TOMS RIVER — As parents and children waited Tuesday night at Poland Spring Arena for a presentation to begin, some did what comes naturally to them. They pulled out cell phones to check text messages or browse the Internet.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine came to Philadelphia Wednesday to unite voters behind his party's slate of candidates. Except not a single one of those candidates was there to greet him. No Joe Sestak, locked in a tight, nationally-watched Senate race. No Dan Onorato, running to keep a Democrat in the Pennsylvania Governor's mansion.

In many ways, the traditional post-Labor Day start to the fall campaign has become an antiquated notion.

Vice President Biden gave his view of the opposition in this fall's elections at a recent Democratic gathering:

New Jersey’s Republican congressional challengers are usually outgunned and out-funded by incumbent Democrats, but this year they have one benefit they haven’t had in at least a decade: a Republican governor with a growing national profile.