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By Elena Schneider | 05/17/2016 10:00 AM EDT


With Scott Bland, Theodoric Meyer, Kevin Robillard, Maggie Severns and Hadas Gold

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)

WHAT TO WATCH TONIGHT - Gray seeking Dem nod to oppose Paul: Democratic Lexington Mayor Jim Gray faces several perennial candidates tonight for the right to take on Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul. Gray has self-funded his campaign and been on TV ahead of the primary, the first of several small primary tests for DSCC-endorsed candidates at the end of spring. (Georgia's Jim Barksdale and Iowa's Patty Judge are on the horizon.)

- Comer favored to win KY-01 primary to replace Whitfield: Former state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, who nearly won the GOP primary for governor last year, is the favorite in a three-way race to fill retiring GOP Rep. Ed Whitfield's safe seat. Comer outraised Jason Batts and Mike Pape and has posted huge leads in internal polls released by his campaign. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also run TV ads backing Comer, while major conservative outside groups steered clear of the race. Pape, Whitfield's longtime district director, is betting his embrace of Donald Trump will help him overtake Comer.

ONE-ON-ONE - "POLITICO Pro Q&A: North Carolina Senate candidate Deborah Ross," by Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a5174fde9d95d11db955cdf6f6e65b32015b90c7732e3d34a7319

THE ART OF WAR - PRIORITIES USA ACTION LAUNCHES FIRST ANTI-TRUMP TV, echoing "Stop Trump" attacks: The pro-Clinton super PAC's first two ads, "Speak" and "Respect," are backed by $6 million over three weeks in Florida, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia. "Speak," which features women lip-syncing to Trump comments about women, bears a strong resemblance to the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC's "Quotes" from the GOP primary season. But while that ad wasn't able to move the primaries much, Priorities' general election version could have a much bigger effect. Ad analytics data from Ace Metrix showed that "Quotes" was just the 37th-highest rated ad among Republicans (out of 57) in March. But it was one of
the most effective ads among all voters because Democrats and independents reacted so strongly to it. See our story from March: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a517495c12dd8eb546bc8c9363791bcf606f1ba066f61c3d53f20

- "Clinton super PAC to aim at Trump from 3 angles," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti: "The three central tenets of the message will be that the real estate investor is a divisive character, that he's too dangerous to vote for, and that he's a con man, Priorities' chief strategist Guy Cecil explained to POLITICO on Monday - two days before the organization started its run of television advertising that's set to effectively stay on the air straight through Election Day in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a517416befad27569f6a62ad19022244a7534293d2f1f5dfcce0f

Days until the Georgia primary: 7. Days until the 2016 election: 175.

Thanks for joining us. You can email tips to the whole Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com, krobillard@politico.com, tmeyer@politico.com, and mseverns@politico.com.

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally about third party candidates: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

AIR RAID - "DSCC buys $12 million more in Senate battleground ads," by POLITICO's Burgess Everett: The committee "is launching its second round of general election ad buys, committing $12 million to three of the most contested Senate races ... The bulk of the money, $8.2 million, will be spent in Pennsylvania" versus GOP Sen. Pat Toomey. "Democrats are also committing $2 million each to Wisconsin and Illinois, where Sens. Ron Johnson and Mark Kirk are considered the most vulnerable Republican incumbents." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a51744a4d407315b6b4d7606a8269e33becbbb338d9408cb3b9b9

- In Arizona ... "GOP Sen. John McCain's first TV ad of 2016 hits Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick on health care, continuing a theme in the Republican's early digital and radio ads. McCain's new ad, which starts running Tuesday, spotlights Obamacare's recent struggles in Arizona" and includes a "a clip of Kirkpatrick saying that her vote for Obamacare is 'the one I'm most proud about.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a5174680140f4f1e177df6c156d9a2c0e11789e1cd0822f817903

- McCain's campaign is also on the attack against primary opponent Kelli Ward, launching a new, jam-packed opposition research site and online videos against her: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a5174c3f3b8f4f9d6c6fc9f896097c40baa03690043d1755e4a11

- NEW THIS A.M. - Johnson's first ad hits Feingold on deficit: Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson's first TV ad of 2016 is a pure attack on Democrat Russ Feingold. The ad features clips of Feingold talking about cutting the federal deficit in both 2016 and 1992. But the ad suggests Feingold ought to have supported a balanced budget amendment if he actually cared about instead of voting against it four times during his career. Watch it here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a51740ab81050ba90df13ee014a216f36bf935418bf2961702b09

- In NC-02 ... The Club for Growth is re-airing an anti-Renee Ellmers attack ad from the winter ahead of her rescheduled primary. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a517451ca140a60cc54fd64b56ce0c76e813748128899d18fb532

- In CA-24 ... "House Majority PAC is following up its mailers backing Democrat Salud Carbajal with TV ads in California's 24th District." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a51747ebaad5de49d1558647fe6836ea0eefb2de47b3ded48d8bf

- JCN AD HINTS AT MORRISEY AS POTENTIAL MANCHIN 2018 FOE - A new ad from the conservative Judicial Crisis Network bashes Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin for arguing President Barack Obama has the right to appoint a Supreme Court nominee in 2016. It's part of a large JCN campaign on the Merrick Garland nomination. But this ad has a twist: It explicitly compares Manchin to state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the only Republican elected in West Virginia and a potential Manchin opponent in 2018.

- The ad spends 15 seconds praising Morrisey, who passed on a 2016 gubernatorial bid, for "working to protect the coal industry" and "advocating for West Virginia," before transitioning to attacking Manchin for "siding with Washington liberals" on Garland and picturing Manchin with Obama and Hillary Clinton. The ad will run for "several weeks" and is part of $200,000 of spending for the group in West Virginia. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a51742aef55726a91cfb25a8e57d50bb07463d494f6baf9c20eb2

INTERNAL POLLING - Republican Rep. Don Bacon releases robopoll showing him with general-election edge: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a5174c90b7e562cb1980dae57c56e2eb48b00b280042f9893b23b

HALF-FULL DISCLOSURE - The New Hampshire Union Leader is out with a new editorial bashing Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan as "not a serious candidate" for Senate. And while the Union Leader's editorial page would likely be anti-Hassan anyway, there's a wrinkle the paper has failed to note: Editorial page editor Grant Bosse is married to a Sen. Kelly Ayotte staffer, Jane Hirsch Bosse.

- Bosse, who has also worked with state Republicans in addition to his work as a reporter, was named editorial page editor of the influential New Hampshire newspaper in September. But none of the Union Leader's editorials, nor columns authored directly by Bosse, note his current connection to Ayotte. Asked for comment late last year, Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid declined to comment and executive editor Trent Spiner declined to explain the paper's disclosure policies.

NOT ON THE SAME PAGE - "Building trade unions denounce labor partnership with billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer," by The Washington Post's Matea Gold: "A new super PAC partnership between billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, the AFL-CIO and major public sector employee unions has triggered an angry backlash among the building trade unions -- dividing organized labor just as it ramps up its 2016 political programs. In letters delivered Monday to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, the presidents of eight building trade organizations called on the AFL-CIO to cut ties with Steyer, whose opposition to an extension of the Keystone XL Pipeline infuriated unions that had championed the
jobs that the oil pipeline would have created." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a5174720a8d822b66bc85f1493124d6fe13c23609f7cb7fdb65b0

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - Donald Trump is not expanding the general electorate, by POLITICO's Shane Goldmacher: "Donald Trump likes to say he has created a political movement that has drawn 'millions and millions' of new voters into the Republican Party. ... But a POLITICO analysis of the early 2016 voting data shows that, so far, it's just not true. While Trump's insurgent candidacy has spurred record-setting Republican primary turnout in state after state, the early statistics show that the vast majority of those voters aren't actually new to voting or to the Republican Party... they are reliable past voters in general elections. They are only casting ballots in a Republican primary for
the first time. It is a distinction with profound consequences for the fall campaign." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a51743c537bca521c3b16a823aebdba042b35596a459edec34e86

- "Sanders Nevada revolt puts Democrats on notice," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti and Daniel Strauss: "...In interviews with state Democratic chairs and other party leaders in roughly a dozen states - some of whom back Sanders, and some who support Clinton - the consensus is that the Nevada meltdown was an anomaly. But many worry that it might also be a harbinger of trouble at upcoming state conventions, and perhaps even the July national convention in Philadelphia. ...Democrats had hoped to portray the party as a picture of unity - to contrast to what's expected to be a messy, contentious Republican affair a week earlier in Cleveland - but those hopes are fading as some level of unrest
is now expected in various state Democratic conventions in upcoming weeks." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a517458b698b1b5c0dd7a8ded289be1d46c121e6d63e3dad3eaa1

- "Super PAC Seeks IRS Audit of Clinton Foundation," by The Wall Street Journal's Rebecca Ballhaus: "The conservative super PAC American Crossroads said Monday it filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service requesting an audit of the Clinton Foundation, following articles last week about how the foundation aided a for-profit company part-owned by people with ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton. ... Under federal law, tax-exempt charitable organizations aren't supposed to act in anyone's private interest but instead in the public interest, on broad issues such as education or poverty." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a51741e425d09fa51c68c2935ee18c59bd53af3a05a7d3e494713

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Ok that's enough for one night. Twitter isn't something you should just rush back into. You have to slowly increase the dosage......." - Sen. Marco Rubio posted after his tweetstorm, mocking unnamed sources who weighed in on the senator's future plans and alleged dislike of the Senate. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08e5ba102e9a5174a94d3ce42ef07880718d61301ee115af9222f8ba55902878

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