| | | | | |  | | By Zach Montellaro | Editor's Note: Weekly Score is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Campaigns policy newsletter, Morning Score. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that 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.
| | | — Electors for the electoral college will vote in 50 states (and D.C.) today, affirming President-elect Joe Biden's victory. It comes after the Supreme Court shot down a case from President Donald Trump and his allies that tried to overturn the election. — Iowa Democrats' post-caucuses autopsy placed blame for the vote-tabulating debacle on a combination of meddling from the national party and local missteps. — While Republicans are embroiled in a civil war just weeks ahead of the Georgia Senate runoffs, Democrats are trying to avoid the same fate. Good Monday morning. Follow me on Twitter at @ZachMontellaro. Email the rest of the POLITICO Campaigns team at sshepard@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com, amutnick@politico.com and srodriguez@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @POLITICO_Steve, @JamesArkin, @allymutnick and @sabrod123. Days until the Georgia Senate runoffs: 22 Days until the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections: 323 Days until the 2022 midterm elections: 694 | | | NEARING THE END — Electors will meet across the country today to affirm Biden's victory, one of the last steps remaining in the 2020 election, POLITICO's Kyle Cheney and I wrote. This process, normally a ceremonial afterthought, has gotten increased attention this year because of Trump's attempts to nullify the results of an election that he lost. There's no set time for when electors will meet in each state — the process is largely dictated by state law — but Biden won't get over the 270 mark until the California delegation votes in the afternoon. Once the various slates wrap up their votes, it'll be another nail in the coffin of the president's attempts to install himself in the White House for another term. Another large nail in said coffin was delivered on Friday, when the Supreme Court unceremoniously tossed a case originally brought by Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton, that sought to ultimately disenfranchise voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania, which Trump and many Republicans supported. "Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections," the court wrote in its unsigned order that landed Friday evening. No justice indicated an endorsement of Texas' arguments, but Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas issued a statement saying they would have allowed Texas' to file its case, but said they "would not grant other relief." (POLITICO's Josh Gerstein and Kyle have more on that case being tossed.) Despite basically every legal expert saying the Texas case had zero shot from the moment it was filed — even setting aside the fact that the case made outlandish and false claims of widespread fraud — many Republicans signed on to the case. All told, 126 House Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, gave their seal of approval to Paxton and Trump's efforts to hack away at the roots of American democracy. So, what's next? Trump spent his weekend whining about the Supreme Court and said the fight continues. "No, it's not over," he said in an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, in which he repeated false claims of systemic fraud and conspiracy theories about a rigged election. The president insisted that he could preval in local cases, where he has also lost overwhelmingly. But the true last step is Jan. 6, when Congress jointly meets to count and certify the electoral college votes. Allies of the president in the House have already pledged to challenge slates of votes, but it won't go anywhere. Even if they get a senator to join their quixotic challenge (there needs to be a member from both chambers backing the effort), it is still an "arduous" process that will ultimately be a dead-ender for those who deny reality. The New York Times' Nicholas Fandos and Michael Schmidt : "Once an objection is heard from a member of each house of Congress, senators and representatives will retreat to their chambers on opposite sides of the Capitol for a two-hour debate ... Both the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate would have to agree to toss out a state's electoral votes … Several Senate Republicans — including Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah — have forcefully rejected the idea of overturning the results, and their votes would be enough for Mr. Biden to prevail with the support of Democrats." Biden is set to make a prime-time speech this evening in Wilmington, Del., "on the electoral college vote certification and the strength and resilience of our democracy." | | | | BIG SCOOPS IN TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: In the runup to Inauguration Day, president-elect Joe Biden's staffing decisions are sending clear-cut signals about his priorities. What do these signals foretell? Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, this scoop-filled newsletter is breaking big news and analyzing the appointments, people and emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | FIRST IN THE NATION — We may now all be fondly recalling a distant time called "February 2020" at this point, but back then it wasn't all rosy after the Iowa Democratic caucus meltdown. So what went wrong that night in the Hawkeye State? The state Democratic Party commissioned an audit, and POLITICO's Tyler Pager has the report: "Democratic National Committee meddling, combined with missteps by the state Democratic Party, were the primary drivers of the chaos," he wrote. "The report pins the blame squarely on the DNC for the heart of the problem on caucus night — the delay in the reporting of the results. According to the report, the DNC demanded the technology company, Shadow, build a conversion tool just weeks before the caucuses to allow the DNC to have real-time access to the raw numbers because the national party feared the app would miscalculate results. The DNC's data system used a different database format than Shadow's reporting app, which caused multiple problems." The audit also faulted the state party over various things, like waiting too long to develop the reporting app, and poor communication. The DNC did not participate in the audit. More from Tyler: "The audit was conducted by Bonnie Campbell, the former attorney general of Iowa, and Faegre Drinker, an international law firm. The DNC refused to participate in interviews by the lawyers who conducted the audit. … The DNC said it offered to provide written answers so staff could remain focused on the work of the general election. The authors of the report declined that request, the DNC said." (A DNC spokesperson said that "evaluating the nominating process" takes place after the election.) RUN IT BACK? — Trump is talking a lot about a 2024 run. But will he actually go through with it? "The president's recent discussions with those around him reveal that he sees his White House comeback deliberations as a way to earn the commodity he needs most after leaving office: attention," POLITICO's Anita Kumar reported. "The president has spent days calling a dozen or more allies to ask what they think he needs to do over the next two years to 'stay part of the conversation,' according to two people, including one who spoke to the president. And while Trump has told allies he plans to run for president again, he has also indicated he could back out in two years if he determines he'll have a tough time winning, said three people familiar with the discussions."
| | | | HAPPENING TUESDAY - CONFRONTING INEQUALITY IN AMERICA TOWN HALL : The pandemic-induced recession has put over 40 million Americans at risk of foreclosure and eviction and caused a steady decline in Black homeownership. What solutions need to happen to make housing more inclusive and fair? Join POLITICO for its fourth town hall in the series "Confronting Inequality in America." Our latest town hall explores "The Housing Gap" and will convene policymakers, lawmakers, advocates and mortgage industry leaders to discuss various approaches for eliminating housing inequality as we begin to recover from the Covid-19 recession. REGISTER HERE. | | | | |
| | | ON MY MIND — Republicans have been grappling with an open civil war within the party in the runup to the Georgia elections (see: any of the president's tweets about Georgia's executive branch) — but Democrats have been working to avoid the same fate. "The left has thrown its weight behind Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidates in Georgia who do not back 'Medicare for All' — a major liberal priority," POLITICO's Holly Otterbein wrote. "Ossoff, in particular, is not seen by progressives as one of their own. Still, top progressive elected officials and organizations are putting aside their disappointments to campaign and raise cash for the Jan. 5 races anyway." — Republicans are hoping to use the party rallying around Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to further build their digital infrastructure. POLITICO's Elena Schneider : NRSC "executive director Kevin McLaughlin urged Republican senators at their Nov. 10 weekly lunch to capitalize on the "manna from heaven" opportunity in Georgia, where intense interest in the runoffs means senators can grow their own online fundraising programs by making appeals to donors to help Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, according to Republicans with direct knowledge of the meeting. The effort is introducing some senators to online fundraising tactics that have been popular among Democrats for years but are not nearly as prevalent among Republicans." — Loeffler's campaign condemned a photo of her posing with "a longtime white supremacist at an event in Dawsonville on Friday," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Chris Joyner and Greg Bluestein wrote, saying she had no idea who he was when the photo was taken. — A new poll in the Peach State has both races incredibly close (surprise surprise). The AARP poll, conducted by the bipartisan team of Fabrizio Ward and Hart Research Associates, has both races well within the margin of error. Ossoff is at 48 percent to Perdue's 46 percent, while Warnock is at 47 percent to Loeffler's 46 percent (1,250 voters; Nov. 30-Dec. 4; +/- 3.2 percentage point MoE). — More ads: An Ossoff ad attacks Perdue over stimulus checks . A Warnock ad has Black Americans saying "we have the power" on the election, another ad contrasts Warnock and Loeffler on health care and more and another Warnock ad has him encouraging early voting in a holiday-themed ad. ROTTEN ROOTS — It isn't just Trump who refuses to concede his loss. A handful of down ballot Republicans, many of whom got absolutely demolished in November, are also making up fraud allegations to explain their defeats. POLITICO David Siders: "Republican candidates for House, [state] legislative and gubernatorial races in more than half a dozen states are still refusing to concede. Echoing the president, these candidates are an early sign of what Republicans say will be a sustained, post-Trump effort to tighten voting restrictions and to reverse measures implemented in many states to make voting easier." — Some totally normal stuff from Texas state GOP chairman Allen West: After the Supreme Court tossed the Paxton case, the former Florida congressman alluded to succession. "Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution," West said in a Friday statement, per The Texas Tribune's Emma Platoff. — And the Arizona GOP has also been roiled by infighting, as party chair Kelli Ward continues to back Trump's conspiracies and attacks GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, The Wall Street Journal's Eliza Collins wrote. IN NEW YORK — A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, accused him of sexually harassing her. "Cuomo sexually harassed me for years. Many saw it, and watched," Lindsey Boylan, who previously worked for Cuomo as an economic adviser and is now running for Manhattan borough president, tweeted on Sunday. "I could never anticipate what to expect: would I be grilled on my work (which was very good) or harassed about my looks. Or would it be both in the same conversation?" Cuomo's office flatly denied it: "There is simply no truth to these claims," the governor's press secretary Caitlin Girouard told The New York Times' Dana Rubinstein and Jesse McKinley. Boylan also tweeted she had "no interest in talking to journalists" about the allegation. STILL UNCALLED — Not much new to detail out of the race in NY-22 between Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi and former GOP Rep. Claudia Tenney, other than expect it to take a while. WBNG's Josh Rosenblatt had a helpful Twitter thread along those lines, which explained why even in a best case scenario this will likely take quite some time to resolve, stretching well into next year. — One race that has finally concluded is the election for the chief justice of the North Carolina state Supreme Court. Incumbent Chief Justice Cheri Beasley conceded over the weekend after a recount had her still down to her challenger, Justice Paul Newby, The News & Observer's Danielle Battaglia and Charlie Innis wrote. Beasley is a Democrat, and Newby is a Republican; Liberals now have a narrower, 4-3 majority on the court, down from 6-1 before the election. GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD — Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.), who lost his hotly contested reelection bid, is now publicly talking about his potential New York City mayoral run. "If you want someone with a typical politician, typical government experience, you've got plenty of other folks," Rose said in an interview with The New York Times' Katie Glueck. "But if you want someone with experience and guts and ability to end our broken politics, then I could be your candidate." POLITICO New York's Joe Anuta has more (for Pros) on Rose's "long road from Staten Island to Gracie Mansion." CODA — HEADLINE OF THE DAY: "U.S. begins shipping Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine" — from POLITICO. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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