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The latest in the running Graham Platner soap opera “As The Stomach Churns”: Platner is trying to negotiate his exit from the Senate race in a manner which preserves his “movement”.
A question looming over the Maine political embroglio is whether Platner and his progressive supporters will play a role in choosing the next Democratic nominee, should he leave the race by the July 13 deadline. Under Maine law, the party has until July 27 to name a replacement.
The Maine Democratic Party pointedly said Tuesday night the Platner campaign should “have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the US Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like.”
Party officials met with lawyers last night to work through what a potential nominating process would look like if the nominee steps aside, but as of Wednesday morning, officials have yet to communicate what that plan will entail, with one Democratic strategist in Maine saying it may not be publicized until Platner officially drops out of the race.
Of course, with even Progressive Democrat groups repudiating Platner, the description of his campaign as a “movement” has a quixotic air about it.
Platner screwed over Progressives and Establishmentarians alike by thinking his internal ugliness was a compelling campaign message. He captured a protest vote among Democrats who are clamoring for a change from the insipid and impotent TDS-inflected status quo, but that's a far cry from having an actual political message which can cut across party and ideological boundaries to reshape the Democratic Party.
Donald Trump remade the Republican Party in the image of the MAGA Coalition. That's a movement.
Platner is only a movement of the bowel variety, and the sooner the Democrats flush him down the better it will be for the Democratic Party and for the election cycle overall.
