A record number of people signed up for ObamaCare in the first few days of open enrollment this year compared to the same period in previous years, several sources close to the process told The Hill.

The surge in sign-ups, which was confirmed by an administration official, comes despite fears from Democrats that enrollment would fall off due to the Trump administration's cutbacks in outreach and advertising.

On the first day of enrollment alone, Nov. 1, one source close to the process told The Hill that more than 200,000 people selected a plan for 2018, compared to around 100,000 last year. More than 1 million people visited healthcare.gov that day, compared to around 750,000 last year, the source said.

It is still early in the process and it is unclear how the final sign-up numbers will come out. Sign-ups early in the enrollment season are often people renewing their coverage, not new enrollees.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/359011-obamacare-signups-surge-in-early-days-to-set-new-record

Caucuses are attractive to states because the parties foot the bill, not taxpayers. But Dan Diorio of the National Conference of State Legislatures says this year has many caucus states questioning whether it's worth it.
http://www.cpr.org/news/story/colorado-switch-caucus-primary-no-easy-matter

A 2020 Presidential Primary in Colorado
This is part one in a series of posts about 2017 legislation seeking to alter state laws concerning the timing of presidential primary elections or caucuses.

A careful reading of the set up post to this piece is revealing of an omission to the group of states that made caucus-to-primary shifts in 2016. While Maine and Minnesota took more conventional routes -- passing legislation establishing presidential primary elections to replace caucuses -- Colorado voters took an atypical path in the state's switch to a presidential primary for the 2020 cycle.

And it is not that Colorado legislators had not tried to make the change. Efforts in both 2015 and 2016 languished in the committees to which they were referred and died when their respective sessions adjourned. In addition, the 2016 bill was introduced with the 2016 caucuses process in the Centennial state as the backdrop. That "debacle" featured a state Democratic party overwhelmed by a large turnout (and other subsequent problems) and Republican process that elected delegates but without an attendant preference vote for president. The result was that Coloradans of all political stripes were left unsatisfied with the process.

Enough were disenchanted and organized -- even in the time in mid-spring around which the 2016 presidential primary legislation was introduced -- that an initiative was approved and added to the November general election ballot. When the legislative effort failed, then, there was a citizen-driven effort, approved by the Colorado secretary of state, to fill the void. That initiative, Proposition 107, easily passed.

https://frontloading.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-2020-presidential-primary-in-colorado.html

Following LePage Signature, Maine Now Has a Presidential Primary
The presidential caucus may be gone in Maine for 2020.

Over the last month, presidential primary legislation with widespread support quickly moved through the Maine state legislature. Proposed on March 23, LD 1673 establishes a presidential primary in the Pine Tree state, charges the Maine secretary of state with setting the primary date for a Tuesday in March during a presidential election year, and also tasks the secretary of state with exploring the costs (to the state) of the election.

Similar legislation has been introduced in the recent past, but stalled in the legislature. In 2016, however, the move to reestablish a presidential primary in Maine for the first time since 2000 garnered significant support. 84 co-sponsors joined the bill's sponsor, Senator Justin Alfond (D-27th, Portland) significantly helped ease the primary bill through both chambers -- 128-22 in the House and unanimously in the state Senate -- this past week and onto Governor LePage's desk.

https://frontloading.blogspot.com/2016/04/following-lepage-signature-maine-now.html

Dayton Signs Minnesota Presidential Primary Bill
The list of caucus states for 2020 decreased by one more on Sunday, May 22.

Already, Maine has shifted from caucus to primary for 2020, and now Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton (D) has signed legislation triggering the same transition in the North Star state. Like Maine, the newly signed law does not specify a date for the new election, but instead defers the "when" decision to another party. Under the Maine primary law, the legislature cedes the decision-making authority to the secretary of state who consults with the state parties before settling on a date.

https://frontloading.blogspot.com/2016/05/dayton-signs-minnesota-presidential.html

And while it is true that caucuses are not going anywhere anytime soon, they have gradually dwindled in number over the course of the post-reform era. Primaries have proliferated as the main means of presidential preference expression across the nation since 1972. Then there were only 22 primary elections. The remainder were caucuses. In the time since, the balance has tipped and even more decidedly toward primaries. Not counting the territorial contests in 2016, there were, as was mentioned previously, just 14 caucuses left in mainly small and medium-sized states. That number will be scaled back even further in 2020. Already Colorado, Maine and Minnesota have made moves to add state-funded primary options for the next presidential nomination cycle. And in the latter two, the state parties have a say in the date selection for the primary and thus have incentive to opt in. In Colorado, the state parties are structurally hemmed in by the new law and national party rules and likely have no other recourse but to utilize the primary for delegate allocation.

That leaves just 11 caucus states at this point in 2017 for 2020. And other than Washington, the remaining caucuses are in small states. None have more than four members in the House. Participation rates in caucuses, though reduced by comparison to primaries, are reduced by less in small states than in large states. Those are all steps in the right direction for those who are proponents of scaling back or eliminating caucuses.

https://frontloading.blogspot.com/

It was hard. It was tough. It was challenging. It was time-consuming. It was exhilarating. It was thrilling. It was frustrating. It was nerve-wracking. It was scary. It was confusing. It was hopeful. It was terrifying. It was exhausting. In short, it was everything you'd expect a presidential campaign to be.

And it was never joyless.

Despite what former Vice-President Joe Biden may have stated in his recent Vanity Fair interview, I for one, can attest to the fact that the Clinton campaign brought thousands of us great joy along with great sorrow. There were extreme highs and lows, sometimes only hours apart. There was so much beyond our control from what surrogates said, to what the candidates themselves said, to the logistics and weather for campaign events, to the division of time and resources based on what was needed, to the closing and/or reopening of GOTV staging locations, to the last-minute transfer of hundreds of organizers days before Election Day. We did all this, and rolled with the punches, because we believed in that the work we were doing and were willing to do whatever it took to help elect Hillary Clinton as the 45th president of the United States of America.

This kind of work is undeniably difficult. But you don't do it if you don't find joy in the work. For five months, I was able to find great joy despite working 70-80 hours a week in the hot, Florida sun. I was not alone in this as I was part of a Florida team that brought over 600 staff members to the Sunshine State, with 90% of them working as field staff in every corner of the state from Tallahassee to the Keys. In Palm Beach County alone, we had nearly 40 organizers who joined the campaign from places such as California, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, D.C., and even London. Some organizers had been with the campaign for well over a year and some joined during the last two months. Some took time off from work, others took time off from school, and some, like myself, specifically sought out work on the campaign and rearranged our lives in order to do so. Regardless of how we got there, we were united behind a common cause and that cause was to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton as president of the United States.

http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2017/11/5/joe-doesnt-know-first-hand-thoughts-and-reflections-on-a-joyless-campaign

Boris Johnson in spotlight as questions raised over Russian influence on UK
Foreign secretary among three ministers targeted by people linked to FBI investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Moscow

SNIP/
Three senior past and present Foreign Office ministers, including the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, were targeted by individuals identified by the FBI last week as central to their investigation into Trump-Russia collusion, the Observer has learned.

Tom Watson, deputy leader of the Labour party, called the revelations “extraordinary” and said the government must say whether other ministers were targeted or had meetings. The reports from the US had shocked MPs, he said, and it was vital to know if the Russian state had also sought to influence British politics.

The Observer has learned of meetings and encounters between British ministers and two individuals named in FBI indictments unsealed last week – George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser for Donald Trump’s campaign, and a “London professor” with high-level connections to the Russian state, subsequently identified as a Maltese academic, Joseph Mifsud.

Alok Sharma, a Foreign Office minister until June this year and MP for Reading West, confirmed he had met Mifsud “a couple of times” and he had attended a fundraising dinner in his constituency on 19 October this year, where he had “briefly greeted” him.

An email from Mifsud to a colleague, seen by the Observer and uncovered by Byline, the crowdfunded independent journalism site, revealed Mifsud had told a colleague he would be “meeting Boris Johnson for dinner re Brexit” on that date. Sharma confirmed Johnson was the guest speaker at the event.


More: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/04/boris-johnson-brexit-russia-trump?CMP=share_btn_tw

Boris Johnson in spotlight as questions raised over Russian influence on UK
Foreign secretary among three ministers targeted by people linked to FBI investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Moscow

SNIP/
Three senior past and present Foreign Office ministers, including the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, were targeted by individuals identified by the FBI last week as central to their investigation into Trump-Russia collusion, the Observer has learned.

Tom Watson, deputy leader of the Labour party, called the revelations “extraordinary” and said the government must say whether other ministers were targeted or had meetings. The reports from the US had shocked MPs, he said, and it was vital to know if the Russian state had also sought to influence British politics.

The Observer has learned of meetings and encounters between British ministers and two individuals named in FBI indictments unsealed last week – George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser for Donald Trump’s campaign, and a “London professor” with high-level connections to the Russian state, subsequently identified as a Maltese academic, Joseph Mifsud.

Alok Sharma, a Foreign Office minister until June this year and MP for Reading West, confirmed he had met Mifsud “a couple of times” and he had attended a fundraising dinner in his constituency on 19 October this year, where he had “briefly greeted” him.

An email from Mifsud to a colleague, seen by the Observer and uncovered by Byline, the crowdfunded independent journalism site, revealed Mifsud had told a colleague he would be “meeting Boris Johnson for dinner re Brexit” on that date. Sharma confirmed Johnson was the guest speaker at the event.


More: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/04/boris-johnson-brexit-russia-trump?CMP=share_btn_tw