OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN: Scorched-earth Georgia primary draws to a close

Georgia Republicans will be relieved come Wednesday, when the party has nominated either Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) or businessman David Perdue (R) as the party’s Senate nominee and the two stop their scorched-earth TV war.

Perdue and Kingston have been spending down their campaign coffers and driving up each other’s disapproval ratings with the same messages Democrats plan to use against them. Perdue has painted Kingston as a selfish career politician, while Kingston has hit Perdue as an out-of-town corporate raider.

While they battle, Democrat Michelle Nunn has been quietly amassing a ton of campaign cash.

Nunn still faces an uphill race in the heavily conservative state, and Republicans avoided nominating a much more flawed candidate like Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) or Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.). But Georgia Republicans privately admit that the primary has taken its toll in a must-win state for Republicans hoping to retake Senate control this fall.

SENATE SHOWDOWN

ADELSON: GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson is reportedly considering spending up to $100 million aimed at flipping the Senate to GOP control, money that could swamp Democrats in some states and force them to retrench their map.

HI-SEN (SCHATZ): Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) picked up the endorsement of The Honolulu Star-Adviser, which wrote he has shown his “commitment to his party’s ideals and an ability to connect with D.C. power-brokers who can advance a progressive agenda on the state’s behalf” in the short time he’s been in office.

KS-SEN (ROBERTS): Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) and his primary challenger, Milton Wolf, are slamming each other with new attack ads headed into the final weeks of their primary. Roberts’ ad paints Wolf as “unethical, irresponsible and unfit for Kansas,” hitting the radiologist for missing “28 votes on issues important to Kansans” and highlighting his “unethical x-ray activity.” Wolf focuses his attack on the claims that Roberts no longer lives in Kansas and is “out of touch,” saying that the senator “moved to Washington 47 years ago.”

AK-SEN (BEGICH): Republican candidate Dan Sullivan pushes back against attacks that he is not a real Alaskan with a new ad that features his Alaskan Native wife and touts his roots in the state.

GA-SEN (OPEN): Perdue’s final ad before Tuesday’s primary ties Kingston to the “pro-amnesty” Chamber of Commerce and knocks him as a “career politician.” 

NH-SEN (SHAHEEN): Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) released a new statewide television ad Sunday, highlighting her work to lower student loan costs for students. Shaheen touts her support of legislation that would have allowed students to refinance their loans, a bill she says “will lower rates and save families thousands of dollars.”

LA-SEN (LANDRIEU): State Rep. Paul Hollis, a Republican candidate who dropped out of the Louisiana Senate race last week, backed Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in his challenge to Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), an endorsement that could hurt Cassidy’s other conservative challenger, former Air Force Col. Rob Maness. 

MT-SEN (WALSH): A new Public Policy Polling survey shows Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) leading Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont.) by 46 to 39 percent, down from Daines’s 17-point lead over Walsh when they last polled the race in November.

NV-SEN (REID 2016): Former Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root said he’s “thinking really seriously about running” as a Republican against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2016.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE

MN-8 (NOLAN): Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) has been moved to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Frontline program, which is designed to protect the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents. Nolan was topped by his Republican challenger Stewart Mills in the last fundraising quarter in the swing district. 

FL-18 (MURPHY): Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) has reserved $1.4 million in cable and broadcast, the first buy of his campaign and a buy that will run through the summer and into the fall. The buy reflects Murphy’s strong fundraising so far in the race, as he finished the second quarter of this year with more than $2.6 million in the bank. 

NY-18 (MALONEY): A survey conducted by Gravis Marketing for conservative publication Human Events shows former Republican Rep. Nan Hayworth up four points over Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D), taking 44 percent of registered voters to his 40 percent, a result within the poll’s 4-point margin of error and an unexpected one, as Maloney is considered the frontrunner there.

2016 WATCH

CLINTON: Former President Bill Clinton told CNN that his wife Hillary Clinton “really does need some time to think through” what her message would be were she to run for president in 2016. Clinton claimed that Hillary hasn’t asked him for advice but that he would be “fine” with whatever decision she makes and touted her ability to lead the country. 

Hillary Clinton headed to California on Monday to visit the Facebook and Twitter headquarters and participate in question-and-answer sessions as a part of her book tour. Clinton is the second 2016 contender to reach out to the technology community, following Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) visit to Silicon Valley on Saturday to speak at a conference.

CHRISTIE: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) chief economist is resigning, Bloomberg reported Monday, following years of flawed economic predictions for the state. The move highlights New Jersey’s shaky economic status and low credit rating, a challenge for Christie as he weighs a 2016 presidential run.  

PERRY: Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is sending national guard troops to the border to deal with the ongoing child migrant crisis. He was also in Iowa over the weekend, talking up his tough on border security views.

NIXON: Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) is heading to Iowa to visit an ethanol plant. Nixon has said he’d back Clinton if she runs but has been working to raise his national profile in recent months.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Don’t be depressed with how bad government is. Use your ingenuity, use your big head to think of solutions the marketplace can figure out, that the idiots and trolls in Washington will never come up with.” — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to conservative techies at a conference in Silicon Valley.