“The Marist Institute of Public Opinion has suspended its polling of the GOP primary field in protest of how polls are being used to determine debate participants,” Politico reports.

“The poll, which is done in conjunction with McClatchy, is one of the more well-respected national polls regularly conducted. But Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute, told McClatchy that they’re suspending their poll for this week because the debate criteria assumes the polls are more precise than they are in reality.”

New York Times: “Donald Trump’s surge in the polls has been met with barely concealed delight by Jeb Bush and his supporters. Mr. Trump’s bombastic ways have simultaneously made it all but impossible for those vying to be the alternative to Mr. Bush to emerge, and easier for Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor, to position himself as the serious and thoughtful alternative to a candidate who has upended the early nominating process.”

“With little indication that his support is slipping and the promise of the center stage at Thursday’s debate, Mr. Trump has essentially frozen the rest of the field.”

“It could have been embarrassing: The sitting governor of Ohio left off the primetime Fox News debate stage in his home state because of low poll numbers,” The Hill reports.

“But in the two weeks since he launched his presidential campaign, John Kasich has bypassed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other Republicans who have been in the race longer.”

“Let’s all take a deep breath. You know, four years ago, Herman Cain was winning right now. Eight years ago, Rudy Giuliani was winning right now.”

— Gov. Chris Christie, in an interview on CNN.

A new WSJ/NBC News poll finds Donald Trump has jumped to the front of Republicans’ 2016 presidential candidate field nationally, holding that position even after a spate of incendiary comments by the real-estate magnate about Mexican migrants, other GOP candidates and party leaders.

The poll found that 19% of Republican primary voters picked Trump as their first choice, followed by 15% for Scott Walker, 14% for Jeb Bush and 10% for Ben Carson.

Bloomberg: “According to two people familiar with the network’s plans, candidates will get one minute to answer each question addressed to them by moderators Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace and Bret Baier during the program, which begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time on August 6.”

“Candidates who are called upon will be given only 30 seconds for rebuttals. If a candidate’s name is invoked during someone else’s answer to a question, that candidate will get a chance to respond for a length of time at the moderator’s discretion. The campaign of one leading candidate believes after communications with Fox executives that there will not be a rigorous attempt to make sure all ten candidates get equal time to speak.”

A new Gravis Marketing national poll finds Donald Trump crushing the GOP presidential field with 31%, followed by Jeb Bush at 13%, Scott Walker at 13%, Ben Carson at 6%, Mike Huckabee at 6%, Ted Cruz at 6%, Marco Rubio at 5% and John Kasich at 5%.

The New York Times looks amount of money raised by the presidential campaigns, super PACs and other PACs and nonprofits supporting each candidate.

1. Jeb Bush – $120 million
2. Hillary Clinton – $67.8 million
3. Ted Cruz – $52.5 million