Jeff Greenfield: “If you’re looking for a truism that remains true, then reach out and grasp this one: the “six year curse.” With one (highly instructive) exception, the party that holds the White House will lose Congressional seats in the six-year midterms. It happened to Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt; it happened to Ike and LBJ and Reagan. It will almost surely happen to Barack Obama this November.”

“Why? There is no single reason; there are, rather, different forces, any one of which can afflict the party that’s held the White House for six years. What makes this November so daunting for Democrats is that almost all of them are at work this time.”

“The Republican Governors Association, which is providing campaign support to Gov. John Kasich’s re-election bid, requested information from the Westlake Police Department about a report of a suspicious car that led officers to FitzGerald and a woman who was not his wife in a parked car before dawn in October 2012,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that police officers in 2012 responded to a call about suspicious behavior and found Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald (D) and a woman who was not his wife in a parked car at 4:30 am.

Said the witness in an audio recording: “I don’t know if they’re having sex in the parking lot or what they’re doing here. I don’t know if they don’t notice all my lights inside and they’re just [inaudible] something, but all I keep seeing is like something going back and forth, and I’m like, eh, you know what, this is a little fishy.”

Fitzgerald says nothing inappropriate happened in the car and he was not charged with a crime.

A Florida judge ordered the state legislature to submit a redrawn congressional map within two weeks to replace ones for two districts that were ruled illegal, the New York Times reports.

The ruling held open the possibility of delaying the November elections.

Tampa Bay Times: “Here’s some good news for Charlie Crist: Jim Greer, his former close friend and former state GOP Chairman, has decided against doing interviews since leaving prison a month ago. In a recently published tell-all book written by St. Petersburg author Peter Gollenbock, The Chairman: The Rise and Betrayal of Jim Greer, Greer castigates Crist as a self-absorbed liar and lightweight.”

“Conservatives have poured millions into primary challenges to senators this cycle, even in races where chances of success were slim. But Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has proved one of the greatest exceptions, and now he’s poised to defeated state Rep. Joe Carr and several lesser-known challengers in the Aug. 7 GOP primary,” Roll Call reports.

“So how did Alexander avoid the fate of many of his colleagues?”

A new Civil Beat poll in Hawaii finds Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) with a solid lead over Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 41%.

Roll Call: Hawaii senator gets distance from governor who appointed him

Former Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) “supposedly put off his campaign last month for Florida’s 26th congressional district. But now, some voters say he’s back,” the Miami Herald reports.

“Several older Hispanics have told other Republican candidates in the race that they received automated phone calls this week urging them to vote for Rivera. Because Rivera never formally withdrew his candidacy, his name still appears on the Aug. 26 GOP primary ballot.”