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By Kevin Robillard

With Theodoric Meyer and Eli Stokols

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. (
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WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY: RECANVASS FOR KENTUCKY GOP PRIMARY STARTS AT 9 A.M. - Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard on how it all works:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c8931643dcae039420bfb753d4fb481554707e162d0b5275133
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c8931643dcae039420bfb753d4fb481554707e162d0b5275133

-- Meanwhile, the Kentucky press corps is focused on the potential rifts between Bevin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he unsuccessfully challenged last year in a Republican primary. Bevin told WDRB-TV there's "absolutely not" a rift between he and McConnell. "That's the kind of thing that people seem to like the idea of, but his mission and my mission is to move this state forward, and that's what I'm focused on," Bevin told the Louisville-based station.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c89d633c30c9d203106259857f016f2f5abeac3bcd0af230f6e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c89d633c30c9d203106259857f016f2f5abeac3bcd0af230f6e

-- McConnell on Tuesday never directly acknowledged Bevin as the likely nominee, the Cincinnati Enquirer notes, instead saying he would endorse the GOP nominee "as soon as we know when that is." McConnell will also miss the state GOP's Lincoln Day dinner on Saturday, where Bevin is the featured speaker, because of the coming debate on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c891151c737664bcfc563fc61227b175f9aba2adcfe13512019
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c891151c737664bcfc563fc61227b175f9aba2adcfe13512019

HOW THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN LEARNED TO START WORRYING AND FEAR THE BERNIE - POLITICO's Annie Karni examines why Hillary Clinton's team is more afraid of the mad scientist-resembling 73-year-old socialist than the square-jawed former Baltimore mayor. Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, a former Bill Clinton advisor, sums it up: "Sanders could be 2016's Eugene McCarthy. He is the populist symbol well known to his supporters. Clinton is the establishment candidate. Sanders is the insurgent. And O'Malley needs money and has to run a traditional campaign and create a constituency. Sanders' constituency is just waiting to be told the game is on."

-- More from Karni: "Sanders's liberal stances make him well-positioned to inherit the Ready For Warren constituency that O'Malley has also tried to court, through off-the-record meetings with enthusiasts of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Sanders this week hired Kurt Ehrenberg, who ran the New Hampshire effort to draft Warren into the race, to be his top operative in the Granite State. ... Insiders familiar with the Clinton campaign's thinking described it as 'frightened' of Sanders - not that he would win the nomination, but that he could damage her with the activist base by challenging her on core progressive positions in debates and make her look like a centrist or corporatist. The
source described the campaign as "pleased," at least, that O'Malley and Sanders will split the anti-Clinton vote."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c89c5da1bf906d6103e3f7d23dc797ec3161700bd4ad953a5aa
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c89c5da1bf906d6103e3f7d23dc797ec3161700bd4ad953a5aa

-- Also on the O'Malley front, a pair of Baltimore-based consultants with O'Malley ties are launching a super PAC to back his candidacy, the Washington Post reports. It's unclear if the PAC has the backing of any major donors.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c893c15deb0992ba125542f41eda62e4469a00ad907c90b699c
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90b2725cf3e15c893c15deb0992ba125542f41eda62e4469a00ad907c90b699c

FIRST IN SCORE: AMERICAN BRIDGE TAKES ON GENERATION OPPORTUNITY - American Bridge 21st Century, the Democratic super PAC, is out with a new report hitting the Koch Brothers-backed group Generation Opportunity, which targets millennials. "Much of Generation Opportunity's advocacy is focused on lower-profile campaigns that would appeal to young people, such as supporting food trucks and ride-sharing apps like Uber," the report reads. "However, these smaller campaigns are designed to build an audience of millennials to whom the Koch agenda can be pitched; this agenda is aimed at boosting the Kochs' bottom line, often at the expense of these same young people." The report cites Obamacare,
net neutrality and college loans as places where Generation Opportunity is out-of-step with young people.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=cfb56b2e32e985ab690ca87220e4d8928ce1796472d8a0ec9282f819b0a946b7
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Days until the 2015 election: 163; Days until the 2016 election: 534.

Thanks for joining us. Email tips to the whole Campaign Pro team at
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AYOTTE, HASSAN ALL KNOTTED UP AS GIUNTA SLIPS - Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=cfb56b2e32e985abf1f665ba57dda3a9b4eef95aa390183b7608c1b9eed1b1bd
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=cfb56b2e32e985abf1f665ba57dda3a9b4eef95aa390183b7608c1b9eed1b1bd

-- Ayotte repeated the call for Guinta's resignation in an interview with New Hampshire Public Radio:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=cfb56b2e32e985ab05ce04ae2f5ff6bf40ac5831146a64ffb71ddf0426cdbefe
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=cfb56b2e32e985ab05ce04ae2f5ff6bf40ac5831146a64ffb71ddf0426cdbefe

INFLUENCE THEFT: FRANKEN, DUCKWORTH TEAM UP ON FUNDRAISING - The campaign committees and affiliated leadership PACs of Sen. Al Franken and Rep. Tammy Duckworth have formed a joint fundraising committee. Its name? The Frank-Duck Fund.

CRAPO ANNOUNCES CAMPAIGN TEAM - Riverwood Strategies' Todd Cranney, Travis Hawkes and Sarah Nelson will lead GOP Sen. Mike Crapo's reelection bid in 2016. The trio of Idaho natives all worked on the 2012 Mitt Romney presidential campaign. Arena Communications' Brandon Waters will handle direct mail, Sandler-Innocenzi's Jim Innocenzi will be the media consultant and Public Opinion Strategies' Glen Bolger will be the pollster. Spartac's Lou Esposito will handle communications.

PENDING HICKENLOOPER AUTOBIOGRAPHY LOOKS LIKE A VEEP PLAY -Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper will announce Thursday morning that speechwriter Max Potter is leaving his post to ghost write the governor's forthcoming autobiography. Tentatively titled 'The Opposite of Woe' (Penguin Press, April 2016), Potter's book is the clearest indication yet that Hickenlooper, a quirky purple state moderate once thought of as a long-shot White House hopeful, is playing for the Veep slot or a possible cabinet post. 'It'll be focused on a life in the public eye and relationships,' said a source close to the governor, who separated from his wife in 2013 and was reelected last fall. 'He wants it to
be personally revealing.'

BATTLEGROUND TEXAS PREPARES VOTING RIGHTS LAWSUIT - Battleground Texas, the Democratic group aiming to turn the state blue, is looking to sue the state for flaws in its voter registration system that are illegal under the Motor Voter Law. "In a letter sent Wednesday to Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos, lawyers for Battleground Texas, which works to register voters in the state, wrote that the state government's 'voter registration failures are widespread and systematically undermining the right to vote in Texas,'" MSNBC's Zach Roth writes. "... State records obtained via an open records request submitted by the group show that over the last four months of 2013 and all of last year,
counties received over 4,600 complaints from would-be voters about registration issues - some of which appear not even to have been investigated."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=cfb56b2e32e985ab877d26647d07b3858c1aae8a299d5a75e8bb695edc0ec24b
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=cfb56b2e32e985ab877d26647d07b3858c1aae8a299d5a75e8bb695edc0ec24b

2016 SPEED READ - "Hillary Clinton struggles to escape South Carolina scars," by Glenn Thrush in Columbia, S.C.: "The last time Hillary Clinton campaigned in South Carolina, she was overshadowed by the two first black presidents of the United States - Barack Obama and Bill Clinton - but this time, she wants to shift the fight from race to gender. ... [A] few days after Clinton claimed she wasn't seeking a third Obama term, she went out of her way to make it clear to the predominantly African-American audience that she did view herself as Obama's liberal successor. ... It isn't a matter of getting people here to like her - African-American voters in South Carolina seem to find her likable
enough; It's the necessity of transforming benign resignation about her candidacy into genuine Obama-like passion and massive turnout. In that, she faces a tall but not insurmountable task, judging from the polite, supportive but less-than-ecstatic reception she received at several low-key events in the state's Capitol."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=872008796effff153db30ff7917f9216fcb207e73febc79ecc07c52da7b4e6c9
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=872008796effff153db30ff7917f9216fcb207e73febc79ecc07c52da7b4e6c9

- "Florida primary looking like a bad gamble for much of GOP," by Eli Stokols: "For years, Florida Republicans have been trying to boost their state's relevance in the battle for the GOP nomination. But their latest move - making the March 15 primary a winner-take-all contest - is showing signs of backfiring. ... Scott Walker, who leads the early national polls, on Tuesday became the first to tip his hand, saying that he might cede the Sunshine State to Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. ... Walker's own campaign tried Tuesday to walk back his off-the-cuff comment."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=872008796effff15fb012b84c6778fb1048a1dd6ce89230ecef72fde41557ebb
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=872008796effff15fb012b84c6778fb1048a1dd6ce89230ecef72fde41557ebb

- "Rick Santorum faces long odds - again," by Kyle Cheney in Cabot, Pa.: "The Republican Party has a habit of rewarding its second-place finishers with a presidential nomination their next time around. But as Rick Santorum launches his second bid for the presidency, he seems poised to be an exception. The former Pennsylvania senator, who announced his campaign in this Pittsburgh suburb on Wednesday, is missing key staffers and supporters from his 2012 bid. ... 'Rick Santorum's hope is Iowa caucus-goers will flirt with other candidates but ultimately come home to where they're comfortable,' said Tim Albrecht, a Republican strategist who's neutral in the primary."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=872008796effff15ac1f8df5401e7fb19b4d8ed3f49987c29e4f6a58efdc0d44
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=872008796effff15ac1f8df5401e7fb19b4d8ed3f49987c29e4f6a58efdc0d44

WHITE HOUSE, BUT NO HOUSE OF REPS, FOR HILLARY?: Hillary Clinton, if she wins in 2016, could become the first Democratic president never to have a Democratic-run House of Representatives at her disposal during her term of the office. The University of Virginia's Center for Politics has much more:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=872008796effff15a3ef0f504fb5ae4e2018f096f41faa8e8d267ac5319ba7b5
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=872008796effff15a3ef0f504fb5ae4e2018f096f41faa8e8d267ac5319ba7b5

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "You'll probably have to call Ann and ask her." - Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), asked to handicap fellow Arizona Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick's Senate bid.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b330d5f5e984cbb5f60b7b3be251429ab00535b46167720e2cc7fc7fe2bba9a
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b330d5f5e984cbb5f60b7b3be251429ab00535b46167720e2cc7fc7fe2bba9a


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