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By Elena Schneider | 03/21/2017 10:00 AM EDT


With Scott Bland and 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)

2018 WATCH - Rep. Jim Renacci launches gubernatorial bid: "U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci brands himself as the outsider when comparing himself to the probable field for the Republican nomination for governor in 2018. The wealthy businessman and four-term congressman from Wadsworth today announced his candidacy in a GOP crowded race that already includes Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and is expected to soon add Attorney General Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Jon Husted. Renacci, who started his first business at age 24 and has been involved in more than 60 businesses during his career, called out his potential opponents for having little experience beyond politics while also talking of eliminating a "pay
to play" system at the Statehouse," via The Columbus Post Dispatch, which has more here.

- And it's a wide open race to replace him: "Republicans expect a large field to run for Rep. Jim Renacci's district in 2018, after Renacci announced his candidacy for governor of Ohio Monday." Full story.

SUPREME DISAPPOINTMENT - Menendez loses SCOTUS request, heading to trial: The Supreme Court on Monday denied Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez's request to have his corruption indictment thrown out, meaning the New Jersey senator will go to trial in September 2017. A few notes: If Menendez were to resign as part of a plea deal (or for any other reason) before his trial, Gov. Chris Christie would get to appoint a replacement. But the acting senator wouldn't serve for long: New Jersey law requires a special election on or before the date of the next general election, which would November 7, 2017.

- BUT - State Democrats seem content to keep supporting Menendez, via the Philadelphia Inquirer's Jonathan Tamari: "For now, New Jersey Democratic insiders are focused on winning back the governor's office and are not pressuring Menendez to step aside, five party operatives said in interviews. They described little fear of wider fallout ... In addition, South Jersey political power George Norcross III and his brother, Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) are headlining a fundraiser for Menendez in May, despite rumors that the congressman would likely run for Senate if Menendez is forced out." Read more here.

SPECIAL ELECTION UPDATE - Corey Lewandowski backs Levell in GA-06 primary: The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that President Donald Trump's former campaign manager will stump for Republican Bruce Levell, who led Trump's diversity coalition. Levell, who is one of several GOP candidates seeking to draft off Trump in the special election to replace Cabinet member Tom Price, said Lewandowski's appearance next week is a sign that the "Trump team is rallying around my campaign."

- Speaking of Trump, state Sen. Judson Hill attacked attorney and fellow GOP primary candidate Bob Gray in a statement Monday, citing social media posts that suggested Gray didn't fully support the president's campaign. In one post, Gray shared a photo on March 31, 2016, showing Trump with the words "NOPE" emblazoned underneath his image.

FINANCIAL TIMES - DSCC raised $3.8 million in February, outraised by NRSC, via Roll Call's Bridget Bowman: "The DSCC currently has $7.7 million in cash on hand. ... The National Republican Senatorial Committee raised $5.1 million in February ... The NRSC had $10.2 million in cash-on-hand." Full story.

Days until the 2017 election: 231.

Days until the 2018 election: 595.

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: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin and @danielstrauss4.

HEALTH BILL UPDATE - "GOP leaders pile on sweeteners to sell Obamacare repeal," by POLITICO's Jennifer Haberkorn, Rachael Bade and Josh Dawsey: House Republican leaders "reveal[ed] an expansive series of changes to the bill on Monday night designed to woo wary GOP lawmakers. ... For moderate and centrist Republicans, it would establish a reserve fund of at least $75 billion for tax credits to help Americans between 50 and 64, who would see their premiums skyrocket under the current repeal plan. The amendment would not set up the tax credits but would instruct the Senate to do so, forcing House Republicans to take a vote on something the upper chamber would do later. ... It also includes
some red-meat for the right ... work requirements in Medicaid as well as giv[ing] states the option of converting their Medicaid programs into block grants. ... The amendment also sped up the repeal Obamacare's taxes a year earlier than originally planned, a win for conservatives who want to eliminate the Affordable Care Act as quickly a possible. ... The amendment included a targeted change to Medicaid funding that's specifically designed to garner support from New York's delegation. It would attempt to transfer more Medicaid spending from counties to the state, by blocking New York from obtaining federal reimbursements for payments made by counties." Full story.

- "Freedom Caucus won't formally oppose repeal bill," by POLITICO's Jennifer Haberkorn: "House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows said Monday night that Republican leaders are successfully picking off its members on Obamacare repeal - a sign that the repeal bill may get enough support on the House floor Thursday." Full story.

- The Club for Growth is spending at least $500,000 in 10 GOP districts urging votes against "Ryancare": The money is putting a 30-second ad on TV and digital, mostly in swing districts, calling the bill "a bad idea doubling down on a disaster" and "not what Congressman ______ promised." The ad will run in the districts of: Reps. Darrell Issa (CA-49), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27), Don Bacon (NE-02), Tom MacArthur (NJ-03), Leonard Lance (NJ-07), Peter King (NY-02), John Katko (NY-24), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-08), Charlie Dent (PA-15) and Rob Wittman (VA-01). Watch the ad here.

- On the other side, American Action Network is running this digital ad in 29 GOP districts, part of its continuing eight-figure campaign backing the GOP health bill.

- CHECK FOR CITATIONS IN FUTURE ADS - Center for American Progress crunches health insurance coverage losses by congressional district: The Center for American Progress, the liberal think tank, is out with a new analysis estimating coverage losses that would result from the current version of the Republican health care bill before Congress. The districts with the highest number of losses are centered in California and New York, with the top 11 districts all including New York City or its suburbs. And of the 100 districts with the highest number of coverage losses, only 25 are represented by Republicans (and only a handful of those Republicans represent traditional battleground districts).
But at least 63,000 residents of each of those districts would lose health insurance by 2026, according to CAP's analysis.

- As for the upcoming special elections: The analysis projects that the bill would hit Montana's at-large seat hard, with 75,700 people losing coverage over the next decade. In Georgia's 6th District, which was previously held by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, only 35,600 people there would lose coverage, the 8th-lowest total of any congressional district. (North Carolina, Florida and Virginia aren't included in the analysis because their district lines have changed in the past year.) See the complete dataset and read about the methodology here.

FIRST IN SCORE - WEB WAR - American Bridge targets Heller with microsite: American Bridge 21st Century is out with a microsite called HellerOnTheRun.com, which keeps a running count of how long Nevada Sen. Dean Heller's gone without holding a public event. (The count today: 2 months and 18 days.)

- Manchin clipped talking about Clinton vote: A new video posted online by the NRSC features Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) saying, "I didn't vote for Donald Trump, I voted for Hillary Clinton." The video clip ends just as Manchin is saying, "That being said-." A clip like this would have carried a lot more weight had Hillary Clinton actually won the election and been president as Manchin was running for a second full term, but even still, look out for it in future TV ads in West Virginia, which gave Clinton just 26 percent of its votes in 2016.

REDISTRICTING CHECK - Maryland Dems kill Gov. Hogan's redistricting plan, via the Baltimore Sun's Erin Cox: "For the second year in a row, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly rejected Republican Gov. Larry Hogan's plan to take away lawmakers' power to draw congressional districts.Without discussion, a key House committee on Monday killed Hogan's proposal to cede that authority - and the less controversial power to General Assembly district boundaries - to a nonpartisan redistricting commission. The 18-5 party-line vote by the House Rules and Executive Nominations Committee effectively erases any hope the governor's redistricting plan will advance this year." Full story.

Q&A - MI-01 Democrat Matthew Morgan, via Campaign Pro's Daniel Strauss: "A Democrat who wants to run against freshman GOP Rep. Jack Bergman freely acknowledges that his party has gotten 'crushed' in the district lately. Matthew Morgan, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel who worked in two presidential administrations and the office of the secretary of defense, thinks he might be able to reverse that in 2018. ... That's as he admits he can't win even if he carries every single Democrat in the district." Full story.

VOTER-LAW UPDATE - America Votes launches "Protect Voters Now!" to work on state voting laws: The progressive nonprofit touted its new project "provid[ing] enhanced legislative advocacy, lobbying and organizing" around voting laws in six states. The effort is working in favor of bills pushing online voter registration, automatic registration and other issues in Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico while lobbying against changes to voter-ID and same-day registration laws in Michigan and New Hampshire. Read America Votes' announcement on the push.

CONSULTANT WATCH - Perriello hires Putnam as admaker: Former Rep. Tom Perriello's campaign for Virginia governor has brought on Putnam Partners' Mark Putnam to make its television ads. The campaign had previously hired Revolution Messaging to handle digital and Expedition Strategies' Pete Brodnitz as pollster.

ADMINISTRATION SPEED READ - "FBI's Trump-Russia probe knocks White House on its heels," by POLITICO's Shane Goldmacher and Matthew Nussbaum: "The White House was knocked on the defensive ahead of its biggest week yet on Capitol Hill after FBI Director James Comey confirmed the existence of an active investigation into Russia's meddling in the presidential election, including whether there was any coordination with now-President Donald Trump's team. The dramatic revelation, made at a Monday hearing of the House Intelligence Committee, dragged the Trump administration yet again back into uncomfortable territory just as it had hoped to highlight the smooth rollout of Supreme Court nominee Neil
Gorsuch ... Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers also publicly refuted his unsubstantiated claims on Twitter that President Barack Obama had ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower phones." Full story.

- "Gorsuch Tries to Put Himself Above Politics in Confirmation Hearing," by the New York Times' Matt Flegenheimer: "Judge Neil M. Gorsuch presented himself on Monday as a creature of consensus during a sharply partisan Supreme Court confirmation hearing ... Democrats, seething from the hearing's opening moments, made clear that they would not let the public forget about Judge Merrick B. Garland ... But when it was his turn, Judge Gorsuch reached often for comity during a well-practiced 16-minute speech, insisting that he favored no party above the law and appearing to brace for attacks from critics who have said his rulings tilt toward corporate interests." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Mr. Chairman, can I ask you for an estimated time? I'm not made of steel, so I might need to take a quick break." - FBI Director James Comey, during Monday's House Intelligence Committee hearing. The Washington Post has a full transcript including the more important parts.

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