Version imprimableSo progressive Democratic Party operatives decided they needed to find candidates with a populist message speaking to voters concerns about the cost of living who also resembled the working-class voters to whom they wished to appeal. A couple of young political scouts went to Maine where the Democrats would challenge Republican senator Susan Collins who has served five terms in a Democratic majority state. Talking to local activists these two scouts identified Graham Platner as the candidate who could and would defeat Collins. Defeating Collins, would be key to the Democrats taking control of the Senate.
Platner had served eight years in the U.S. Marines, two tours of duty in Iraq and one with the Maryland National Guard in Afghanistan where he stayed on as a military contractor. Then he returned to his home state of Maine and became an oyster farmer. He married Amy Gertner, a school teacher who became the business manager of his oyster farm.
Platner had progressive politics. He opposed the corporations and supported Medicare for all, he talked about genocide in Gaza and opposed AIPAC, the Israeli lobby. Moreover, he looked the part; he was a brawny guy with of a mustache and beard, tattoos, and a charismatic speaking style. With support from progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders, Platner quickly gained an enthusiastic following and won the Democratic Party primary.
But Platner was not what he appeared to be. He wasn’t from the working class; his father was a lawyer and his mother a business woman. And Platner the oyster farmer was himself a small businessman.
Then the revelations began. Platner had a Nazi tattoo, a Totenkopf (a death’s head), though he denied knowing what it was when he got it. Platner, who suffered from PTSD, also had a lot of emotional problems. Investigations by the media revealed that he sent sexually explicit emails to several women, some of them married. Former girlfriends described him as volatile and one said physically threatening. Then in July a former girlfriend accused him of rape, his prominent supporters such as Sanders abandoned him, and Platner was forced to withdraw from the campaign. Now Democrats will have to find a replacement for him at a special convention with only a few months left until the November election.
Critics have blamed the Democrats’ mistaken choice of Graham Platner on insufficient vetting. There are, however, bigger issues. Unlike candidates of the Democratic Socialists of America who have won in New York and Colorado, Platner was not a member of a left organization and so had no experience of common study, planning, and work as a socialist. He was active in Acadia Action, a local aquaculture and fishing advocacy group in Sullivan, Maine, and—more civic involvement than actual activism—he served as the town harbormaster and chair of the planning board. He did not have the kind of experience that comes from being a labor union activist or being involved in militant confrontations with authorities.
Chosen by young, self-proclaimed political scouts, Platner did not have a proven record of activism, which would have given people a better understanding of who he really was. A friend in Maine wrote, “It was a great ride while it lasted,” But without an experienced activist candidate, it couldn’t last long.
12 July 2024
