“The Democratic Party is directing millions of extra dollars to its House candidates this fall by way of a legal loophole that has helped them bypass the typical limits on coordinated spending between parties and candidates — all while linking some vulnerable Republicans to Donald Trump,” Politico reports.

“Typically, Federal Election Commission regulations limit parties to just $48,100 of spending in direct coordination with most House candidates. But under a decade-old FEC precedent, candidates that word their TV ads a certain way — including references to generic “Democrats” and “Republicans” as well as specific candidates — can split the cost of those ads with their party, even if that means blowing past the normal coordinated spending caps.”

For members: What Will It Take for Democrats to Win the House?

“You start whining before the game’s even over? If, whenever things are going bad for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else? You don’t have what it takes to do this job.”

— President Obama, quoted by BuzzFeed, on Donald Trump’s accusations that the election is rigged.

Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:

Nevada: Clinton 47%, Trump 40%, Johnson 7% (Monmouth)

Wisconsin: Clinton 47%, Trump 39%, Johnson 1% (St. Norbert)

Texas: Trump 41%, Clinton 38%, Johnson 4% (University of Houston)

A new Washington Post/SurveyMonkey poll in 15 battleground states shows Hillary Clinton holds a decisive advantage over Donald Trump, leading in enough states to put her comfortably over the 270 majority needed to win the presidential election in November.

Of those states surveyed, Trump leads in Nevada and Iowa. Clinton leads in New Hampshire, Virginia, Michigan, New Mexico, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia.

The only remaining toss ups are Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Texas.

National Journal: “Of the sev­en most com­pet­it­ive Sen­ate races, Re­pub­lic­ans are cling­ing to leads in six (Pennsylvania, Mis­souri, New Hamp­shire, Flor­ida, In­di­ana and North Car­o­lina), and barely trail­ing in a sev­enth (Nevada).”

“The in­tern­al data, shared with Na­tion­al Journ­al by a seni­or Re­pub­lic­an op­er­at­ive, show six Re­pub­lic­an can­did­ates hold­ing nar­row 1-3 point leads against their Demo­crat­ic chal­lengers, with a sev­enth can­did­ate trail­ing by two points. Dif­fer­ent races are trend­ing in dif­fer­ent dir­ec­tions: Re­pub­lic­an can­did­ates have mo­mentum but stat­ist­ic­ally in­sig­ni­fic­ant leads in In­di­ana and North Car­o­lina, while GOP can­did­ates in Mis­souri and Nevada have lost ground in the last few weeks but still re­main in con­ten­tion.”

Fro members: The Senate Races Most Impacted by Ticket Splitting

Rick Klein: “The damage Donald Trump is doing to the Republican Party – assuming polls hold and he loses big, perhaps taking the Senate down with him – can’t be fully measured Nov. 8. (And that has nothing to do with claims of a ‘rigged election.’) Just three weeks out, Trump is somehow finding new battles to fight with his fellow Republicans, including those whose endorsements of him still stand.”

“Trump on Monday put House Speaker Paul Ryan in his crosshairs, telling ABC’s Tom Llamas that Ryan may not want him to even win: ‘Maybe he wants to run in four years, or maybe he doesn’t know how to win.’ That sentiment virtually assures a post-election for Ryan, who at best will have a diminished majority to try to lead in the next Congress, amid suspicions of his own motives and true agenda. Should Trump lose, the potential justifications for his backers to offer are multiplying daily.”

“Sen. Marco Rubio used his first Senate debate to describe the choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton as ‘horrifying’ and called on Trump to stop saying the election is rigged. That plea will go unheard, as will pleas that Trump limit his shots at fellow GOPers over the final stretch.”

“Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that the election is rigged against him because of a corrupt political system may have the effect of lowering turnout among his own supporters,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Political science research into the topic suggests that both the perception of corruption as well as negative messages about political empowerment may limit voters’ desire to participate in the political process.”

Playbook: “There’s been a lot of chatter over the last few days about whether Ryan did the right thing by speaking out against Trump. Why is he always the scold, people have asked? His handling of Trump will be dissected plenty over the next few months. Ryan has an incredibly complicated job and has to balance the needs of 245 other Republicans, many of whom wanted cover to break with Trump. But there’s no question he’s now bearing the brunt of the decision.”

“We’re not going to play the can-he-win-the-speakership-again game. There are far too many variables at play, like a) how much Trump loses by and b) what the margin is in the House. But Trump and his allies are signaling a long fight against Ryan. Put it all together, and you come up with a pretty simple question: Why would Ryan want to become speaker again?”

Stuart Rothenberg: “It would be a mistake to call Trump’s current path to an electoral college victory narrow. It is nonexistent. Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, once part of the Trump scenario, have never been ‘in play,’ and he is not competitive in 2012 states Obama won only narrowly, such as Virginia and Colorado. Trump is more likely to lose North Carolina than win it, which would put him under 200 electoral votes.”

“Frankly, the writing has been on the wall for months about this race. You simply needed to look at the candidates, their campaign teams, the map and the voters.”