Charlie Cook: In the upcoming fiscal showdowns over the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling, Republicans are greatly exposed and could come out of this badly damaged. But as we saw in 2011, in a fight like this one, everyone can end up looking bad. In fact, the way it is shaping up, that's a pretty decent bet.
TEXAS: “The Texas state senator who gained national attention for a filibuster against statewide abortion restrictions is planning to run for governor in 2014,” NBC’s Carrie Dann writes. “Democrat Wendy Davis has told influential party members that she plans to announce the run next week.”
NBC’s Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate confirms that Davis is running and will announce Thursday, Oct. 3.
Davis tweeted the announcement later in the day.
Wayne Slater: “Texas is a solidly red state and the last Democrat elected governor of Texas was Ann Richards in 1990. … The money question is a big one for the Davis campaign. She would need $40 million for the race. That’s nearly twice what the last Democratic nominee, former Houston Mayor Bill White, raised in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Rick Perry in 2010.”
More: “If Abbott wins the GOP nomination, he and friendly third-party groups are expected to hammer Davis as a one-issue political liberal out of step with Texas voters.”
VIRGINIA: “E.W. Jackson, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, was accused in 2006 of threatening the life of his daughter’s roommate, according to a Belmont, Mass., police report and a separate temporary restraining order filed in Middlesex County Court. Those two documents, shared with Politico by a source opposed to Jackson’s election, detail the surprise GOP nominee’s involvement in an explosive personal feud involving his daughter and two other women. The roommate took out restraining orders against both E.W. Jackson and a third party, while Jackson’s daughter and the third party both requested restraining orders against the roommate.”