| | | | | |  | | 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.
| | | — The Arizona Republican Party tightened its embrace of former President Donald Trump over the weekend, reelecting his endorsed candidate to chair the party and rebuking prominent critics, including incumbent Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and Cindy McCain. — Private comments from Microsoft's president about corporate PACs underscore what could be an impermanent suspension of donations. — Trump's attempts to use the mechanisms of the federal government to try to overturn President Joe Biden's victory were far more extensive than initially realized, according to new reporting from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Good Monday morning. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com, or 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 LA-02 and LA-05 special elections: 54 Days until the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections: 281 Days until the 2022 midterm elections: 652 Days until the 2024 election: 1,380 | | | POST-TRUMP TRUMPISM — The Trump era has not been a particularly friendly one for the Arizona Republican Party, with now-former Sen. Martha McSally losing both of the state's Senate seats to Democrats in consecutive elections, and Biden squeaking by Trump in November. Yet over the weekend, the state GOP doubled down on Trump. In what the Arizona Republic's Ronald Hansen and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez described as an at-times "combative" meeting, current party chair Kelli Ward, a one-time GOP gadfly, was narrowly reelected for another term, beating out another candidate who was critical of her stewardship of the state GOP. Ward, who has promulgated conspiracy theories about the integrity of the election, ran with the backing of Trump, one of his first post-election political moves. The party also went a step further, voting to censure three prominent Republicans in the state who have butted heads with Trump: Ducey, McCain and former Sen. Jeff Flake. The symbolic slap-on-the-wrist for the three came after both McCain and Flake endorsed Biden for president, and as Ducey defended the state's election results. (Ducey's censure was about Covid-related restrictions, but Trump and Ward have both ripped into the sitting governor.) Flake had a succinct response to the censure: "Good company," he tweeted, along with a picture of the three of them from Biden's inauguration. The rift within the party also comes as Ducey gets more of a national platform. The governor has been the most successful Republican candidate in the state as of late — he cruised to reelection in 2018, despite significantly closer elections elsewhere — and is the new chair of the Republican Governors Association. And other signs point to the institutional wing of the GOP wanting to move on from Trump, not embracing him like the state party. "And with that, the AZGOP will have no significant role in '22," J.P. Twist, the political director of the RGA (and a longtime Ducey aide), tweeted. "No other option but to work with others. We've been here before. No big deal." It remains to be seen which direction the rank-and-file voters want to go. Ducey himself also faces an uncertain political future because he is term-limited from running again in 2022. Ducey's name has been bandied around as a potential 2022 Senate candidate against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), but he seemingly shot that down in an interview with The New York Times' Jennifer Medina: "I'm not running for the United States Senate. It's a no." (Let the splitting-of-hairs begin: Ducey is not currently running for the Senate, but that doesn't mean things couldn't change in two years! Just ask John Hickenlooper.) — On the other side of the Arizona coin: State Democrats overwhelmingly elected state Rep. Raquel Terán as their party chair, with the backing of both Kelly and Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Republic's Sanchez reported . The progressive state lawmaker has no easy task ahead of her: Despite Biden and Kelly's victories, Democrats had a disappointing downballot cycle in a state that's anything but safe for them.
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| | | THE CASH DASH — I've expressed some skepticism of the stickiness of recent announcements from corporate PACs that they'd be suspending donations, either to lawmakers who specifically sought to overturn election results or all lawmakers. Would it actually be permanent, or just for a few months until it all blows over? To answer that, it is worth considering why corporate PACs exist in the first place. In a meeting with employees, Microsoft president Brad Smith gave a fairly frank explanation, which was first posted by Maciej Cegłowski of the bookmarking website Pinboard and subsequently confirmed by Microsoft. "I can tell you that, you know, it plays an important role, not because the checks are big, but because of the way the political process works," Smith said. "And I can tell you there are times when I call people who I don't personally know. And somebody will say, 'Well, you know, your folks have always shown up for me at my events, and we have a good relationship. Let me see what I can do to help you.'" At the town hall, Smith also said that the company was taking stock "of the recent events" and considering questions on if it should continue to give donations to lawmakers who voted to reject the results of the presidential election. Microsoft said that it has halted all PAC donations while it considers its next step, and plans on announcing its decision by Feb. 15. "The company believes that opposition to the Electoral College undermined American democracy and should have consequences," Microsoft said in an unsigned statement. DEEP IN THE HEART — Following Trump's surprising support in the Rio Grande Valley, Republicans are looking to invest in the region for the first time in years as they look to take back the House. POLITICO Campaigns' Ally Mutnick: "In the danger zone are Reps. Vicente Gonzalez, Filemón Vela and Henry Cuellar, whose three adjoining districts stretch from the southern tip of the state up toward the San Antonio-Austin corridor. Hillary Clinton won them with margins between 17 and 22 points in 2016. But Joe Biden carried them all by just a few points in 2020 — the largest rightward swings of any Texas congressional districts." RULES OF THE ROAD — Expect to see a push among Republican legislators in states across the country for more restrictive voting laws, with some citing Trump's false election fraud claims, or the lowered trust in elections because of it, I wrote . The epicenter will likely be Georgia, where Republicans are debating everything from scrapping no-excuse absentee voting entirely to requiring a copy of photo ID for mail ballots. (Voters who vote in person already have to show photo ID in the Peach State.) Other states to watch are those with unified Republican control of the legislature and governorship — like Texas or Arizona. NOT HAPPENING — Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has made her displeasure with Trump, and the future of the GOP, known. But she has zero interest in switching parties. "I can be very discouraged at times with things that go on in my own caucus, in my own party," Murkowski told a trio of reporters on Friday, including our own Burgess Everett . "But I have absolutely no desire to move over to the Democratic side of the aisle. I can't be somebody that I'm not." Murkowski is up for reelection in 2022, and it wouldn't be shocking for her to face a more conservative challenger, even as she sticks with the GOP. But Alaska's new and fairly unique primary system will likely insulate her: In Alaska, candidates from all parties run in the same primary, with the top four advancing to the general election. THE GOVERNATORS — Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is expected to announce she's running for governor of Arkansas today. The news was first reported by The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey, quickly followed by … every other outlet. Talk about a crowded Republican field, with current GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson term-limited: Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, both Republicans, are already running. 51ST (AND 52ND) STATE? — One of the great hopes for some progressives was that, with unified Democratic control of Washington, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia would become states. But not so fast: Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told The Atlantic's Isaac Dovere that the votes weren't there right now for statehood (or other progressive policy positions). IMPEACHMENT AFTERMATH — Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), one of the ten House Republicans to support impeachment, received a censure from a local Republican Party for his vote. The Allegan County Republican Party, which The Detroit News' Melissa Nann Burke details as "largely rural" and one of the "most conservative counties" in MI-06, voted to rebuke the veteran Republican lawmaker. ON THE AIRWAVES — The beagle in now-Sen. Raphael Warnock's (D-Ga.) TV ads? Wasn't his. The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher has a deep dive into Warnock's advertising strategy, where — as The Times put it — "racial politics were inescapable" in the race. "The entire ad screams that I am a Black candidate whom white people ought not be afraid of," Hakeem Jefferson, a professor of political science at Stanford, said of the borrowed beagle ads. LEADING THE PARTY — Some more state party chair news: Iowa Democrats selected state Rep. Ross Wilburn to lead their battered party, per the Des Moines Register's Brianne Pfannenstiel. Maine Democrats picked Drew Gattine, a former state legislator, per the Bangor Daily News' Lynne Fort. STAFFING UP — The NRCC announced its senior staff for the cycle: John Billings as executive director, Robert Boland as senior adviser to the chairman, Kelly Gosselin as deputy executive director, Erin Clark as general counsel, Leigh Ann Gillis as finance director, George Griffin as IT director, Michael McAdams as communications director, Lyman Munschauer as chief marketing officer Justin Richards as political director, Mike Thom as battleground director, Matt Wall as research director and Katy Williams as chief financial officer. — Lucinda Guinn, the former executive director of the DCCC, is joining the now-renamed Democratic media firm Ralston Lapp Guinn as a partner.
| | | | HAPPENING TUESDAY - DRAWING THE ETHICAL LINE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: As AI becomes increasingly ingrained in our everyday lives, there are concerns about biases in these systems and ethical standards to guide their fair use. Without an international framework or set of principles governing AI, the ethical guidelines for its use vary across countries and cities and sometimes even come down to individual policymakers, elected leaders, the private sector, and grassroots advocates' work. Join POLITICO for a conversation to explore the pace of global AI innovation and development and what it means for the future of ethical standards in this space. The virtual program features an executive conversation between POLITICO CEO Patrick Steel and Workday EVP of corporate affairs Jim Shaughnessy. REGISTER HERE. | | | | |
| | | LAST GASPS — In the waning days of the Trump administration, Trump considered ousting the acting attorney general in order to use the full force of the government to try to pressure Georgia to overturn election results. The New York Times' Katie Benner reported that Jeffrey Clark, the acting head of the DOJ civil division, had talked with Trump about the DOJ involving itself with Georgia to back the president's unsubstantiated claims of fraud, which would involve dismissing then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen because he did not support it. Top DOJ leaders made an "informal pact" to resign if Rosen was forced out, The Times reported. More: "Mr. Trump's decision [to not follow through] came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. Trump's reality show 'The Apprentice,' albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis." More from The Times on Clark's plan in Georgia: "He drafted a letter that he wanted Mr. Rosen to send to Georgia state legislators that wrongly said that the Justice Department was investigating accusations of voter fraud in their state, and that they should move to void Mr. Biden's win there." Clark said The Times story contained inaccuracies, and denied any plan to oust Rosen. "Senior Justice Department lawyers, not uncommonly, provide legal advice to the White House as part of our duties," he said. "All my official communications were consistent with law." NYT's Benner and Catie Edmondson also reported that Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was responsible for introducing Trump to Clark. — Trump also pushed the Justice Department to file a suit asking the Supreme Court to invalidate Biden's victory, The Wall Street Journal's Jess Bravin and Sadie Gurman reported. WSJ: "Senior department officials, including Mr. Rosen, former Attorney General William Barr and former acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall refused to file the Supreme Court case, concluding that there was no basis to challenge the election outcome and that the federal government had no legal interest." LEGAL EAGLES — Sidney Powell and other proponents of election-related conspiracy theories launched a super PAC on Friday. But an early speed bump: The bank they have listed on their statement of organization says it has no involvement, Raw Story's Daniel Newhauser reported. "We have done a thorough inquiry and determined this entity has no account at Bank OZK, has no account pending, and has never had an account here. Per our established policy, the PAC is not eligible for an account with Bank OZK," said Susan Blair, executive vice president and spokeswoman for the bank. CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: "He was very intelligent and had a great sense of humor, and he was very, very hot." — Nadine Arslanian, who is now Sen. Bob Menendez's (D-N.J.) wife, on her first impressions of her husband (who she met at an IHOP), in a vows column in The New York Times. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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