What a long time ago early June seems. Back then, as Mainers were going to the polls in the Democratic primary for Senate, we cats speculated that if we were in line to vote, we'd most likely support Graham Platner. He seemed like the candidate with the best chance to beat Susan Collins, which we have to do to win the Senate.
All we can say now is, thank goodness we live and vote in New York. Ugh. Mainers, you have our condolences. And Mitch McConnell must be so mad that he's dead and missing all this. (Yeah, he's dead.)
But back to Platner. There's plenty of blame to go around, and most of it is Inside Baseball — the kind of stuff that party people argue and point fingers about. Chuck Schumer did not recruit Platner to run, but he did throw his weight behind a 77-year-old soon-to-be-former Governor for the seat when the vibe of 2026 was clearly skewing younger and non-establishment. A truly tone-deaf move.
At the same time, though, Bernie Sanders has to take responsibility for elevating Platner as a pushback against Mills. Platner, Sanders said last summer, is "a Mainer through and through, and he is building a movement strong enough to take on the oligarchy," blah, blah, blah. (Ye gods, lefties — please find a different word. Most voters don't know what an oligarchy is.)
This hamfisted own goal by Schumer and Sanders is doubly unforgivable when you review the list of possible candidates to replace Platner. They all seem credible and acceptable: Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah, and former state Senate President Troy Jackson. With folks like that around and available, how did we end up in this mess?
Never mind, we know how. Meanwhile, people are getting impatient as the clock ticks down to 5 PM on July 13. Platner needs to stop dilly-dallying — Maine Democrats have a candidate to pick, and we have an election to win. We cats HISS.
(IMAGE: Nick Anderson, Tribune Content Agency)
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