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By Elena Schneider | 01/15/2016 10:02 AM EDT


With Theodoric Meyer and Kevin Robillard

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)

DEBATE NIGHT - "Cruz pounds on Trump in GOP debate free-for-all," by POLITICO's Eli Stokols: The long-anticipated clash between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, for months just a soft rumble in the distance as both candidates were content to play nice, thundered onto the debate stage Thursday night. With just 18 days left before the Iowa caucuses and the two rivals polling within just a couple points of one another, it was inevitable that a months-long détente between the two anti-establishment firebrands disintegrated almost as soon as the sixth GOP debate began. Cruz, who no longer has the luxury of laughing off Trump's barbs after his Iowa lead eroded in the last week, hit the stage
ready to fight, forcefully dismissing Trump's questioning of whether or not he could legally assume the presidency because he was born in Canada. 'Back in September, my friend Donald had said he had had his lawyers look at this every which way and said there was no issue there,' said Cruz, whose mother was born in the U.S. 'Now since September, the Constitution hasn't changed. But the poll numbers have."

- "Rubio and Christie, both battling for position in New Hampshire's establishment lane, took aim at one another, with Rubio hitting Christie for his past support of Planned Parenthood and Christie pointing out the young Florida senator's lack of executive experience. ... Rubio, who delivered stand-out debate performances last year, gasped for air time throughout much of the debate, trying at one point to wrench the spotlight away from the Trump-Cruz slugfest, quipping, I hate to interrupt this episode of Court TV.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=69973fbb9635ce45d9b293054cfe31b4b9ee84bea4c79e9efd4ea36095f812e2

RETIREMENT WATCH - RIGELL RETIRES AS SEAT GETS REDDER: The court-imposed congressional map in Virginia that endangers Rep. Randy Forbes in the 4th District actually made Rep. Scott Rigell's 2nd District safer for Republicans, which meant Rigell's retirement Thursday left the GOP confident they could still hold his seat. While Barack Obama won the old seat in 2012, the new lines narrowly make it a Mitt Romney district. So who are the GOP names to watch? Former state Sen. Jeff McWaters, who founded Amerigroup; state Sen. Frank Wagner, who represents the largest swath of the district; state Del. Scott Taylor, a former NAVY Seal; and state Del. Chris Stolles, a Naval veteran and doctor.

Days until the Iowa caucuses: 17. Days until the 2016 election: 298.

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 kcheney@politico.com.

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally about angry New Yorkers: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @kyledcheney.

PROGRAMMING NOTE - Campaign Pro Morning Score is taking a hiatus Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

FETTERMAN FEELS THE BERN - Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman endorsed Bernie Sanders' presidential bid on Thursday, looking to draft off the Vermont senator's surging support. Fetterman used the endorsement as a list-building exercise, tweeting an endorsement video with a sign-up link - and getting retweeted over 450 times, by far the biggest recent response to one of Fetterman's tweets. He may not be the last insurgent congressional candidate to try and galvanize local Sanders supporters as the presidential candidate's polls improve.

HANNITY ON MCCAIN: "DISAPPOINTED" - Kelli Ward, who's challenging Sen. John McCain in the Republican primary, appeared on Sean Hannity's show Thursday, and the conservative talk show host lit into the incumbent. "I'm so disappointed in John McCain and his attacks," Hannity said. "He's been a big part of the establishment attacking people like Ted Cruz that I think its getting near time that John McCain retire. And I have enormous respect for his military service but he's part of the problem at this point. He's part of the weakness in the Republican Party." Hannity added that "I think Dr. Ward has a good shot at knocking off McCain."

POLL WATCH IN NE-02 - "Chip Maxwell leads retired Brig. Gen. Don Bacon by a 20-point margin in a new, independent IVR poll of their GOP primary in Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford's Nebraska district, which is one of House Republicans' top targets in 2016. Maxwell, a former state senator with a conservative reputation briefly mounted a 2014 run for the seat as an Independent before dropping out, leads Bacon 31 percent to 11 percent, though nearly 60 percent of those surveyed by Remington Research Group said they were undecided." Read more here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=69973fbb9635ce45340fb0c53812a5311686c15dffb195d6f91df48964fdc8f5

DEMON PROCTOLOGIST - Colorado GOP campaign ad features exploding toilet, rectal exam - Fred Davis, the Republican media consultant famous for offbeat TV ads featuring everything from crying babies to "demon sheep," is at it again in Colorado, where Senate client Robert Blaha's first TV ad features an exploding toilet and a patient receiving a vigorous rectal examination. See the ad here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=69973fbb9635ce450352cc898f22007891f08b388efc1aca33da083cf32aa3a4

FOURTH QUARTER NUMBERS - Pennsylvania: Katie McGinty, who's running in a contentious Democratic Senate primary, raised $980,000 in the final quarter, ending the year with $1.2 million in cash on hand, Campaign Pro reported. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=69973fbb9635ce455590ecb96d357b412151665ab429329bef6bce56c7b90cf7

Wisconsin: Former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold raised $2.7 million in his bid to reclaim Wisconsin's Senate seat, with $4.8 million on hand, Campaign Pro reported.

CA-17: Ro Khanna, who's challenging a fellow Democrat, Rep. Mike Honda, raised $500,000 in the fourth quarter, ending with $1.7 million in cash on hand, according to a campaign statement.

CA-17: Honda raised $290,000 in the final quarter of the year, ending with $571,000 in cash on hand and nearly $21,000 in debt, the Political Blotter reported. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=69973fbb9635ce4593bfee08346b99e78316ba4a7e1afb69dbfdec7df4eb5818

CA-31: Rep. Pete Aguilar ends the year with $1 million in cash on hand, according to a campaign statement.

OH-08: J.D. Winteregg - who was challenging Speaker John Boehner for his seat before Boehner announced he would step down and more than a dozen other Republicans entered the race - raised less than $12,000 in the fourth quarter, according to his Federal Election Commission report. He had only $4,526 in cash on hand at the end of the year.

VA-10: GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock reported her final fourth quarter numbers, bringing in $534,000 in the fourth quarter with $1.4 million in cash on hand, according to Comstock's campaign.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Exclusive: RNC member urges party to rally against Trump," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt: "A Republican National Committeeman delivered a call-to-arms aimed at Donald Trump during a closed-door GOP meeting on Thursday, urging his colleagues to take a forceful stand against those who he said were destroying the party's brand. At a breakfast at the RNC's winter meeting, Holland Redfield, an RNC committeeman who represents the minority-rich Virgin Islands, rose to address party chairman Reince Priebus. In the five-minute impromptu speech, a video recording of which Redfield provided to POLITICO, Redfield did not explicitly mention Trump's name. But he made clear that
angry voices in the party posed a grave threat to the GOP's future, and expressed alarm at what he described as crushing pressure to play nice." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=69973fbb9635ce453f8be44a9788c51f1ee9d3831d23c3fec7fd9e0f50511d05

- "Clinton's health-care assault on Sanders backfires," by POLITICO's Nancy Cook: "Hillary Clinton's assault on Bernie Sanders for his support of a single-payer health system has stunned and irritated liberals who see it as an abandonment of core progressive principles. Bashing your rival for embracing a touchstone liberal value, still supported by 81 percent of Democrats according to a poll last month, is a risky maneuver just weeks before the first Democratic caucuses and primary. But the Clinton campaign's broadsides seem aimed at conveying another, more central campaign message - that she is the candidate who will protect the paychecks of middle-class workers. Her campaign contends
Sanders' plan would cost $15 trillion and mean a 9 percent tax hike for middle-class families." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=69973fbb9635ce4571d658c7a2addb6c2fb5f81d3d5519fc8e9bdc2e83442f25

- "O'Malley under investigation for buying discounted governor's mansion furniture," by POLITICO's staff: "Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley is being investigated by the Anne Arundel County state's attorney for buying taxpayer-owned furniture from the Maryland governor's mansion at a steep discount, The Baltimore Sun reported on Thursday evening. O'Malley, who is flailing in the primary race and barely made the cut for Sunday's debate, is pushing back against the investigation as a partisan exercise." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=69973fbb9635ce45de6f73961fac03259351f357ef74719b1d176b62918afc10

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I'll tell you what. If this all works out, I'm happy to consider naming you as V.P. So if you happen to be right, you could get the top job at the end of the day." - Cruz, speaking to Trump about his eligibility to be president. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=69973fbb9635ce4542ca357eb02f6556de1c910cfdefd33a6fab1bd797ad222c

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