

This Tuesday, June 3, 2014 file photo, Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., leaves the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite,File)

Happy Labor Day weekend! In politics, this marks the final period of calm before a whirlwind nine weeks leading up to Election Day.

It's also a good time to reflect on the 2014 election cycle so far -- full of dramatic twists, turns, unexpected triumphs and bitter disappointments. Sometimes all in the same day.

There have also been a handful of unmitigated disasters. We're talking about the campaigns that failed miserably, after kicking off full of promise, in most cases.

Today, we take a look at the five most disastrous campaigns so far -- although there's no doubt that between now and Nov. 4, we'll find a few more to add to this list -- in alphabetical order. Who did we miss? The comments section awaits your input!

1. Kerry Bentivolio: Bentivolio is an incumbent congressman who raised hardly any money. His campaign manager left in the middle of the campaign. He only received about half (!) the vote of his primary challenger.

The Michigan Republican arrived on Capitol Hill as an unlikely winner. He's headed home after a single term.

2. Matt Bevin: When you take on the top-ranking Senate Republican in a primary, you'd better be ready to run a flawless campaign. Bevin's, a Louisville businessman, was anything but. He suggested that legalizing gay marriage could lead to parents being able to marry their children. He railed against the TARP bank bailout program in the campaign, only to be embarrassed by the revelation that he'd once backed it. He appeared at a pro-cockfighting rally. (Yes, cockfighting is illegal in Kentucky.) And Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) crushed him by 25 points.

3. Ed FitzGerald: Democrats had high hopes for the Cuyahoga County executive's general election battle against Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R). Those hopes were crushed this summer, as The Fix's Aaron Blake explained this week:

FitzGerald's campaign has all but packed it in, announcing last week that he would make a "significant investment in [the Ohio Democratic Party's] field and voter turnout program." In other words, they don't want to drag down all the other Democrats on the ticket -- the ones who have, you know, an actual chance of winning.

4. Ed Jany: After Democrat Alex Sink lost to now-Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) in the most closely-watched special election of the year, Washington Democrats didn't fret. They kept talking about how the electorate would be so much more favorable in the fall, allowing them a great chance to recapture the swing district just west of Tampa.

But you can't win if you don't play. And Democrats aren't playing because they don't have a candidate. After Sink declined to run again, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pinned its hopes on retired Col. Ed Jany, a political newcomer. After launching a much-hyped outsider campaign in May, he abruptly dropped out less than two weeks later, citing an inability to balance politics with his professional career. A Tampa Bay Times report that found Jany fudged his educational background probably had more to do with it.

5. John Walsh: For a while, things were looking good for the Montana Democrat. He was appointed to the Senate in February, affording him more visibility back home. His fundraising pace picked up as the year went on. But those were reduced to non-factors after a New York Times report revealed Walsh had plagiarized large chunks of a paper he submitted for his master's degree. His campaign handled the whole thing poorly, too, only half-admitting what he did was wrong and making a factual error in its explanation. Walsh dropped out and was replaced by a no-name Democrat. Now, Montana is firmly in the Republican column heading into the fall.

He may be off the ballot, but that achievement did land him on another list: the five most spectacular political flameouts of 2014 -- so far.