A new Quinnipiac poll in Ohio finds Gov. John Kasich (R) leading challenger Ed FitzGerald (D) in the race for governor by double digits, 48% to 36%.

Said pollster Peter Brown: “The Democratic nominee still has a long way to go with little more than three months until Election Day. Almost two-thirds of registered voters don’t know enough about FitzGerald to have an opinion of him. That’s an awful lot of Ohioans who still have to be introduced to him. This survey was conducted during the period in which the Democrat had just begun his television advertising buy.”

A new Hendrix College poll in Arkansas finds Tom Cotton (R) leading Sen. Mark Pryor (D) in the U.S. Senate race by two points, 44% to 42%.

Meanwhile, Pryor released an internal poll that shows he has a six point lead, 45% to 39%.

A new We Ask America poll in Illinois finds Bruce Rauner (R) with a big lead over Gov. Pat Quinn (D) in the race for governor, 47% to 33%.

Mark Leibovich: “It would be one thing if all of this early activity and attention in Iowa resulted in a smarter electorate, better candidates or a more authentic version of democracy. But in general, the quaint ‘retail’ settings of Iowa diners and New Hampshire living rooms are treated mostly as media sound stages, places where reporters report on how many other reporters showed up… As a result, these scenes have become backdrops for set pieces that blur into an anesthetizing noise: So-and-so has been to Iowa five times; some other so-and-so is ‘thinking about’ running for president; and here’s yet another picture of yet another so-and-so looking a voter right in the eyes and telling him the truth about something or other, as the discerning voters here insist.”

A new Fox News poll found that 57% of American voters would not want President Obama to campaign with them if they were running for office this year, while 41% said they would.

“How did I get here? Why am I the guy they shoved out on the end of the diving board, OK, stuck him in the butt with a knife?”

— Parker Griffith (D), quoted by the Huntsville Times, on his decision to run for Alabama governor.

“Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in California in 2010, is diving back into electoral politics,” according to U.S. News and World Report.

“For now, her work is focused on pushing back against Democrats’ claim of a Republican-led ‘war on women’ in the 2014 midterms. But her recent moves in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire have convinced some she’s eyeing a bigger prize come 2016.”

First Read looks at the leak of a strategy document from Michelle Nunn’s (D) campaign and notes “the revelation isn’t good for her consultants’ business, that’s for sure.”

“More importantly, this is something Nunn can’t afford. If she’s going to win — in this environment, in the red state of Georgia — she’s got to run a flawless campaign. Talk about a major unforced error. And the timing couldn’t be worse for Nunn: This story comes out just after the GOP’s nine-week runoff and with the start of the general election.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution headline: “Leaked doc: Michelle Nunn non-profit validated grants to charity with Hamas-tied affiliate”

Byron York: “That’s what scares some Republican strategists. Back in 1998, there was an intense internal debate among Republicans over how much to make the midterms about President Bill Clinton. The strategists who favored attacking the president won the day, but in the end their strategy didn’t work out. Now, there is an intense internal debate among Republicans over how much to make the 2014 midterms about President Barack Obama.”

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) “relied on a loan from his lieutenant governor to raise slightly more money this year than his Democratic challenger,” the Kansas City Star reports.

“Brownback reported taking in $1.2 million for the reporting period ending July 24. That included a $500,000 loan from Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a plastic surgeon. Subtract the loan, and challenger Paul Davis (D) would have raised about $378,000 more than Brownback between Jan. 1 and July 24, records show.”

Sen. Lamar Alexander’s (R-TN) internal polling shows him with a 30-percentage point lead over tea-party challenger Joe Carr in Tennessee’s Republican Senate primary, 53% to 21%, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“A Phoenix strip club has endorsed a Democratic pastor for Congress. And the candidate, Rev. Jarrett Maupin, says he welcomes the The Great Alaskan Bush Company’s support,” the Arizona Republic reports.

Said Maupin: “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”