Democratic nominee, dogged by controversy since entering contest, says ‘for the movement to continue, it can’t be me’
  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    12·
    1 day ago

    It’s up to the Maine Democratic Party now.

    For what it’s worth, they’re not going to give Janet Mills the nomination. She’s polling next to last in the half-dozen or so realistic replacements. My own money is on Troy Jackson, who has already created a committee to explore the possibility and who already has an established reputation in Maine politics.

    This Politico article gives a good breakdown of who they will be looking at to replace Platner:

    The Tuesday poll of 785 Maine voters showed Platner trailing Collins 47 percent to 42 percent. Eleven percent said they were undecided. It also tested Jackson, Bellows, former Senate candidate Jordan Wood, former public health official Nirav Shah and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills — who ended her Senate bid before the primary — in head-to-head match-ups with Collins.

    Of the Democrats tested, Jackson performed the best, leading Collins 49 percent to 44 percent, with 7 percent of voters undecided. Bellows and Shah both essentially tied Collins at 47 percent and 45 percent, respectively. Mills, who has not weighed in publicly on the POLITICO report, trailed Collins 48 percent to 37 percent, while Wood trailed 47 percent to 38 percent.

    The latest news is that the Maine Democrats are planning 600-person convention to replace Graham Platner: not a special election, but not a small committee either. This article is from just before the news came that he did actually drop out:

    https://www.pressherald.com/2026/07/08/maine-democrats-plan-600-person-convention-to-replace-platner-once-he-drops-out/

    EDITED to add Politico summary

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      1 day ago

      My own money is on Troy Jackson, who has already created a committee to explore the possibility.

      The guy who lost his own smaller primary, immediately called for Platner to resign, and then in pretty much the same breath “reluctantly” filed the paperwork to take over…

      Created a committee to explore who should replace Platner?!

      I’m waiting on baited breath to hear who he recommends…

      /s

      Couldn’t get past the paywall, but a caucus style convention is about the only option now.

      Would have been better off if he pledged to step down after beating Collins so there’s be plenty of time for a special election.

      But this whole thing was orchestrated to cause a rushed decision and counted on Platner putting the movement over himself.

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        7·
        1 day ago

        Regarding Troy Jackson,

        Created a committee to explore who should replace Platner?!

        No, to explore his own run should Platner drop out. The Maine Democratic Party will make the final decision about who replaces him, as Maine law requires. They are describing it as an

        in-person convention of about 600 people for the purpose of selecting a new Senate nominee

        Here’s an archive link to that same Press-Herald article; I am aware there are problems with the archive site but it has the content. Use at your own discretion:
        https://archive.md/FaCOR

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          1 day ago

          Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson

          Great…

          The person in charge of it was the chief financial executive of the Florida Dem party in 2020.

          https://floridapolitics.com/archives/578696-florida-democrats-agree-to-pay-43k-in-settlement-with-fec/

          That should make us all super duper confident, and it’s total normal for those Florida Dems to keep failing upwards all over the country.

          Edit:

          At least she totally took the blame when her Latino outreach program in Florida failed…

          Devon Murphy-Anderson, the former finance director for the Florida Democratic Party and cofounder of Mi Vecino, which works to activate Latino voters in Florida, told Newsweek that while Miami-Dade is getting all of the attention, DeSantis’ complete and total win also impressively flipped traditional blue areas like Palm Beach County and Hillsborough County.

          “It’s important to know this was a strategy from Florida Republicans, and not to shift the blame to Latino voters,” she argued, seeing the results as “a response to strategic investment by a political party.”

          https://www.newsweek.com/ron-desantis-wins-florida-latino-vote-setting-stage-2024-clash-1758404

          Totally makes sense after all these collosal recent fuck ups in the less than decade since graduating college means she should run a state fucking party and make these kinds of calls.

          I still don’t understand why no one else notices this shit.

          • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            31·
            1 day ago

            Devon Murphy-Anderson, the former finance director for the Florida Democratic Party and cofounder of Mi Vecino, which works to activate Latino voters in Florida…

            I don’t know how a blond woman named Devon Murphy-Anderson didn’t crush it at activating Latino voters.

            She’s also the one who opened up a public feud with Platner’s team about the replacement process. Is she actual just out to sabotage the Democratic party?

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      A poll would matter if the people at the convention were voters. They’re not. They’ll be selected by the county committees. Mills might be a step too far, but they’ll sub in a bland moderate.

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        Sounds about right. For myself, I don’t think they can get past just how disliked Mills was during the primary. Poll or not, choosing someone that can actually win against Collins would seem to be the ultimate goal, but some of them would rather lose than take the wrong winner so who knows. They have until July 27, apparently.

        Jackson has a pretty good platform, at least. There also seems to be a lot of ground support for Dr. Nirav Shah, which was a name I hadn’t seen much before now, and Shah has a platform almost identical to Jackson but not much experience to go with it.

        I guess we’ll see pretty soon.