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By Theodoric Meyer | 03/29/2016 10:00 AM EDT


With Elena Schneider, Kevin Robillard 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)

SOCIAL ISSUES - "GOP governors face fierce pushback on LGBT, 'religious freedom' legislation," by Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider in Winston-Salem, N.C.: "Socially conservative Republicans are losing battles over gay, lesbian and transgender policies in red states across the country, as GOP governors start to buckle under pressure from the business community and mainstream Republicans over laws that would allow discrimination against gay and transgender people. In Georgia, under pressure from Disney and the NFL, GOP Gov. Nathan Deal on Monday vetoed a "religious liberty" bill that would have allowed faith-based organizations to deny service or jobs based on sexual orientation or gender
identity. In South Dakota, Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed a bill that would have required students to use the bathroom or locker room that corresponded to their biological sex at birth, while a similar bill in Tennessee, to which GOP Gov. Bill Haslam objected, died in committee."

- "And a fierce firestorm is building in North Carolina, where Gov. Pat McCrory signed a new law banning cities from enacting local non-discrimination ordinances - and immediately faced massive pushback from liberal protesters and big businesses alike, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Dow Chemical, American Airlines, and sports leagues." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=548bc80b137f874806346e374a20f2475945690deea5f3e4c23b1d6ebbcfbbc6

BACK HOME - "Supreme Court vise closes on Grassley," by POLITICO's Seung Min Kim in Rock Rapids, Iowa: GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley held firm on his decision not to consider President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, in a series of public appearances in Iowa on Monday. "Repeating himself numerous times, sometimes in a stubborn tone, Grassley stressed to voters: Obama has the right to nominate someone, and the GOP-controlled Senate has a right to ignore him. Pressed about the fact that Obama won a full four years as president in 2012 - and so, in the view of his supporters, should get a Supreme Court justice of his choosing with nearly a year left in his term -
Grassley shot back that voters elected a Republican Senate in 2014. The GOP is there to serve as a check and balance to Obama, the senator reasoned." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=548bc80b137f8748cc8904bbff721f215ef560cdb6d356865254aa064db30111

Days until the Wisconsin primary: 7.

Days until the 2016 election: 224.

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

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FIRST IN SCORE - U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorses Rob Portman: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will endorse GOP Sen. Rob Portman today in Dayton, Ohio, according to Portman's campaign. "Ohio voters have a crystal clear choice in the U.S. Senate race. Rob Portman is a tested and proven champion for American Free Enterprise. Leadership matters, and we appreciate his 91 percent rating with the U.S. Chamber," Rob Engstrom, the Chamber's national political director, said in a statement. Portman voted in line with the Chamber 91 percent of the time last year. And he's not alone: Every Republican senator facing a competitive general election has voted with the Chamber at least 80 percent of the time.

- The Chamber is just starting to roll out endorsements, but its most recent voting scorecard gives an idea of where it might get involved on the House side. Thirty-eight representatives, all Republicans, voted with the Chamber 100 percent of the time in 2015, including several who are facing competitive reelection fights, like Reps. Martha McSally of Arizona, Bob Dold of Illinois, Tom Reed of New York and Barbara Comstock of Virginia. Don't be surprised if the Chamber makes them top priorities in the fall. But several Democrats also scored high marks, though, raising the possibility the Chamber - which typically backs at least a few Democrats each cycle - might support them, too. Nebraska
Rep. Brad Ashford, a freshman Democrat representing one of the party's most daunting districts, also won the highest Chamber score of any Democratic member, voting with the Chamber 90 percent of the time.

- The Chamber is also leaping into the Indiana Senate race, backing Rep. Todd Young over Rep. Marlin Stutzman in the GOP primary: A new Chamber TV ad is boosting Young by boasting of his attempts to repeal Obamacare. "Are you counting down the days until it's over?" the narrator asks over a black-and-white photo of President Barack Obama on the phone. "But he's not done, not by a long shot. Thankfully, there's one Hoosier conservative standing up to Obama at every step, every turn. Todd Young is leading the fight to dismantle the worst parts of Obamacare." The ad is backed by a $500,000 buy. One Nation, a Republican nonprofit with ties to Senate leadership, is spending $250,000 on
advertising for Young, who is running against Stutzman. The winner will face Democrat Baron Hill in November. Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=548bc80b137f8748cb022b508a68f2678a6f7626488cd82b0691ecb43ba3dfd3

DISTRICT TV - Van Hollen goes up on the air in the D.C. media market: Rep. Chris Van Hollen's Senate campaign will start airing ads in the expensive Washington media market for the first time starting today, according to a media-tracking source, four weeks ahead of the April 26 Maryland primary. Van Hollen is spending about $118,000 on broadcast over the next week.

PRESIDENTIAL PICKS - Retiring Hanna says never Trump - or Cruz: GOP Rep. Richard Hanna, who isn't running for reelection, told WVRO he won't vote for Donald Trump if he captures the Republican nomination - or Ted Cruz if he does. "Do you really want these two men, one [Cruz] who said he would turn the Middle East to glass or another [Trump] one who thinks it's even rational to try to deport 11 million people, to build a wall and have the Mexicans pay for it," Hanna said. "Ted Cruz wants to patrol Muslim neighborhoods, that's downright Orwellian and ridiculous on its face." Hanna hasn't endorsed a successor but spoke favorably of Republicans Steve Wells and George Philipps - and unfavorably
of state Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, who challenged him last year. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=548bc80b137f8748ae04d792325d99ccb15ceada6f2c8167aab0c7b154b96d4a

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Clinton super PAC readies early Trump strike," by POLITICO's Shane Goldmacher: "Hillary Clinton's biggest super PAC has already reserved $70 million in TV ads after this summer's conventions in battleground states, but the group is preparing for an even earlier assault on Donald Trump - possibly while he is still busy battling his fellow Republicans to secure his party's nomination. Guy Cecil, chief strategist for the pro-Clinton super PAC, Priorities USA Action, said he watched for months as Republicans let Trump carve out his place within the Republican Party relatively unimpeded. He has no plans to allow for a general election repeat. 'We learned that you can't
wait until the last minute to go after Trump,' Cecil told POLITICO in a wide-ranging interview."

- His group has already been testing lines of attack, in part by analyzing the effectiveness of the very ads that Republican groups like the Club for Growth, American Future Fund and Our Principles PAC have aired against Trump. Cecil foreshadowed a brutal fall campaign that would question Trump's character, his temperament and a history of enriching himself at the expense of others. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=548bc80b137f8748c55a88659758a1239d534f480958638d3066f8124a0cffae

- "Bernie and Hillary prep for New York clash," by POLITICO's Annie Karni: "In the 2014 New York Democratic primary for governor, an unknown progressive academic with an odd name staged an implausible challenge to the powerful sitting governor, Andrew Cuomo. Armed with an anti-fracking, anti-corruption screed, Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout managed to capture an impressive one-third of the vote -- and even won by some regions by large margins. Now, in advance of the New York's April 19 presidential primary, operatives for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are closely studying Teachout's longshot campaign. 'They're very worried about a Zephyr Teachout situation,' said one
Clinton ally close to the campaign. 'The left is very mobilized. In New York [for Clinton] it's not just about winning. They have to win 65 to 35.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=548bc80b137f87486943070b330c0acba1380c209d6911136e6aae4e0a9a76c8

- "Trump's popularity nosedives in critical stretch," by POLITICO's Steven Shepard: "Donald Trump wasn't wildly popular to begin with. And now he's becoming even more disliked among American voters, creating a significant threat to his chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination. Trump is, by far, the GOP delegate leader - and the only candidate with a realistic shot at winning a majority of delegates before the July convention. But at the same time, nearly two-thirds of Americans view Trump unfavorably - and his image rating has declined since Republican voting began in February." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=548bc80b137f874854de6d3feb17e5fc7a1662ecc0da56efd812a6b74cb7a029

- New Crossroads ad reminds GOP: Clinton is the target," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti: "American Crossroads, the high-profile Republican super PAC founded by Karl Rove, is set to kick off a digital ad campaign targeting Hillary Clinton, titled #NeverHillary, on Tuesday - a move suggesting that the group believes the GOP is at risk of overlooking the main objective of defeating Clinton while a debate over the #NeverTrump movement targeting front-runner Donald Trump consumes the party. The initial ad, focused on Clinton's past scandals, is just a 15-second video targeted to Washington, D.C., screens backed by a five-figure buy, but a group spokesman said it was the opening salvo of a
broader anti-Clinton campaign." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=548bc80b137f8748731f1727c18293ac86cdb1ddadb994757615248c38f4931a

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Unlike you, Vladimir, I don't get to edit the piece." - President Barack Obama, who said at an awards dinner on Monday night that Vladimir Putin had called him to complain following Jeffrey Goldberg's recent piece in The Atlantic on Obama's foreign policy. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=548bc80b137f87483aa7d989c50c6f9a4c6db203720878aa8e34b031c59bd13f

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