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By Theodoric Meyer | 04/12/2016 10:00 AM EDT


With Kevin Robillard and Elena Schneider

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)

PRIMARY HEADACHES - "Nuisance challengers vex GOP senators," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett: "Republicans don't appear to have a Dick Lugar problem this year: None of their incumbents is in apparent danger of going down in a primary to a tea party challenger, as the Indiana senator did in 2012, and as Utah's Bob Bennett in 2010. That's not to say primary season is going to be pleasant. Some of the GOP's biggest-name incumbents and front-runners still must beat back nagging challengers from the right who promise to sap energy and money from the party's efforts to fend off Democrats in the general election even if they're almost certain to lose. ... Still, Republicans say these are small
headaches after ... Sens. Pat Roberts and Thad Cochran barely withstood conservative challengers in 2014." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=db1e0e1b930d1fee4e4172745da599c26a5187d3135e73e29611d39aecc8d2f9

OUTSIDE MONEY - Senate Leadership Fund, One Nation raise $17 million in first quarter: Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC formed last year by a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and One Nation, its affiliated nonprofit, raised $17 million in the first quarter, USA Today's Fredreka Schouten reports, giving the groups a pile of cash to help Republicans hold the Senate. "Enthusiasm is really growing for ensuring that the Senate stays in Republican hands," Steven Law, the former McConnell aide who runs the groups, told USA Today. "He said donors began committing to Senate races early last year, but contributors are more motivated now because 'Republican hopes of
winning the White House are far less robust than they were a year ago.'" Senate Leadership Fund will have to file its first quarter FEC report, disclosing its donors and how much it raised, later this week; as a nonprofit, One Nation will never have to officially disclose its donors or how much it raised. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=db1e0e1b930d1feeb9cdcebf3139541ee49046762e028c718784724747fd533e

Days until the New York primary: 7. Days until the 2016 election: 210.

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.

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally about the little-noticed death of SpoonRocket: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer.

MYSTERY MONEY - Pro-Van Hollen super PAC makes first ad buys: A super PAC that appears to be backing Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen's Senate bid in Maryland is going up on the air. The group, the Committee for Maryland's Progress, has purchased $160,000 worth of broadcast and cable television in the Baltimore market, according to a source tracking media buys. The group has spent money canvassing on behalf of Van Hollen since early March, according to FEC records, but this is its first television buy. Attempts to reach the group through Brass Tactics, a consulting firm it hired, were unsuccessful. The exact content of the group's ads are unclear. The super PAC was formed in November, but
it hadn't raised any money when it filed its first FEC report in January. It will have to file another one by Friday night.

SENATE FUNDRAISING NUMBERS - Florida: Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson raised more than $1 million in a quarter for the first time in the Senate race, doubling his cash on hand to more than $420,000, his campaign said, though he lags behind his Democratic primary opponent in both categories. Rep. Patrick Murphy raised $2 million in the first quarter and has $5.6 million on hand. Grayson's fundraising included $700,000 in online cash and a $200,000 loan from the candidate.

- Illinois: GOP Sen. Mark Kirk raised $1.2 million in the first quarter, his campaign said, and finished March with $3.3 million on hand - meaning he trails Democratic rival Tammy Duckworth in both categories. Duckworth raised $2.1 million in the first quarter and has over $4 million on hand. Kirk started 2015 with $3.8 million on hand, but he spent heavily on television ads attacking Duckworth on national security issues in the last three months. (A pro-Duckworth group, VoteVets, aired ads in response.) Kirk's haul marks his second-best quarter of the cycle.

HOUSE FUNDRAISING NUMBERS - FIRST IN SCORE - AZ-02: GOP Rep. Martha McSally had another mammoth fundraising quarter, pulling in more than $851,000. She had $2.2 million on hand at the end of the quarter.

- CA-24: Republican Matt Kokkonen, a perenial candidate, raised $213,000 in the quarter, nearly all of it in the form of a personal loan. (Hat tip to The Los Angeles Times' Javier Panzar.) Meanwhile, Democrat Salud Carbajal raised $313,000 in the quarter, giving him more than $1 million in cash on hand.

- CA-52: Democratic Rep. Scott Peters raised $428,000 in the first quarter, giving him $1.6 million in cash on hand.

- ME-02: Democrat Emily Cain raised $385,000 in the first quarter, giving her $785,000 in cash on hand as she tries to unseat GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin, The Associated Press reports. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=db1e0e1b930d1fee70eb202ec8ce1530484f93de4f8d6b22c783271e1dcc0121

- NJ-05: Democrat Josh Gottheimer has raised $600,000 in the first quarter for his bid to unseat GOP Rep. Scott Garrett, The Record reports, giving him $1.7 million in cash on hand. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=db1e0e1b930d1fee11f5f5ac71ccbd7ecb4aa6ecfaea1f7da5a4ccb97a1d39fc

- NY-21: GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik raised about $330,000 in the first quarter, giving her $1.1 million in cash on hand, The Post-Star reports. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=db1e0e1b930d1feec0e785c834c17472b53a94e882b193fef438cd96d875fb6f

THE MONEY CHASE - Vulnerable northeastern Republicans to attend Ryan fundraiser in New York: Three of the most vulnerable House Republicans in the northeast are set to show up at a fundraiser hosted by Speaker Paul Ryan in New York later this month, according to an invitation obtained by The Washington Post. Reps. Lee Zeldin and Tom Reed of New York and Frank Guinta of New Hampshire, all of whom are facing serious challenges, will attend an evening fundraiser at the New York home of the Ricketts GOP mega-donor family on April 25. Nearly a dozen other top House Republicans, including National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, will
show up, too. So will several a number of other northeastern backbenchers facing less serious challenges, as well as retiring Reps. Chris Gibson and Richard Hanna - and two of the seven House Republicans who have endorsed Trump, even though the Rickettses fund Our Principles PAC.

GETTING THE NOD - New Democrat Coalition PAC endorses nine House hopefuls: The New Democrat Coalition PAC, which is affiliated with a group of moderate House Democrats, is backing nine more candidates. They include Matt Heinz, who's challenging GOP Rep. Martha McSally; Monica Vernon, who's running against GOP Rep. Rod Blum; and LuAnn Bennett, who's challenging GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock. The PAC also endorsed six Democrats running in open seats: Salud Carbajal in California's 24th District, Isadore Hall in California's 44th District, Lou Correa in California's 46th District, Darren Soto in Florida's 9th District, Val Demings in Florida's 10th District and Kathleen Matthews in Maryland's 8th
District. Each candidate gets $5,000.

- Susan B. Anthony List endorses seven House Republicans: Susan B. Anthony List, which backs pro-life Republicans, has endorsed its first candidates of the cycle. They include GOP Reps. Martha Roby and Jackie Walorski and three Republican candidates for open seats: Claudia Tenney in New York's 22nd District, Liz Brown in Indiana's 3rd District and Erin Houchin in Indiana's 9th District. The group has also endorsed Mary Thomas, who's battling Neal Dunn in the GOP primary for the right to take on Democratic Rep. Gwen Graham in Florida, and Tonia Khouri, who's running a longshot campaign against Democratic Rep. Bill Foster in Illinois.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Progressive groups target Julian Castro," by POLITICO's Edward-Isaac Dovere: "The veepstakes oppo war has begun. With Bernie Sanders' durability exciting progressives at their potential to shape the Democratic race, a coalition of groups-many of them backers of the Vermont senator-are launching a preemptive strike against Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, aimed at disqualifying him from consideration to be Hillary Clinton's running mate. Tuesday morning, the group will be emailing petitions to several million people attacking Castro on the relatively obscure issue of his handling of mortgage sales and launching a website with an
unsubtle address: DontSellOurHomesToWallStreet.org. They're just as open with their political aims: to publicly discredit Castro as a progressive, latching onto the mortgage issue to seed enough suspicion to keep him off Clinton's short list." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=db1e0e1b930d1fee06720a6d636bfc2da1ea00bbbf365b6b7a15b507df8567aa

- "How Bernie pitches to superdelegates," by POLITICO's Daniel Strauss: "Sometimes Bernie Sanders makes the call himself. Sometimes it's one of his top political staffers. Former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Kirk also lends a hand. Together, they are part of a dialing-for-superdelegates operation aimed at capitalizing on his recent run of eight victories in nine contests. Facing a deficit of more than 200 pledged delegates against Hillary Clinton, the Sanders campaign has turned its attention in recent weeks to wooing undecided superdelegates - the unelected delegates who are free to support any candidate at the national convention.The pitch, according to superdelegates who have heard it, is a
soft-sell - determined, but low-pressure and bereft of any Hillary-bashing. Most recently, the targets have been superdelegates from Western states where Sanders has won big." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=db1e0e1b930d1fee1538f8e3f458cbc3a9d81bcdc18e818f58a9f06883a13c7f

- "Why Ryan won't run," by POLITICO's Jake Sherman: In House Speaker Paul "Ryan's universe - among the small group of insiders who know Ryan's thinking firsthand - the sentiment is resolute: Ryan will not accept his party's nomination. He simply doesn't want to be president right now. One aide said "over my dead body" would Ryan emerge from Cleveland with the GOP nomination. In an interview with Politico last month, Ryan was perplexed that the issue hadn't been put to bed, saying, 'I am not going to become the president through Cleveland.'Ryan's orbit firmly believes that, in a few months, everyone will look at this bubble and realize just how ridiculous it was."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=db1e0e1b930d1feef9124ef781d28643ecd3ad38d3aabdaac692bb90f46702ec

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "When I look at the consequences of not winning, it's too horrible to even think about." - Ben Carson, who said in a radio interview that he endorsed Donald Trump because he wanted a winner. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=db1e0e1b930d1fee0b2a3f9b57f762dae3021d49273e97be16e05af5d7e16a2d

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