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By Elena Schneider | 12/01/2016 10:00 AM EDT


With 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)

STILL KICKING IN LOUISIANA - "Democrats fight to the finish in uphill Louisiana Senate runoff," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "Democrat Foster Campbell is hoping a surge of interest and donations from national Democrats - though not the backing of the DSCC - can lift him to a long-shot upset over GOP state Treasurer John Kennedy in the Louisiana Senate runoff. Campbell, a public service commissioner, has raised $2.5 million over the past month, much of it in small dollar donations from Democrats looking for a way to strike back against President-elect Donald Trump. But Kennedy still has an advertising advantage, as well as a steep partisan advantage in a state Trump carried by 20
percentage points in November, when Kennedy led the Senate primary field into a runoff with 25 percent of the vote to Campbell's 17.5 percent. Kennedy, meanwhile, is tying himself closely to Trump."

- Familiar faces ... "Campbell's bid is, in many ways, a second go-round for the team that elected Edwards, who endorsed Campbell early. Mary-Patricia Wray, a top Edwards strategist, is playing the same role for Campbell. Edwards' ad-maker, Jared Arsement, is making spots for Defend Louisiana, a pro-Campbell super PAC. Recapturing that magic will be difficult. While Kennedy has his flaws - the Campbell campaign and Republicans have regularly attacked him for flip-flopping - he's not Vitter, who was dogged by a prostitution scandal." Full story.

DURHAM COUNTY RECOUNT - "Elections board orders Durham County recount in party-line vote," by The Raleigh News and Observer's Colin Campbell: "The State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines Wednesday to order a machine recount of 90,000 votes in Durham County, backing a request from Republicans and Gov. Pat McCrory's campaign. The three Republicans on the board voted for the recount, saying that the late addition of the 90,000 votes to the statewide tally on election night constituted an "irregularity." The two Democrats on the board opposed the recount, arguing that no evidence suggested any mistakes in counting Durham votes. 'What harm would it do to scan these votes and count
them?' said board member James Baker, a Republican. 'It's not likely to change anything. There was enough of an irregularity to make people wonder.'" Full story.

- Per the Roy Cooper campaign's most recent count, the attorney general leads by 10,329 in the state's canvassing, but a handful of counties are still totaling ballots.

WHO'S UP NEXT? - "Trump's allies jockeying over RNC control," by POLITICO's Kenneth P. Vogel, Alex Isenstadt, and Eliana Johnson: "At the center of the struggle are Trump's incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who is the current RNC chairman and the president-elect's lead liaison to the party establishment, and a pair of Trump confidants who have pushed him toward his populist base - chief strategist Steve Bannon and top donor Rebekah Mercer. Bannon and Mercer have encouraged consideration of Mercedes Schlapp, a veteran party strategist who was an official in the George W. Bush White House but who emerged as a staunch Trump booster during the campaign, according to multiple
Republicans familiar with the talks. Priebus, on the other hand, prefers one of several contenders more associated with the party's establishment, including Michigan Republican Party chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel and RNC official Matt Pinnell. Adding to the intrigue, Vice President-elect Mike Pence's political team is pushing another candidate: Nick Ayers, a Georgia-based operative who advised Pence during the presidential campaign and has been assisting with the transition, according to three operatives familiar with the RNC debate." Full story.

Days until the 2017 election: 343.

Days until the 2018 election: 707.

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

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we continue to tweet about politics and occasionally about misspellings: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

DOING SOMETHING? SAY SOMETHING - Starting or joining a new consulting firm? Got work to tout from your current firm? Overhear some post-election gossip on the National Review cruise? Get in touch, and we'll get it in Score: tmeyer@politico.com or eschneider@politico.com.

DCCC ELECTION SELECTION - "Pelosi agrees to changes in Democratic leadership structure," by POLITICO's John Bresnahan and Heather Caygle: "Just hours after fending off the first real challenge to her control in years, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has decided to support changes to the leadership that will loosen - somewhat - her grip on the Democratic hierarchy. Pelosi will back the election of the chair of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to a letter she sent to her colleagues Wednesday night. The California Democrat will also throw her weight behind plans to add five new leadership spots, including two for junior members, the letter states. ... New Mexico Rep.
Ben Ray Lujan was DCCC chairman this cycle. Despite the Democrats' poor performance on Election Day, Lujan remains popular." Full story.

REMATCH TO IGNITION - Peterson opponent to run again in MN-07: Republican Dave Hughes, who held Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson to his lowest vote share (52.5 percent) since the early 1990s without help from outside groups, will run again in 2018, per the Hutchinson Leader. Trump carried the district by more than 30 percentage points. "I was so honored by the GOP endorsement, and I really didn't want to let them down," Hughes said. "Yet I knew the incumbent is well regarded, and we've had many very qualified previous candidates who were unable to beat him. Overall I'm content because I came closer to defeating Peterson than anyone has." Hughes' announcement comes just after CA-49 Democrat
Doug Applegate declared his intention to take on GOP Rep. Darrell Issa again in 2018.

2017 SPECIAL ELECTION UPDATES - More here.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Ethics Office Praises Donald Trump for a Move He Hasn't Committed To," by The New York Times' Michael D. Shear and Eric Lipton: "The Office of Government Ethics has informed lawyers for President-elect Donald J. Trump that only a divestiture of his financial stake in his sprawling real-estate business will resolve ethical concerns about conflicts of interest as he assumes the office of the presidency. The revelation from the normally secretive federal agency came Wednesday in a bizarre series of oddly informal postings on its Twitter account after officials apparently concluded, erroneously, that Mr. Trump had committed on his own Twitter account to divesting his
assets. 'As we discussed with your counsel, divestiture is the way to resolve these conflicts,' the office wrote on Twitter, revealing legal advice that would normally be confidential and adding in a separate post: 'Bravo! Only way to resolve these conflicts of interest is to divest. Good call!'" Full story.

- Stein files for Michigan recount," by POLITICO's Daniel Strauss: "Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein formally added Michigan to the list of states in which she's hoping to conduct a recount of the Nov. 8 election results. The Green Party presidential candidate announced today that she had filed for a manual hand recount of every vote in Michigan. To do that, Stein also had to pay a $973,250 fee. Since the election, Stein has raised almost $7 million in her effort to trigger recounts in three states: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania." Full story.

- "Donald Trump hasn't released his tax returns - but Democrats want to force his Cabinet picks to do so," by The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe: "President-elect Donald Trump has refused to release his personal tax returns, but Democrats plan on trying to force his Cabinet picks to do so. On Thursday, the top Democrats on Senate committees that will hold confirmation hearings for Trump's Cabinet nominees will announce plans to require the picks to release three years of tax information before being referred to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. It's unclear whether such a rule could pass in Republican-controlled committees that will hold confirmation hearings." Full story.

- "Romney and Giuliani make the final 4 cut for Trump's secretary of state finalists," by The Washington Post's Jerry Markon: "President-elect Donald Trump's drama-ridden selection process for secretary of state has narrowed to four finalists, including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump aides said Wednesday. It was the first time that Trump's transition team has publicly confirmed that Romney and Giuliani are competing for the highest ranking Cabinet position. ... Transition team officials would not name the other two finalists, but other leading candidates include retired Army Gen. David Petraeus - a former commanding
general of the U.S. Central Command and CIA director - and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Don't use Melania Trump's face on a cake, Slovenians warned," via our friends at POLITICO Europe.

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