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By Elena Schneider | 09/14/2015 10:03AM EDT


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)

TAR HEEL STATE PARTY TROUBLES -- The North Carolina Republican Party has a lot on the line in 2016 - a battleground state in a presidential yea, one of the tightest governor's races in the country, and an incumbent senator to protect. But GOP leaders and the state party Chairman Hasan Harnett are struggling with trust issues, or as one Republican familiar with these discussions put it: "[Harnett] will tell you one thing, and then two days later, he'll do a complete 180 on it." This summer, the party lost its executive director, and within weeks, lost its interim executive director, too. Without one, there is more chatter that the Republican National Committee might run its money through a
county party, instead of the state, like former Sen. Kay Hagan did in 2014 when the state's Democratic Party was in turmoil.

"I'm almost sure that's going to happen," another local GOP strategist said. "Now, they're trying to work around [Harnett], and isolate him." But Paul Shumaker, Senator Richard Burr's (R-N.C.) campaign consultant, said there is "no decision" yet to change the funding structure. "Without knowing who the executive director is, everybody's going to leave a lot of options on the table," he said. However, Niger Innis, a Republican activist, said that while the Harnett has been willing to work with the "old guard" in the state, the establishment hasn't reciprocated. "Is the Republican Party ready for the repercussions of attempting to force failure upon the first black chairman of North
Carolina?" Innis said.

North Carolina isn't alone in its troubles. Colorado's state GOP may have papered over its in-fighting for now, but they struggled with accusations of extortion involving the state attorney general. In Nevada, the Las Vegas Journal-Review editorial board earlier this month called on the GOP chairman, Michael McDonald, to resign, following allegations fraud, calling him, "disgraceful." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=17fee2d44ee58bbb5552810f31c786aec6d9b3ebdad6ee57f8f6fded5478c023

FIRST IN SCORE -- AIR WAR, ON JUDGES -- The Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative group, reserved $200,000 worth of airtime and digital ad space in Iowa, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., challenging Republican candidates ahead of Wednesday's debate to declare their positions on Supreme Court appointments. "We can't afford more surprises," the ad says, over images of Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and retired Justice David Souter, all appointed by Republican presidents, who've all taken positions that didn't please some conservatives. Watch here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=17fee2d44ee58bbb9ab414279c48479bf05169d54d32d7c8fc2c7d4d1fc0a5db

Days until the 2015 election: 50. Days until the 2016 election: 421.

Thanks for joining us. Email tips to the whole Campaign Pro team at sshepard@politico.com, kcheney@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com, krobillard@politico.com and tmeyer@politico.com.

AIR WAR, ON IMMIGRATION -- A six-figure ad buy this week will attack Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for their comments on immigration, juxtaposing them with another Republican - Ronald Reagan. The National Immigration Forum Forum Action Fund reserved six-figures worth of airtime on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News during pre- and post-debate coverage. The Washington Post first reported the ad buy. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=17fee2d44ee58bbb336d76c5a5199a91d46b4e77a54c02be01d229252a946c56

TAKING IT ALL -- "The Key to Winning Down Ballot Races," by Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley in POLITICO's Magazine: "Down-ballot races are increasingly decided by who wins the White House. To grasp this fact, it's best to focus on two numbers: 6 percent and .781 ... 1. To win the Senate, win the White House ... 2. The year's most important Senate primary (Florida) ... 3. Will any incumbents face primary trouble? (Not really.) ... 4. More retirements are coming." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=17fee2d44ee58bbb86549dcfa4db99874f110044bf8842342e24f8f7f9613d96

YOUTH VOTE -- Sen. Rob Portman's campaign said it's mobilizing young voters with its Students for Portman coalition, and it's going after them on Instagram, too. Portman's staff said in a press release that it's the first Senate campaign to use the picture filter platform, micro-targeting Ohio State University students this weekend during the first football home game.

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2016 IN TWO MINUTES - PRESIDENTIAL REPLAY -- CARLY for America out with a new web video backing former Hewlett-Packard executive, where she pushes back on Donald Trump's criticism of her looks in a Rolling Stone article, while also emphasizing female leadership in the Republican Party. "Ladies, look at this face ... This is the face of a 61-year-old woman. I am proud of every year and every wrinkle." Watch here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=17fee2d44ee58bbba630cf75be86a7aadade74f1be3012ecf578b976dd1fdbf1

-- Fiorina hit those lines on a campaign stop in Scottsdale, Ariz., POLITICO's Hadas Gold reported. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5ff46dd16ce080639c2266c71fd3f1e59db6e88e9935d7905ea2174e23bbf78a

-- The San Francisco Chronicle does a deep dive into Fiorina's 2010 Senate campaign, which they call a roadmap for her opponents to use against her as the campaign heats up. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=17fee2d44ee58bbb724aaa1c62626007643722211b20eb6bda606f69b4eb8dff

SUBTLE SIGNS -- "Marco Rubio's Mormon play," Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: "Rubio is subtly leveraging his LDS background to build support in Nevada, where the state's LDS community isn't huge - Mormons make up just a small percentage of the population - but represents an influential constituency in Republican politics. Rubio has held kitchen table meetings and private meet-and-greets with prominent LDS Church leaders, lining up support from some of the top Mormon names in Nevada politics, including Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison. Hutchison recently barnstormed northern Nevada with Rubio, personally introducing the Florida senator at stops along the way."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=17fee2d44ee58bbbbfd2ad74bf1964e8593d54a70238dbc51c5492835eb3224b

NOT-SO-SUBTLE SIGNS -- "Trump vs. Walker: A tale of two tailgates," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck in Ames, Iowa: "The stage, the heat and the drunk college kids they faced were the same. But the receptions Scott Walker and Donald Trump received when they stumped at the same Iowa event Saturday couldn't have been more different - or revealing. The tailgate party scene at the annual Iowa State-University of Iowa football game was tailor-made for the Wisconsin governor, a football fan who's at his retail politicking-best when playing the Midwestern everyman role. ...But Walker was nearly inaudible in his remarks, the fault of too-weak speakers in the tailgate tent. It didn't matter much anyway:
it quickly became apparent that many of the hundreds of attendees who had packed into and around the tent, sponsored by the Iowa GOP, couldn't see the main stage, and thought - and hoped - they were watching Trump instead." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a76414af4f0d30289c08935b900f51dc9bddb74d1e3508815e21e1ff4e89342

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "They made it very boring and plain." -- Rep.-elect Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), on moving this week into former Rep. Aaron Schock's offices -- which were notoriously decorated like a scene from "Downton Abbey" but have since been painted over. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a76414af4f0d302047a54358ad85a84b7b297bee4f7919db7a0a8cdaf7ebbb8

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Pandora's monthly voting-age listeners by state: New Hampshire: 287,830; Iowa: 576,965; Nevada: 667,646; South Carolina: 961,417; Ohio: 2,321,265; Florida: 4,655,984

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