Majority PAC hires Hurley: Senate Majority PAC is bringing on Hannah Hurley as deputy press secretary. Hurley previously worked as a deputy press secretary for then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and for a nonprofit and local television station in Savannah, Ga.

- Scott Walker's reelection campaign has hired Rusty Schultz as digital director, Austin Altenburg as spokesman and press secretary, and Ben Stelter to be rapid response coordinator.

WEB WARS - DSCC attacks Rick Scott in digital ads: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is out with two digital ads attacking Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who is expected to soon launch a challenge to Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. Watch the ads here and here.

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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Side-by-side with us, every step of the way, were the men and women of organized labor." - PA-18 candidate Conor Lamb, in his speech to supporters early Wednesday morning.

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