Over the fierce objection of Gov. Paul LePage (R), Maine voters rose up and passed Medicaid expansion under Obamacare tonight, becoming the first state in the country to do so by ballot initiative.
Opponents of expansion fought it with a blitz of late misinformation, as Alice Ollstein reports.
A local newspaper quoted one canvaser for the measure, whose father has cancer and high out-of-pocket costs, “People have gotten used to having health care and they’re not just going to let it go. People are now realizing health care is an individual right.”
VA GOP chair @JohnWhitbeck kind enough to pick up the phone. “Six months is an eternity in politics, but boy, we’ve got a lot of work to do in VA…It’s looking like the urban areas are just a huge problem for us and I don’t know what the answer is yet."
— Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) November 8, 2017
Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for. Don’t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2017
Good lord, things sound pretty glum in Gillespie Headquarters. Watch this report.
Good grief, sounds pretty glum in @EdWGillespie headquarters. (you need to hear this.) pic.twitter.com/bP2BnUb68R
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 8, 2017
Results are trickling in from Virginia. Cameron Joseph is reporting for us from Ralph Northam’s election night venue at George Mason University in northern Virginia. Stay tuned.
Still early returns in Virginia. But the numbers crunchers I watch most closely show are pointing to a good night for Ralph Northam.
7:47 PM: Dave Wasserman is a numbers guy I watch closely. He’s pretty conservative in predictions. He just called it for Northam. I’d say that’s close to bankable.
7:55 PM: I mentioned that I have a list of numbers crunchers I watch. It seems unanimous. They’re all pointing to a Northam win and perhaps by a solid margin. The TV networks are being very conservative. But this seems done.
From the press pool …
News: President Trump attempted to make a surprise, unscheduled visit to the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea this morning, but was foiled by a bad weather call and his helicopter, along with your pool, had to turn back and return to Seoul.
I’ve changed my mind on this. The news of the last week makes me think that President Trump is compromised and knows he can’t cross Russia or Vladimir Putin without risking an flood of damaging revelations revelations from 2016. Here’s my take (sub req).
I was in meetings most of this morning. I’m only now catching up on the reporting on Carter Page’s testimony before Congress. But I did read the first half of his testimony transcript last night. And I wanted to share a few initial impressions. Read More
Over the last four days President Trump has made a series of statements demanding his Justice Department ‘investigate’ Hillary Clinton and other Democratic enemies. These demands aren’t entirely new. But by their specificity, repetition and speed they represent a new departure in demands for extra-legal action and rule. We should note that Trump is increasingly acting like a dictator or would be strong man. The only difference is that the machinery of government, seemingly up to at least some of his high level appointees, seems to be largely ignoring him. This is much better than the alternative. But it is still a bad, dangerous development. Read More