| | | | | |  | | By Zach Montellaro | Presented by We Can Vote | Editor's Note: Morning Score is a free version of POLITICO Pro Campaigns' morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro .
| | | — Georgia voters head to the polls tomorrow for primaries in a couple of competitive House races, and Democrats pick their nominee to face off against Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). — Pennsylvania election officials are still processing ballots, worrying administrators that a slow count in November could make it unclear for days who wins the crucial battleground state. — The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission ruled Friday that former Gov. John Hickenlooper violated state ethics laws in 2018, when he allowed corporations to cover a jet trip and more. | | | | A message from We Can Vote: Are you concerned about finding the safest way to vote in your community? Developed in partnership with public health officials and election administrators, check out the Healthy Voting guide for your state and make your #HealthyVoting plan today! Learn more: www.healthyvoting.org | | | Good Monday morning. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com, or follow me on Twitter at @ZachMontellaro. Email the rest of the Campaign Pro team at sshepard@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com and amutnick@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @POLITICO_Steve, @JamesArkin and @allymutnick. Days until the Georgia, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and West Virginia primaries: 1 Days until the Democratic convention: 70 Days until the Republican convention: 78 Days until the 2020 election: 148 | | | GEORGIA ON MY MIND — Most of the competitive primaries tomorrow will take place in Georgia, where voters will pick candidates in a handful of House districts, and Democrats will pick their nominee to go up against Perdue in one of the state's two competitive Senate races. One thing to keep in mind is that at least a few of these races are likely going to a runoff. In Georgia, nominees need to get a majority of the votes cast to win. If that doesn't happen, there will be a top-two runoff in a little over two months. In the Senate race, all eyes are on Jon Ossoff (yes, that Jon Ossoff), who is seen as the favorite to win the nomination. "Ossoff is the clear favorite to finish first Tuesday, holding a lead in public and private polling and a massive financial advantage," Campaign Pro's James Arkin reported (for Pros). "The biggest question is whether he can cross the 50 percent threshold to win outright, or whether the race will go to an August runoff. Former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico are the two other best-known and best-funded candidates on the ballot competing for support among the seven-candidate field."(A reminder that there's no primary for the special election for GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler's seat.) | 
Democrat Jon Ossoff is seen as the frontrunner in Tuesday's Georgia Senate primary, but it isn't clear if Ossoff can avoid a runoff. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | Ossoff is also aware of any potential baggage remaining from the 2017 special election in GA-06. "There's no doubt that having run and narrowly lost the biggest congressional race of all time has given me perspective that's valuable," Ossoff told James in an interview. Now, on to the House races. In GA-06, we seem headed for a rematch between freshman Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath and former GOP Rep. Karen Handel. Handel is facing off against four other Republicans in the primary, however. GA-07 is an open seat in what's expected to be a battleground race after GOP Rep. Rob Woodall announced he would not seek reelection. On the Democratic side, Carolyn Bourdeaux is running again after losing to Woodall in one of the closet races in the country in 2018. But she was not a field-clearer in the primary. Other contenders in the district include state Sen. Zahra Karinshakr; Nabilah Islam, who has picked up the endorsement of some progiressives including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) -aligned Our Revolution; and state Rep. Brenda Lopez Romero. The Republican side of the race promises to be just as messy. Seven candidates qualified for the ballot, with three of them raising about a million bucks, all of whom self-funded a significant portion of their campaigns: Lynne Homrich, Rich McCormick and Renee Unterman. And the Club for Growth has gone in big for McCormick. CFG Action has dropped over $1 million in the primary to help boost McCormick and knock down his opponents. There's also a pair of ruby red Republican districts that have open primaries: In GA-09 to replace GOP Rep. Doug Collins as he challenges Loeffler, and GA-14 to replace the retiring GOP Rep. Tom Graves . In GA-09, there are nine candidates on the ballot in a race with a good shot of heading to a runoff. There's been some outside spending from (you guessed it) the Club backing state Rep. Matt Gurtler, and former Rep. Paul Broun is trying to make a comeback among the crowded primary field that also includes Andrew Clyde, Kevin Tanner, Ethan Underwood and John Wilkinson. GA-14 is a similarly crowded field. Ben Bullock remains the only candidate in the district to be in the NRCC's Young Guns program (he's in the first level), and Marjorie Taylor Greene has self-funded a big chunk of her campaign. Other candidates include Kevin Cooke, John Cowan and Bill Hembree. | | | | HAPPENING TOMORROW 11 a.m. EDT – "INSIDE THE RECOVERY" PART III: PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW WITH NEW JERSEY GOV. PHIL MURPHY: How is the governor from one of the states hit hardest by the pandemic handling concurrent health, economic and social crises? Join POLITICO Playbook co-authors Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman for a virtual interview with Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) to discuss his state's reopening, how the Garden State is handling protests and unrest, and what New Jersey is looking for from the Trump Administration in the weeks and months ahead. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | THE PROCESS — Pennsylvania is still counting votes from last Tuesday's primary, which worries some in the state about the same thing happening in November. "The fact that Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold, is still counting mail ballots is particularly nerve-wracking for Democrats. They fear that President Donald Trump could use delays there in the fall to discredit the results — or declare victory after rural areas where he is strongest have finished tallying mail ballots, but before Philly is done," POLITICO's Holly Otterbein reported. As of Friday, 49 of the state's 67 counties finished tallying mail ballots. But remember: Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order for six counties that said votes that were postmarked by the primary but received by Tuesday would count. Philadelphia Republican City Commissioner Al Schmidt, one of the city's chief election officials, summed it up as such: "Elections are no longer a sprint. They're a marathon. They could get the wrong results sooner, or take longer to get the numbers right." But officials in the state are also quick to point out that it wasn't a Wisconsin-level disaster, either, The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jonathan Tamari and Jonathan Lai wrote. But the state has a lot more to improve on for November. — The ACLU and NAACP filed a lawsuit in Minnesota to force the state to mail absentee ballots to every registered voter during the pandemic. MPR News' Kirsti Marohn has more. — The Brennan Center is out with a new report on additional cybersecurity challenges election officials may face due to the pandemic. Pro Cybersecurity's Eric Geller has more on the report (for Pros), and you can check the whole thing out here. VEEPSTAKES — The widespread protests that have swept across the country have totally shaken up Joe Biden's vice presidential search. "In the last week alone, two prospects who were initially not considered among the top tier contenders have suddenly burst into contention: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Florida Rep. Val Demings," POLITICO's Natasha Korecki and Marc Caputo wrote. "Both have been tapped by the Biden campaign to act as leading surrogates amid the unrest and have seen their national media exposure intensify. The national demand for Bottoms has been so high in the wake of national protests, she's adding staff to handle the crush of interest." — Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) has worked hard to turn her background as a prosecutor, which was seen as a negative by some Democrats in the primary, into a positive. "The shift didn't occur by accident: Harris spent the campaign and months since working to burnish her image on criminal justice issues and contending that her decades in the field, which were viewed as a liability, instead provides her with unmatched perspective into how to achieve systemic change," POLITICO's Chris Cadelago wrote. WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE — The 2016 primary between Sanders and Hillary Clinton left a trail of bitterness in its wake. Now, top Democrats are praising Sanders for backing Joe Biden quickly and working to unify the party, Holly wrote. (NO MORE) DELEGATE CHASING — Biden crossed the magic number of delegates required to clinch the nomination over the weekend, according to a tally from the AP. Here's more from me. POLLS POLLS POLLS — A NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll brings another lead for Biden. The poll has Biden at 49 percent to 42 percent for Trump (1000 registered voters; May 28-June 2; +/- 3.1 percentage point MOE). — Biden has opened up a big lead in a new EPIC-MRA poll in Michigan. In the poll, Biden is at 53 percent to 41 percent for Trump, per the Detroit Free Press' Paul Egan (600 Michigan voters; May 30-June 3; +/- 4 percentage point MOE). STAFFING UP — Trump's campaign has hired Jason Miller as a senior adviser, POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt reported. Miller was an adviser for his 2016 bid and was run out of a planned administration job after a scandal. | | | |   | | | | | | THE SENATE MAP — The Colorado ethics commission found that Hickenlooper, the former governor, violated ethics laws in 2018. The Denver Post's Justin Wingerter : "The commission agreed unanimously that Hickenlooper violated the gift ban in June 2018 when he attended secretive Bilderberg meetings in Italy. He paid a flat fee of $1,500 that he said he believed covered the cost of a hotel stay, limousine transportation, meals and more. The event's sponsor, Fiat-Chrysler, has said the $1,500 fee did not include the limousine rides. … The commission voted 4-1 to find Hickenlooper violated Amendment 41 when he accepted a flight and exclusive high-end dinners from MDC Holdings in March 2018." He was cleared of four other allegations, which were originally brought by a conservative nonprofit in the state. The commission will meet on June 12 to consider penalties for the violations, and for being found in contempt after he defied a subpoena. The statement from Hickenlooper spokesperson Melissa Miller: "We fully expect the special interests who've exploited this process to continue to mislead Coloradans with negative attacks because they know John Hickenlooper will be an independent voice in the U.S. Senate." — Progressives have largely come up empty in the battle for the Senate, where most of the candidates are more Biden and less Sanders, POLITICO's Alex Thompson and James wrote. More: "The failure of left-wing candidates in their primaries has prompted soul-searching among many progressive leaders who now believe that they neglected the task of organizing and building a downballot bench as they were caught up in the thrall of Sanders' candidacy." Sean McElwee, a co-founder of Data for Progress, put it rather memorably: "Everyone wants the shitposters. No one wants the legislators." — Democrats MJ Hegar and Royce West met for a debate on Saturday ahead of the July 14 runoff to face GOP Sen. John Cornyn. The debate between the two "featured little disagreement on the issues and in which both candidates focused their attacks" on Cornyn, the Texas Tribune's Cassandra Pollock reported. — Matt Jones, a prominent Kentucky sports radio host who had considered a Senate run himself, backed state Rep. Charles Booker in the Democratic primary in the state. Amy McGrath is the DSCC-endorsed candidate in the primary. ANOTHER CALL — The last competitive Pennsylvania House seat we were waiting for was called on Friday: GOP Rep. Scott Perry will face Democratic state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale in PA-10. POLL POSITION — The aforementioned EPIC-MRA poll in Michigan also polled the Senate race. (Thank you!) Democratic Sen. Gary Peters leads Republican John James, 51 percent to 36 percent. FIRST STEPS — The political arm of the Congressional Progressive Caucus is making its first-ever independent expenditure, boosting Mondaire Jones in the Democratic primary in the open, blue-leaning NY-17. Campaign Pro's Ally Mutnick has more. Jones also picked up Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement on Friday. | | | | BECOME A CHINA WATCHER: The U.S.-China relationship has never been more important and deserves better than warmed-over news. Each Thursday, get reliable reporting and insight from leading experts around the globe on the decisions being made in Washington and Beijing today that will shape the future for decades to come. Become a "China Watcher" to see where the U.S.-China relationship is headed before others do. SUBSCRIBE HERE. | | | | | THE MAP LINES — A project to keep handy as we get closer to redrawing the country's congressional and legislative maps: The National Conference of State Legislatures has new research looking at the redistricting process of every state. — The Census Bureau is restarting field work in more offices this week, meaning that field work is now restarted in 247 of the 248 field offices. The one left out: Area census office #3110, based out of Window Rock, Ariz., the capital of the Navajo Nation. THE ENFORCERS — Republican Trey Trainor was sworn in as a commissioner for the Federal Election Commission on Friday, formally breaking the lack of a quorum for the agency. Here's what I wrote about Trainor Senate confirmation in May. FEC Chair Caroline Hunter also announced the commission will have its first open meeting under the new quorum on June 18. (The last meeting was in August 2019.) ON THE AIRWAVES — RD Huffstetler, a Democrat running in VA-05, is out with a new ad that shows him playing with his daughter, building a spaceship and playing together. CODA — WILD LOCAL ELECTION OF THE DAY: "Accusations made by candidates in the Raleigh County Division 2 magisterial race include nepotism, domestic violence cover-ups, illegal revenge porn, impersonating a federal marshal, impersonating a private investigator, destruction of campaign signs, harassment of the city's downtrodden, revenge lawsuits, unfair candidate filing practices, lying about high school sports achievements and one dead cat, stuffed inside a mailbox — with a Post-It note attached." — From West Virginia's Register-Herald. | | | | A message from We Can Vote: Do you have a Healthy Voting Plan? Millions of Americans are looking for healthy ways to vote safely & securely during the coronavirus pandemic. That's why we've partnered with public health officials and election administrators to develop a simple guide with all the information you need to make Healthy Voting a priority for you and your community! It's filled with practical information and helpful tips on best practices and the safest ways to cast your ballot in 2020. Check out the Healthy Voting guide for your state and make your Healthy Voting plan today! Learn more: www.healthyvoting.org | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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