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<p>By Alexander Burns (@aburnspolitico, aburns@politico.com) <br />
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<strong>SCORE PREVIEW -- CHAMBER FOR FIORINA</strong>: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will back Carly Fiorina's challenge to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer today, with Bill Miller, the Chamber's senior vice president and political maestro, calling Fiorina “an invaluable leader who has a common sense approach to job creation and getting America back on the road to recovery.” Miller will join Fiorina at three events -- in Bakersfield, Fresno and Long Beach -- where local Chamber of Commerce groups plan to throw their support behind the former Hewlett-Packard executive's bid. “We're endorsing Carly because she understands the challenges businesses are facing and will stand up for the people of California during these tough economic times,” Miller says in a statement. The Chamber has been ramping up its activities in the fight for the Senate, backing Marco Rubio in late July and running new ads against Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois last week. <br />
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<strong>AND -- DEEP IN THE HEART OF</strong> ... President Obama makes two fundraising stops in Texas today, visiting Austin for the DNC and Dallas for the DSCC. Republican Gov. Rick Perry will meet Obama on the tarmac in Austin -- while Perry's Democratic challenger, former Houston Mayor Bill White, will be a safe distance away in Midland. Republicans are having fun with White's dodge, which highlights the basic awkwardness of contesting Texas as seriously as the Democrats are this year. The Perry campaign plans to blast out a much-cleverer-than-average hit splicing White into the famed “Yes We Can” video (Subtitles include: “Yes, Bill White can ... raise your taxes.”) The RNC, meanwhile, dubs the president “ALONE ON THE RANGE.” The Dallas Morning News notes that White's ticket will be represented in Austin: “Linda Chavez-Thompson - a vice chairwoman of the national party who is challenging Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst - will attend both Obama events.” <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/99f4Z0">http://bit.ly/99f4Z0</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/cAWDMT">http://bit.ly/cAWDMT</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/chg1Tg">http://bit.ly/chg1Tg</a> <br />
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As Mark Kirk tackles Iran, Scott McInnis makes a deal and Mitt Romney turns the ignition, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily cheat sheet for the 2010 midterm elections. Brought to you this week from the beautiful 10th Congressional District of Massachusetts. <br />
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<strong>MONDAY STAKES</strong>: There are 12 weeks left before Election Day, and just 24 hours until the biggest primary day in two months. Here's Morning Score's weekly list of the candidates and campaigns that have the most to gain or lose in the week ahead: <br />
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(1) Mike Huckabee, who has touched off a totally elective proxy fight with Sarah Palin in the Georgia governor's race, swooping in to campaign for Nathan Deal a day before Palin was due to visit for Karen Handel; (2) California Attorney General Jerry Brown, whose push to restart same-sex weddings after the Prop 8 ruling could help animate his campaign for governor; (3) Jeb Bush, who's about to flex his political muscle -- or try -- for state Attorney General Bill McCollum's struggling gubernatorial bid; (4) Louisiana Senate candidate Chet Traylor, Sen. David Vitter's GOP primary challenger, who has vowed to run television ads this week targeting the incumbent and has limited time and money with which to make his mark; (5) Self-funders across the country, who should look to Mark Dayton in Minnesota and Ned Lamont, Tom Foley and Linda McMahon in Connecticut for early signs of how far their money can take them. <br />
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<strong>STILL THE ONE TO BEAT</strong>: Former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel is approaching a majority in the Republican runoff primary for governor, taking 47 percent of the vote in a poll published over the weekend by the Georgia Newspaper Partnership. Former Rep. Nathan Deal drew 42 percent support in the Mason-Dixon survey. The details: “While Handel leads overall, the poll found that Deal gets nearly a majority - 48 percent - of support from voters who backed a losing candidate in the primary. Those voters, who backed former state Sen. Eric Johnson, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine or one of the three other candidates in the primary, could be the key to Tuesday's vote ... [I]n South Georgia Johnson and Oxendine had their best showing, making voters from that region a key for Tuesday's runoff.” <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/aW2s0T">http://bit.ly/aW2s0T</a> <br />
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<strong>IN COLORADO -- ALMOST A MONTH LATER</strong>: Former GOP Rep. Scott McInnis has agreed to return the $300,000 he earned from the Hasan Family Foundation, through a fellowship that paid him for articles he turned out to have plagiarized. The scandal over McInnis's misappropriated writings has threatened to derail his campaign for governor, leaving a very real chance that he could lose tomorrow's Republican primary to former credit reporting company executive Dan Maes. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/aOieEL">http://bit.ly/aOieEL</a> <br />
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<strong>TODAY -- SENATE SNEAK PEEK</strong>: Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk plans to launch a series of seven policy speeches today, beginning with an address on foreign affairs and national security intended to frame him as the responsible hawk in the race for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. From the prepared text: “The post Cold War era is still in its inception. We will be its authors and this time is our test. … In this new century, we must be the 'realistic idealists' … So what does an effective bipartisan foreign policy with Iran look like? One of the most effective sanctions we can impose is cutting off Iranian imports of gasoline. … Talking to our adversaries should never take precedence over our security or that of our allies. … The U.S.-Israel alliance is a - quote - 'extraordinary relationship' based on our shared democratic values.” <br />
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<strong>WEEKEND MUST-READ</strong>: POLITICO's Jonathan Martin was on the ground in Fancy Farm, Ky., this weekend for the Bluegrass State's premier political event. What he found: “With a rowdy crowd of a few thousand in front of them and a bluegrass band to their side, [Democratic Senate candidate Jack] Conway, [Republican candidate Rand] Paul and their surrogates competed to stamp the opposition as extreme, out-of-touch and downright dangerous. For the Democrats, that meant portraying Paul as a radical with little interest in defending Kentucky, a poor state long dependent on federal aid, who is consumed with positioning himself as a national leader of the new right. Paul, roared Conway, 'wants to be the prince of cable TV.' ... Paul and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell repeatedly invoked the [Democratic P]arty's leaders, both of whom are deeply unpopular in Kentucky, in an attempt to nationalize the race. 'I say to Nancy Pelosi: Come on down to Kentucky, campaign with Jack,' Paul said.” <a target="_blank" href="http://politi.co/bEcHFe">http://politi.co/bEcHFe</a> </p><p><strong>JEFF GREENE BOMBSHELL -- ACT SURPRISED</strong>: The billionaire Florida Senate candidate made about $21 million off a California real estate deal that resulted in massive mortgage fraud, the St. Petersburg Times reports. What you need to know: “At a project called La Mirage, Greene converted 1950s-era military housing from apartments to 300 condos. ... Greene's company unloaded the units, some for as much as $165,000. The buyers turned out to be people who never intended to own the properties or pay back the loans. Within 18 months, all of the La Mirage buyers defaulted on their loans and every condo was in foreclosure. Low-income tenants, still paying rent and unaware their apartments had been sold, found themselves on the street. Lenders recouped about $25,000 per unit when the properties went up for auction. Banks - and ultimately U.S. taxpayers who bailed out the banks - were left holding the bag on nearly $34 million of worthless paper. Now James Delbert McConville, Greene's counterpart in the transaction, is in jail facing criminal charges of conspiracy and money laundering stemming in part from the La Mirage transaction.” <br />
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<strong>NOW THE BAD PART</strong> -- The candidate explains why he signed blank deeds that enabled the fraud: “Greene said he was unaware that the blank deeds were recorded showing him getting as much as $165,000 a unit from individual investors who turned out to be straw buyers. 'I'm always signing blank deeds. That's how an escrow company works,' Greene said. 'If he (McConville) put the deeds in other people's names, that's his business. All I care about is that I get my money.'” <a href="http://bit.ly/c50cNR">http://bit.ly/c50cNR</a> <br />
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<strong>AFL-CIO MEETS AMC</strong>: Liz Shuler, secretary treasurer of the AFL-CIO, will boost Washington Sen. Patty Murray and batter Republican challenger Dino Rossi at a convention in Tacoma Monday -- and offer a pop culture-laced version of the Democrats' message on jobs. “Is anyone here a fan of the AMC series Mad Men?,” she'll ask her audience. “It's about growth and shared prosperity. I'm talking about what Don Draper and Peggy and the rest sell, and who they sell to. Whether it's lipstick, cameras, televisions or cars, their ad campaigns sell American goods to American families, who are building wealth and a better standard of living by manufacturing those same goods. ... We don't want that time back-but we're going to win that pie back.” <br />
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<strong>2012 TALKER -- SAME HOME STATE, DIFFERENT DASHING REPUBLICAN</strong>: Mitt Romney showed up at a New Hampshire fundraiser last week behind the wheel of a decidedly Scott Brown-like vehicle, the AP and Boston Herald report. The Herald's Hillary Chabot: “The likely 2012 presidential contender rolled up to a New Hampshire fund-raiser in a Chevy pickup - taking a page from the Senate's newest GOP all-star. ... Spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney, spotted in the truck Thursday, isn't trying to emulate Brown's common man persona that helped the Wrentham native claim the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's seat in January. 'He usually takes it with him when he goes to his place in New Hampshire, so he can hitch a boat trailer or take things to the dump,' Ferhnstrom said of the black Chevy Silverado, which Romney bought in 2002. It's registered to his wife, Ann. ... Brown dashed off a statement, saying, 'I think Governor Romney's truck has more dents and scratches in it than mine!'” <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/9xPXpp">http://bit.ly/9xPXpp</a> <br />
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<strong>POLL OF THE DAY</strong>: Former GOP Sen.-turned-independent gubernatorial candidate Lincoln Chafee is neck-and-neck with Democratic state Treasurer Frank Caprio in Rhode Island, a Brown University poll shows. The two are vying to succeed Republican Gov. Don Carcieri, and Caprio currently pulls 28 percent support to Chafee's 27 percent. Republican John Robitaille languishes at seven percent. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/bcwVFy">http://bit.ly/bcwVFy</a> <br />
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<strong>PLUS -- THE NEW PEOPLE'S SEAT</strong>: Providence Mayor David Cicilline has a sizable lead in the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy. He takes 32 percent of the vote to former Rhode Island Democratic Party Chairman Bill Lynch's 15 percent. Anthony Gemma and state Rep. David Segal trailed behind with 11 percent and five percent, respectively. Caveat: the 1st District subsection of the poll had a massive, 7.4-percent margin of error. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/bcwVFy">http://bit.ly/bcwVFy</a> <br />
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<strong>ACROSS THE BIG MAP</strong> -- with POLITICO's Tim Alberta: <br />
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-- Jeb watch: Not just for McCollum. The former Florida governor is now starring in television ads for former state Sen. Dan Webster's campaign against Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson. Bush calls Webster “one of the most principled people I've ever met,” recalling: “Dan Webster and I worked together to change government.” Bush's endorsement will help set Webster apart from a packed -- and underfunded -- primary field. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/aFD6sl">http://bit.ly/aFD6sl</a> <br />
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-- Landrieu for Richmond. Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is the latest Democrat to line up behind state Rep. Cedric Richmond's bid against Republican Rep. Joseph Cao. Landrieu's endorsement follows the DCCC's decision to back Richmond in a competitive primary for the heavily Democratic seat. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/9PmpOg">http://bit.ly/9PmpOg</a> <br />
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-- Adler: Don't look at me. Democratic Rep. John Adler denied this weekend that his campaign played a role in getting tea party candidate Peter DeStefano on the November ballot, despite suggestions that Democrats have been promoting DeStefano as a potential spoiler candidate. “I know we weren't part of it,” said Adler, who faces Republican former NFL player Jon Runyan in the general election. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/a5EGyW">http://bit.ly/a5EGyW</a> <br />
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-- Fedele on Foley's turf. Connecticut Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele won an endorsement in the GOP gubernatorial primary from opponent Tom Foley's hometown newspaper, the Greenwich Time. With Fedele, “there would be no learning curve” in the governor's office, the paper writes. The Fedele campaign pushed out internal polling numbers Sunday suggesting their candidate had overtaken Foley, leading 28 percent to 24 percent. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/ch3Cgv">http://bit.ly/ch3Cgv</a> <br />
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-- Emmer makes some changes. Minnesota state Rep. Tom Emmer, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, shook up his staff over the weekend, bringing in former Norm Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan to run his bid and enlisting former state GOP Chairman Chris Georgacas as an adviser. Consultant Tom Mason is out at the campaign, which has struggled with fundraising and message discipline so far. <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/aEJoFP">http://bit.ly/aEJoFP</a> </p><br>
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