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By Elena Schneider | 03/02/2017 10:00 AM EDT


With Kevin Robillard and Daniel Strauss

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)

SPECIAL ELECTION SEASON - CLF pumps $1.1 million into Georgia special ads: Congressional Leadership Fund is going after Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff with a $1.1 million TV buy, casting Ossoff as a "frat boy" who's "not serious," ahead of the special election to replace HHS Secretary Tom Price in Congress. The super PAC's ad is the first independent expenditure in Georgia's 6th District, where the top two finishers (regardless of party) will advance to a special election runoff, assuming no one gets a majority in the initial all-party primary. Ossoff, who's raised more than $2 million, is seen as the leading Democratic candidate for this suburban Atlanta seat, but the special election rules
mean he is not assured of a runoff spot. Watch the 30-second ad here. Watch the 60-second ad here. Full story.

- "BAD news" - That's the subject line of an Ossoff fundraising email this afternoon after CLF released its ad. Ossoff has already passed $2 million raised, as Democrats have been pouring small-dollar online donations into his campaign for weeks now, and this will likely give Ossoff another financial kick.

- Montana special election set for May 25: "Montana Gov. Steve Bullock has set Thursday, May 25 as the date for the special election to replace GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke, who was confirmed as Interior secretary Wednesday. ...The Republican and Democratic parties will hold nominating conventions at which party delegates will select their candidates for the special election. Moments after Bullock's announcement, the Montana Democratic Party set its nominating convention for this Sunday, March 5, in Helena. ...The Montana Republican Party has not yet announced the date of its convention, but it is also expected to take place in the next week." Full story.

- Bullock weighs in on the DCCC's approach to the special: "I think they've got to keep their powder dry and wait and see who the candidates are," the governor said in an interview last week. But Bullock noted he had just shown Democrats a path to victory in the state, winning even as Trump topped Hillary Clinton by 20 points and he was massively outspent by the likely Republican candidate, businessman Greg Gianforte.

ACT II - "What's next for Pete Buttigieg?" by Campaign Pro's Daniel Strauss: "Many Democrats feel that there is nowhere to go but up for South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. But they also look at conservative Indiana and worry that, for a rising-star Democrat, there's simply nowhere to go. Buttigieg was already pegged as a Democrat to watch by the likes of The New York Times op-ed pages and former President Barack Obama, even before he ran for chairman of the Democratic National Committee this year. ... Still, impressed Democrats hope that a more-seasoned Buttigieg - who looks set to patiently await an opportunity - could help them break through once again in the state, though he is also
newly in demand for party-building efforts elsewhere. ... Don't expect a quick decision or announcement from Buttigieg on what's next, either. The next major statewide openings aren't until 2020 and 2022, and he doesn't expect to try running against GOP Rep. Jackie Walorski in the meantime." Full story.

DEPT. OF BAD DECISIONS - "'Poorly dressed' Democratic women wore 'bad-looking white pantsuits,'" by POLITICO's Nolan D. McCaskill: "A Republican congressman who is potentially eyeing a Senate run mocked Democratic women on Wednesday for wearing white at President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress. Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said the 'poorly dressed' Democratic women wore 'bad-looking white pantsuits' in solidarity with failed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton." Full story.

'I WANT TO BE A PART OF SOMETHING' - "With a single speech, Trump rattles 2018 landscape," by POLITICO's Gabriel Debenedetti and Kyle Cheney: "The call to Steve Stivers, the chair of House Republicans' campaign wing, came in Tuesday evening, roughly an hour after President Donald Trump ended his speech to a joint session of Congress. On the other line was a former candidate wanting back in on the action. 'He said, "The president did a great job. I'm thinking about this and I might want to run again, I want to be a part of something,''' Stivers said. 'He had taken it off the table and now he called me to say, "I'm thinking about it again. I want to sit down and talk." That was a very
important and positive step.' It's far too early in his term to speculate about what the 2018 political climate might look like. ... But if a large part of Democrats' plan for the 2018 midterm elections was to let Trump stumble his way into a pile of Republican losses, his speech to Congress on Tuesday night reminded them it would not be that easy." Full story.

- And the pendulum swings... see more below on the latest Russia reporting about the administration.

Days until the 2017 election: 250.

Days until the 2018 election: 614.

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 Tibetan women's soccer players. @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin and @danielstrauss4.

Playbook Interview with Nancy Pelosi - Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joins Playbook Co-Authors Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman for a live Playbook Interview that will provide intelligence and insight around the congressional agenda and Washington in the first 100 days of the new Administration and beyond. Friday, March 3 - Doors at 8:20 a.m. - The Newseum. RSVP: here.

AGE OF THE CORD-CUTTERS - "Operatives eye YouTube TV's advertising potential," by Campaign Pro's Scott Bland: Full story.

THE DAY AFTER - DemocracyCorps sees Trump approval rise after speech: The Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund paid DemocracyCorps for dial tests of Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress with key demographics, including millennials, minorities and the white working class. The results? "The president began the night with a majority disapproving of his performance, and he ended with a majority feeling more optimistic about him," the pollsters write. "The speech raised his personal favorability and job approval 11 points and got the attention of minority voters, though Trump's overall gains trailed the 2009 gains of Obama, who was not digging out of a hole." Only 41 percent described
him as presidential before the speech, while 56 percent did so after. Read much more here.

- Podesta Group looks at social reaction: The lobbying firm's digital arm took a look at how Twitter reacted to the speech. Their top conclusion? "President Trump Controlled the Narrative ... While opposition groups attempted to refocus the conversation on themes such as Russia and environmental policies, topics promoted by the president significantly outweighed all others on Twitter throughout the night." Another tidbit: "Regions of the country won by President Trump generated a lower share of the conversation per capita." Read more here.

REDISTRICTING WATCH - Supreme Court calls for further review of Virginia legislative map: "Democrats claimed victory Wednesday as the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a lower court to continue examining Virginia state legislative districts for racial gerrymandering, ruling that a district court had failed to properly evaluate whether the Virginia House of Delegates' legislative map was unconstitutional. ...Justice Anthony Kennedy - writing for Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's four liberal-leaning members - wrote that the district court had wrongly ruled that the use of racial demographic data to draw the districts, including a target that their voting-age populations be at least 55
percent African-American, was immaterial given that the map-drawers had drawn the districts based on other traditional redistricting factors, like geography." Full story. Read the decision here.

THAT'S A NICE WEBSITE YOU GOT THERE, WOULD BE A SHAME IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO IT - "Leaked Snapchat emails: Gun safety charity told to pay or NRA ads may appear on videos," by Mic's Anthony Smith: "Snapchat told a gun safety charity it might run NRA ads on the charity's anti-gun violence awareness campaign - which would have featured videos starring families who lost their loved ones to firearms - if the charity didn't pay Snapchat for advertising, emails provided to Mic by a source close to the exchange show." Full story.

TRANSITIONS - iHeartMedia names Weiss VP of integrated campaigns: iHeartMedia, which includes 850 broadcast radio stations across the country, along with digital assets, live events and outdoor advertising, named Adam Weiss the company's vice president of integrated campaigns. Weiss previously worked as VP of political strategy. He previously worked for the DCCC's independent expenditure arm and for the AFL-CIO.

- Google's Lee Carosi Dunn moves into White House outreach: Lee Carosi Dunn, who worked as Google's head of election sales, will transition into head of White House outreach for Google. She previously served as Google's Senate Republican lobbyist. During the 2016 election, Dunn worked with GOP candidates and super PACs to use online advertising to reach voters at Google.

- NRCC sets up new data department: Full story.

- NRSC adds more digital staff: Full story.

ADMINISTRATION SPEED READ - "Sessions met with Russian envoy twice last year, encounters he later did not disclose," The Washington Post's Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller: "Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia's ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump's campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions's confirmation hearing to become attorney general. One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator's office, at the
height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race. The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia's alleged role in the 2016 presidential election." Full story.

- "Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking," by The New York Times' Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman and Michael S. Schmidt: "In the Obama administration's last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election - and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians - across the government. Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn't duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators. American allies, including the British
and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials - and others close to Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin - and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "After lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General must resign." - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a statement Wednesday evening.

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