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By Theodoric Meyer | 03/30/2016 10:00 AM EDT


With Elena Schneider and Scott Bland

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)

GOP TOWN HALL - "Trump takes back pledge to support GOP nominee," by POLITICO's Kyle Cheney: "Donald Trump has rescinded his pledge to support the Republican nominee for president. Asked during a CNN town hall whether he stood by the earlier pledge - which he signed in September after meeting with party chairman Reince Priebus - Trump said: 'No, I don't.' 'We'll see who it is,' he told moderator Anderson Cooper." But Trump wasn't the only one. Ted Cruz and John Kasich also backed away from their pledges to back the eventual nominee.

- "Trump said he had been treated 'unfairly' by the Republican National Committee and the GOP establishment. He said he was unsure whether the Republican establishment was plotting to take the nomination away from him during the convention in Cleveland. He also said he didn't need Ted Cruz to promise to support him should Trump win the nomination. 'I'm not asking for his support,' Trump said." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=254f7ff0c6cda716f8125a9e59714308071b1d093053b5e369dce0e15c82ae50

PROBAMACARE - Daughter touts Sestak's support for health law in new Pennsylvania Senate ad: It's not yet listed on former Rep. Joe Sestak's YouTube page, but the Democratic Senate candidate began airing a new TV ad in Philadelphia on Tuesday narrated by his daughter, a brain cancer survivor. "He left the Navy to help me fight brain cancer," Alex Sestak says in the ad. "In the cancer ward, he met too many families that had no health insurance. ... [He] made passing Obamacare his biggest priority so every child could have the same chance I had." The spot follows up on themes from Sestak's earlier advertising, which has touted his family story and support for the health law. Watch the ad:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=254f7ff0c6cda7160d7f71c4359be3238076e64125b6e7a2dc9acfd57f1c863b

FIRST IN SCORE - A pair of California House endorsements: Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown will endorse state Sen. Isadore Hall for the open seat in California's 44th District on Wednesday, according to the campaign. "Isadore Hall is an energetic and effective lawmaker. I'm glad to endorse him for Congress," Brown said in a statement provided to Campaign Pro. Hall is battling attorney Nanette Barragan, a Democrat backed by EMILY's List, for the safe Democratic seat that Democratic Rep. Janice Hahn is vacating. And Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who's running for governor in 2018, announced Tuesday that he's backing Ro Khanna, who's expected to face fellow Democratic Rep. Mike Honda in the general
election.

Days until the Wisconsin primary: 6.

Days until the 2016 election: 223.

Thanks for joining us. You can email tips to the whole Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com, krobillard@politico.com and tmeyer@politico.com.

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally about Philz in the District: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin and @theodoricmeyer.

THE CAMPAIGN PRO INTERVIEW - Murkowski challenger opens up: Margaret Stock is an immigration lawyer and an Army reservist. She's won a MacArthur "genius" grant. But she wants to add one more line to her resume: Alaska senator. The lifelong Republican is now an independent challenging GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who lost her primary in 2010 but held onto her seat by launching an intensive write-in campaign. Stock was a member of the GOP until she left a few months ago, citing the state of the presidential debate within the Republican Party. With no Democrats in the race, she believes she has a shot.

- On switching from being a Republican to an independent: "I'd become increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the debate in the party. The party left me, I didn't leave the party."

- On whether she'll run in the Democratic primary: "I have to make a decision in late May. ... It's an exciting opportunity and I am looking for support from both sides of the aisle."

- On her "genius" grant: "I've used it to do pro bono work for military vets, and continue to doing that. In fact, I was doing it over the weekend, working on two cases."

- On the presidential race: "My favorite presidential candidate [Jeb Bush] has dropped out of the race. ... I'm watching like everyone else." Read the rest of the interview here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=254f7ff0c6cda716262672edf779fbe150b0161e303bf2080dd82e31c71047e4

CAMPAIGN FINANCE OFFENSIVE - "Maryland Senate candidates spar over super PACs in latest debate," by The Washington Post's Rachel Weiner: "Reps. Donna F. Edwards and Chris Van Hollen clashed Tuesday over the role of super PACs in their hard-fought Democratic primary race for a rare open Senate seat in Maryland. At a debate televised by WJLA (Channel 7), Van Hollen attacked Edwards for refusing last summer to sign a pledge barring super PAC involvement in the contest and again urged her to sign it - even though outside groups made possible by the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision have spent heavily on behalf of both candidates. 'Why don't you join me in putting your name to what
you stand for?' asked Van Hollen, who like Edwards opposes the Citizens United decision. Edwards countered that she is 'proud' to have the support of a super PAC run by Emily's List, a group committed to electing female Democrats who support abortion rights and which has committed $2.4 million to the race so far." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=254f7ff0c6cda71614f5b1a5b6904b06a54f38e07183787a2e2f456e0c4fe19d

HE SAID, HE SAID - Reid and Nevada House candidate clash over alleged 'Muslim' comment: A Muslim candidate in Nevada's 3rd District, a swing seat in Southern Nevada, told The Washington Post that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid urged him to drop out of the race, saying "a Muslim cannot win this race." Reid's team categorically denied the allegation, saying Reid did not tell candidate Jesse Sbaih that his religion was the reason he wouldn't succeed. But sources close to Reid did confirm to Jon Ralston Sbaih's "religion came up" in conversations with the House candidate.

- Sbaih and Jacky Rosen, a synagogue leader who was recruited by Reid, are running for the Democratic nomination in GOP Rep. Joe Heck's open swing seat. Sbaih, a personal injury lawyer, said he met with Reid and his political lieutenant, Rebecca Lambe, last August, seeking the senator's support. Both sides agree that Sbaih was urged to seek a different office or a federal job instead, but the stories diverge over the specific reasoning. As Ralston points out: "Could Reid have said something so inartful, so indelicate about his faith in his conversation with Sbaih? The man who has a gaffe catalog thicker than 'War and Peace' will have a hard time getting people to believe he's not capable of
saying it."

OUTSIDE SUPPORT - EMILY's List, Latino Victory Fund start direct mail in MD-04: Two outside groups, EMILY's List and the Latino Victory Fund, are teaming up to support Joseline Peña-Melnyk in the final weeks before the Democratic primary in Maryland's 4th District. EMILY's List's super PAC, Women Vote!, and the Latino Victory Fund will spend $150,000 on a joint direct mail campaign on Monday on behalf of Peña-Melnyk, whom both groups had previously endorsed. The groups will send six pieces of direct mail in the final three weeks before the April 26 primary, targeting "low propensity Democratic primary voters and new registrants," the groups said in a statement.
Peña-Melnyk is running against former Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and Glenn Ivey, a former Prince George's County state's attorney, for the suburban Washington seat, which Rep. Donna Edwards vacated to run for Senate.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Four early appointees say they'd scrap a convention rule that helps Trump," by POLITICO's Kyle Cheney: All four early appointees of the rules committee for this year's Republican convention told POLITICO they're prepared to weaken or scrap a rule that could limit the convention's alternatives to Donald Trump. The four took issue with a rule, originally imposed by Mitt Romney forces in 2012 to keep rival Ron Paul off the convention stage, requiring a candidate to win a majority of delegates in eight states to be eligible for the party's nomination - a threshold only Trump has exceeded so far. If preserved, the rule could block John Kasich or Ted Cruz from competing
with Trump at the convention, set for July in Cleveland. If the committee scraps the requirement entirely, it could open the door to multiple candidates, possibly even some who never entered the primaries, competing for the party's nomination at a brokered convention." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=254f7ff0c6cda7166abcfa813fda43328355fa1308206116458d8b435c0c96e2

- "Pro-Cruz group takes aim at Kasich in Wisconsin," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck: "A group backing Ted Cruz's presidential campaign is going on air in Wisconsin with an attack on John Kasich. Trusted Leadership PAC, a pro-Cruz umbrella organization that houses several supportive super PACs, has made a $500,000 digital, broadcast and radio ad buy in Wisconsin, the group announced Tuesday. The first spot the group is running as part of that buy is a negative hit on Kasich, the Ohio governor whom Cruz has described as a spoiler." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=254f7ff0c6cda716cfa5dee9912a47a1f26964c40affd1a1a09b42211d0a3499

- The key to Sanders' Wisconsin strategy: Madison," by POLITICO's Daniel Strauss: Bernie Sanders is counting on the liberal bastion of Madison to help deliver Wisconsin to him. "Democrats in the state are cautious in handicapping which way Dane County, which includes Madison, will go on the state's April 5 primary, (a Dane Democratic Party straw poll found Clinton beating Sanders 45 to 33 percent) but even Clinton supporters in the region say Sanders has the advantage in Madison. Democrats argue that the farther away from Madison in Dane County, the stronger Clinton is." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=254f7ff0c6cda71610e1e11eff274ac97747b756ca234ddf5ff64ae75ea19856

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "But, sir, with all due respect, that's the argument of 5-year-old." - Anderson Cooper, who didn't seem to think much of Donald Trump's argument during a town hall event on Tuesday that Ted Cruz had "started" a feud in which Trump retweeted a less-than-flattering picture of Cruz's wife. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=254f7ff0c6cda7163eaa25dbe982a544f909fddcb4d0152c2ab89854c706211a

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