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POLITICO POLITICO's Morning Score, May 25, 2010 6:38 am
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Dem group lashes Kasich - Reports: Simmons to end campaign - Rossi plans Wednesday announcement - Idaho to pick Minnick foe - Obama raising for loaded Boxer - Palin defends HaleyBy: Alexander Burns
Tue 25, 2010 06:38 AM EST

SCORE EXCLUSIVE -- DEFINING KASICH: An independent expenditure group led by the Democratic Governors Association is going up today with an aggressive ad against Ohio gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, highlighting the former Republican congressman's work as a banker at Lehman Brothers. The commercial, from Building Ohio Stronger, describes Lehman as 'one of the Wall Street banks responsible for the crash that hurt Ohio's economy,' and warns: 'Lehman Brothers hid toxic loans from regulators and gave out more than $16 billion in bonuses while Kasich was a managing director. ... But Kasich refuses to reveal how big all his bonuses were or how much he was paid.' Images of a check made out to Kasich for 'Untold Millions of Dollars' flash on the screen before the narrator says in closing: 'Ask John Kasich to explain how he got rich on Wall Street.' Watch the ad here.

Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland has already been hammering Kasich over his Wall Street ties, and Building Ohio Stronger has the resources to make this new hit sting: it's taken in $1.7 million in contributions this month, including $1.5 million from the DGA, according to documents filed with the Ohio secretary of state. The group has also launched a new site to go after Kasich at www.strongerohio.org.

As Baron Hill gets Joe Biden, Sue Lowden gets snubbed and Dino Rossi gets ready for launch, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily cheat sheet for the 2010.

THIS MORNING -- MOVEMENT IN CONNECTICUT: Former Rep. Rob Simmons has scheduled a campaign announcement for 9 a.m. this morning and multiple Connecticut outlets are reporting he'll end his campaign for the Republican Senate nomination. The event comes days after former wrestling executive Linda McMahon defeated Simmons for the state GOP's endorsement to run against Democrat Richard Blumenthal. The Connecticut Mirror reports: 'Simmons has not notified Republican officials or the GOP's endorsed candidate, Linda McMahon, of his intentions. He did not answer his cell phone Monday night. 'He keeps his own counsel these days,' a former GOP official said. But a source who declined to be identified said that Simmons' staff was told the campaign was ending, bowing to the difficulties of fighting the best-financed candidate in Connecticut history: McMahon, a co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment who is seeking office for the first time.'

IDAHO VOTES: Republicans will pick their candidate for one of 2010's most competitive House races Tuesday, as voters in Idaho's 1st Congressional District choose either military veteran Vaughn Ward and state Rep. Raul Labrador as their nominee to go up against freshman Democrat Walt Minnick. Ward's campaign has drawn support from national Republicans, including Sarah Palin, but a Mason-Dixon poll published Friday showed the race too close to call, with Ward taking 31 percent of the vote to Labrador's 28 percent.

TEA FOR THREE: POLITICO's Tim Alberta notes how thoroughly the race has fractured tea party supporters, in Idaho and nationally: 'Minnick, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary, was endorsed last month by the Tea Party Express - the only Democrat in Congress to receive the national group's support. The mid-April endorsement surprised even Minnick, who never courted the tea party support but nevertheless said he was 'pleased' to have their backing. Local activists, however, were less than thrilled with the decision. In response, the incensed local group Tea Party Boise endorsed Labrador, a state legislator with backing from several key local conservative groups.'

AT LONG LAST: Two-time Washington gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi is on track to announce a challenge to Democratic Sen. Patty Murray Wednesday. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Rossi signaled his intentions in a Friday night speech to Mainstream Republicans of Washington, warning that if the United States doesn't get government spending under control the country will be 'like France, or even Greece.' ... Several other GOP Senate candidates, notably ex-NFL tight end Clint Didier and state Sen. Don Benton, have indicated they will stay in the race despite Rossi's high name recognition level. In a Washington Poll released Monday, Murray comes out ahead of Rossi by a margin of 44 percent to 40 percent.' Rossi's hired consultant Pat Shortridge, who's also advising Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio, to advise his bid. http://bit.ly/dq7fVx and http://politi.co/ayZJWw

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Rossi's decision to run shows just how few potentially vulnerable seats Senate Republicans are leaving on the Senate this year. In virtually every race where the GOP might be in a position to win or get close, the party is fielding competitive candidates. The notable exceptions, so far: New York, where Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is still getting off easy, and Wisconsin, where top-tier contenders passed on challenging Sen. Russ Feingold.

RUNOFF WATCH --LINCOLN LISTS LEFT: Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln's up with her campaign's first ad of the Democratic primary runoff against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, and POLITICO's David Catanese observes that the spot represents an abrupt shift in tone for the embattled incumbent: 'In an ad that hit the airwaves this weekend, Lincoln highlights her votes in favor of the stimulus and the health care reform bill, and includes a video clip of Obama signing health care reform into law. ... Lincoln's new ad presents a sharp contrast with the first ad she ran for her campaign in March, which touted her record of opposing Democratic proposals such as the creation of a publicly funded health insurance plan. That ad, which cast Washington as a town full of bickering children, showed Lincoln explaining: 'I don't answer to my party. I answer to Arkansas.''POLL OF THE DAY: Alabama Rep. Artur Davis is leading state Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks by eight points in next week's Democratic gubernatorial primary, according to a DailyKos poll taken by Research 2000. Davis is currently drawing 41 percent support, compared with 33 percent for Sparks. On the GOP side, Bradley Byrne, the former chancellor of Alabama's community colleges, leads the field with 29 percent of the vote, followed by former state Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore with 23 percent and businessman Tim James with 17 percent. Both Davis and Sparks trail against the leading Republican candidates.
AND -- ALL OVER THE MAP: Just two weeks after SurveyUSA showed California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner cutting former eBay CEO Meg Whitman's lead to two percent in the GOP's gubernatorial primary, the same pollster shows Whitman's lead back up to 27 points. Whitman now takes 54 percent of the vote to Poizner's 27 percent. The automated poll shows a similarly dramatic reversal in the GOP Senate primary, where former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has gone from trailing ex-Rep. Tom Campbell by 11 points to leading him by 23. Either something wild has happened in the state of California in the last two weeks, or SurveyUSA hasn't quite cracked the code on these primaries.

BUILDING THE SEA WALL: Even as her would-be Republican foes battle to the finish in a June 8 primary, California Sen. Barbara Boxer continues to post fundraising numbers that should strike fear into the heart of any challenger. Her campaign announced Monday that it raised $2 million between April 1 and May 19, and had $9.6 million in the bank.

AND -- STILL HIGHER: Boxer's due to get another boost from President Barack Obama today. From the White House guidance: '[T]he President will travel to San Francisco, California. ... In the evening, the President will attend fundraisers for Senator Barbara Boxer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.'

PREEMPTIVE ACTION: North Carolina Republicans are openly working to undermine a congressional candidate, Tim D'Annunzio, who's competing in a runoff for the right to face Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell. Though D'Annunzio was the top vote-getter in this month's first-round primary election, state GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer is calling him 'unfit for public office.' The Fayetteville Observer explains that the 'comments follow a report Sunday in The Charlotte Observer detailing D'Annunzio's troubled past, including a divorce and child custody battle in the 1990s. The newspaper, relying on Hoke County court records, found a 1995 psychiatric evaluation. The attending doctor said D'Annunzio told him he once entered a drug program for heroin dependence and was jailed three times for offenses including burglary and assaulting a police officer. The newspaper said that his former wife, Anne, claimed in court records he had told her that 'God was going to drop a 1,000-mile high pyramid' on Greenland and that he had found the Ark of the Covenant in Arizona.'

THE BIG MAP -- with POLITICO's Tim Alberta:

SENATE:

ARIZONA: Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth may not know much about history. The man challenging Sen. John McCain in Arizona's GOP primary is drawing from across the ideological spectrum after telling a voter that the United States 'never formally declared war on Hitler's Germany.' In fact, the United States declared war on Germany four days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
COLORADO: Former state Sen. Tom Wiens ended his bid for the Republican Senate nomination Monday, endorsing Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck and praising his 'ability to grasp and act upon the challenges facing Colorado and our country.' Buck is challenging former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton for the GOP nod, and drew more than 70 percent of the delegate vote at last weekend's Republican nominating assembly.
KANSAS: An automated SurveyUSA poll conducted late last week shows Rep. Jerry Moran with a wide lead over Rep. Todd Tiahrt for the Republican Senate nomination. The poll tested 522 likely GOP primary voters, and showed Moran drawing 52 percent support to Moran's 29 percent support. The trend line is good for Moran, the pollster reports: 'Compared to an identical SurveyUSA poll released 2 months ago, Moran is up 10 points; Tiahrt is down 3.'

ILLINOIS: Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is floating the possibility that he might reach across the aisle to endorse his House colleague, Republican Rep. Mark Kirk, in the race for President Obama's old Senate seat. 'I like Alexi Giannoulias, but I have great respect for Mark Kirk and his service to the people of Illinois,' Jackson said.

NEVADA: Sue Lowden got stood up at a photo op Monday by Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, who nicknamed her 'Suicidal Sue' last week after a series of damaging campaign missteps. Lowden had arranged a meeting to make up with Cashell at a Reno bar and invited reporters, but the mayor expressed surprise that the press was getting involved and didn't show up for the event, the Reno Gazette-Journal reports.

HOUSE:

AL-05: Party-switching Rep. Parker Griffith loaned his campaign $75,000 ahead of next week's Republican congressional primary, when he'll face voters for the first time since joining the GOP. Griffith, who already put $180,000 of his own funds into the race, is working to fight off challengers Mo Brooks, a Madison County commissioner, and Les Phillip, a Navy veteran.
HI-01: Former Rep. Ed Case plans to continue running for the House seat of former Rep. Neil Abercrombie, challenging newly elected Republican Charles Djou in the November campaign. 'I went surfing; I went to the beach; I did look at the results, and I made the decision that I'm running again,' Case said, insisting rival Democrat Colleen Hanabusa 'cannot beat Djou and I will,' despite his third-place finish in last weekend's special House election.
IN-09: Democratic Rep. Baron Hill is due for a visit from Vice President Biden next month, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. The vice president will visit Jeffersonville in order to raise funds for Hill's reelection, as the congressman faces a competitive fight against attorney and veteran Todd Young.

NJ-03: The former local official challenging ex-NFL player Jon Runyan in the GOP primary here is trying to capitalize on an endorsement from the Philadelphia Enquirer despite having just a few thousand dollars in the bank for his campaign. Justin Murphy, a former local official who ran for Congress in 2008, predicted Runyan's allies would 'start slamming me now ... and my response is they should refrain from attacking me until they're ready to put Jon on a debate stage with me.'

PA-11: One of the two candidates who challenged Rep. Paul Kanjorski in the Democratic House primary is endorsing Republican Lou Barletta for the general election. Brian Kelly, who won 17 percent of the vote in an underfunded campaign against Kanjorski, backed the Hazleton mayor and explained: 'Barletta victory in November is as close to a Kelly victory as we can get.'

GOVERNORS:

CALIFORNIA: Meg Whitman is airing an ad, two weeks before the GOP's gubernatorial primary, that spotlights the endorsements she's received from Mitt Romney and Condoleezza Rice. Both Republican leaders vouch for Whitman's conservative credentials: Romney calls Whitman a 'leader with the integrity and proven skills to bring California back,' while Rice says she 'has the values, the strength and the skill to lead California back to greatness.'

FLORIDA: Republican state Sen. Paula Dockery dropped out of the governor's race Monday, admitting that she won't be able to compete financially with state Attorney General Bill McCollum and former health care executive Rick Scott. Dockery, who said she's 'a realist and [understands] the costs of effectively competing statewide,' said she had spoken with both remaining candidates but hadn't committed to endorsing either of them. '

MINNESOTA: Former Sen. Mark Dayton picked a running mate Monday, tapping state Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon to run as his candidate for lieutenant governor as he challenges the DFL-endorsed candidate, state House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, in the gubernatorial primary. The DFL Party has already endorsed Kelliher's pick for lieutenant governor, Minnetonka City Manager John Gunyou.

NEW YORK: Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who left the Democratic Party to run for governor as a Republican, may be lagging in third place in the primary behind former Rep. Rick Lazio and Buffalo developer Carl Paladino. A Siena poll conducted last week shows Lazio drawing 29 percent support, with Paladino taking 16 percent and Levy taking 14 percent. All three candidates are far behind Democratic state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in general election match-ups.

TEXAS: Incumbent Gov. Rick Perry leads his Democratic challenger, former Houston Mayor Bill White, by nine points in a poll sponsored by the Texas Tribune and the University of Texas. But Perry is well below the 50 percent safety mark: he's taking 44 percent of the vote to White's 35 percent, leaving this a competitive race.

2012:

IN THE CROSSFIRE: Sarah Palin leaped to the defense of South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley Monday, after a prominent political blogger claimed to have had an 'inappropriate physical relationship' with the married state representative. Palin campaigned for Haley recently, and described the story - circulated by Will Folks, a former spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford - as a dirty trick. 'Well, whaddya know? South Carolina's conservative candidate, Nikki Haley, recently zipped to the front of the line in her state's race for governor; and lo and behold, now accusations of an affair surface,' Palin wrote on Facebook. 'South Carolina friends, don't let 'em just make things up.'

VOUCHING FOR HER: Newt Gingrich endorsed Meg Whitman over Steve Poizner for governor of California in a message to the San Jose Mercury News Tuesday morning, praising 'her commitment to challenge the professional bureaucrat class in Sacramento best reflects her desire to truly bring change to California. Whitman stands alone in her willingness to confront the powerful government employee unions that are responsible for pushing California to the brink of financial collapse.'

NOT SO RISKY: Mike Huckabee issued a decidedly safe endorsement Monday, announcing online that he's backing former Rep. Rob Portman in the Ohio Senate race. Portman is already the GOP nominee against Democratic Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, and Huckabee tweeted: 'Huck PAC and I are proud to endorse Rob Portman for the US Senate in Ohio.'

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