New Republic: “For every unit of energy and resources Democrats devote to reduce the difference between their midterm and general electorates, Republicans are responding–not with turnout-boosting strategies of their own, but by making it harder for the pool of voters who make up that difference to vote, even if they want to. In a way, the story of the 2014 elections can be boiled down to two counterposed strategies, with Democrats on one side trying to mitigate their midterm drop off and Republicans trying to exacerbate it.”

Bloomberg Politics: “The number of people who’ll decide this election will likely be smaller than the population of Florida.”

First Read: “NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ has now interviewed two potential Democratic challengers to Hillary Clinton — first Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), then former Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) yesterday — and both have been unwilling to criticize her, let alone distinguish themselves from her.”

“If you’re really going to challenge Hillary, you have to take her on — to show to donors and supporters that any potentially run is to actually win. It’s going to take guts to take on the Clintons. And if you’re going to do it, you’ve got to show it. It’s amazing to us how few Dems who want to run for president want to actually take her on. For now, all these potential anti-Hillary Dems look like they are running for the attention rather than the nomination.”

“Yeah, I spent most of my career doing that.”

— Georgia U.S. Senate candidate David Perdue (R), quoted by Politico, when asked about his “experience with outsourcing” in a 2005 deposition.

“Democrats are starting to play the blame game as they face the possibility of losing the Senate in November,” The Hill reports.

“Tempers are running high a month out from Election Day, with polls showing Democratic candidates trailing in the crucial battleground states that will decide whether the Congress flips to Republican control.”

Bloomberg Politics finds twelve couples have supported Bill and Hillary Clinton “by giving more than two hundred dollars to the five national campaigns, the PAC, the Clinton Foundation, and Ready for Hillary–the outside group promoting a second Clinton presidential run.”

“These few devotees–the very innermost circle of the Clinton cult–have supported Bill and Hillary since at least 1992, through epochal triumphs and bimbo eruptions and the slow bleed of Whitewater culminating in the Monica scandal, which caused the faith of the most devoted to be tested–after which, of course, Bill could be once again taken out of the closet.”

Politico: Rogue donors not ready for Hillary?

Mark Halperin: “Here’s the reality, distilled from over a dozen discussions with those who know Bush really well: Jeb himself still hasn’t decided.”

“There is no doubt that Bush is significantly closer to running for President than he was four years ago. He isn’t showing some leg to sell books or raise his speaking fees. He isn’t worried about the mechanics of the race, such as who might be his New Hampshire campaign manager, or how best to deal with straw polls. His decision-making process is less about consultation than, as is typical for the former Florida governor, about introspection. Jeb Bush is grappling with the hardest of questions: Is he the right person to bring the Republican Party toward the center and govern a country that has proven stubbornly difficult to lead? In other words, is this, finally, his time?”

In five statewide elections, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) has never carried Lee County, in the state’s southeast corner. Seeking his sixth term next month, Branstad wants that to change that, the AP reports.

“Branstad, having swamped Democrat Jack Hatch in fundraising, has bought television advertising time on WGEM in neighboring Quincy, Illinois, the only local television station that covers all of Lee County, as well as west central Illinois and northeast Missouri. The move is part of the 67-year-old Branstad’s personal political goals, which also include scoring big in his opponent’s home county and leaving the party stronger, should 2014 be his last campaign.”

Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Kay Hagan (D-NC) “are trying to distance themselves from a president who is deeply unpopular among white voters. But if they have any hopes of winning, they also must try to lock down the voters most loyal to Mr. Obama : African-Americans,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“How Southern Democrats walk this tightrope will help determine whether their party maintains control of the Senate. Sens. Landrieu, Hagan and Pryor are among the party’s last lines of defense in a region that has become a Republican stronghold.”

The latest New York Times/CBS News/YouGov polls of key Senate races show that Republicans “lead by at least four percentage points in enough races to finish with 50 seats — just one short of the 51 seats they need to overcome Joe Biden’s tiebreaking vote and take the Senate.”

“The Republicans’ likely gains include six seats currently held by the Democrats: in South Dakota, Montana, West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alaska. If those leads hold up, Republicans have four opportunities to capture the 51st seat they need in Colorado, North Carolina, Iowa and Kansas.”

“Nonetheless, the data suggests that the Democrats retain a clear, if difficult, path to victory. Perhaps most notable, the data offers reason to question the conventional wisdom that Republicans have recently made substantial gains in Colorado and Iowa.”