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By Kevin Robillard | 05/23/2017 10:00 AM EDT


With Elena Schneider 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)

FROM THE COURTROOM - Supreme Court rules North Carolina congressional districts unconstitutional: "The Supreme Court ruled Monday that two North Carolina congressional districts were drawn unconstitutionally, affirming a previous district court decision against the state's redistricting and leaving in place a remedial congressional map drawn for the 2016 elections, pending an additional gerrymandering case. The ruling centered on two Democratic-held districts and found that Republican state legislators, in drawing the congressional map earlier this decade, 'packed' African-American voters into those districts to dilute the power of their votes in other congressional seats. ... While this
Supreme Court ruling will not result in additional changes to the North Carolina congressional map, there is another case pending before the Supreme Court, suing North Carolina legislators over the remedial map that was draw in 2015. This suit accuses the Republican legislators of gerrymandering based on partisanship, a new legal tack that Democrats are pushing in several court cases around the country. 'This decision lays the groundwork for the challenge to the Republican remedial map,' [Democratic attorney Marc] Elias said. 'They weren't going to rule on the [partisan gerrymandering] case until they heard and decided on the merits of the [racially gerrymandering] case.'" Full story.

- "U.S. Supreme Court leaves key campaign finance restriction in place," by Reuters' Lawrence Hurley: "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away a Republican challenge to a federal campaign finance restriction that prevents political parties from raising unlimited amounts of cash to spend on supporting candidates. The Republican Party of Louisiana had argued that a provision of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act violates free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution. But the justices let stand a lower court's ruling that rejected the Republican challenge. The brief order noted that conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch favored hearing the case. ... The Supreme
Court has previously turned down similar cases challenging party campaign finance restrictions." Full story.

BIG SPENDING - American Action Network adding $2 million in health care TV ads: The new buy means American Action Network has spent $5.6 million boosting supporters of the American Health Care Act since it passed out of the House last month, an effort to reverse the plan's unpopularity in public polling and shield vulnerable members from political blowback for supporting it. The ads will air in 21 districts nationwide and on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.' Republicans have outspent Democrats on advertising surrounding the GOP effort to replace Obamacare by a massive margin. The ad features a mother, Elizabeth Jacinto, speaking direct to camera." Watch the ad here, and watch a member-specific version
here.

TRANSITIONS IN IOWA - Branstad to China, Reynolds to Terrace Hill: Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is headed for Beijing after the Senate voted on Monday night to confirm his nomination to become U.S. ambassador to China in a 82-13 vote. Full story.

- "Iowa GOP plans June 2 Reynolds inaugural celebration," by the Cedar Rapids Gazette's James Q. Lynch: "An inaugural celebration for Iowa's first female governor, Kim Reynolds, will be hosted by the Republican Party of Iowa June 2. ... In addition to celebrating her ascension to the governor's office after 6.5 years as lieutenant governor, the inaugural celebration fundraiser will signal the state GOP's support for Reynolds, Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said Monday. ... The party wants to make clear that if there is a primary race for the GOP nomination in 2018 it will be neutral. 'But we're absolutely not neutral in support of our sitting governor,' Kaufmann said." Full story.

- FLASHBACK: "GOP women rise to power in Iowa," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard. Full story.

Days until the 2017 election: 168.

Days until the 2018 election: 532.

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

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

OFF MESSAGE PODCAST: Will Eric Garcetti throw his hat into the ring for 2020? In the latest episode of Off Message, Isaac Dovere sits down with the Mayor of Los Angeles, a city, as Garcetti points out, with four million residents, and the sixth largest economy in California and the seventeenth largest if it was an independent country. With Garcetti's keynote at the California state Democratic convention next month, many party leaders across the country believe he could be a real contender. Listen and subscribe iTunes | Panoply | Stitcher

SPECIAL ELECTION UPDATE - NEW TODAY - Ossoff ad talks spending cuts: As GOP groups continue hitting GA-06 Democrat Jon Ossoff as a tool of national liberals, Ossoff's latest TV ad again focuses on cutting government waste. "Both parties in Washington waste too much of your money, and 30 seconds isn't enough time to show it all. But you can go to my website to see exactly what I think we should cut." Ossoff highlights "crack[ing] down on Medicare fraud" and "consolidat[ing] federal data centers" as well as lowering costs for government cellphones. Watch the ad here.

- POLL POSITION - SurveyUSA shows Ossoff leading GA-06 runoff: Ossoff has 51 percent to Republican Karen Handel's 44 percent in the new poll from SurveyUSA and WXIA-TV. It's the only survey of the runoff so far that has shown the candidates separated by more than a couple of percentage points. See the poll here. (And, for what it's worth, here how SurveyUSA did in its pre-primary survey of GA-06.)

- Fundraising watch: Handel has three D.C. fundraisers lined up Tuesday, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Greg Bluestein - one with Budget chair Diane Black, one with the U.S. Chamber and "the Georgia GOP congressional delegation," and a third hosted by Rep. Tom Graves.

POLLING DATA - Post-GMU poll finds Democrats lead GOP in Virginia governor general election: "The new Washington Post-George Mason University poll finds both Democrats in the Virginia gubernatorial race with double-digit leads over Republican front-runner Ed Gillespie. Among registered voters, former Rep. Tom Perriello defeats Gillespie, a former RNC chair, 50 percent to 38 percent. And Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam defeats him, 49 percent to 38 percent." Full story.

THE MAP - DCCC adds 20 to target list: "The DCCC has added another 20 Republican-held districts to its ambitious 2018 target list. The broad list now includes 79 GOP-held districts. The 20 added include staunch conservatives like Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis and New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce, and more moderate Republicans, including Michigan Rep. Fred Upton and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik. It also includes Rep. Devin Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee chair famous for bungling the committee's handling of the investigation into President Donald Trump's ties to Russia." Full story.

- There are two ways to look at the DCCC's expanded target list: either preparation to ride a massive Democratic wave, or a massive exercise in wishful thinking. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton failed to break 45 percent in any of the 20 districts.

2018 WATCH - "Mark Green to decide on entering 2018 race for governor by Memorial Day," by the Tennessean's Joel Ebert: "The news comes after the release of a letter signed by more than 100 conservatives from across Tennessee who are encouraging Green to continue his bid. Green said via text message that he was encouraged by the show of support from 'strong conservative leaders' through the state. ... Green, who earlier this year was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as Army secretary but ultimately withdrew amidst criticism, said earlier this month he is still considering his options in terms of the 2018 race." Full story.

- "Kobach to Announce Plans on Governor's Race Within 2 Months," by the Associated Press: "Kobach said during a recent Associated Press interview that he's looking at the race very seriously. GOP Gov. Sam Brownback is term-limited. The Kansas secretary of state was considered a candidate for a job in President Donald Trump's administration. But he said he turned down positions in the White House and the Department of Homeland Security because he and his family wanted to stay in Kansas. Kobach began advising Trump on immigration early last year during the presidential campaign and has been appointed by the president to a new commission on election fraud. Kobach said he's not interested in
running for Congress or state attorney general." Full story.

ADMINISTRATION SPEED READ - "Trump eyeing Lewandowski, Bossie as crisis managers," by POLITICO's Eliana Johnson and Josh Dawsey: "President Donald Trump personally reached out to two of his former campaign aides - his first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and his deputy campaign manager, David Bossie - to sound them out about working with the administration as crisis managers, according to two people familiar with the situation." Full story.

- "FEC member urges escalated Trump-Russia inquiry," by POLITICO's Kenneth P. Vogel: "A member of the Federal Election Commission is calling on the agency to investigate whether Russian agents paid for Facebook ads to spread damaging stories about Hillary Clinton ahead of last fall's presidential election. 'I think there is potential there for finding a violation, but I don't want to suggest that I have prejudged anything that could potentially come before me,' said FEC commissioner Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic appointee to the commission." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The majority's analysis is like Hamlet without the prince." - Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, getting literary in his dissent in Cooper v. Harris. (Elena Kagan shot back with an Inherit the Wind reference in her majority opinion.)

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