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By Theodoric Meyer | 10/20/2015 10:02 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)

BACK ON THE AIR - Group backed by the Republican Governors Association to air more TV ads backing Bevin: The Republican Governors Association-backed outside group Putting Kentucky First is returning to the airwaves in the Bluegrass State, spending roughly $1.6 million in the two weeks before Election Day, according to a source tracking ad buys. The RGA had stopped spending in Kentucky last month over concerns GOP nominee Matt Bevin wasn't putting enough of his own cash into the contest to win. As a result, Democrat Jack Conway's campaign and Kentucky Family Values, a DGA- and union-backed outside group, have swamped Bevin on TV over the past month. In one week, they outspent his campaign by
$1 million.

GETTING IN - Third Democrat will challenge Katko in NY-24: Steve Williams, a lawyer and Navy veteran, announced that he'd challenge Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) on Monday, making him the third Democrat running for the seat, which includes Syracuse. Eric Kingson, a Syracuse University professor, and Colleen Deacon, a former staffer for Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, are also running.

- Reached on Monday, Williams told Campaign Pro that his experience winning legal battles would set him apart from his Democratic opponents, both of whom he described as "good folks." "My military service combined with my legal career, I think, makes me uniquely qualified to take on the special interests," he said. Williams also criticized Katko for voting to defund Planned Parenthood after promising not to do so during his campaign and harshly criticized the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the potential trade deal on which Katko hasn't yet taken a stance. "The basic tenets of the Trans-Pacific Partnership are bad," he said.

Days until the 2015 election: 14. Days until the 2016 election: 385.

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.

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally about the last Jews in Yemen: @politico_steve, @kyledcheney, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin and @theodoricmeyer.

FIRST IN SCORE - Concerned Veterans for America launches ads targeting Senate Democrats: Concerned Veterans for America, the Koch network nonprofit, is launching a six-figure digital and mail ad campaign targeting Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, the most vulnerable Senate Democrat up for reelection next year, as well as three Democrats up for reelection in 2018: Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. The grim-looking ads ask the lawmakers to support the Veterans Affairs Accountability Act, a bill that would make it easier to fire Department of Veterans Affairs staffers. Democrats and unions have fought the bill, which the House passed in
July and which President Barack Obama has threatened to veto.

- Watch the Bennet ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=381875fcca79c186d9dd00036b5977767295e04e6721484ab3814c46f6d789fc

CASH RACE -- NRSC raises $2.9 million in September: Monthly fundraising reports are due to the Federal Election Commission today, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee is first out of the gate, announcing this morning that it raised $2.9 million in September and has $9.9 million in cash on hand. The total is substantially more than the committee has had on hand at this point in any of the past three election cycles, and $6.5 million more than they had in September 2013.

GETTING IN - "Clyde Williams enters crowded race to replace Rangel," by POLITICO New York's Azi Paybarah: "Clyde Williams, the former Democratic National Committee political director who won the New York Times endorsement in his unsuccessful bid to oust Rep. Charlie Rangel in 2012, announced on Wednesday that he will run again for Rangel's seat next year. ... Williams joins a crowded field that already includes Assemblyman Keith Wright, a longtime friend and ally of Rangel; State Senator Bill Perkins, whose district covers a significant portion of the congressional district; and likely candidates like State Senator Adriano Espaillat, who narrowly lost to Rangel in two close elections; Rev.
Michael Walrond, a popular pastor with ties to Rev. Al Sharpton and Mayor Bill de Blasio; Susan 'Sujay' Johnson, the only woman in the race; and Adam Clayton Powell, IV, the former Council and Assembly member who is also the son of the legendary congressman whom Rangel deposed in 1970." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=381875fcca79c186124bf1cce62f9306097f107bd77cb714f1c57a2498601323

FIRST IN SCORE - DSCC criticizes Ayotte for attending Koch fundraiser: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is running one of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's plays. The DSCC plans to criticize Sen. Kelly Ayotte, the New Hampshire Republican up for reelection next year, for attending a fundraiser on Monday evening in New York hosted by David Koch, one half of the pair of billionaire brothers whom Reid has taken apparent delight in attacking. "Kelly Ayotte has already voted in lock step with the Koch Brothers and their shadowy outside group has spent big to thank Ayotte for her loyal support, but now she's dropping any pretense by dashing off to attend a fundraiser hosted by David
Koch himself," Sadie Weiner, a DSCC spokeswoman, said in a statement to be issued on Tuesday.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Inside Clinton's Benghazi hearing game plan," by POLITICO's Annie Karni: Her surrogates have been equipped with talking points blasting the Benghazi Committee as a 'partisan charade.' Her main defender David Brock is expected to give a 'pre-buttal' speech Wednesday, laying out a detailed case against the committee that essentially turns the tables and puts its members on trial. At Correct The Record, a PAC that coordinates with Hillary Clinton's campaign, a war room of about 30 staffers will be on hand to defend Clinton and attack the committee as she heads to Capitol Hill Thursday to testify in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi. ... But Clinton
herself is expected to show up solemn and serious in manner, her full commander-in-chief mode on display, allies told POLITICO." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=381875fcca79c1869610101d0715db11b5cf584a0daec52d33e4dfc1503ce822

- "George W. Bush unleashes on Ted Cruz," by POLITICO's Eli Stokols: George W. Bush criticized Ted Cruz for allying himself with Donald Trump and warned GOP donors at a private event in Denver not to underestimate the Texas senator. "'I just don't like the guy,' Bush said Sunday night, according to conversations with more than half a dozen donors who attended the event. One donor in the room said the former president had been offering mostly anodyne accounts of how the Bush family network views the current campaign and charming off-the-cuff jokes, until he launched into Cruz." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=381875fcca79c186e4e58593b883ed727557f2066e129c9c8dd4136d7622ced3

- "Trump's Southern strategy," by POLITICO's Ben Schreckinger: "The Trump campaign is putting its time and money into the South, starting with South Carolina, because of the Republican primary schedule and because of the appeal of Trump's brash populist message in the region. Thus, Trump has hired more staff there than in any other part of the country. He's also worked overtime to burnish his credentials with evangelicals and veterans, blocs that hold outsize sway there." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=381875fcca79c186eda7a786c8f20449d60f3b9abc1da9cbcb73549433639f29

- "A Bloomberg run? Drums are beating," by The New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin: "Over the past several months, Michael R. Bloomberg has fielded the same phone call over and over again from his Wall Street friends: Why don't you run for president?" "Not going to happen," Bloomberg has told them, according to one of his close friends. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=381875fcca79c18696c363d72d0bf521d76dcaa78174a597624d685e48b4fa09

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "This may be the only moment so far that I wish I could coordinate." - Guy Cecil, the chief strategist for Priorities USA Action, a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton, in response to the news that Bill Clinton would appear with Katy Perry on Saturday. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=381875fcca79c186c05cfe57cc28948d096403f28f2241ee4a18363b3193bed7

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