First Read: “Less than a month out before November’s midterm elections, the Republican Party has had a simple message on the campaign trail and in TV ads: fear.”

“And frankly, they come when there’s no evidence of ISIS coming across the border and when (remarkably) there’s still been just one confirmed case of Ebola in the United States. Now we understand why Republicans are picking up this theme — they want to nationalize the election, and they have every incentive to. (The more they get voters going into the voting booth upset at Washington, the more likely they are to get Republicans defeating Democratic incumbents in Senate races.) But some of these candidates are walking a fine line; there is a Chicken Little aspect here regarding Ebola and it can border on the irresponsible.”

New York Times: “Darkness is enveloping American politics.”

A new Lukens Company poll in Iowa finds Bruce Braley (D) barely ahead of Joni Ernst (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 39% to 38%.

Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), who is running against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) this fall, refused to tell the Louisville Courier-Journal if she voted for President Obama in 2008 and 2012. It’s a painful exchange.

Chuck Todd on Morning Joe: “I think she disqualified herself. I really do.”

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A new Richard Stockton College poll in New Jersey finds Sen. Cory Booker (D) leads challenger Jeff Bell (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 39%.

A new Pan Atlantic SMS poll in Maine finds Gov. Paul LePage (R) leads challenger Mike Michaud (D) in the race for governor, 39% to 34%, with Eliot Cutler (I) at 20%.

A new Rasmussen survey shows LePage leading Michaud, 41% to 40%, with Cutler at 16%.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) told David Brody that challenger Greg Orman (I) is lying about how he’ll vote in the Senate but says he’ll be exposed “when we get through with him.”

Said Roberts: “Not when we get through with him. This is a person who by donation and by his stand on the issues is a liberal Democrat.”

Meanwhile, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told KSHB-TV that Orman will not be allowed to caucus with Republicans if he wins: “He’s not gonna do that. It is an impossibility. It is not possible.”

CNN: “Four weeks away from the 2014 midterm elections and even some Democratic operatives struggle to imagine a scenario where they retain control of the U.S. Senate. The terrain and current momentum seem all but overwhelming and against them.”

Washington Post: “For months, the 2014 midterm election has looked like a deck stacked in favor of Republicans. But as campaign season heads into its final weeks, some wild cards are now on the table in states where the GOP had been expecting easy victories on its way to gaining six seats for control of the Senate.”

Larry Pressler (I) told The Hill that he won’t say who he’d caucus with if he wins his independent U.S. Senate race in South Dakota but said that if elected, he’d be a “friend of Obama.”

He also confirmed voting for Obama twice: “I don’t regret those votes, ’cause on that day, that’s how I felt.”

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), who left Congress after being shot in the head by a gunman at a constituent event, put out a powerful new ad for Rep. Ron Barber (D-AZ).

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) “will be spending at least five days in the New Hampshire in October alone,” WMUR reports.

“For the most part Sanders seems to be doing the college town circuit this month. He is hoping to both get Democratic voters excited to vote on Nov. 4 and introduce himself at the same time… Sanders has already been to the state four times exploring a run for president.”