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03/04/2019 10:00 AM EDT

By ZACH MONTELLARO ([email protected]; @ZachMontellaro)


Editor's Note: This edition of Morning Score is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Campaign subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro's comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here.
QUICK FIX
- Republicans picked Fred Keller as their nominee for a special election in PA-12, making him likely the next member of Congress in a safe red district.

- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee launched his presidential campaign on Friday with a focus on climate change, and a pro-Inslee super PAC is already laying down some money.

- House Democrats' voting and ethics reform bill is expected to come to the floor this week after House Rules tees the bill up and the Congressional Budget Office dropped a score.

Good Monday morning. Later today, we expect to learn when North Carolina will conduct the NC-09 rerun election. Email me at [email protected] or DM me at @ZachMontellaro.

Email the great Campaign Pro team at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @DanielStrauss4, @JamesArkin and @lbarronlopez.

Days until the 2019 election: 246

Days until the 2020 election: 610
THE TOPLINES
THE NEXT MEMBER? - Pennsylvania Republicans picked the likely newest member of Congress on Saturday: Keller, a state representative who won a vote from convention goers to be the party's nominee for the upcoming special election in PA-12 in late May.

The seat was open after former GOP Rep. Tom Marino resigned in January over health concerns. It is a safe red district: Marino cruised to reelection in the midterms, winning by over 30 points (President Donald Trump would have carried the recently redrawn district by an even bigger margin in 2016, per a Daily Kos analysis). Democrats had previously picked Marc Friedenberg as their special election nominee, the same candidate Marino had crushed in 2018.

The special election, which is expected to be quiet, will be a testing ground for messaging for more hotly contested elections in 2019-2020. Statements from the NRCC and the state Republican Party both invoked Keller as fighting socialism.

And the nominating process also highlighted the power of small, targeted spending from outside groups. Club for Growth Action dropped over $16,000 opposing state Rep. Jeff Wheeland, sending targeted mailers and a packet highlighting their opposition to the party activists expected to attend the conference. Wheeland pulled out of the race at the last minute, criticizing negative campaigning, PoliticsPA's John Cole reported.

JOIN THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOUNDATION and the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues at the State Department on March 6-7 for the 9th annual International Women's Day Forum. As part of the day's programming, Anna Palmer, co-author of POLITICO Playbook, will lead a fireside chat with actress, singer, dancer and activist Keke Palmer, who has dedicated her life to philanthropy and activism for young girls. The full agenda and registration are available HERE.
IN THE TRENCHES
PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - Inslee was the latest candidate to formally get into the race, launching his campaign Friday with a video focused on climate change. "Our country's next mission must be to rise up to the most urgent challenge of our time: defeating climate change," he says in the video. Campaign Pro's Daniel Strauss has more on the first governor to officially throw his hat into the ring. Inslee selected Aisling Kerins to be his campaign manager, per NBC News' Alex Seitz-Wald.

And he's already got backup. Act Now on Climate, a super PAC run by a former aide to Inslee, has already spent an estimated $250,000 on "video production and digital ads," per a Sunday FEC filing.

- Former Vice President Joe Biden's "Hamlet" act has frozen the Democratic field. "Democratic donors and bundlers are sitting on their wallets," POLITICO's Marc Caputo reported, adding that some candidates are waiting for his decision. "Then there's the pool of seasoned campaign hands in wait-and-see mode, closely attuned to Biden's next move."

- Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) promised to do better by her staff following several stories detailing abusive behavior. "I know I can be tough, I know I can push people too hard, and I also know I can do better - and I will," she said in a statement to the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Patrick Condon and Torey Van Oot. Klobuchar also made jokes about some of the reports at the Gridiron Club dinner this weekend, per POLITICO's Christian Vasquez.

- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had the first official event of his 2020 bid on Saturday, returning to the borough that spawned his famous Brooklyn accent. "After rarely talking about his early years in his first chase for the White House, the Vermont senator started his 2020 bid at a rally highlighting his origins as the son of an immigrant, a lower-middle-class child and a young civil rights activist," POLITICO's Holly Otterbein wrote from the rally that drew an estimated 13,000.

And don't expect Sanders to ask 2016 rival Hillary Clinton for advice. "I suspect not," he answered on "The View" when asked if he'll reach out to her. He pledged to support whoever the 2020 Democratic nominee is.

- Democrats are more willing to speak about race on the campaign trail than in years past. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) talked "emotionally about being a descendant of slaves" in Selma, Ala., The Washington Post's Matt Viser wrote (Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Clinton and Sanders were also there), and Sanders talked about race in a Chicago speech on Sunday, Holly reported.

- Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is nearing a run. The Colorado Sun's John Frank reported that Hickenlooper received a permit to hold an event marked as a "celebration" on Thursday in Denver.

- Who's a good surrogate? Bailey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) golden retriever. POLITICO's Natasha Korecki writes how the loyal pup has "quickly emerged as the senator's top surrogate, and a phenomenon in his own right."

- Could New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo change his mind and get into the race? He told The Atlantic's Edward-Isaac Dovere to "call me back" if Biden doesn't run.

H.R. 1 NEARING THE FLOOR - Two developments are pushing H.R. 1, the House Democratic electoral and ethics reform bill, nearer to a floor vote that is expected as soon as this week. The CBO released a cost estimate for the bill on Friday. It would cost roughly $2.5 billion through 2024, with the majority of that going to voting system grants. The House Rules Committee will meet Tuesday to tee up the bill for floor debate. Nearly 150 amendments have been submitted.

WHAT HAPPENS IN NEVADA... - Presidential hopefuls are quietly making moves in the fourth early state, which looks to be wide open. "For candidates, they should understand that if they can do well in Nevada, they can do well in the country," Former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told POLITICO's Elena Schneider. "People who think they can win a race for president by staying east of the Mississippi are going to be in for a rude awakening." Elena reports that several 2020ers have met with the powerful Culinary Union.

REDRAWING THE MAPS - A nonpartisan commission proposed new boundaries for MD-06, the district currently represented by Democratic Rep. David Trone, The Washington Post's Jennifer Barrios reported. The map, which would make the district more Republican-leaning, was drawn by Daily Kos' Stephen Wolf, who explained his rationale behind the map in a February post.

STAFFING UP - The RNC has finalized its 2020 senior staff. POLITICO's Alex Thompson reported that Michael Ahrens will be comms director, Mike Reed will be deputy chief of staff for communications and Joe Ascioti will head up the research team, among other moves.

THE CASH DASH - Carly Fiorina hasn't run for office since her failed 2016 bid for president (and, briefly, vice president). But her hybrid PAC is still spending, dropping more than $780,000 in the 2018 cycle on thing like "styling services", Ubers and furniture, the Center for Responsive Politics' Karl Evers-Hillstrom and Raymond Arke reported.

ELECTION SECURITY - Election officials across the country are moving to replace insecure voting machines - but some of the replacements are insecure themselves. "The machines that Georgia, Delaware, Philadelphia and perhaps many other jurisdictions will buy before 2020 are an improvement over the totally paperless devices," Pro Cybersecurity's Eric Geller reported. "But [experts] warn that these new machines still pose unacceptable risks".

THE GOLDEN STATE - California is again trying to shake its role as a "backbencher" in presidential politics. "The moving of California's 2020 presidential primary to March 3 ... is the latest bid to play with the calendar in hopes of gaining more electoral relevance," the Los Angeles Times' Melanie Mason writes. "Because of California's robust vote-by-mail program, balloting begins on Feb. 3, the same day Iowans caucus."

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "You know I'm totally off script right now." - Trump in a meandering CPAC speech that hit on everything from his inaugural crowd sizes to saying some members of Congress hate America, via POLITICO.

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