THE MAINE THING

Why do Democrats seem intent on picking yet another old, run-of-the-Mills candidate when they can have something better?

Every damn time, I am ready to write a column that essentially says, “Yes, the Democrats have some issues, but I will not be beating up on them just as long as these fascist Republicans are around” the stubborn, tone-deaf Chuck Schumer-led Democratic establishment does something so blindingly stupid it demands comment.

<deep sigh>

On Tuesday, we learned that after negligible arm-twisting from what passes as leadership of her party, Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced she was running for the Democratic nomination in next year’s U.S. senate race to unseat Sen. Susan Collins.

By convincing Mills, 77, to run next year, Schumer and the squeaky, rusted, antiquated Democratic Machine somehow spit somebody out who will make the stodgy, 72-year-old Collins seem young, vibrant and energetic by comparison.

So a question: Just what in the hell is going on here?

Go ahead and call me ageist if you like — I’ve been called far worse — but how is it that a party suffering with all-time low approval ratings, and is hemorrhaging younger voters (especially men), think running a candidate who was born just two years after the end of World War II makes any damn sense in this crucial race?

Worse, there is already a fine Democratic candidate in place that the party should embrace with both arms, who I will touch on in a minute after typing this:

I like Mills fine.

This is not an attack on her or her record, only what reeks of incredible hubris by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which will now sink tons of money into the state to get rid of any would-be challengers to Mills, and set the party up for yet another fall. Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate race in Maine since 1988, when George Mitchell was reelected.

I thank Mills for her service to a state and people that I truly love, but rather than hoping to become the oldest freshman senator in U.S. history, it’s time to step aside, and open the door to the future.

Better yet, why not use your experience to help transition your party toward a worthwhile, necessary quest to reconnect with a new generation of voters?

I worked as the sports editor of the Lewiston (Maine) Sun-Journal for six years between 1992-1998, and loved the job and the place. Mainers are a hearty, independent lot, who take great pride in not falling in lockstep with the other 49 states in our rattled union. From their rooftop perch in the northeast corner of the country they literally look down on the rest of the United States. This doesn’t make them haughty, it makes them properly suspicious.

You really can’t get they-uh from he-yuh, and they like it just fine that way.

Ironically, I was a resident of the Pine Tree State when Collins won her first term in the Senate in 1996 as an up-and-coming 43-year-old. If you told me back then that she’d still be there now, I wouldn't have believed you.

I’ve now lived in three different states, and three different countries since Collins was first elected. For all my moving, it’s become all too clear that our Capitol is the hill our United States Senators go to die on. Knocking off a sitting senator is like trying to show the drunken Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the door at a strip club.

In announcing her bid, Mills trumpeted that “(she) stood up to Trump once, and will do it again!”

Good God, I’d hope so. This shouldn’t be the answer to a test, but the minimal qualification needed to even take the test, because if you aren’t standing up to the revolting Trump, you aren’t standing up for America.

By announcing her bid, Mills joins a crowded field of candidates featuring a person I believe to be a future star in the Democratic Party, if only it would get out of its own way and help him run like hell.

I will vigorously be supporting Graham Platner to take on the two-faced Collins two Novembers from now in an election Democrats simply must flip if they are to have any hope of taking back the senate.

Platner, 41, is an oysterman, harbormaster and Marine veteran with four infantry tours to Iraq and Afghanistan under his belt.

Since announcing his candidacy in August, Platner has proven himself a gifted campaigner and packed the house during scores of speaking engagements across the state. He also raised an astonishing $500,000 during the 24 hours after Mills announced her candidacy, which should send a message to the all-knowing DSCC that they would be wise to listen to, if only they could see past their noses.

He is positioning himself as “the enemy of the oligarchy” and has repeatedly refused to be baited into positioning himself as a “progressive” Democratic, preferring instead to let his positions themselves do the talking.

“I think it’s silly that thinking people deserve health care, that makes you some kind of lefty. But I do think those working-class policies are necessary.”

More of this, please.

It’s way past time we stopped roping people into this progressive-moderate fight in the party. It’s counterproductive, and serves only the ghastly Republicans. Personally, I like, and have supported, the more moderate Abigail Spanberger in Virginia’s governor race, and the more liberal Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral contest.

They are both positioned to win their races in less than three weeks, because they are the right candidates, in the right races, at the right time.

Platner has proven he can connect with people, many of whom are sick and tired of machine politics in this country, where gobs of money, instead of policies, charisma and the ability to lead is king.

I’ll let Platner tell it:

“There’s an anti-establishment angst in the country that I think is well-founded. People think that the system does not represent them, and they’re not wrong at all. And I think that sending or choosing candidates who come from the establishment, come from politics — regardless of who they are as people, regardless of what they’ve pushed — is, in many ways right now, I think, a real liability.”

Again: I am not making the case that no political experience is always an advantage, but when you are running against a wishy-washy establishment candidate like Collins who has bathed herself in Washington’s riches, and has already served five terms in the Senate, a message like this will resonate on the campaign trail.

Platner:

“I have held over 20 town halls in every corner of Maine, from Rumford to Madawaska to Portland. Everywhere I hear the same thing: People are ready for change. They know the system is broken and they know that politicians who have been working in the system for years, like Susan Collins, are not going to fix it.”

If you know Maine at all you will also know that Rumford, Madawaska and Portland could not be any more different. Rumford is an old paper mill town, Madawaska is in far-reaches of the rooftop of the state, and Portland is the state’s biggest city sitting hard on the coast.

The people in these areas couldn’t be any more different, but their independence and just being proud Mainers is what binds them together. They won’t agree on everything, except that they live in what they believe to be our greatest state.

It occurs to me that Maine should serve as a metaphor for the Democrats and Left-leaners in America. Sure we are different, but if you come for one of us, you come for all of us.

First, though, we have to get out of our own way and learn some hard lessons.

If Democrats think running a 78-year-old candidate for a seat with a six-year term, after what happened to another WWII-era candidate last year, they haven’t learned a thing.

This isn’t looking toward a brighter future, it’s looking back on a dark past.

Right now the party doesn’t seem capable of making the necessary changes to inspire confidence among an American voting electorate that is scared, suspicious, and uninspired by the status quo.

And, man, I’m getting sick and tired of typing that.

(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.)

(That’s a photo of Graham Platner.)