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By Elena Schneider | 02/21/2017 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)

OPTING OUT - "Bustos declines run for Illinois governor," by POLITICO's Heather Caygle and Natasha Korecki: "Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos is ruling out a run for governor of Illinois, as her party looks to take on multimillionaire Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018. Bustos, a former journalist and three-term member of Congress who represents the northwestern corner of Illinois, would have faced a huge funding challenge, with Rauner already giving his own campaign $50 million for his reelection run and several wealthy Democrats eyeing the race. Bustos acknowledged the fundraising hurdles but said in an interview Monday that her new leadership position in the House Democratic Caucus was
also a key factor in deciding not to run." Full story.

FIRST IN SCORE - SPECIAL ELECTION NEWS - Self-funder enters GA-06 race, staffs up with McMullin alums: David Abroms, a 36-year-old business owner, is out with an announcement video for his congressional bid to replace Rep. Tom Price in a crowded primary. The video opens with Abroms explaining that he's from Sandy Springs, Ga., and he likes "puppies, romantic comedies and long walks on the beach." The spoof on a "dating video" flips into campaign mode, hitting on his time working in natural gas industry and calling for a "new generation of conservative leadership. He also pitched himself as an outsider, saying, "I'm not a politician, I'm an entrepreneur." Abroms cited the debt, education
reform and hyper-partisanship as his top three issues. He's already seeded his campaign with $250,000, per a source familiar with the campaign, adding that Abroms is "prepared to put in more." Joel Searby and Rick Wilson, who both served on Independent Evan McMullin's presidential bid, are both working with Abroms. Watch the full video here.

- AWKWARD NIGHT - "Sales rips Gianforte at Republican dinner in Townsend," by The Bozeman Daily Chronicle's Tony Carter: "State Sen. President Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, withdrew his bid for the U.S. House of Representatives at a Republican dinner last weekend, while slamming Greg Gianforte for losing the governor's race. Multiple attendees confirmed that Sales was incensed by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines' endorsement of Gianforte at the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner, held Sunday at the Watson Irrigation Training Center outside of Townsend. Daines was the keynote speaker and used his speech to praise Gianforte, the sources said. GOP legislative aide Matt Pitzer, who was in attendance, told the Chronicle on
Friday that 'the sense in the room was that this was the wrong time to make an endorsement.' Pitzer said Sales stood up when it was his turn to speak, announced he was pulling out of the race, said state Republicans needed a candidate who would appeal beyond the conservative base, and said that the Legislature is in trouble right now because Gianforte lost the gubernatorial race." Full story.

UP NEXT - "Ads by Scott Walker's campaign touting budget are latest signal he's running for re-election," by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Jason Stein: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's campaign is launching digital ads Monday to seek support for his budget, the latest in a series of signals that's he'll run for a third term next year. The digital ads encourage citizens to write to lawmakers to tell them to approve the proposals in Walker's budget such as nearly $600 million in tax cuts over two years, an additional $649 million for K-12 schools and a 5% cut to in-state tuition for the University of Wisconsin System. The increases in education funding themselves - a priority that Walker cut
during a difficult budget in 2011 - are widely interpreted as another sign that the governor is running for re-election." Full story.

- "Kind not ruling out run for governor against Walker," by The Associated Press: "Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Kind says he is not ruling out a run for governor in 2018 against Republican Gov. Scott Walker. The western Wisconsin congressman from La Crosse has frequently been mentioned as a possible candidate for governor, but he's never run. But Kind tells Wisconsin Public Radio on Thursday that the state needs new leadership after six years under Walker. Kind says he hasn't decided whether he will run." Full story.

CASH RACE - DSCC raises $3.6 million in January: The DSCC raised $3.6 million in January, trailing the NRSC's $4.2 million. The Democrats have $5.3 million on hand to the Republicans' $9.8 million.

Days until the 2017 election: 259.

Days until the 2018 election: 623.

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, where we tweet about campaigns and transactional voters. @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin and @danielstrauss4.

RECESS WEEK - "Court fight follows Democrats home," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett: "Conservatives are aggressively ramping up their campaign to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court this week, using a rare congressional recess to needle vulnerable Senate Democrats into supporting President Donald Trump's high court nominee. A bloc of right-leaning groups are organizing events around the country to help Gorsuch get confirmed, organizers said. The Judicial Crisis Network has arranged events aimed squarely at vulnerable Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2018 in red and purple states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Indiana, Montana, Michigan, Florida, Missouri and West
Virginia. ...Senators from those states will be the key to Gorsuch's confirmation vote. There are 52 Republican senators, so Gorsuch needs to win at least eight Democratic votes to clear a filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is eyeing a confirmation vote in early April. If Gorsuch cannot receive 60 votes, Senate Republicans say they may change the rules of the Senate to ease his confirmation." Full story.

- "Major Democratic super PAC launches digital ads highlighting GOP town halls," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti: "Democratic super PAC Priorities USA Action is launching its first paid ads since the end of the 2016 election on Friday, making sure voters know about local Republican-held town hall events with a series of digital spots." Full story.

FEC SHAKE UPS - "Democratic FEC commissioner resigns," by POLITICO's Rebecca Morin: "Ann Ravel, a Democratic member of the Federal Election Commission, submitted her resignation letter to President Donald Trump on Sunday with a plea to embrace campaign finance reform. Ravel's last day will be March 1. If the six-member commission loses two more commissioners, it will lack a quorum and be unable to take key actions - raising pressure on Trump to fill the upcoming vacancy. The FEC, which has long been plagued by internal discord, is required to have no more than three members of the same party. In her letter, which she posted on Medium, Ravel blasted the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United
decision, which she said has made political campaigns 'awash in unlimited, often dark, money.'" Full story.

DNC WATCH - "Russian hacks loom over race to lead Democratic Party," by POLITICO's Eric Geller: "The candidates vying to lead the Democratic National Committee into the mid-term elections are doling out cybersecurity promises like never before. They're vowing to hire a senior cyber point-person, rebuild the party's computer defenses, expand relationships with law enforcement and instill a culture of digital security in a party rattled by the cyberattacks that helped keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House. ...Now the people competing to lead the Democrats into battle with President Donald Trump have one consistent message: Never again." Full story.

SCHEDULING CHANGES - "Milo Yiannopoulos disinvited from CPAC slot amid tape controversy," by POLITICO's Matthew Nussbaum and Alex Isenstadt: "Milo Yiannopoulos lost his keynote speaking slot at the Conservative Political Action Conference after tapes surfaced of the right wing provocateur and senior Breitbart editor advocating for sexual relationships between 'younger boys and older men.' 'Due to the revelation of an offensive video in the past 24 hours condoning pedophilia, the American Conservative Union has decided to rescind the invitation,' said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the group which sponsors CPAC, in a statement Monday afternoon. The group called Yiannopoulos to 'further address
these disturbing comments,' but defended its original decision to invite him as a nod to 'the free speech issue on college campuses.'" Full story.

ADMINISTRATION SPEED READ - "Choice of McMaster likely to quell GOP hawks," by POLITICO's Austin Wright and Jeremy Herb: "President Donald Trump has picked one of the military's leading warrior-scholars to restore order to the National Security Council - but also one who has staked out a decidedly more hawkish position on Russia and gone out of his way to assert that the war against terrorism must not morph into a war against Islam. Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump's newly named replacement for ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, is considered one of the Army's top intellectuals. When he was a young major he published a best-selling book about failed military leadership during the
Vietnam War and later went on to help pioneer counterinsurgency operations in Iraq. ... He has placed particular emphasis on preparing to counter the kind of tactics and weapons that Russia, which he considered a rising threat to global stability, has used in its incursion in Ukraine. This emphasis could put him at odds with Trump, who says he wants to improve relations with Russia and has expressed little concern about its aggressive behaviors in Eastern Europe and contends that Vladimir Putin can be bargained with." Full story.

- "Has the White House press office's silence become a weapon in its war on the media?" by The Washington Post's Paul Farhi: "An eye-opening sentence has appeared in several important news stories about the Trump administration in recent days: The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Not 'the White House declined to comment' or 'We'll get right back to you.' But no response at all when reporters have asked for the White House's take on developments. At a time when President Trump has declared the news media the "enemy of the American people," the official silence from the White House has left some journalists wondering whether the non-responses are mere indifference or a
strategy to discredit journalists by pointing to flaws after publication instead of beforehand. For its part, the White House - which, yes, responded to this story - blames reporters for not trying hard enough to get the White House's side of the story." Full story

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "And I may have a primary because there is, in our party now, some of the same kind of enthusiasm at the base that the Republican party had with the Tea Party. We are seeing that same - and many of those people are very impatient with me because they don't think I'm pure. For example, they think I should be voting against all of Trump's nominees and of course I'm judging each nominee on its own merit. - Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, via CNN.

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