Maine Senate: Platner-Mills Is a Huge Clash Over the Dems' Vision

[Celerity]

Governor Janet Mills’s U.S. Senate run against Graham Platner will pit the Democrats’ establishment wing against the insurgent bloc, says Maine journalist Alex Seitz-Wald.

https://newrepublic.com/article/201712/maine-senate-platner-mills-huge-clash-dems-vision

https://archive.ph/tH4J5

Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, announced on Tuesday that she is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Susan Collins. Mills, having twice been elected statewide, is in some ways the perfect candidate for one of the few seats that Democrats have a realistic chance of flipping in next year’s elections. (They need to gain four seats for a Senate majority.) Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spent months convincing Mills to run. But she’s not a shoo-in to be Collins’s opponent.

Marine veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner, another Democrat, launched his campaign in August and has drawn both huge crowds in the state and attention nationally. (Read TNR’s Ana-Marie Cox’s excellent profile of Platner.) He’s running on a populist, anti-billionaire platform and has become a favorite of the party’s progressive wing, receiving an endorsement from Senator Bernie Sanders. Platner is “Maine’s Mamdani,” according to Alex Seitz-Wald, deputy editor of a publication there called the Midcoast Villager.

In the latest episode of Right Now With Perry Bacon, Seitz-Wald discussed how Platner has come out of nowhere to be a phenomenon in the state. Seitz-Wald said the enthusiasm for Platner is real but questioned if Platner has real working-class supporters or if his base is largely college-educated progressives. He noted that Mills is fairly popular but will be bogged by questions about her age (77). Collins, according to Seitz-Wald, still has a very good chance of winning. While the state leans Democratic, Collins has done a great job distancing herself from Trump and building strong ties with local powerbrokers in Maine, he said.

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https://newrepublic.com/article/201713/transcript-maine-mills-platner-senate-race-huge-dem-battle

https://archive.ph/PKsP7

[Renew Deal]

1. Nothing says "the future" more than freshman senators that are past life expectancy

[mainer]

2. Janet's been a fighter. And she's still fighting.

I was hesitant at first about her jumping into the race.But throughout her career, she's been challenging the status quo, and maybe she'll be the standard bearer this time as well, for experience that's not past its prime.

I like Graham Platner, but when he starts yelling about "the oligarchy", it gives me pause. I don't disagree with him, but I think his inexperience and volume makes me wonder if he has the temperament to represent us.

[SKKY]

3. I don't have a dog in this particular fight...

...but what I've seen and listened to, Graham Platner is a very compelling candidate.

[Rafi]

4. Platner is a legitimate contender imo

And he is certainly not Maine's Mondami. He is white and not a Muslim.

[Rafi]

5. Platner is a legitimate contender imo

And he is certainly not Maine's Mondami.