• Roll Call reports that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has committed $5.5 million in spending on television ads for incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan from Sept. 16 until election day. Most of the ads will run in the Charlotte and Triangle markets.
• If you think the Hagan campaign against Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis and Libertarian Sean Haugh will be the most expensive in North Carolina history, think again. Carolina Journal’s Barry Smith does the math.
• The Wall Street Journal highlights the state-by-state responses “coal-state” Senate Democrats, including Hagan, have prepared to deal with criticism of President Obama’s sweeping new regulations on coal-fired power plants.
• Syndicated columnist George Will takes a close look at the race between Hagan and House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, for Hagan’s Senate seat.
• National defense columnist John Bennett zings Hagan for the lack of transparency she allowed in chairing a recent Senate subcommittee markup of the annual defense-spending bill.
