EMAIL DETAILS

By Elena Schneider | 04/13/2018 10:00 AM EDT


With Kevin Robillard, Daniel Strauss and Zach Montellaro

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)

SIREN - "GOP breaks the glass as House outlook darkens," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt: "Republicans are rushing to shore up congressional seats deep in the heart of Trump country as they come to an alarming realization: In this midterm election, few GOP lawmakers are safe. GOP leaders are pressing Republicans lawmakers in conservative areas to get their sluggish campaigns in order. They're pleading with major donors to open their wallets for incumbents in seats previously thought to be secure. And they're polling districts President Donald Trump won comfortably just a year and a half ago, searching for signs of trouble. While most of the party's efforts have been focused on defending swing
districts, Republicans are increasingly turning their attention to more conservative areas, from suburban Phoenix to rural Virginia, fearful that they too could be casualties of a midterm bloodbath." Full story.

TOP SURROGATE - "Warren goes all in for Cordray," by Campaign Pro's Daniel Strauss: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren is ramping up her efforts to get former Consumer Financial Protection Director Richard Cordray elected as governor of Ohio. It's arguably the biggest political maneuver Warren has made so far in 2018, apart from her own reelection campaign in Massachusetts. She and Cordray will appear together at multiple events in Ohio Friday as well as a private fundraiser, and Warren has sent a string of fundraising emails for Cordray since she endorsed him almost immediately after he stepped down from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, her brainchild agency." Full story.

BENCH BUILDING - "Priorities USA training hundreds in digital campaigning," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard: "A major Democratic super PAC is training a new army of operatives as the party continues to rebuild its digital infrastructure following Hillary Clinton's 2016 loss, hoping to fill in gaps in training that limit digital operatives' careers. Priorities USA was the main super PAC backing Clinton's bid and has since rebranded itself with a dual focus on digital ad buys and voting rights. The group is planning to spend $50 million backing Democrats with digital ads during the 2018 election. But it has also started training Democratic and progressive groups on how to best plan a
digital advertising campaign and get the most for the money." Full story.

Days until the 2018 election: 207

Upcoming election dates - AZ-08 special election: April 24 - Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina and West Virginia primaries: May 8. - Idaho, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Oregon primaries: May 15.

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

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @danielstrauss4 and @maggieseverns.

ON THE AIR - Mysterious GOP group to began airing ads in West Virginia: A new Republican super PAC is set to begin airing ads in West Virginia's Senate race on Friday, spending more than $350,000 over the next week, according to Advertising Analytics. The group, Mountain Families PAC, is spending at least $357,000 starting Friday and lasting until April 23. It will be running ads against ex-con coal Baron Don Blankenship, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.

Benjamin Ottenhoff, a former chief financial officer of the Republican National Committee, registered the PAC last month and serves as its treasurer. He didn't respond to a request for comment. All three GOP candidates - Rep. Evan Jenkins, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Blankenship - are up with television ads, as is a super PAC supporting Morrisey, and Senate Majority PAC, which backs Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. Allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have discussed attacking Blankenship to stop him from winning the nomination.

- GOP campaigns go up in Ohio: Businessman Mike Gibbons' campaign is up with a new ad in Ohio' Senate race. The 30-second ad features Gibbons hitting conservative high notes - "I think businesses create jobs, not the government" - and saying he wants to go to Washington "to tell the truth." Rep. Jim Renacci, meanwhile, is going up with his own buy starting April 17, according to Advertising Analytics. Watch the Gibbons ad here.

Q1 FUNDRAISING - Arizona Senate: Rep. Martha McSally brought in $2.8 million in the first quarter, and has $3.2 million cash on hand.

- Minnesota Senate: Sen. Tina Smith raised $1.84 million, her campaign announced.

- CA-39: Republican Young Kim raised $610,000 in the first quarter and has nearly $467,000 on hand in the race to replace retiring GOP Rep. Ed Royce, via California Playbook.

- CO-06: GOP Rep. Mike Coffman raised $460,000 in the first quarter and finished with $1.17 million on hand.

- FL-13: Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist raised $450,000 in the first quarter, closing the period with $2.1 million in cash on hand.

- IN-02: Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski raised $370,000 in the first quarter with $1 million in cash on hand.

- MI-09: Democrat Ellen Lipton announced that she raised $500,000 in the first quarter.

- MN-08: Republican Pete Stauber announced that he raised $270,000 in the first quarter.

- NH-02: Democratic Rep. Ann McLane Kuster raised $460,000 in the first quarter with $2.6 million in cash on hand, NH1 reported.

- NY-11: Democrat Max Rose raised $570,000 in the first quarter.

- NY-25: Republican Jim Maxwell raised $600,000 in the first quarter with $530,000 in cash on hand.

- OH-07: Democrat Ken Harbaugh raised $440,000 in the first quarter

- TN-06: Republican Bob Corlew on Friday will report $1.07 million cash on hand.

- VA-02: Democrat Elaine Luria announced that she raised $370,000 in the first quarter.

POLLING DATA - GOP robopoll has Lesko up 10 in AZ-08 special: "An automated poll conducted by OH Predictive Insights, a Republican firm, shows Republican Debbie Lesko with a 10-point lead in the House special election in Arizona, calling it a 'closer-than-expected race' in its memo. Lesko has 53 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Democrat Hiral Tipirneni. Fourteen percent of Republicans said they planned to vote for the Democratic candidate." Full story.

- Democratic poll shows pileup in CA-39 primary: "An internal poll released by Democrat Andy Thorburn shows a bunched field in California's 39th District, with five candidates - three Republicans and two Democrats - between 10 and 13 percent of the vote, two months before the all-party primary in one of House Democrats' top pickup opportunities. Republican Young Kim has 13 percent in the poll, followed by Democrats Thorburn and Gil Cisneros at 11 percent and Republicans Shawn Nelson and Bob Huff at 10 percent. Democrats Mai-Khanh Tran and Sam Jammal are at 6 percent and 4 percent, respectively." Full story.

- Menendez leads Hugin by 21 points: "Despite middling approval ratings after surviving a two-and-a-half month corruption trial, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez has a 21 point lead over his likely Republican opponent in the fall - likely thanks to the 'D' next to his name." Full story.

ON THE AIRWAVES - Lesko, NRCC slam 'Washington Democrats' in AZ-08 ad: "The NRCC and Republican Debbie Lesko are running a coordinated TV ad attacking Democrats for their 'radical agenda' in the special election in Arizona's 8th District." Watch the ad here. Full story.

- Sisolak pops TV ad in Nevada: Clark County Commission Chair Steve Sisolak's gubernatorial campaign released a new ad and set of policy proposals aiming to reduce gun violence. Sisolak pledges to oppose efforts to arm teachers, support background checks and work to ban the selling of "military-style assault weapons." The ad is set to air in the Las Vegas and Reno media markets and is backed by a six-figure ad buy. Watch the ad here.

HUH? - "Stephanie Miner creates campaign committee for statewide office," by Syracuse.com's Chris Baker: "Former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner today formed a campaign committee in an apparent step toward running for statewide office. ... The committee does not specify what position Miner would be raising money for." Full story.

WHO RUNS THE WORLD - "She's running (the campaign): Women manage most Wisconsin Democratic governor campaigns," by Madison.com's Jessie Opoien: "For some of the women running statewide political campaigns in Wisconsin, it's no mystery why there are so many of them this year. With nine serious Democrats in the governor's race alone, there's more room for women in campaign management than ever before. ... Of the nine Democratic gubernatorial campaigns with hired staff, seven are managed by women." Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It is disgusting." - Missouri Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler about the report on Gov. Eric Greitens, as members call on him to resign, The Kansas City Star reported.

To view online:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2dc10f0ac5de5e865c15b23bee52103a02679fac873df5297e78fd69fd83fc2a783c32d74992e5591c46474397b091ed
To change your alert settings, please go to http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2dc10f0ac5de5e86b51abcd1e24d69930f6e608957902ecccf834da8ab1705c54f3619cf8bb98e541a96af2b559a4599 or http://click.politicoemail.com/profile_center.aspx?qs=c1c81b2ef644fde1dd3c1f6178ef6a8ea3ee660992025bd4ee6a28c7c5407ad5ef9e545eca16c5852868e735f447620ddde5486bf8a07ee92a2ebc94356c36c2
This email was sent to Hbiden@rosemontseneca.com by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA


To unsubscribe,https://www.politico.com/_unsubscribe?e=00000162-bf4f-ded9-a77e-ff7f66710000&u=0000014e-f0fe-dd93-ad7f-f8fffbc40000&s=02764c9a8c3fceb68325f12c951c307d3ee844d38daa900da6a421297d405a187c86c936e206825cb2950bca81c1bc818509b8c53386108472285d617f91320e