Good Thursday morning, I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing sponsored by BP.

We've got a first in Playbook. A group of Senate Republican focused outside groups raised nearly $13.9 million during the first quarter of 2018.

The Senate Leadership Fund raised $9.6 million and one nation brought in more than $3.7 million.

American Crossroads brought in $350,000 and Crossroads GPS raised $50,000.

That's up from $7.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and $7.1 million in the third quarter of 2017.

Current cash on hand for the groups is $34.4 million.

Stephen Law, who heads SLF and One Nation, said the groups have gotten $12.1 million

in, quote, hard pledges for the second quarter of this year.

I also had some takeaways on the state of play for Republicans. He told us that donors are just

sharpening their focus on the importance of holding a Senate majority as a firewall.

The two big issues mobilizing donors right now, he said, include the massive Democratic fundraising

advantage in some of the most competitive

races and a potential Supreme Court vacancy. And we've got another scoop. The Congressional

Leadership Fund is dumping another $100,000 into Arizona's eighth congressional district to boost

Debbie Lesko's candidacy to fill former representative Trent Frank's seat. The spend is a, quote, final hyper-targeted

digital and phone effort. Remember, Trump won this district by more than 20 points.

The Washington Post is up with a story about Republicans concerned about the political risk in the

Senate if the House moves to extend tax cuts. The worry, it could allow Red State Democrats to vote for tax

cuts undercutting Republicans' major talking point this cycle that Democrats voted against a big tax cut

in December. This is another example of the House and Senate being on two completely different pages.

The House is going to try to

undo a spending agreement they just passed, which is something Mitch McConnell said he has no

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