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Primary Day in 4 states
By SCOTT BLAND
With Zach Montellaro,Maggie Severns and Daniel Strauss
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. (https://subscriber.politicopro.com/proinfo)
PRIMARY DAY — "POLITICO's guide to Tuesday's primaries," by Steven Shepard, Elena Schneider and Daniel Strauss: "Tuesday is one of the most critical days in the pitched battle for the House of Representatives next year. Seeking the 23 seats they need to wrest control of the chamber, Democrats are looking at the new court-imposed congressional map in Pennsylvania, where a half-dozen districts are up for grabs. But the party's fortunes may depend on which candidates prevail in crowded primaries under unfamiliar district lines on Tuesday. … Here's what to watch as the results are tallied Tuesday night: Democratic House candidates battle over ideology … An archetypal 2018 profile runs into a big self-funder … Pennsylvania delegation gets a makeover … House Republicans back on statewide ballots…" Full story.
— Dive deep into PA-07, the Lehigh Valley battleground left open by retiring GOP Rep. Charlie Dent, via Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: "The top three Democrats in the six-way primary to replace former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) all represent a different shade of the party, offering an ideological test on the kind of candidate voters in the Lehigh Valley, a rapidly changing swatch of central Pennsylvania, want in 2018. … Public polling, released by The Morning Call last week, showed Morganelli, who lost a 2016 primary bid for state attorney general, leads the pack in name recognition and favorability, followed by Wild. National and local Republicans said that Morganelli would attract more crossover support, making him a stronger candidate. But some Democrats privately worry that Morganelli is "erratic, with genuine baggage that makes him trouble," said one Democratic consultant who works on House races in the state." Full story.
— "Murphy vs. Saccone: Infamous Pennsylvania Republicans feud before primary," by POLITICO's Rachael Bade: "Former Rep. Tim Murphy, who resigned last October amid allegations that he asked his mistress to get an abortion, has been working quietly to sink Rick Saccone's bid for Congress. Saccone, who became a national Republican scapegoat after losing to Democrat Conor Lamb in the March special election to replace Murphy, is now running for the GOP nomination in a newly drawn, heavily Republican district that includes much of Murphy's old turf. The fight has gotten personal: Murphy has directed hundreds of thousands of dollars from his old campaign account to an outside group supporting Saccone's GOP primary opponent, state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler. Murphy also sent around a cropped video clip of Saccone that he believed would damage him. At one point, Murphy accidentally forwarded that link to Saccone while trying to send it to someone else." Full story.
— POLL CLOSING TIMES — Polls close statewide at 8 p.m. Eastern in Pennsylvania, 9 p.m. Eastern in Nebraska, and 11 p.m. Eastern in Idaho and Oregon.
TWO (PARTY)'S A CROWD — "Crowdpac ousts pro-Trump CEO, stops GOP fundraising," by Campaign Pro's Maggie Severns: "A Silicon Valley political crowdfunding platform is ousting Trump-supporting CEO Steve Hilton and banning Republican candidates from fundraising on its site, citing 'tension' with its left-leaning user base. Crowdpac was cofounded by Hilton, a Fox News host and former aide to David Cameron, in 2013 as a for-profit website that allows candidates to raise small-dollar donations. … Hilton is departing the company and will be replaced on an acting basis by Jesse Thomas, its current vice president of product. Later this year, Gisel Kordestani, the chief operating officer, will take over. … 'Because Trumpism is so heavily linked with the modern national Republican Party, and because very few federal leaders in the Republican Party have meaningfully rejected Trumpism, we are temporarily suspending fundraising for Republican candidates on Crowdpac.com,' Thomas wrote. 'This decision has been a hard one for our company, but as Trumpism has spread through the Republican Party we've started to see an increase in campaigns for Republican candidates that we cannot allow on our platform.'" Full story.
— "Amid Political Disarray, Pence Reaches for Control of G.O.P.," by The New York Times' Alexander Burns, Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman: "Republican officials now see Mr. Pence as seeking to exercise expansive control over a political party ostensibly helmed by Mr. Trump, tending to his own allies and interests even when the president's instincts lean in another direction. Even as he laces his public remarks with praise for the president, Mr. Pence and his influential chief of staff, Nick Ayers, are unsettling a group of Mr. Trump's fierce loyalists who fear they are forging a separate power base." Full story.
Days until the 2018 election: 175
Upcoming election dates — Idaho, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Oregon primaries: May 15 — Arkansas, Georgia and Kentucky primaries, plus Texas primary runoffs: May 22 — Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota primaries: June 5 — Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia primaries: June 12.
Upcoming filing deadlines — Washington: May 18 — Arizona: May 30 — Vermont: May 31 — Alaska, Kansas, Wisconsin and Wyoming: June 1 — Hawaii and Minnesota: June 5 — Connecticut: June 12.
Thanks for joining us! You can email tips to the Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com, dstrauss@politico.com and mseverns@politico.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @danielstrauss4 and @maggieseverns.
FIRST IN SCORE — NRSC launches digital ads urging Haspel confirmation: The GOP Senate committee's new Facebook and Twitter ads push five publicly undecided Democratic senators to support the CIA director nominee: Bill Nelson, Claire McCaskill, Heidi Heitkamp, Sherrod Brown and Tammy Baldwin. See the display ad here.
MORE FROM CA-45 — Democrat Dave Min's campaign has pushed back strongly on claims that he spread rumors about opponent Katie Porter's divorce, instead naming Democratic rival Kia Hamadanchy — one of the sources in the HuffPost story — as the source of the rumors in a Facebook post. "Unfortunately, the story also falsely claims that Dave's campaign started a whisper campaign around Katie's domestic violence experiences in an attempt to win over Democratic Party delegates and win the party's endorsement," Min's Facebook post reads. "This is absolutely untrue. This claim that we started a whisper campaign was based entirely on speculation by opposing campaigns or their surrogates."
AD ANALYSIS — A Deep Root Analytics analysis (try saying that five times fast) shows taxes playing a big role in Republican advertising this spring, in the aftermath of passage of the new tax law at the end of last year. See the post here.
GREITENS INVESTIGATION — "Case against Greitens is dropped, for now. Legislative leaders say nothing's changed," via the Kansas City Star: "In a stunning development, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner on Monday dropped her prosecution of Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in the face of the defense team's plan to call her as a witness. Yet Republican legislative leaders said later that evening that Gardner's decision would have no impact whatsoever on whether the Missouri General Assembly moves forward with impeachment, a process set to begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday. … Gardner's office asked the court to appoint a special prosecutor to refile the felony charge of invasion of privacy against the governor, but Jim Bennett, the governor's attorney, rejected the notion that charges would necessarily be refiled." Full story.
— "Missouri lawmakers subpoena Greitens' top political adviser," by The Kansas City Star's Jason Hancock: "The Missouri House committee investigating allegations of wrongdoing against Gov. Eric Greitens has issued subpoenas to the governor's campaign, his political nonprofit and his top political adviser, Austin Chambers. The subpoena to Chambers is the first to a member of Greitens' inner circle. It represents an escalation of the legislative investigation just days before lawmakers convene a special session to consider impeachment and while the governor stands trial for invasion of privacy in St. Louis. Chambers is Greitens' senior adviser and runs the governor's nonprofit, A New Missouri Inc. He lives in Washington, D.C." Full story.
DONOR SEE-SAW — "Top GOP donors close wallets over tax law," by CNN's Rebecca Berg: "[S]ome of the Republican Party's powerhouse donors in fact feel deeply stung by the law and have made their displeasure known to party leaders by keeping their wallets shut, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, who spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity. Although some of the donors have not sworn off contributions to individual campaigns or even the Republican National Committee, all have so far withheld contributions to the House and Senate Republican campaign arms — which are key players in the 2018 midterm elections — as a way to send a message over the law.
— " The donors who have boycotted, all of whom are leaders of prominent hedge funds, include Paul Singer, of Elliott Management; Citadel's Ken Griffin; Warren Stephens of Stephens Inc.; Cliff Asness of AQR; Bruce Kovner, formerly of Caxton; and Third Point's Daniel Loeb. Combined, their donations accounted for more than $50 million to Republican groups during the 2016 election cycle; Singer ranked among the top 10 donors of either party, while Griffin and Stephens ranked in the top 20." Full story.
WAY DOWNBALLOT — "Va. election officials assigned 26 voters to the wrong district. It might've cost Democrats a pivotal race," by The Washington Post's Laura Vozzella and Ted Mellnik: "Last year's race for state delegate in Newport News went down in Virginia history for its razor-thin margin. Republican David E. Yancey won on Election Day by 10 votes; Democrat Shelly Simonds beat him by a single vote in a recount. Then, a judicial panel declared a tie, so officials picked a name out of a bowl to determine a winner, and it was Yancey. Now, a review of voter registration records and district maps by The Washington Post has found more than two dozen voters — enough to swing the outcome of that race — cast ballots in the wrong district, because of errors by local elections officials." Full story.
SPREADING THE WEALTH — Ohio Sen. Rob Portman doled out $75,000 from his leadership PAC to Ohio Republican candidates including those running for fives statewide offices and Jim Renacci's Senate campaign, he announced on Monday. Portman's leadership PAC has now contributed more than $200,000 to candidates this cycle.
CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: "He rejected the money before he asked me for help." — Former Rep. Tim Murphy, who is embroiled in a private feud with fellow Republican Rick Saccone, via POLITICO.
Steven Shepard @politico_steve
Zach Montellaro @zachmontellaro
James Arkin @jamesarkin
Laura Barron-Lopez @lbarronlopez
Daniel Strauss @danielstrauss4
About The Author : Scott Bland
Scott Bland is the editor of Campaign Pro, where he tracks elections, money in politics, polling, and more. He previously worked for National Journal, where he was editor-in-chief of the Hotline, and has also written for the Atlantic and Scripps Howard. Bland has a degree in history from Stanford University and grew up in Ithaca, N.Y.
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