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08/07/2018 08:00 AM EDT


By Nolan D. McCaskill (nmccaskill@politico.com or @NolanDMcCaskill)

CAN REPUBLICANS HOLD ON? -- Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington state each hold primary elections today, but Ohio's special election is the marquee matchup. The race "in a central Ohio congressional district will provide tangible evidence of where the battle for the House stands three months out from the midterms," Steven Shepard and Elena Schneider report. "If Democrat Danny O'Connor prevails, it will be a sign that Democrats are poised to take back the House next year, despite an avalanche of Republican outside money. But if Troy Balderson, the GOP nominee, wins, it will give Republicans hope that the House isn't lost, and that President Donald Trump can still help the party get out
the vote this fall."

Republicans have tied O'Connor to Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in TV ads. O'Connor pledged not to support Pelosi for Democratic leader if elected but told MSNBC host Chris Matthews he would ultimately "vote for whoever the Democratic Party puts forward," a gaffe the GOP seized on as support for Pelosi. Meanwhile, Trump campaigned for Balderson over the weekend in Ohio, shortly after attacking former Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James via Twitter. "But the president's rally ... risks alienating well-educated Columbus suburbanites who prefer Gov. John Kasich to the president and could swing the special election," they warn.

Republicans, however, are hoping the president's appearance energizes the base. The winner will serve the remainder of former Rep. Pat Tiberi's (R-Ohio) term. Kasich and Tiberi have kept the seat red since 1983. What else to watch: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b69941060898bbf34daa38ab1682d5dc5b4856a80114a8eaa706c8d44fc99d89cf7688534f29a0e85c38c

Related: "In Ohio Election, Republicans Test a Midterm Rescue Plan: Polarization," by The New York Times' Alexander Burns: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b6994567587e088a53a43a0e6a945e5e311a06d78fa25cd5290747a7108297773960c9c4ffc54c5de89cd

SEEING DOUBLE -- Ohio's special election may be a tossup, but it's safe to say that Ron Estes -- well, one of them -- will prevail in Kansas' 4th Congressional District primary. Incumbent Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.) is running for reelection against Ron M. Estes. "The matchup has presented the congressman ... with a singular task in this reelection battle," BuzzFeed News' Alexis Levinson reports. "He doesn't need to convince voters to vote for Ron Estes; he just needs to make sure they know which Ron Estes to vote for."

The congressman, who will appear with the title "Rep." on the ballot, insists his challenger's middle initial stands for "Misleading." But it's Ron M. Estes who argues he's the "real" Ron Estes, even going so far as to secure the realronestes.com URL and (unsuccessfully) request his name appear as "Real Ron Estes" on the ballot. The congressman has recently begun running a Facebook and radio ad telling voters which Estes to vote for. His opponent, meanwhile, has run no paid media or held any scheduled public events. And, according to his only quarterly FEC filing, he's raised just $2,078. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b69948a1c7263e8db26b4f964be9c2de44d3167da631421933922ee06c677c178f9cf1d4835cca128f29f

GOOD MORNING! Thanks for reading Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Tuesday, August 7.

MONDAY'S MOST CLICKED: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) announcement that he's running for reelection was the big winner.

RYAN TALKS TRUMP -- House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said he has avoided tragedy after tragedy and advanced goal after goal by dealing with President Donald Trump in private rather than criticizing him in public. Exactly what tragedies the outgoing speaker credits himself for avoiding? "No, I don't want to do that," Ryan told Mark Leibovich in an interview with the New York Times Magazine. "That's more than I usually say." Public criticism, Ryan argued, is "ineffective" because it "boomerangs." "The pissing match doesn't work," he said.

Ryan said he used to think he was being complimented when the president called him "Boy Scout." "But after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a few bills Trump announced to Ryan that he would stop using the nickname," Leibovich writes. "So I guess he meant it as an insult all along," Ryan said. "I didn't realize." Asked about Trump's invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Washington, D.C., Ryan said Trump was "just trolling you guys." Trump, Ryan added, "just wants to see your heads explode, and he just wants you to spend the next 12 hours talking about this."

Leibovich says he asked Ryan "who the you guys" being trolled were, to which Ryan responded, "The country." Then he clarified: "The people who don't like him. The non-Trumpers." The speaker included? "Sometimes," Ryan said, "yeah." The NYT Mag feature: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b6994005e89b992962c65a5e0e696e8535e59c9ce3093083c44e4159ca693f8129c07203768c0ef1ed26c

RAND IN RUSSIA -- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has invited Russian lawmakers to Washington, D.C. The libertarian-leaning senator who traveled to Russia on Monday framed his visit as a pursuit of diplomacy, casting himself as one of "many Americans who want to have diplomacy, that want to have engagement" with Russia. Paul's Senate colleagues introduced legislation last week that would impose "crushing" new sanctions against Russia, but Paul, who opposes new sanctions, is pursuing a different approach. Paul said he invited members of the Federation Council's foreign policy committee to visit Washington. And both sides will also try to meet in a neutral third country.

"Our biggest issue right now is no dialogue," said Paul, whose trip was funded by the Cato Institute. "It isn't the issues at hand. The issue is that we can't have discussion of issues because we have no dialogue." While in Russia, Paul spoke to Konstantin Kosachyov, who chairs the Russian senate's foreign relations panel and is subject to U.S. sanctions, other Russian senators and former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. "For their part, Russian lawmakers pressed Mr. Paul to intervene on behalf of Maria Butina, the 29-year-old gun rights activist being held as a Russian agent," The New York Times' Ivan Nechepurenko and Nicholas Fandos add. More:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b6994b8d8539ac6dd9426a0a8b5eefa422e719a45717116331b2d12eee27d5a2ea13d7c30f9e6302027f3

SCOTUS WATCH -- Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh asserted in 2013 that ignoring laws the White House believes is unconstitutional is a "traditional exercise" of presidential power. His comments came in defense of signing statements in the Bush White House. "The comments could put a renewed focus on Kavanaugh's time serving as White House staff secretary, who had a role in coordinating Bush's statements accompanying legislation he signed into law," CNN's Manu Raju reports. "Critics contend that the Bush White House abused the use of signing statements to ignore laws passed by Congress, though Bush and his allies said such statements were no different than the practices of other
administrations."

Kavanaugh was speaking at a law school in Ohio when he was asked about signing statements. "In response, Kavanaugh said that injured parties can take their grievances to court if they believe the president is not following the law -- and that Congress can push back as well," Raju writes. "And Kavanaugh noted that if a president signs a bill 'and says these certain provisions in here are unconstitutional, and we're not going to follow those provisions, that is a traditional exercise of power by Presidents.'" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has rejected Democratic requests for full access to documents from Kavanaugh's time in the White House as staff secretary.
Much more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b6994e605abf95b9b407b1b4c96625c7a98208e9a86bc05668c623fc1e25772600c62fb30688ad29bfbb0

Americans for Prosperity says it has reached out to more than 1 million Americans regarding Kavanaugh's high court nomination through its direct mail, phone call and door-knocking effort. For context, AFP says it made 350,000 contacts in support of Neil Gorsuch's nomination last year.

Related read: "A Moment of Honesty From Chuck Schumer," from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa): http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b6994258902404e17893d71a76ff642685df2267a74b8030381b8e837ca5bda1670b03cae591a99455ea8

TRUMP NOMINATES ICE DIRECTOR -- The president nominated acting ICE Director Ronald Vitiello to permanently lead the immigration enforcement agency. "The official nomination is not surprising," CNN's Tal Kopan notes. "When Vitiello was named acting director, his career position with the department was also transferred from Customs and Border Protection to ICE, making him the top career official at ICE. That transfer allows him to remain in the position of acting director legally even while nominated." Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen praised the president's pick and challenged the Senate to "quickly" confirm him. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b6994374db605ee9e43f5457a1fba2da7e463ae5b9d209e1aa720e1952301b7732101b5873b2f4a76b7bb

IN MEMORIAM -- Paul Laxalt, a former Republican Nevada governor and senator, died Monday at a health care facility in northern Virginia. He was 96. He served as a U.S. senator from 1974 to 1986. Nevada politicians, from state Attorney General Adam Laxalt (Paul Laxalt's grandson), Gov. Brian Sandoval, Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, spoke glowingly of the late Laxalt. "Paul Laxalt was the definition of what a leader should be: Kind, thoughtful and eager to extend a hand in friendship, regardless of political affiliation," Reid said. "His legacy is secured as one of the finest leaders Nevada has ever known." The
obit: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b69940b9382716aed4b1f2c945bbddb3e9a0601d4cd27e113085fadbc68c3b11bf66f70004ebc2642bff0

Margaret Heckler died of cardiac arrest Monday at a hospital in Arlington, Virginia. Heckler, a former eight-term Republican congresswoman from Massachusetts who also served as HHS secretary and U.S. ambassador to Ireland, was 87. "Throughout much of her career, Ms. Heckler was a groundbreaking figure who often forged her way in law and politics as one of the few women in the male-dominated fields," The Washington Post's Matt Schudel writes. "In 1966, she unseated a former speaker of the House to win the Republican nomination for her district in suburban Boston. She was the first woman elected to Congress in her own right from Massachusetts and, when she took office in 1967, was one of only
11 women in the U.S. House of Representatives." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdf71cfbfc8b6994b400f239c747862b144f2e76e22a5b0c97b3af180f25bbbce02e4ea64e9b21bb82ce8d2b355b6c61

TRANSITIONS -- Anna Hevia has left the office of Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.), where she was senior policy adviser and handled part of the Energy and Commerce portfolio, working on tech, telecom and consumer protections, as well as judiciary issues. She is headed to Harvard Law this fall.

TODAY IN CONGRESS -- The House and Senate are out.

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER -- Coleman Mehta was first to correctly guess that Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump both took office with three living ex-presidents who were younger. For Reagan, it was Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. For Trump, it's Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

TODAY'S TRIVIA -- From Coleman: When the Department of Defense was created in 1947 under President Harry Truman, it originally had a different name with an unfortunate abbreviation. What was that name and why was its abbreviation so unfortunate? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your best guess my way: nmccaskill@politico.com.

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