Rep Joe Garcia’s (D-FL) chief of staff “abruptly resigned Friday after being implicated in a sophisticated scheme to manipulate last year’s primary elections by submitting hundreds of fraudulent absentee-ballot requests,” the Miami Herald reports.

“Garcia said he had asked Jeffrey Garcia, no relation, for his resignation after the chief of staff — also the congressman’s top political strategist — took responsibility for the plot. Hours earlier, law enforcement investigators raided the homes of another of Joe Garcia’s employees and a former campaign aide in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation into the matter.”

David Wasserman: “Midterm elections have always drawn older voters, and usually drawn white voters, to the polls in disproportionate numbers. Older voters are less transient, have grown deeper roots in their local communities, and pay much more attention to non-presidential elections than their younger counterparts. In the 1980s, that didn’t hold partisan consequences. Today, that amounts to a built-in midterm turnout advantage for Republicans.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) really doesn’t want to talk about New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D), Politicker reports.

Said Cuomo: “I appreciate that you continue to ask questions that you know that I don’t want to answer. I respect your perseverance. I hope that you respect my discipline.”

Dogged by past controversial statements, Virginia Lt. Gov. candidate E.W. Jackson (R) tied himself closely to gubernatorial candidate Ken Cucinelli (R) in an interview on WMAL-AM today.

Said Jackson: “We are in fundamental agreement, I’ve heard that this ticket is probably more homogeneous than almost any ticket ever in the history of Virginia, So there’s no stark disagreement between us.”

Harry Enten notes that as long as Gov. Paul LePage (R) loses in Maine and Republicans win an open seat in Arkansas, it would be the first time ever that all the governors in New England are Democrats and first time ever all the governors in the old confederacy are Republicans. 

Curtis Morrisson: “Earlier this year, I secretly made an audio recording of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican on the planet, at his campaign headquarters in Kentucky. The released portion of the recording clocks in at less than 12 minutes, but those few minutes changed my life.”

Will the factors which dominated the 2012 elections continue to play a major role in 2014?  Will Republicans’ issues with minority, female, young, and moderate voters persist? Or will the historical pattern of second-term presidents running into problems push the outcome in the opposite direction? Finally, will the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as “Obamacare”) become a liability for Democrats once again, in the way it did in 2010?  The Cook Political Report has identified and graphed five key metrics to watch over the next 17 months.

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Jim Graves (D) is going to “indefinitely suspend his campaign” for Congress from Minnesota’s 6th congressional district now that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced she’s not running for re-election, MinnPost reports.

“Translation: He is not running. He is dropping out of politics to concentrate on his family and his business.”

Said Graves: “Basically, after all that’s gone on, and with Michele Bachmann now stepping down, I’ve been talking to my friends and family and frankly, the feeling is, ‘Mission Accomplished.'”

“Frankly, if you don’t have a thick skin — and I’ve developed an almost rhinocerosly thick skin going through this process — then you probably shouldn’t put yourself up for office, particularly if you want to be mayor. I certainly understand completely … that people have some pretty tough things to say to me, and I’ve certainly seen them all.”

— New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D), quoted by Politicker.

“The 2014 midterm election is shaping up as something the United States has not seen in nearly a decade: a campaign run in a strengthening economy with deficits on the decline,” Politico reports.

“No one is popping champagne corks yet, and risks remain. But the altered terrain, if it holds, could benefit Democrats and challenge Republicans whose rise to power in the House in 2010 came via a tea party movement that blasted President Barack Obama and his party for ignoring a stagnant economy and piling up an endless run of trillion dollar deficits.”

“Times have changed since 2010. Barring a fresh crisis — and there are certainly a few that could arise — many economists expect growth to return to a fairly healthy level by next year as house prices and the stock market continue to rise and the jobless rate falls closer to its historic average of 5.8 percent.”

“Republicans exhaled this week when vulnerable Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced her retirement from the otherwise reliable GOP district,” Roll Call reports.

“Their relief might not last long. In Minnesota, some Republican strategists fret that the state party’s quirky endorsement process could yield a ‘Bachmann 2.0’ candidate — and put the seat in play again.”

Stu Rothenberg disagrees: “Districts like this one don’t go Democratic in federal races (except, possibly, during Democratic waves) unless they are already represented by a longtime Democrat who has personalized the district by proving to voters that he or she is both independent and moderate.”