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09/19/2016 07:53 AM EDT


By Heather Caygle (hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope)

With assistance from Daniel Lippman

SEPTEMBER SPRINT ENDS WITH A WHIMPER- If all goes according to plan, lawmakers will wrap up this week with a stopgap funding bill in the books and an extra week of campaigning ahead of them. The Senate plans to finish its work on the funding bill this week (assuming a deal is reached today) and House leaders privately hope they can do the same, meaning lawmakers will be leaving town until after Election Day. Hill watchers will be waiting for appropriators to announce a deal on the short-term bill today ahead of a key Senate procedural vote that's teed up for this evening.

One tiny little wrinkle: The House might have to revisit the debate to vote to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen if Rep. Tim Huelskamp follows up with his threat to force a vote on the matter this week. Either way, Koskinen will be on the Hill Wednesday to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, a hearing his lawyers have warned is "no substitute" for official impeachment proceedings, should the GOP choose to go that route.

Unnecessary drama: After a deal was struck to hold off a vote until after the election, many Republicans are saying they hope the Judiciary hearing is the only Koskinen-related action this week. "I know there are a lot of people who feel passionately over [in the House] about that vote but I'm not sure, at this point, what that accomplishes," Sen. John Thune told your Huddle host. "I just think that was some drama that probably wasn't necessary right now." Read more in my story about what to expect this week.

EXCLUSIVE GOP POLL: CRIST AND JOLLY TIED AHEAD OF DEBATE- An internal poll from Rep. David Jolly shows the Florida Republican tied with Democratic challenger Charlie Crist among likely voters, both at 46 percent. The poll from GOP firm Data Targeting also finds that Jolly and Crist both have a favorable rating of 46 percent among likely voters but Crist has an unfavorable rating of 37 percent compared to 16 percent for Jolly. And 38 percent of voters polled either said they had no opinion or had never heard of Jolly. The poll's margin of error is plus/minus 5.7 percentage points.

The latest poll comes ahead of tonight's debate between Crist and Jolly, which kicks off at 7 p.m. and will be streamed by WTSP. People for Pinellas County, a Jolly-aligned super PAC, has purchased $237,000 worth of TV time to run adds from Sept. 29-Oct. 23 and several Republican members of the Florida delegation are hosting a fundraiser for Jolly on Wednesday. The Tampa Bay Times has more on tonight's debate.

GO BIG OR GO HOME: Democrats focus on red states-Senate Democrats are shifting away from traditional battleground states like Ohio and Florida and instead pouring millions into Republican friendly places like North Carolina, Missouri and Indiana, Burgess reports. Senate Democrats' campaign arm is investing "$4.2 million more in North Carolina and $2 million in Missouri, giving the party significant footholds in its efforts to oust Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)."

Recent polls show both senators neck-and-neck with their Democratic challengers, Deborah Ross in North Carolina and Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, who made waves with his gun-related ad last week. And in Indiana, "officials will also spend $2.5 million to help prop up [Evan] Bayh, whose lead against Rep. Todd Young (R-Ind.) has been fading," Burgess reports.

YOU'VE MADE IT TO MONDAY, Sept. 19. You're reading POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, where we're happy to report it's only 50 days until Election Day. Weekend football update: It wasn't pretty but in the end Alabama pulled out the win over Ole Miss, 48-43. Onward!

TODAY IN CONGRESS- The House meets in a pro forma session at 9 a.m. The Senate gavels in at 3 p.m. with a roll call vote related to the stopgap spending bill slated for 5:30 p.m.


OFF THE HILL- House Speaker Paul Ryan talks about his policy agenda at the Economic Club of New York starting at 12:30 p.m.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS AUGUST HAUL- House Democrats' campaign arm brought in $11 million in August, ending the month with $63 million cash on hand, reports the Wall Street Journal's Michelle Hackman this morning. And the House GOP's campaign arm raised $6.7 million last month, ending August with $65.4 million cash on hand, the Hill's Scott Wong reported on Friday.

REID VS. TRUMP, ROUND 3-Turns out we didn't have to wait for the Senate to gavel in today to see how Minority Leader Harry Reid would respond to Donald Trump's comments about the workout accident that severely injured Reid last year. "What a liar...he is just such a phony," Reid told CNN's Manu Raju in a sit-down interview Friday. "I'm blind in one eye, okay, I got that. But I can still see with my good eye what an absolute fraud this man is, who wants to be president of the United States."

AYOTTE'S TOUGH TASK- In order to win in swing-state New Hampshire, Sen. Kelly Ayotte has to convince voters she's not just a run-of-the-mill Republican and distance herself from others on the ballot in the process. The challenge: Donald Trump "has not led a single New Hampshire poll since the general election began. She will also be running alongside two Republican candidates for Congress who are expected to lose badly," writes James Pindell for the Boston Globe.

Get out the vote struggles: "Trump has not invested in much of a ground game this year in New Hampshire, leaving the get-out-the-vote efforts to roughly 50 staffers from the Republican National Committee. [Jim] Merrill, who oversaw Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign in New Hampshire, conceded that Democrats have a much stronger field operation in 2016 than Republicans do. 'What Republicans have right now is nothing like what we had four years ago with Mitt,' Merrill said."

McCONNELL ON SITE FOR LOUISVILLE WHOOPIN'- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was back home in the Bluegrass State this weekend to watch the Louisville Cardinals trounce Florida State 63-20 in a huge upset. McConnell hung out in an RV before the game holding up an "L" for Louisville and wearing a Cardinals button-down with "Offensive Coordinator" embossed on the pocket, reports Andrea Adelson for ESPN (h/t Seung Min). And don't miss the pic, where you can also catch a glimpse of McConnell's clutch phone holster.

SENATE REPUBLICANS WANT ANSWERS ON AIRSTRIKES- "In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry they plan to deliver Monday, almost three dozen Republican senators, including the entire GOP leadership team, are asking for evidence the [Russian airstrikes against Syrian opposition forces] were permissible under the U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the nuclear accord," report Karoun Demirjian and Carol Morello for the Washington Post.

CAN ROB PORTMAN DO THEY CHICKEN DANCE? Oh yes, Sen. Rob Portman can do the chicken dance and you should definitely watch.

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW-Lawmakers face off against lobbyists in the Hoops for Youth charity basketball game at George Washington University. The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. with a GOP-heavy team this year including Sen. Jeff Flake, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and Rep. Cedric Richmond, the team's lone Democrat.

GOP SITS ON SIDELINES IN CALIFORNIA SENATE RACE-- With two Democrats vying for California's open Senate seat, where do Republican members of the state's delegation stand? Most, save for Rep. Darrell Issa, who endorsed Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez in the race, are sitting on the sidelines. The L.A. Times' Sarah Wire with more: "Nearly all of the 14 Republicans in the state's congressional delegation are sitting this one out. ... 'I have no preference,' Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) said. 'They're both bad.'"

ARRIVAL LOUNGE-- Julia Mazzone starts today as deputy director of scheduling and operations for Sen. Marco Rubio. She previously worked at Politico, Rubio's presidential campaign, the RSLC, IMGE, the RNC and Pawlenty for President.

JUST MARRIED-- Stephanie Valle, Daniel Hubbell, from the New York Times: The bride "works in Washington and Kinderhook, N.Y., as the chief of staff for Representative Chris Gibson, a Republican. ... Mr. Hubbell, 40, is an associate at the Albany law firm Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna. ...The couple met in 2014 at the Railroad CrossFit gym in Hudson, N.Y."

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER- Erin Mahrt was the first to correctly guess that Rep. Romualdo Pacheco was the first Hispanic member to be reelected to Congress.

TODAY'S TRIVIA- Clay Robinson brings us today's question: How many presidents won election to the White House without winning the state in which they had resided and who are they? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in tomorrow's Huddle. Get at me: hcaygle@politico.com

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