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12/17/2018 10:00 AM EDT

By ZACH MONTELLARO (zmontellaro@politico.com; @ZachMontellaro)


Editor's Note: This edition of Morning Score is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Campaign Pro subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro's comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here.
THE TOPLINES
THE HEALTH CARE ELECTION, PART TWO? - Could 2020 be fought on similar grounds as the midterms, after a federal judge in Texas ruled that the entirety of the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional? POLITICO's Paul Demko and Adam Cancryn: "The ruling is sure to be appealed, and the Trump administration says it's business as usual in the meantime. But the decision spells bad news for Republicans, by allowing Democrats to replay a potent health care message that helped them flip 40 House seats: the GOP remains hellbent on gutting Obamacare and rolling back protections for pre-existing conditions. ...

"House Democrats had long planned to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of the ACA and will likely introduce a resolution directing the House counsel to defend the law during the first days of the new Congress. People familiar with the conversations say the Democrats will quickly put it to a floor vote that will force GOP lawmakers to either signal support for Obamacare or endorse its elimination - along with the law's most popular patient protections."

DATA WARS - Democrats are warring over a vital resource ahead 2020: their voter file. POLITICO's Alex Thompson: "Just days before an important Tuesday meeting in D.C. on the future of the data operation, Perez sharply criticized a new proposal from state party leaders and singled out prominent state officials by name. 'For some inexplicable reason, this proposal would tear down just about everything about our current data structure, reversing so much of the progress we made over the past decade,' Perez wrote. ...

"The backlash threatens to splinter the state parties and the national committee - technically separate entities - just as Democratic contenders are preparing to launch presidential campaigns."

Good Monday morning. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com or DM me at @ZachMontellaro.

Email the great Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, dstrauss@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com, and lbarron-lopez@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @DanielStrauss4, @JamesArkin and @lbarronlopez.

Days until the 2019 election: 323

Days until the 2020 election: 687
IN THE TRENCHES
THE ARIZONA SEAT - GOP Sen. Jon Kyl will resign at the end of the year, giving Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey the opportunity to appoint another Republican to the seat ahead of the 2020 special election. Campaign Pro's James Arkin: "Prospects include GOP Rep. Martha McSally, who lost a campaign for Arizona's other Senate seat earlier this year; Kirk Adams, Ducey's former chief of staff and a former speaker of the Arizona House; and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery."

STAFFING UP - Kevin McLaughlin will be the next executive director of the NRSC, James reported. Anna Rogers Duncan and Brittney Godoy will head up the finance team.

- The RNC announced that co-chair Bob Paduchik will not seek re-election for the job and will instead join the Trump 2020 campaign. The committee said Tommy Hicks of the America First Action super PAC will run for co-chair.

PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said she was "considering" a run on MSNBC on Friday, saying the eventual nominee must understand the needs of the Midwest, per POLITICO's Caitlin Oprysko.

- Bold prediction from former HUD Secretary Julián Castro: "I'm confident that if a Texas Democrat is on the ballot in 2020 that Texas will go Democratic," he said in an interview with BuzzFeed News' Ryan Brooks.

LESS THAN BETOMANIA? - Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) still remains on the fence on running for president - and whether it's a good idea given his loss in the Senate election. He told The Dallas Morning News' Todd GIllman that it is "a great question" that he asks himself. He adds that he has not "even really begun the serious work of making a decision."

- And while O'Rourke continues to ponder his decision, the left has started to scrutinize him. POLITICO's David Siders: "The criticism - ranging from O'Rourke's membership in the centrist New Democrat Coalition to his acceptance of campaign money from oil industry employees - has so far been confined largely to social media, newspaper opinion pages and online message boards. But as O'Rourke considers running for president in 2020, his potential opponents are quietly taking stock, plotting lines of attack they believe could weaken the Texas congressman in a crowded primary field."

But O'Rourke's supporters are preparing for a fight, and think his successful 2012 run for Congress could be instructive. More from David: "Six years before the high-minded Texas Senate run that lifted his national star, O'Rourke felled an eight-term incumbent House Democrat, Silvestre Reyes, casting him as ineffectual and unethical in a bruising primary campaign. The race pit O'Rourke not only against Reyes, but then-President Barack Obama, who endorsed the sitting congressman, and former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned for Reyes in the West Texas border district. ... Among Democrats in El Paso, the race laid bare a rare asset for a Democratic presidential contender: the ability to
cut at his opposition, while simultaneously carrying the flush of an idealist."

CHANGING THE RULES - Outgoing Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker on Friday signed into law a series of lame-duck bills that strip incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who defeated Walker, of some powers, and liberal groups are mobilizing to try to block the change. Campaign Pro Daniel's Strauss: "The One Wisconsin Institute, supported by the National Redistricting Foundation, said Friday afternoon that lawsuits would be coming after Walker signed the bills. 'This is a shameful attack on our democracy by politicians who will do anything to hold onto power,' former Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement from the National Redistricting Foundation."

GEORGIA ON MY MIND - Democrat Jon Ossoff, famous for being on the losing side of the most expensive special election ever, in GA-06, is considering a run for Senate, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein.

- Republican Gov.-elect Brian Kemp accused Democrats of attempting to hack the state elections system in the waning days of the campaign in his role as then-secretary of state. An investigation from AJC's Alan Judd found that those charges appear to be made up: "[N]o evidence supported the allegations against the Democrats at the time, and none has emerged in the six weeks since, the Journal-Constitution found. It appears unlikely that any crime occurred. 'There was no way a reasonable person would conclude this was an attempted attack,' said Matthew Bernhard, a computer scientist at the University of Michigan".

2016 FOREVER - Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate in 2016, has yet to pay off $53,000 in fines against her campaign from the FEC, The Center for Public Integrity's Dave Leventhal reported. The Stein campaign said it is expects it will pay up by the end of the year.

POLLS POLLS POLLS - We can all agree that it is way, way too early for a Democratic primary poll, right? Now that we have that out of the way: In a CNN/SSRS national poll, former Vice President Joe Biden is leading the field with 30 percent. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is in second with 14 percent, O'Rourke is in third with 9 percent and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is at 5 percent (463 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, Dec. 6-9).

- And an early Iowa caucus poll. A Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll (455 likely Democratic caucus-goers, Dec. 10-13) has Biden at 32 percent, Sanders at 19 percent, O'Rourke at 11 percent and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 5 percent. Meanwhile, their poll of Iowa Republicans (450 registered Republicans, Dec. 10-13) found that 67 percent would vote for the president if the election were held today, while 63 percent also said the state should welcome a primary challenger.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I think we're way too focused on Nancy," Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the new NRCC chairman, reflecting on his party's efforts to villainize House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to Morning Consult.

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