conductorjon

The problem Maine Democrats have is that their bench is dogshit due to attributes that are unique to Maine itself. It's not even a swingstate anymore but Collins outperforms every Republican by so much that you still need to field a competitive candidate and they don't have anyone In Maine, the only statewide office that actually gets elected is governor (all the other executives are appointees or elected by the legislature), so there aren't any attorneys-general, Lieutentant Governors, or Secretaries of State with a proven trackrecord of winning elections, like you'd have in Arizona, Virginia, or Georgia. Normally you could just run the two term governor for senate, but Mills is the only candidate older than Collins and one of the biggest concerns voters have with Collins is her age. Shenna Bellows is one of the frontrunners to replace Platner and the last time she won an election was a state Senate race in 2014, after which she lost to Susan Collins by 37 in the 2014 US Senate election. Obviously the state is very different politically today, but one of the top candidates for governor hasn't won an election in 12 years and was last seen losing to the same opponent by almost 40. That's one of the top two possible replacements. The other is Troy Jackson, who's got tons of problems due to his association with Platner and never even won a primary at a higher level than a State Senate election. He's run for higher office twice and lost in the primary by 50 the first time and came in third the second. On top of that, they only have two congressional seats and their actual best possible general election candidate (Jared Golden, who would obliterate Collins) retired because he hates politics. Compare that to Pennsylvania, which elects the Governor, Attorney General, Auditor General, and Treasurer, and has 17 congressional districts + big city mayors. The Democrats have no problem finding candidates there. Josh Shapiro - who would be a big favorite to beat McCormick in the 2030 Senate race if he decides to run - first won statewide elected office as Attorney General, which is elected by the legislature in Maine, not by voters. There are literally no available Democrats in the state who have a proven track record of winning outside of state legislature elections with fewer than 20,000 votes except for Mills, an 80 year old woman who doesn't even seem motivated to run and only did because Schumer begged her to. It's pretty obvious the reason it took the establishment so long to find a candidate to oppose Platner was because Schumer spent months desperately trying to talk Golden into it and he refused

Update from the Maine Democratic Party on the US Senate Nomination Process

This video, which argues that Platner was a victim of a shadowy smear campaign and is being forced out of the race, will cost people votes, may cost Democrats the Senate, and may cost millions of people more than we can imagine. Everyone involved with it should be hounded and humiliated for the rest of their days.