Good Monday morning. I'm Anna Palmer. And welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, sponsored by AARP.

The story that matters the most this week is in Columbus, Ohio, where Republican Troy Balderson will face off against Democrat Danny O'Connor for a solidly red House seat.

This race will give us a good sense of the landscape at the

moment. It's a Republican district that the GOP has held for 35 years and cook rates as an R plus

7. So a Democratic win or anything close would indicate that Ds have a massive advantage going into

November. Our colleague Alex Eisenstadt was in Ohio and filed a dispatch where he reported that

Democrats are surging on the eve of this pivotal special election.

Still, the GOP has converged on the suburban Columbus District.

He writes that the RNC has opened two offices in the district and launched a $500,000 plus get-out-the-vote

effort. The RNC just reported spending nearly $20,000 on calls for Troy Balderson.

And the Columbus Dispatch reports that Balderson won't address comments by John Kasich that he

did not invite Trump to Ohio over the weekend.

The president played golf with Senator Lindsey Graham yesterday in New Jersey.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders put a statement out Sunday night that the two discussed a number of issues,

including national security and trade.

And Trump reacted to California wildfires last night. He tweeted, California wildfires are being magnified

and made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren't allowing massive amount

of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean.

Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading. We've got a first in playbook. Scotus

Watch, Protect Our Care is going up with one week of TV and radio health care focused ads in Maine,

Alaska, and Nevada, targeting Republican senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Dean Heller.

The group is spending $150,000 on the push and what is spokesman for the group

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