OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN: The world is ending … give now!

It’s that time of year again, when candidates and committees warn supporters that, unless they open their checkbooks to support their cause, “all hope is lost.”

Supporters’ inboxes are getting pummeled by emails written with escalating degrees of desperation as the final fundraising quarter of the cycle nears its end Tuesday night.

Third-quarter fundraising reports will be parsed and picked apart by reporters looking to gauge a candidate’s strength heading into the final stretch of the midterm elections.

{mosads}And replenishing their warchests is crucial for the final month of campaigning, as candidates engage in all-out air wars to make sure theirs is the message voters have heard the loudest by Election Day.

But those who decide against giving can probably rest assured that no, despite Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) declaration in the subject line of one fundraising pitch, tonight won’t be “a disaster.”

SENATE SHOWDOWN

IA-SEN (OPEN): Rep. Bruce Braley’s (D-Iowa) continuing struggles with rural voters has some Democrats in the state nervous about his chances.

LA-SEN (LANDRIEU): State Sen. Elbert Guillory, a prominent conservative African-American leader in Louisiana, chastises Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) for not doing enough to help blacks in the state in a new video. He tells them, “you are just a means to an end, so that she remains in power.”

KS-SEN (ROBERTS): Sen. Pat Roberts (R) picked up another big-name conservative endorsement on Tuesday, from physician Ben Carson. Meanwhile, a district court hearing a case from a Democratic voter demanding the state Democratic Party name a candidate to the ballot plans to have a decision in the case by Wednesday.

DSCC: Senate Democrats are investing significantly more on ground operations in key states.

TN-SEN (ALEXANDER): Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Gordon Ball is investing $1 million of his own money into his race. The investment follows calls for him to resign from the race after BuzzFeed reported Monday he had plagiarized nearly all of the information on his campaign website from other Democratic senators.

NH-SEN (SHAHEEN): Hillary Clinton will raise money this week for New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D), whose home state hosts the first presidential primary, according to The Associated Press.

 

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE

FL-2 (SOUTHERLAND): The Tampa Bay Times’s PolitiFact dings GOP Rep. Steve Southerland’s most recent claim that challenger Gwen Graham served as a lobbyist. While lobbying disclosure records from 1989 and 1990 listed Graham, the paper said that it was a technicality and that it is misleading because she did not do any lobbying.

VA-10 (OPEN): Republican Barbara Comstock is fundraising with former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney Tuesday night.

CO-5 (LAMBORN): Irv Halter, the retired Air Force officer trying to unseat Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), on Tuesday said the incumbent was being “irresponsible” when he said U.S. generals who disagree with President Obama should resign “in a blaze of glory.”

CA-17 (HONDA): Rep. Mike Honda’s (D-Calif.) official staff mixed official and campaign time, according to a local report outlining official emails focused on campaign work. His opponent, Democrat Ro Khanna, is jumping on the news.

 

AD WATCH

GA-SEN (OPEN): Businessman David Perdue (R) ties “liberal” former charity CEO Michelle Nunn (D) to President Obama in a new spot.

CO-SEN (UDALL): The National Republican Senatorial Committee chastises Sen. Mark Udall in a new ad for calling the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria not “an imminent threat to this nation.”

Planned Parenthood launched an ad of its own charging Rep. Cory Gardner (R) “could ban abortion, including in cases of rape.”

KY-SEN (MCCONNEL): Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s new ad says that Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes broke a promise to serve her full four-year term, instead choosing to run for higher office. Meanwhile, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee paints McConnell as a creature of Washington who votes for his own pay raises and backs lobbyists in a new ad.

LA-SEN (LANDRIEU): The National Rifle Association calls for viewers to “vote like your safety depends on it, defend your freedom, defeat Mary Landrieu” in a new ad that shows an intruder breaking into a home after a woman puts her baby to sleep alone, while her husband is out of town on a trip.

AK-SEN (BEGICH): Sen. Mark Begich’s (D-Alaska) new ad features an endorsement from a Republican former first lady of Alaska, Bella Hammond.

AR-SEN (PRYOR): American Crossroads has returned to its “spelling bee” ad tying Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) to President Obama.

NC-SEN (HAGAN): American Crossroads ties Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) to President Obama in a new ad.

OR-SEN (MERKLEY): A new ad from Democratic incumbent Sen. Jeff Merkley slams his opponent, physician Monica Wehby, for a recent report that she plagiarized her health plan. 

NRCC: The National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting Democratic incumbent Reps. Ron Barber of Arizona and Nick Rahall of West Virginia, as well as Gwen Graham, running in Florida’s 2nd District, Staci Appel, in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, and Aaron Woolf, in New York’s 21st District, as well as Democrats Emily Cain in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, Sean Eldridge in New York’s 19th District and John Foust in Virginia’s 21st Congressional District, with new ads.

IL-13 (DAVIS): The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is out with its first ad targeting Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), accusing him of taking congressional perks.

NH-2 (KUSTER): The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee calls Republican State Rep. Marilinda Garcia too “extreme” on restricting access to abortion rights.

FL-2 (SOUTHERLAND): The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hits Rep. Steve Southerland (R) with two new ads, one featuring a local small-business owner hitting him on Social Security and another hitting him on congressional perks.

 

POLL POSITION

IA-SEN (OPEN): Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) leads Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) 44 percent to 42 percent in a new automated Public Policy Polling survey first reported by The Hill.

NC-SEN (HAGAN): Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) leads North Carolina Speaker Thom Tillis (R) 46 percent to 41 percent in a new poll from the Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank.

VA-10 (OPEN): Virginia Del. Barbara Comstock (R) leads Fairfax County Supervisor John Foust (D) 41 percent to 39 percent in a new poll conducted by Democratic firm Victoria Research for the Democratic House Majority PAC.

CA-3 (GARAMENDI): Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) leads Republican Dan Logue 45 percent to 39 percent in an internal poll conducted for Logue’s campaign by Moore Research.

LA-SEN (LANDRIEU): A new poll from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling shows Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) heading to a runoff with GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy and losing by 3 points, taking 48 percent support to Cassidy’s 45 percent support. The survey shows he draws stronger crossover support than Landrieu, and leads with independents.

MA-6 (OPEN): An Emerson College Poll gives Republican Richard Tisei a 2-point lead on Democrat Seth Moulton, taking 41 percent to Moulton’s 39 percent support among likely voters.

2016 RUMBLINGS

CLINTON: Hillary Clinton will speak at a medical device conference the same day she campaigns for Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) in the state.

PATAKI: Former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) is reportedly flirting with a White House bid and met with conservative billionaire David Koch to discuss it. Pataki has flirted with a White House bid nearly every cycle for the last decade.

PERRY: Texas Gov. Rick Perry admitted that he was “arrogant” and underprepared for his 2012 presidential run. While he didn’t commit to running again, he said that he’s spent the last 22 months preparing and recently met with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“They’re making me send this.”

—Illinois Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider in the subject line of a fundraising plea