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12/14/2018 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 Pro Campaigns 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 ACTBLUE MACHINE - ActBlue, the massive Democratic online fundraising platform, released a review of its midterm cycle - and you can see why Republicans are increasingly worried that they don't have an answer to this blue behemoth.

An absolutely eye-popping $1.6 billion (with a B!) from 4.9 million unique donors flowed through the platform this cycle, on its way to 14,820 different Democratic candidates and causes, the report says. Of those donors, a whopping 63.8 percent were first-time givers on the platform. Sixty percent of ActBlue donors were women.

And perhaps most important: Small donations became a legitimate and viable fundraising strategy for Democrats, largely thanks to ActBlue. In the battle for the House, almost 55 percent of dollars from individual contributions to Democratic candidates came from the platform, and that figure was 61.3 percent for the Senate, the report says. Small donations amassed through the platform were rivaling or surpassing donors giving larger amounts of money elsewhere.

The big question: Will this momentum remain in 2020 downballot races, especially when there's a wide open Democratic primary hoovering up donors' dollars (small and large alike)? Is small donor cash a zero-sum game? In 2018, the answer was a pretty resounding no. Even with mega-fundraisers like Rep. Beto O'Rourke's Texas Senate bid, there was really no federal Democratic candidate hurting for cash.

Happy Friday! Remember that local Arkansas candidate highlighted in Score recently who ended up in a tied race because he didn't make it to the polls in time to vote for himself? Well, he ended up losing the election in a dice roll. Ouch! 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: 326

Days until the 2020 election: 690
IN THE TRENCHES
NC-09, CONTINUED - Mark Harris, the Republican nominee in the district, reportedly directed his campaign to hire McCrae Dowless, the independent contractor who worked for his campaign and who is at the center of the election fraud scandal in the district. The Washington Post's Amy Gardner and Beth Reinhard: "Harris was warned about possible fraud on primary day in June 2016, during his first bid for the 9th District congressional seat, according to people familiar with the conversation. ... A year later, they said, when Harris resolved to run for Congress again, the candidate personally directed the hiring of Dowless ...

"Harris's wife, Beth Harris, said in a text message Thursday: 'We actually don't recall any 'aide' saying anything on election night' of 2016. She added: 'It was a crazy night where we were up and then went down.'"

- Republicans in North Carolina are already looking for ways to ditch Harris as the nominee in NC-09, if a new election is called. My new Campaign Pro colleague Laura Barrón-López: "Preparations to field a Republican other than Harris are still in the early stages. [Rep. Robert] Pittenger and [former Gov. Pat] McCrory are considered the top potential challengers to Harris in a new election - but McCrory isn't interested, according to those close to him, and Pittenger's camp has been tight-lipped during the investigation into Dowless' activities during the general election. (There were also absentee ballot irregularities in Harris' narrow primary win over Pittenger.) Pittenger
spent down nearly all the money he had in his campaign account after his primary loss, meaning he would have to raise money from scratch for a new campaign."

THE NEXT KOCH - Chase Koch, the son of Charles Koch, is preparing to step into a leading role in the influential family network. But he could chart out a very different path. POLITICO's Maggie Severns: "Chase Koch, who prefers to work from Wichita rather than the network's headquarters near Washington, is already steering his work within the Koch network in ways that avoid the hard-charging political gamesmanship that the Kochs used to further the Republican Party over the past decade - and that made Charles and David Koch household names. In a word, he's no partisan.

"'I have found that focusing on the things you can agree on can lead to amazing opportunities to solve problems, even if you disagree on a whole host of other issues,' Koch told POLITICO Magazine in a phone conversation and via email this fall, adding that he aims to be a bridge-builder and an innovator focused on civil society. ... 'I start with the idea that to learn and grow, you've got to be open to other people's ideas." Koch confessed that politics, while important, is 'not at all what I'm passionate about.'"

STAFFING UP - The DCCC announced a slate of new senior staffers: Allison Jaslow will be executive director, Jalisa Washington-Price will be chief of staff, Ryan Thompson will be chief digital officer and Jared Smith will be comms director.

I'M JUST A BILL - Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) and a handful of other Democrats introduced a bill in the House to match the Senate bill, S.J. Res. 64 (115), that would reverse a Trump administration rule allowing some political nonprofits to avoid listing some donors, which unexpectedly passed on Wednesday. The bill faces a steep climb to House passage, however.

- Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) teamed up to introduce a bill (H.R. 7267) seeking to rein in certain types of political spending. Their Political Accountability and Transparency Act would seek to tighten coordination rules between super PACs and candidates, require political groups to disclose top donors in advertisements and crack down on leadership PACs, according to a summary from Gallagher's office (also, you're welcome for getting that Schoolhouse Rock song stuck in your head).

DOWN IN FLORIDA - Democrat Andrew Gillum was hammered by his alleged connection to an FBI probe in Tallahassee. But when the indictment was released, one name was absent: his. POLITICO Florida's Marc Caputo: "Republicans spent at least $7 million on TV ads - 27 percent of the total $26 million dropped on air in the general election - attacking Gillum in connection with the FBI probe. But the investigation, records indicate, ultimately had little to do with the former mayor."

POWER GRABS - New Jersey state Democrats are drawing criticism from within their party for a proposal that would "essentially [write] gerrymandering into the state constitution," as The New York Times' Nick Corasaniti puts it: "Eric H. Holder Jr., a former attorney general under President Barack Obama and a potential presidential candidate in 2020, called on the Democratic lawmakers in the New Jersey Legislature, who have significant majorities in both chambers, to rethink their plan. ... [The proposal] overhauls the makeup of a redistricting committee to give more power to legislative leaders. It also establishes a 'fairness test' requiring district maps to reflect how major political
parties perform in statewide elections for governor, senator and president." Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy also criticized the plan.

- Outgoing Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker signaled his support for some of the measures that would strip incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers of some powers. The AP's Riley Vetterkind: "In a social media post Walker, who is still reviewing the legislation, sent the clearest sign yet he intends to sign the bills into law. ... Evers said after speaking to Walker last week he was 'not particularly encouraged' Walker would put a stop to the Republican effort that has received attention nationwide."

THE PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - President Donald Trump is itching for a primary challenge from the center. When asked about a potential challenge from either outgoing Ohio Gov. John Kasich of Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake in a Fox News interview, Trump said "I hope so," per POLITICO's Rebecca Morin.

NEVER TOO EARLY - Today brings 2020 Senate rankings, after Thursday's assessment of the House. Kyle Kondik of Sabato's Crystal Ball is up with his rankings, putting three seats in the toss-up category: Colorado (GOP-held), Alabama (Democrat-held) and the Arizona special (GOP-held). All told, Democrats hold 12 seats that are up for reelection, while Republicans have 22.

SO LONG - GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin's bid to get his loss in the ME-02 runoff tossed suffered a serious setback after a federal judge (appointed by the current administration) ruled against him in a lawsuit. Maine Public Radio's Steve Mistler: "Judge Lance Walker's 30-page ruling was thorough and potentially devastating to Poliquin and Maine Republicans' quest to rid Maine of an election system that allows voters to rank candidates for federal office in order of preference. Not only did Walker disagree with the array of constitutional claims Poliquin's attorneys made against the law, but he also declined to grant Poliquin's request to order a new election in Maine's 2nd Congressional District
race."

THE ENFORCERS - The FEC held its last meeting of the year, with a handful of interesting tidbits for the coming year. Ellen Weintraub was elected chair and Matthew Petersen was elected vice chair, and the 2019 meeting dates for the first half of the year were set. The commission also issued an interesting advisory opinion, which would allow members of Congress to use campaign cash "for cybersecurity-related expenses for their personal electronic devices and accounts." Here's a full rundown of the meeting, from the FEC.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The United States Senate is no longer the world's greatest deliberative body and everybody needs to quit saying it." - Defeated Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in her farewell speech on the floor of the Senate.

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