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By Alexander Burns (@aburnspolitico, aburns@politico.com)


FIRST IN SCORE - GINGRICH'S TALLY: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's American Solutions PAC raised $314,000 between Oct. 14 and Nov. 22, spending $347,000 and ending the reporting period with $79,000 in the bank. That's a solid performance, especially considering that Gingrich's 527 group - his main fundraising engine - hasn't yet reported updated financial information. And even those figures won't provide a full reckoning of Gingrich's fundraising activities this cycle. According to data shared with Morning Score, Gingrich helped Republicans raise more than $7 million over the 2009-2010 cycle, through dozens of speeches and nearly $1.9 million raised for GOP campaign committees through direct mail. He also participated - along with many others - in a joint NRSC/NRCC fundraising dinner that brought in over $14 million for the two committees.


MORE - Gingrich spread his attention widely, but also put down deep financial markers in early primary states: In Iowa, Gingrich's donations, speeches and other appeals guided some $256,000 to Republican candidates. In South Carolina, he generated $68,000 for the GOP. His New Hampshire presence was more limited, but he still brought in $5,000 at a speech to a state GOP breakfast and raised $18,000 for Sen.-elect Kelly Ayotte in combined small-dollar donations.


THE BIGGER 2012 PICTURE - Gingrich's financial information comes amid a flood of late fundraising numbers from other presidential hopefuls, and shows he's well prepared to compete for dollars with the rest of the 2012 field. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty raised $140,000 between Oct. 14 and Nov. 22, while campaigning in a dozen different states. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney brought in $558,000 between his federal and state committees and Sarah Palin previously reported bringing in $469,000 for her federal PAC. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a presidential prospect who was unopposed in his reelection to the Senate, raised $183,000 for his campaign committee and ended the cycle with $7.2 million left in the bank. And Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour took in $108,152 for the group Haley's PAC while leading the Republican Governors Association. Data still to come for Indiana Rep. Mike Pence and Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and more ...


As Marc Elias brings the heat, Michele Bachmann adds it all up and Vicki Kennedy stays in the mix, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.


FRIDAY STANDINGS - BETTER OFF NOW? The midterms are a month behind us, the campaign committees have chosen their leaders for the next cycle and the lame duck session is hurtling toward the finish. Here's Morning Score's take on how some of the key pols and political groups should answer the question: Are you better off now than you were seven days ago?


BETTER OFF: (1) Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who's one of the most endangered Republicans up in 2012, yet won strong marks and nearly hit 50 percent against all his possible Democratic competitors in PPP's first test of the race; (2) Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who had back-to-back meetings on Thursday with the president and vice president and drove news with his criticism of the Democratic strategy on tax cuts, proving he's still a player even after his narrow reelection loss; (3) The Bush family, which won a third consecutive week of solid media coverage thanks to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's conference on education and the launch of his new group promoting GOP outreach to Latino voters. Add that to former President George W. Bush's still-No. 1 bestseller and his parents' conversation-driving interview with Larry King and that's a pretty good run. http://politi.co/eZARAf


WORSE OFF: (1) Former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent, whose anticipated comeback bid against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill hit a major snag this week, when ex-state Treasurer Sarah Steelman jumped into the race first and immediately claimed the blessing of the Club for Growth; (2) New York Democrats, who not only saw the dean of their congressional delegation censured by the full House Thursday, but are now expected to lose control of the state Senate in extended ballot-counting - and with it, full control over a potentially messy redistricting process; (3) The dump-Michael Steele movement, which is still betting on an unsettled and incomplete set of challengers to take out the embattled RNC chairman, and had the first candidate forum come and go without any of the contenders truly letting loose on Steele's weak record.


CROSSROADS REPORTS - FLUSH AT THE FINISH: American Crossroads raised $3.8 million in the short reporting period ending Nov. 22 and finished the 2010 cycle with $1.1 million left in the bank, according to a copy of the conservative campaign group's most recent FEC report. And Crossroads closed the election with a bang: It spent $10.6 million between Oct. 14 and Nov. 22. Adding up its full receipts for the cycle, Crossroads raised some $27.8 million - combined with its non-profit affiliate, American Crossroads GPS, the two organizations raised more than $71 million. That total exceeds even the initial plans to raise more than $50 million for the midterm campaign, and lays the groundwork for the Crossroads groups to play a role well beyond the 2010 cycle.


EARLY-STATE SIREN - HALEY TO ENDORSE: South Carolina's governor-elect "absolutely" plans to back a candidate in the 2012 presidential primaries, she told the Associated Press Thursday. Nikki Haley's not in a rush, though, and said she'd only endorse "after every one of them has had the opportunity to go out and meet with the constituents of South Carolina and hear their concerns. ... What I want to do is let the people of South Carolina see them without any sort of emphasis on who I think is right." http://bit.ly/h0SHyZ


YOUR DAILY MINNESOTA - DAYTON'S ENDGAME: Former Minnesota Sen. Mark Dayton has raised the stakes in his gubernatorial recount battle with state Rep. Tom Emmer, as his campaign accused Emmer of pursuing "a disruptive campaign of frivolous ballot challenges." The Star-Tribune: "According to the Dayton team, Emmer representatives have asked election officials to set aside more than 2,500 ballots because the Republicans said they doubted local officials' determinations on the ballots, even though the local officials saw no reason to question the voters intent and deemed those challenges 'frivolous.' The Dayton team said that all but 1.6 percent of all 'frivolous' challenges came from the Emmer campaign. ... In reaction, Republican Party chair Tony Sutton said their challenges of all stripes still only make up a 'minuscule percentage' of the 2.1 million votes recounted." http://bit.ly/e9tEYl ELSEWHERE IN MINNESOTA - WHY NOT HER? Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann's final fundraising number for the 2010 cycle was an astonishing $13.2 million and she spent $11 million of that total to defeat Democratic state Sen. Tarryl Clark. She brought in $2.3 million in the last three weeks of the race and finished the cycle with just under $2 million in the bank. That's the kind of money that could make Bachmann at least a serious factor - and maybe even a viable candidate - in any race of any scale in the 2012 cycle. http://bit.ly/fviLnv


THE HOUSE LANDSCAPE - BOLGER CALLS IT: Republican polling eminence Glen Bolger offered a confident forecast for his party's prospects in the House next cycle, writing on his firm's website that even an Obama rebound would be unlikely to generate large-scale gains for congressional Democrats. Bolger: "[E]ven strong Presidents who win re-election do not have long coattails. Look at the last three re-elected Presidents - Reagan '84, Clinton '96, and Bush '04. Two were blowouts and one was close. ... Across the three elections, the average pick-up for the President is 9.3 seats. Obama is not likely to win a blowout re-election. Given Obama's problems with white working class voters and the unifying effect he has on the GOP base, he is much more likely headed for either a close win or a loss rather than a big win. ... The other factor putting a stake through the vampire hearts of the Democrats' hopes of control post-2012 is the overwhelming shift in redistricting fortunes." http://bit.ly/f5LfDH


SENATE TALKER - THE KENNEDY SEAT? Vicki Kennedy has given no indication she's interested in the 2012 Massachusetts Senate race, but the AP's Glen Johnson isn't convinced a Kennedy comeback is out of the question. Writes Johnson: "The billboard-sized photo of Vicki Kennedy beside one of the major highways entering Boston is impossible to overlook. The question is, what message is it sending? Is it merely touting, as the sign reads, the attendance of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's widow at a mayoral event on immigrants and diversity? Or is it part of a low-wattage effort to maintain Vicki Kennedy's profile for a possible 2012 campaign against the man who succeeded her husband, Republican Sen. Scott Brown? ... Said Todd Domke, a Republican political consultant: 'A lot of Democrats are looking for a superstar, someone who is not a mere politician. Vicki Kennedy is among the few who would be viewed as a front-runner.' Another political heavyweight, Gov. Deval Patrick, has repeatedly ruled out his own challenge. Yet addressing Massachusetts newspaper publishers on Thursday, he said he already is speaking with potential challengers." Kennedy was one of the strongest Democrats tested in PPP's surveys of the Massachusetts race, though still trailed Brown by 7 points. http://bit.ly/hpeVCd and http://bit.ly/h2wHPA


MAKING UP IS HARD TO DO - "Jim DeMint assures GOP senators a pass" - From POLITICO's Manu Raju: "South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is privately reassuring his Republican colleagues up for reelection that he won't recruit or endorse any primary opponent against them, vowing to raise more than $10 million aimed mainly at taking down Democratic incumbents. In a letter obtained by POLITICO, the tea party favorite appears to be taking steps to soothe post-election tensions with his GOP colleagues, including some who say his political tactics have been counterproductive. ... 'First, despite rumors to the contrary, I want to assure you that I will not recruit or support primary challengers to incumbent Republicans, and you can also be assured I will support all of our Republican nominees for the Senate,' he wrote in the letter he sent Wednesday. 'My goal for 2012 is to raise more than $10 million through the Senate Conservatives Fund to replace incumbent Democrats with conservative Republicans.'" http://politi.co/fNAEcK


EXIT CHARLIE: Outgoing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist laughed off a reporter's suggestion Thursday that he was politically "toxic" at the end of his term, retorting: "A defeat doesn't mean that everything went wrong ... It means that the people made a different choice, and I think we're in a much different climate today than we were four years ago." He also confirmed that he's thinking of joining the law firm Morgan and Morgan, which is - seriously - found at the URL www.forthepeople.com. http://bit.ly/fL07dI


CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I stand before you here tonight as probably the second-most famous immigrant in the history of California. First is of course Meg Whitman's maid." - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, at the Sacramento Press Club's Gridiron Gala. http://bit.ly/hzS4eR

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