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By Maggie Severns | 10/30/2017 10:00 AM EDT


With 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)

THE HOME STRETCH - "Mud flies in close Virginia governor's race," by POLITICO's Kevin Robillard: "One candidate has linked his opponent to torch-wielding white nationalists. The other implies his opponent supports gun rights for pedophiles. This year's Virginia governor's race, long a gentlemanly affair, is getting ugly. Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie have dropped all pretense of civility and are trading increasingly lurid attacks, looking for any advantage in the closely watched contest with nine days until voters head to the polls. Both parties see the race, one of just two gubernatorial campaigns in the country in 2017, as a key opportunity to demonstrate political
momentum at the end of Trump's first year in the White House. ...

"It wasn't always this way. Gillespie and Northam won plaudits from editorial boards after their early debates for their courteous behavior. But national attention and expectations have intensified in Virginia since then, and most polling of the race is still within the margin of error, showing a narrow but surmountable Northam lead." Full story here.

- "New Northam ad responds to felon rights restoration attack," by POLITICO's Daniel Strauss: "Democrat Ralph Northam's gubernatorial campaign released a new ad in response to recent attacks by Republican Ed Gillespie's campaign in the Virginia governor's race. The new ad, 'Fear Mongering,' is a 30-second spot highlighting Northam's background. 'Ralph Northam went to [Virginia Military Institute] and was an Army doctor for eight years,' the narrator in the ad says. 'In Richmond, Dr. Northam helped pass longer sentences for gang members and mandatory life sentences for violent sexual predators.' ... The ad is in response to attacks by Gillespie's campaign hitting Northam for supporting
restoring civil rights for felons. Gillespie's ads have linked Northam to a man who had rights restored from a previous sexual-offense conviction and was later arrested and pled guilty to child pornography possession." Watch the ad here. Full story here.

TRENDING - "New Jersey Democrat pledges digital ad disclosure in campaign," by POLITICO's Elena Schneider: "Democratic House candidates rarely talk about Russian election interference on the trail - it's complicated, and it's not about jobs. But one challenger in New Jersey is injecting it into his race via a pledge to publicly disclose all of his advertising, and he's looking for other Democrats to join the pact.

"Tom Malinowski, a former State Department official and National Security Council member running to challenge New Jersey Rep. Leonard Lance, has fashioned his pledge alongside a bill recently introduced in Congress that would mandate stricter disclosure of online political advertising. Malinowski will post in public all of his ads, including digitally targeted ones that would otherwise be impossible for non-targeted individuals (potentially including opposing campaigns and the media) to see. ... Digital advertising transparency may not be destined to become the top issue in the next election. But it may help Malinowski stand out in a six-candidate Democratic primary with an issue that riles
up the base." Full story here.

RAISING ARIZONA - Club for Growth, Bannon come out against McSally: Arizona GOP Rep. Martha McSally would be the establishment's pick for U.S. Senate. But two other key wings of the Republican Party - Trump-affiliated nationalists led by Steve Bannon and more traditional tea party groups - are coming out against her candidacy. "If the McConnell establishment runs another 'Never Trumper' in Arizona like Martha McSally, expect the full weight of the president's America First movement to come down upon her like a ton of bricks," Andy Surabian, a top adviser to Bannon, told U.S. News and World Report.

The Club for Growth teamed up with a slew of other conservative groups, including Erick Erickson, Senate Conservatives Fund, Citizens United Political Victory Fund and FreedomWorks, to announce their opposition: "Martha McSally masquerades as a conservative on the campaign trail but time and time again, Rep. McSally has abandoned conservative principles," the groups said in a joint statement. "When given the chance to lead, she instead chose to cower to special interests and the ways of Washington. No matter which issue, ranging from economic to social to immigration, Rep. McSally's voting record would leave you guessing she is a liberal."

- Club wants Salmon: At the same time, the Club is calling on former Rep. Matt Salmon to enter the race, calling him a "proven, principle conservative who has been a fighter for economic freedom" and noting he has an 92 percent lifetime score from the group.

Days until the 2017 election: 8.

Days until the 2018 election: 372.

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.

TAX REFORM 101 - How does our tax system really work? Who pays what - and how does it all add up? And how does the American tax system compare to that of international competitors? POLITICO's new explainer video series has you covered. Tax Reform with Bernie Becker is the first in a series of issues-based animated videos pairing expert reporters with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Matt Wuerker to provide you with a new way of digesting the news. Click HERE to watch.

LEFT COAST CASH - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made a fundraising swing through the Pacific Northwest over the weekend. Former Vice President Joe Biden headlined a Seattle fundraiser with Pelosi and DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján on Friday, with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noting that some of the money raised by the DCCC may be spent in Washington for the first time since 2012. The Democratic leader also raised money in Portland, Ore., Friday with Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, via Willamette Week.

- Coming next month: a big New York City fundraiser with former President Barack Obama, benefiting House and Senate Democrats.

NEWS FEED - "Facebook struggles to contain Russia narrative," by POLITICO's Steven Overly, Li Zhou and Josh Meyer: "Facebook has been happy to keep congressional investigators focused on the Russian-bought online ads that helped sway voters in last year's election - despite the many other ways that fake messages and bogus accounts spread on the dark side of social media.

"But that may be about to end: Facebook, Twitter and Google are preparing for hearings this week at which lawmakers are expected to grill the companies about the broad reach that foreign actors achieved through fake accounts and deliberate misinformation, a topic that encompasses far more than the 3,000 paid political ads that Facebook disclosed last month. Some lawmakers are already pressing for more details about so-called organic content, including unpaid posts from thousands of fake, automated and hijacked user accounts. Those questions could require Facebook to divulge more details about the priceless proprietary algorithms it uses to decide what messages its users see." Full story
here.

- "Facebook rolls out new ad policy changes ahead of Russia hearings," by POLITICO's Nancy Scola and Steven Overly: "Facebook on Friday unveiled changes to its advertising platform designed to protect election integrity, as the nation's top internet companies rush to show they're taking congressional complaints seriously ahead of a slew of hearings on Russian interference. The new policies announced by Facebook and Twitter this week are part of a campaign to show they're capable of policing their own networks. Both companies along with Google face a grilling from lawmakers who've become convinced Silicon Valley was willfully ignorant of Russian efforts to use social media to manipulate
American democracy." Full story here.

ICYMI - Washington Free Beacon first hired research firm that produced Trump dossier, The New York Times reports: "The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website funded by a major Republican donor, first hired the research firm that months later produced for Democrats the salacious dossier describing ties between Donald J. Trump and the Russian government, the website said on Friday. The Free Beacon, funded in large part by the New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, hired the firm, Fusion GPS, in 2015 to unearth damaging information about several Republican presidential candidates, including Mr. Trump. But The Free Beacon told the firm to stop doing research on Mr. Trump in May
2016, as Mr. Trump was clinching the Republican nomination." Full story here.

HE'LL PASS - Garcetti won't run for governor in California: "Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Sunday that he won't run for governor of California," the Los Angeles Times reports."Garcetti's announcement is not considered a major surprise, given that the field to replace Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018 is filled with Democratic heavyweights including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Since he was reelected as mayor in a landslide earlier this year, there have been questions about where Garcetti would go next. The governor's race had been one option. Another was running for U.S. Senate, but that was before Dianne Feinstein announced she would seek another
term." Full story here.

UNDER THE RADAR - "2020 hopefuls dodge Iowa and New Hampshire," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti: "Wary of planting a Trump-sized target on their backs so far out from the election, many potential 2020 hopefuls are avoiding headline-drawing trips to traditional primary-season destinations like Des Moines, Manchester, Columbia and Las Vegas. Instead, at least half a dozen Democrats with the potential to become serious contenders - including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey - have been quietly visiting battleground states that will likely be front-and-center in the next presidential election." Full story here.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I'm smoking a cigarette, and they bring me a glass of merlot. And we're sitting there a little while, and here's the president drinking iced tea and chomping on Nicorette. What else do you need to know about the two of us?" - former House Speaker John Boehner describing a 2011 meeting with President Barack Obama to POLITICO Magazine.

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