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<p>By Alexander Burns (@aburnspolitico, aburns@politico.com) <br />
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<strong>SCORE EXCLUSIVE -- THE BEST DEFENSE</strong>: EMILY's List is launching a significant air offensive in support of Colorado Rep. Betsy Markey, with the independent expenditure arm Women Vote! putting several hundred thousand dollars into television advertising against Republican challenger Corey Gardner. The Women Vote! ad running in Markey's district shows Gardner's face slowly being colored in against a dark background, as the narrator warns viewers about his voting record as a state representative and asks: “Have you taken a good look at Corey Gardner?” <br />
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The script continues: “On health care, Gardner voted to allow insurance companies to deny coverage to children with autism. Gardner even voted against cracking down on deadbeat dads that skip child support payments. When you fill in the picture, it's clear that Corey Gardner is wrong for us.” The ad targets women voters and will run for three weeks, for a total cost of $300,000. Watch it here. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/adNUvP">http://bit.ly/adNUvP</a> <br />
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As Bill Binnie frames the decision, Bill White stuffs his war chest and Joe Manchin makes his choice, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily cheat sheet for the 2010 midterm elections. <br />
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<strong>FRIDAY STANDINGS -- BETTER OFF NOW?</strong> We're about a month into summer and fifteen weeks out from Election Day. As the clock ticks down, here's Morning Score's weekly take on how some of the campaigns should answer the question: Are you better off now than you were seven days ago? <br />
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<strong>YES:</strong> (1) Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, whose Republican opponent for governor blew up his own campaign in spectacular fashion; (2) Former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, who was on the rise in the GOP gubernatorial primary even before Sarah Palin endorsed her; (3) California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who brought in $4.6 million over the last three months to set the quarterly fundraising record for 2010. <br />
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<strong>NO</strong>: (1) Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, who took a week he could have spent preparing for a primary and wasted it explaining a birther-friendly gaffe; (2) Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who couldn't break the seven-figure mark in quarterly fundraising despite campaign help from Joe Biden, Arne Duncan, Jim Messina and Desiree Rogers; (3) Campaign video producers, who saw GOP House candidate Rick Barber become the third Alabama politician (after Tim James and Dale Peterson) to go viral -- and then go down in defeat. <br />
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<strong>SNEAK PEEK -- SBA LIST GOES ROGUE</strong>: The anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, which has endorsed establishment-friendly GOP Senate candidates this cycle including Carly Fiorina and Kelly Ayotte, will back Delaware Senate hopeful Christine O'Donnell's primary challenge to Rep. Mike Castle today. In a statement endorsing O'Donnell, SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser takes a sharp jab at Castle for his position on abortion. “Unlike her primary opponent who has an explicitly pro-abortion voting record, O'Donnell has expressed her strong determination to be a vocal advocate for women and unborn children in abortion debates on the floor of the U.S. Senate,” Dannenfelser says. “A new women's movement which affirms its original pro-life roots is making its way to the U.S. Senate and O'Donnell is one of its brightest new stars.” <br />
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<strong>AND -- AIR WAR</strong>: New Hampshire Senate candidate Bill Binnie, who's spent months contrasting his background in the private sector with GOP rival Kelly Ayotte's experience as a prosecutor, is running a new television commercial that makes the comparison clearer than ever. “Kelly Ayotte, former attorney general, knows how to put people in jail. Bill Binnie, successful businessman, knows how to put people in jobs,” the ad's narrator says. “In these tough economic times, the choice is clear: Bill Binnie and jobs.” Watch the ad here. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/dlKRQt">http://bit.ly/dlKRQt</a> </p><p><strong>TODAY -- MANCHIN'S CHOICE</strong>: The West Virginia governor plans to name a placeholder to the late Sen. Robert Byrd's seat at 2 p.m. today in remarks at the state capitol. His pick is also expected to speak. <br />
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<strong>DRIVING THE CYCLE-- DEMS WIN ON BANKING</strong>: The Senate passed legislation Thursday overhauling the banking system, giving congressional Democrats and the White House a major and unambiguously popular legislative victory. And in a throwback to the health care fight, a debate has already kicked off over whether Republicans would repeal the legislation. Some Democrats -- including the DSCC -- were pushing that line of attack even before the banking bill passed, and House Minority Leader John Boehner made their jobs easier when he declared flatly: “I think it ought to be repealed.” <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/a2o2gJ">http://bit.ly/a2o2gJ</a> <br />
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<strong>SCORE'S TAKE</strong>: This is probably the most valuable accomplishment Democrats have to run on. But with the financial reform debate over, the party needs to advance a larger, clearer narrative about its record in power -- and persuade voters that the still-weak economy doesn't speak for itself. The DNC framed the fall campaign in a Thursday memo contrasting Democrats' “real accomplishments that benefit middle class families and small businesses” with “the disastrous consequences of failed Republican policies that cut taxes for the wealthy, cut rules for big corporations and cut the middle class loose to fend for themselves.” <br />
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<strong>FUNDRAISING TICKER -- GOP'S STRONG FINISH</strong>: Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle raised $2.6 million, besting Harry Reid's $2.4 million ... Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt raised $2.2 million for his Senate campaign, outpacing Democrat Robin Carnahan's $1.5 million ... Florida Rep. Alan Grayson brought in $325,000 in a major drop-off from his $800K-plus first quarter ... GOP House challengers Alan Nunnelee, Steve Stivers, Adam Kinzinger, Jackie Walorski and more outraise Dem incumbents ... <br />
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<strong>THE ONE WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR</strong>: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist raised $1.8 million for his Senate campaign and ended the quarter with $8.2 million in the bank after leaving the GOP in late April to run as an independent. His quarterly take was far behind Republican Marco Rubio's $4.5 million bonanza, but Rubio spent heavily and ended up with some $4.4 million on hand. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/dpDtfQ">http://bit.ly/dpDtfQ</a> <br />
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<strong>DENIAL OF THE WEEK</strong>: The Republican Governors Association released a statement pushing back on Colorado news reports that the committee decided to cut and run from the governor's race due to former Rep. Scott McInnis's plagiarism scandal. “We are as committed today to our efforts in Colorado as we were a week, a month or two months ago. Our goal has been, and remains today, to ensure that Coloradans do not have to suffer through four more years of Bill Ritter's failed policies of raising taxes and killing jobs - and that means defeating John Hickenlooper,” spokesman Tim Murtaugh said. “We will not waver from that goal. It is unfortunate, however, that the news media has chosen to whip itself into a frenzy and run with unsubstantiated rumors that are patently false.” Not mentioned: Scott McInnis! <br />
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<strong>2012 TALKER</strong>: POLITICO's Jonathan Martin got some altitude on the early presidential maneuverings revealed in candidates' quarterly filings, concluding that Mitt Romney's war machine makes him the man to beat on the Republican side. Martin: “He's already landed the support of überlobbyist Wayne Berman, a top fundraiser for John McCain's campaign. Romney also is sitting down in the Capitol to plot strategy and renew ties with members and their chiefs of staff who backed his last bid. And he is paying visits to GOP congressional leaders such as House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. In New York, Romney has been similarly aggressive in trying to make new friends. He held a large, $1,000-per-person breakfast fundraiser in May at the Waldorf-Astoria that featured Wall Street titans such as former Goldman Sachs Chairman John Whitehead, Henry Kravis of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and investor and former Republican National Committee finance Chairman Lewis Eisenberg - all McCain supporters in 2008.” <a target="_blank" href="http://politi.co/9ncivY">http://politi.co/9ncivY</a> <br />
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<strong>ACROSS THE BIG MAP</strong> -- with POLITICO's Tim Alberta: <br />
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-- White's war chest grows. Former Houston Mayor Bill White outraised Texas Gov. Rick Perry over the period since their state's March primary, bringing in $7.4 million to Perry's $7.1 million. White has $9 million in the bank, compared with $5.9 million for Perry, who entered the general election after spending heavily on his GOP primary with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/cl4tC0">http://bit.ly/cl4tC0</a> <br />
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-- Anti-Sestak spot killed. Two Pennsylvania television stations took down an ad attacking Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak after the congressman wrote a letter complaining about its accuracy. The Chamber of Commerce-backed spot claimed Sestak voted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “100 percent of the time” -- a statistic the congressman challenged and persuaded WPGH and WPMY to reject. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/bVWmTD">http://bit.ly/bVWmTD</a> <br />
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-- DGA's hand -- revealed! New IRS filings confirm that the Democratic Governors Association funded a supposedly conservative Iowa group that attacked former Gov. Terry Branstad during the Republican primary. The DGA spent some $782,500 going after Branstad -- comparing him to former President Clinton, Speaker Pelosi and President Obama -- as he competed with conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats for the GOP nomination against Gov. Chet Culver. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/ddbgk9">http://bit.ly/ddbgk9</a> <br />
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-- Team player in Arizona. Wealthy NRA board member Buz Mills, who left the Republican primary for governor of Arizona earlier this week, predicted after pulling out that incumbent Gov. Jan Brewer would get beaten in the fall by Democratic state Attorney General Terry Goddard. “I think he's unbeatable,” Mills said of Goddard, the state's attorney general. “When Republicans start acting like Democrats, the public elects real Democrats.” <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/dmotqZ">http://bit.ly/dmotqZ</a> </p><br>
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