Noah, I think you’re being far too kind to Graham Platner, the virtually unknown Democratic Senate candidate in Maine. It’s not exactly surprising to see the New York Times give a largely glowing profile of a long-shot, little-known Democrat. But it is rather shameless.
Enter Graham Platner, a 40-year-old oyster farmer and former Marine who served three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, and is set on Tuesday to announce a long-shot challenge to Ms. Collins, with a campaign focused on making life better for his state’s working class.
“We need to stop using the exact same playbook that keeps losing over and over and over again,” said Mr. Platner, a political unknown who serves as the local harbor master in the tiny town of Sullivan. “Running establishment candidates who are chosen or supported by the powers that be in D.C. — in Maine specifically — has been a total failure, certainly in attempts to unseat Susan Collins. It is time for us to try something new.”
Ah, it’s the Dan Osborn playbook. You may recall that last cycle, some particularly gullible left-of-center columnists and talking heads started talking up the odds of the Bernie Sanders–supporting, so-called “independent” — wink, wink — Dan Osborn derailing the GOP’s Senate majority hopes by defeating Nebraska’s incumbent GOP senator, Deb Fischer. In the end, Fischer won, 53.1 percent to 46.5 percent. Somehow the narrative has stuck that Osborn “seriously threatened” (Politico‘s words) Fischer’s reelection chances.
The Times gently adds:
Mr. Platner may need to hone his attacks on Ms. Collins as he tries to make the case against her. In the interview, he criticized Ms. Collins for allowing Mr. Trump’s sprawling domestic policy bill to win approval by the Appropriations Committee, then voting against it on the Senate floor. Yet the legislation was not a spending bill, and never went through the committee.
Yeah, let’s go with that, Maine. Drop the incumbent who’s chairwoman of the powerful Appropriations Committee and replace her with a guy who doesn’t know how the legislative process works.
Now, I just want you to take a moment to imagine a scenario where there’s a GOP challenger to, say, three-term Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennet. Imagine that the GOP challenger is a complete unknown. Imagine that the GOP challenger is insisting that his outsider status and complete lack of ever running for any other office before is a key strength of his campaign. And imagine that the candidate botches a basic question about the passage of the “big, beautiful bill” and which committee handles which legislation.
Do you think that GOP candidate would get a glowing profile in the New York Times? Nah, me either.
One final useful detail in this article, adding to my skepticism about a Senate bid by Maine governor Janet Mills: “Ms. Mills, if elected, would be 79 when taking office, making her the oldest first-term senator in history.”