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By Elena Schneider | 07/28/2017 10:00 AM EDT


With Daniel Strauss and Zach Montellaro

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)

THIS IS UNEXPECTED - "Delaney eyes 2020 presidential run," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard and Heather Caygle: "Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) plans on bypassing runs for governor and reelection and has told associates he is seriously considering a bid for president in 2020, according to two Democratic sources. Five Democratic sources in the state said buzz about the Delaney's intentions for 2018 and 2020 has been building for weeks, with increasing chatter about a presidential bid. Delaney, who could self-fund a run for governor, will skip a challenge against popular GOP Gov. Larry Hogan. He will also leave Democrats to defend his district, which he nearly lost in 2014. Democrats in the state
believe he will announce his plans in a Washington Post op-ed on Friday. ... A presidential bid would seem quixotic: Delaney is little-known even among Democratic operatives, and his moderate stances and background in finance don't match a left-leaning Democratic primary electorate." Full story.

IN THE DETAILS - "Johnson Amendment changes moving through House, with all sides watching warily," by Campaign Pro's Maggie Severns: "Free speech proponents, campaign finance watchdogs and religious leaders are all closely watching an appropriations rider that would chip away at rules barring churches from participating in politics, divided not only by their politics but by whether the rider would have any effect at all. The language, tucked into a House appropriations bill that recently passed out of committee, strikes at the Johnson Amendment, which bars nonprofits from endorsing or opposing candidates and spending money in elections. President Donald Trump promised to undo the amendment
on the campaign trail, but to do so would take an act of Congress. Trump signed an executive order this year that mostly symbolically addressed the issue by instructing the IRS to not take action against churches that take political positions. Full story.

CASH RACE - "Senate Majority PAC raised $4.5M in first half of 2017," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic super PAC controlled by allies of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, raised $4.6 million in the first six months of 2017, its fastest-ever fundraising start at the beginning of an election cycle. The super PAC has spent little, and ended June with $4.5 million in the bank. Senate Majority PAC is expected to play a major role in Senate Democrats' defensive effort in 2018, when ten Democratic senators are facing reelection in states President Donald Trump won last November. In five of those states - Indiana, West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota and
Missouri - Trump won by more than 10 percentage points." Full story.

HMM ... - "Paul LePage says Susan Collins is going to run for governor," by the Maine Sun Journal's Steve Collins: "Gov. Paul LePage said Thursday he believes that Maine's senior senator, Republican Susan Collins, has her eye on the Blaine House. 'I think she knows what she's doing. She's planning to run for governor,' LePage told Portland radio station WGAN." Full story.

Days until the 2017 election: 101.

Days until the 2018 election: 465.

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

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @danielstrauss4 and @maggieseverns.

STAFFING UP - Buckeye Battle PAC adds top operatives: Buckeye Battle PAC, a pro-Mike Gibbons super PAC, has brought on a pair of veteran Republican operatives, Gentry Collins and Eric Woolson. According to the press release announcing the hires: "Gentry Collins joins as the senior political advisor, overseeing strategy and coalitions. During the 2010 election cycle, Collins served as the national political director at the Republican National Committee, tasked with building get-out-the-vote infrastructure nationwide. Under his direction the Republican Party made more volunteer voter contacts than any other cycle in history. The unprecedented ground game in 2010 played a major role in
returning a Republican majority to Congress ... Eric Woolson joins Buckeye Battle PAC as the director of communications. Woolson is a former communications director for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who was recently confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to China. Best known for managing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign to a stunning victory in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, he has served in communications roles for six presidential candidates, numerous state and federal candidates and at three Republican National Conventions."

ON DEFENSE - "Pelosi defends Brady amid campaign investigation," by POLITICO's Heather Caygle: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is defending Rep. Bob Brady amid a federal probe into allegations his campaign illegally paid a primary challenger to drop out in 2012. The investigation came to light this week after Carolyn Cavaness, a former campaign manager and fiancé of Jimmie Moore, Brady's 2012 challenger, pleaded guilty for her role in helping illegally transfer $90,000 from the lawmaker's campaign coffers to Moore. Pelosi said she has confidence in Brady, who has served in the chamber for nearly two decades and is the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee." Full
story.

CHANGE OF TUNE - "As Democrats Lay Into Trump, Cuomo Takes a Different Tack," by The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher: "Donald Trump may be the two most potent words in Democratic politics, but Andrew M. Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York, has spent much of the last six months going out of his way to avoid them. Nearly as soon as Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Cuomo began dancing around invoking the president's name on the stump, skirting attacks in print and sidestepping reporters' questions about the president. As the Democratic Party's watchword in 2017 has become 'resist,' Mr. Cuomo, who has garnered attention as a possible presidential candidate in 2020, has instead opted to
coexist." Full story.

POLLING DATA - Alabama Senate poll shows Strange with lead: A poll from the Raycom News Network and Strategy Research gives Sen. Luther Strange a narrow lead of likely registered voters in the Republican primary. Former Chief Justice Roy Moore is right on his heels with 33 percent and Rep. Mo Brooks has 16 percent, per WBRC. The IVR poll was in the field on July 34 and surveyed 3,000 registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 2 percent.

STEPPING UP - "Next Kansas governor would be a surgeon, Brownback loyalist," by the Associated Press's John Hanna: "Jeff Colyer is preparing to become Kansas' next governor after nearly a decade helping fellow conservative Republicans shape health care policy and serving as a loyal lieutenant governor and plastic surgeon, who squeezed in medical relief missions to disaster and war zones. Colyer would be elevated when his two-term running mate, GOP Gov. Sam Brownback, resigns to become President Donald Trump's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. ... Colyer would serve the remainder of Brownback's term, which ends in January 2019. The 57-year-old Colyer already was seen
as a potential Republican candidate for governor next year because Brownback was term-limited. He was often the administration's spokesman on health issues and served in the Legislature before first running on Brownback's ticket in 2010." Full story.

ONLINE FUNDRAISING BONANZA - "Democratic 'nominee funds' top $100K in 12 districts," via Campaign Pro's Scott Bland: "Democratic small-dollar donors have already poured over $100,000 into escrow funds for the eventual nominee in 12 GOP-held battleground House districts, according to a new tool launched by Swing Left, one of the prominent groups raising money into such funds. Swing Left has launched a leaderboard tool to track district-by-district fundraising by its donors, and to give activists a platform to launch their own fundraising efforts. The tool includes the combined total with other groups, like ActBlue, that have also set up online 'nominee funds' that will flow to Democratic
primary winners next year." Full story.

ADMINISTRATION SPEED READ - "Scaramucci declares war on Priebus, Bannon," via POLITICO's Josh Dawsey: "Anthony Scaramucci, the flashy and sometimes profane Wall Street financier, was brought on as White House communications director last Friday. It's already clear he's a lot more than that. In the span of six days, he has launched a brutally edged campaign to identify White House leakers, threatened to "fire everybody" in the communications shop, and has declared war on chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon. Scaramucci, who boasted that he reports directly to President Donald Trump, has described his role as "fixing the place," said one person who spoke with him
this week. And he's wasting no time. In a vulgar interview with The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza on Wednesday night, Scaramucci laced into Priebus for trying to 'c--- block' him from a job in the White House, called him a 'f------ paranoid schizophrenic,' and questioned Bannon's loyalty. 'I'm not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own c---,' he said." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Running mates don't matter. They do nothing to help you. All they can do is hurt you politically in terms of a race and who's voting for who." - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, talking about the selection by his running mate, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who is running for his job this year, via POLITICO New Jersey.

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