RICK SCOTT’S SURGE, VANCE’S WILD CARD: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is surging in his campaign to succeed Mitch McConnell as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference (and thus the Senate Majority Leader in the 119th Congress that opens January 3, 2025).

And there is a whiff of panic among backers of Scott’s rivals, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), as evidenced by a Politico story this morning that quotes unnamed Senate aides claiming a transparently questionable “vote count” as evidence that the Florida Republican has overplayed his hand.