Politico: “Today, the mere act of announcing a candidacy amounts to a minor art form, with elaborate care and attention lavished on every facet of a declaration that, let’s face it, is almost already old news.”

“The realities of social media mean that candidates themselves, every bit as much as traditional news organizations, can control the manner and means of spreading their message — while gathering thousands of email addresses and other contact information from potential supporters and raising money online in the process. And the decisions they make about how and where to launch their campaigns can be a message in itself.”

Politico: “The cross hairs are no longer trained solely on the candidates themselves: Staffers are now also considered fair game for opposition research hits — and campaigns are struggling to react to a world in which the candidate isn’t always the focal point for attacks.”

Linda Killian: “Whether it is entertainment, consumer goods or almost anything else that can be purchased, viewed or clicked on, Millennials are the most coveted demographic. There are about 80 million Americans between the ages of 18-34 and next year they are expected to spend $2.45 trillion.”

“But when it comes to politics and national policy they have relatively little clout because most of them don’t reliably vote and aren’t major political contributors. These young adults have voluntarily checked out of a political system they consider corrupt and dysfunctional.”

New York Times: “”m not a scientist,’ or a close variation, has become the go-to talking point for Republicans questioned about climate change in the 2014 campaigns. In the past, many Republican candidates questioned or denied the science of climate change, but polls show that a majority of Americans accept it — and support government policies to mitigate it — making the Republican position increasingly challenging ahead of the 2016 presidential elections.”

“For now, ‘I’m not a scientist’ is what one party adviser calls ‘a temporary Band-Aid’ — a way to avoid being called a climate change denier but also to sidestep a dilemma. The reality of campaigning is that a politician who acknowledges that burning coal and oil contributes to global warming must offer a solution, which most policy experts say should be taxing or regulating carbon pollution and increasing government spending on alternative energy. But those ideas are anathema to influential conservative donors like the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch and the advocacy group they support, Americans for Prosperity.”

“Early voting on Sundays has been one of the biggest fronts in the voting wars of recent years. Some of this past Sunday’s early voting numbers make the reason quite clear,” the New York Times reports.

“‘Souls to the Polls’ drives are a big part of the explanation. Black churches often promote voting after services, sometimes even taking church members directly to the polls. Such drives are traditionally most popular on the Sunday before an election, when black turnout might be even higher than it was on Sunday. A good portion of these voters would have probably cast ballots anyway. But given the margins that Democrats run up on Sundays, it is not hard to see why so many Republican election officials have sought to restrict early voting on Sundays.”

Brad Phillips notes the GOP training class “is doing everything right in its effort to improve external communications” and there’s “good advice here for everyone involved in politics, regardless of party or cause.”

Politico: “Gotcha stories — ranging from those tangentially related to issues of the day to the completely ephemeral and even absurd — have been front and center in an abnormally large number of top races this year. And many of the most memorable hits bear the hallmarks of opposition research — the unglamorous grunt work of combing through public records and, increasingly, tracking candidates in search of a compromising vote, court filing, financial transaction or quote.”

“In an election in which candidates have mostly dodged the big issues facing the country, the dark art known as ‘oppo’ seems to be filling the void. And the trend lines suggest oppo’s golden age may just be beginning.”

Joe Klein: “It sounded to me, at first, like the Republicans had wised up in 2014. They were serving up smoked brisket, not red meat. There was a rationale for this: white women are likely to be the swing group in the North Carolina and Georgia elections. Women tend not to respond to rhetorical violence. Walker, the minister running for Congress, mentioned neither gay rights nor abortion. It was, I thought, grounds for optimism about the growing climate threat of political overheating. But after I saw the Perdue ad in Georgia, I realized that I–like the lovely folks who set up my road-trip ­meetings–was living in a community-­oriented past, where speeches and rallies meant something. Nowadays, a candidate can be all smiles and more-in-sadness-than-in-anger on the stump, and run ads that are sicker than swamp gas on television, where it really counts.”

“An unusually large number of campaigns this year have turned to chicken-suited men–and they’re mostly men–to distract opponents, steal press attention and, occasionally, make a point,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Chicken men have played a role in Senate contests in Iowa and Minnesota. They have clucked at Democrats running for governor in Wisconsin and Florida for declining primary debates and at the Republican running for lieutenant governor in Nevada… Behind the fowl play: Chickens make good copy, drawing attention to candidates who often are underfunded and looking for free media coverage.”

National Journal notes the Friday news dump is “alive and well” and compiles a list of the biggest news dumps of the summer.