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By Zach Montellaro | 08/13/2018 10:00 AM EDT


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)

HAWAII PRIMARY RESULTS - Voters in Hawaii went to the polls on Saturday and the frontrunners all came out ahead. In this deep blue state, Democratic Gov. David Ige held off Rep. Colleen Hanabusa in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Republican Andria Tupola won her primary for the right to face Ige (where she'll be a significant underdog). In the 1st District, former Rep. Ed Case won the Democratic primary to replace Hanabusa, while Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard comfortably won her primary in the 2nd District.

CAMPAIGN TECH SNEAK PEEK - Score got its hands on demo with Warchest, a budgeting tool targeted at Democratic campaigns. It was created out of frustration by veteran operatives Josh Wolf and Connor Johnston, who were stuck using unwieldy spreadsheets to try to track campaign budgets. They, along with COO Juliet Albin, built Warchest to have a dashboard for campaign managers, giving a view of day-to-day fundraising and expense projections that are also easily shareable.

"Campaign managers are still relying on Excel, tools from the 1990s," Johnston said in an interview with Score. "It was just outdated." Warchest aims to be a timesaver for campaign managers and to help avoid last-second panics by predicting ahead of time what their cash on hand is and where to best allocate resources. "When you're running a Democratic campaign, you're almost always being outspent," Wolf said. "Your decisions are often based on opportunity cost, not cost."

The program has caught on with some Democrats, and has the DCCC is one of Warchest's clients. Warchest says more than 100 campaigns are using the program (including most of the Red to Blue campaigns) this cycle, counting Democrats like Josh Harder in CA-10 and Debbie-Mucarsel Powell FL-26 among their ranks. They expect $250 million in total will be managed through Warchest's dashboard this cycle.

The company has also begun to provide training for campaign managers on not only how to use the program, but also how to run a campaign. The team said it has done three or four trainings with the DCCC on top of hundreds of training calls, allowing a bench of inexperienced Democratic staffers who are stretched thin by a map full of competitive races to have a place to learn best practices.

THE BADGER STATE - One of the biggest primaries on Tuesday comes in Wisconsin, where Democrats will pick a challenger for Gov. Scott Walker. Campaign Pro's Daniel Strauss: "The opportunity drew over a dozen Democrats into the race, but state education superintendent Tony Evers is the clear frontrunner for the nomination, having never trailed in a public poll. Evers sticks out amid the candidates Democrats have been choosing in 2018 primaries so far - a 66-year-old white male statewide official in a year when Democrats have put forward high numbers of women, young people and first-time candidates for office. Yet many Democrats are confident that the opportunity to not only defeat Walker but
stand up to President Donald Trump will energize their party.

"'If there's a rub on Tony Evers, it might be that he's too nice,' said Joe Wineke, a former Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman. He added: 'But I'm not convinced Midwestern nice is going to be a bad thing in the year of Trump. Because I don't think it matters what Walker does. I think it's a referendum on Donald J. Trump.'"

Good Monday morning. As always, you can email me at zmontellaro@politico.com or DM me at @ZachMontellaro.

Email the great Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com, dstrauss@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com and mseverns@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @ec_schneider, @DanielStrauss4, @JamesArkin and @MaggieSeverns.

Days until the 2018 election: 85.

Upcoming election dates - Aug. 14: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Vermont primaries. - Aug. 21: Alaska, Wyoming primaries. - Aug. 28: Arizona, Florida primaries.

COLLINS WON'T RUN FOR REELECTION - Just days after Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) was indicted over an insider trading scheme (and after he swore he'd stay on the ballot), he said Saturday he wouldn't seek reelection and will try to have his name scrummed from the ballot. POLITICO's Kyle Cheney and Jimmy Vielkind: "Under New York law, Collins' name can be supplanted on the ballot at this stage of the cycle only if he dies, moves out of state or is nominated for another office - like a local judgeship. According to Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy, the exact mechanisms are still being worked out, but he noted Collins owns houses in Florida and Washington, D.C. ...

"Republicans in the district were hardly enthused about Collins' initial plan to stay on the ballot, and several potential replacement candidates began quickly gauging support. In the mix are State Sen. Pat Gallivan, a former Erie County sheriff, Assemblyman David DiPietro and David Bellavia, a talk radio host and Iraq War veteran who has run for Congress before." The Buffalo News has more potential Republican candidates, including one-time gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino.

ELLISON FACES ABUSE ALLEGATIONS - Outgoing Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, who is running for attorney general in Minnesota, was accused of physically abusing an ex-girlfriend by the woman's son, who also said there was video of the alleged abuse. Ellison strongly denied the allegations. MPR's Briana Bierschbach: "He said he was in a 'long-term relationship' that ended in 2016 but he denied the allegation of abuse. 'I still care deeply for her well-being,' he wrote. 'This video does not exist because I never behaved in this way, and any characterization otherwise is false.' ...

"Karen Monahan, an organizer with the Sierra Club, was in a relationship with Ellison for years. The two are seen together in many of her social media posts, including hiking in ... national parks and posing with the Obamas at the White House. ... She said her son coming out to share her story before her was 'brave and courageous' and he struggled to stay silent for a long time."

HELP WANTED - Rep. Martha McSally is still locked in a rough primary battle with Kelli Ward and Joe Arpaio for the GOP Senate nomination in Arizona. And so far, the White House hasn't been willing to lend a hand. POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt and Burgess Everett: "During a recent phone call, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) asked the president to endorse GOP Rep. Martha McSally, widely viewed as the establishment favorite in the Aug. 28 primary, according to two senior Republicans familiar with the conversation. Trump, according to one of the Republicans, was noncommittal and did not say yes or no to the request."

MORE RED TO BLUE ADDS - The DCCC added four more women candidates to its "Red to Blue" program, bringing the total to 67: CA-04's Jessica Morse, KS-03's Sharice Davids, MI-11's Haley Stevens and WA-03's Carolyn Long.

REVOLVING DOOR - Sen. Bob Menendez's (D-N.J.) campaign chairman also lobbies him on behalf of clients including Qatar. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Andrew Seidman: "Michael Soliman is a longtime aide and confidant to Sen. Bob Menendez. Now the New Jersey Democrat's campaign chairman, he naturally wants his boss to win reelection this year. Since 2015, Soliman has also lobbied Menendez and other members of Congress on behalf of the government of Qatar, arranging meetings for the country's ambassador to the U.S. and raising issues important to Qatar's relationship with Washington.

"In a statement to the Inquirer and Daily News, Soliman said he had 'always been fully transparent, above board and properly disclosed; this is all part of the public record.' But after questions from the newspapers, he pledged that 'out of an overabundance of caution,' he would not 'directly or indirectly lobby the senator or his staff on behalf of any client for the duration of the campaign.'"

RIDING THE WAVE - One class of Republicans that is on pace to fare extraordinarily well in midterms? Governors in blue states. The New York Times' Jennifer Steinhauer: "Republican governors running for re-election in the heavily Democratic states of Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont and, to a lesser degree, Illinois have emerged as well-positioned incumbents who seem likely to survive an expected blue swell in November. A crucial mix of bipartisanship - which stands in welcome contrast with Washington - aggressively mild temperaments and gentle checks on liberal proclivities have kept moderates and independents happy in their states."

TRUMP ON THE TRAIL - The president will host a rally in Charleston, W.Va., on August 21 to campaign for state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey for his Senate bid.

- The group that is supposed to be center stage defending Trump and promoting candidates who agree with him - America First Policies and its super PAC America First Action - has done comparatively little this cycle. BuzzFeed News' Henry Gomez and Tarini Parti: "Of the $5 million the group has spent since April 2017, a little more than half - about $2.9 million - has been invested in races like [last] week's special House election in Ohio and last year's Senate race in Alabama, where Trump and his allies stood by Roy Moore despite accusations of sexual misconduct with teenaged girls. The rest of the money has gone toward operating costs and fees paid to the small army of Trump defenders
brought on as consultants. The super PAC has spent more than $230,000 at Trump properties - the bulk of it at Trump International Hotel in Washington, where America First officials can often be spotted socializing."

MIDTERM MESSAGING - The latest count of Democrats opposing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi becoming the next speaker if they take the House? Fifty-one - although some are softer than others: Some outright say their won't vote for her for leadership, while others say "it's time for new leadership." NBC News' Jack Bohrer and Ali Vitali: "At least 42 of the party's nominees for House seats have declared they will not back Pelosi and nine incumbent Democratic lawmakers are on the record opposing her, bringing the total to 51. ... An additional 34 Democratic nominees are neither for nor against Pelosi, who has led her party in Congress since 2003."

CAMPAIGN CYBERSECURITY - Even after 2016, many candidates haven't secured their campaigns from cyberattacks, experts warn. POLITICO's Martin Matishak: "Despite making some strides in cybersecurity protections since 2016, cyber experts and researchers say, many candidates and campaigns have yet to implement standard safeguards to prevent breaches of their computer networks, websites and emails. ...

"[L]awmakers and the country's top intelligence and law enforcement agencies haven't offered campaigns the same coordinated cybersecurity assistance they're providing to state governments, which are receiving $380 million to safeguard their voting machines, voter databases and other election systems. Even with that federal help, states are largely unprepared to improve their security before this November's elections and are off to a slow start to gird for 2020, a POLITICO survey found last month. The situation may be even more dire for political campaigns - short-lived, often shoestring operations."

- After Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) declared last week that some Florida systems have already been penetrated by the Russians, GOP Gov. Rick Scott, Nelson's opponent in the Senate race, is demanding proof. The Palm Beach Sun-Sentinel's Skyler Swisher: "'This cannot be overlooked - either Bill Nelson knows of crucial information the federal government is withholding from Florida election officials, or he is simply making things up,' Scott said Friday."

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "That would be a cool. ... If you wanted to put that in your article, like as a headline, I would not be mad about that," Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) to POLITICO on whether he considered himself a younger version of Joe Biden.

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