Former Platner campaign aide: ‘The answer to a broken political culture is not to accept it’

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A former top aide of Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign urged members of her party to consider voting for another contender in Maine — one day before Tuesday’s primary contest.

Former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald (D), who served as Platner’s political director from August to October of last year, argued in a Monday op-ed in The Washington Post that the populist oyster farmer “is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.”

“Democrats are being sold a narrative that Platner is the only choice for the race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Maine voters don’t have to accept that,” she wrote.

“There are two other named candidates on Tuesday’s ballot. If Platner wins the nomination but later withdraws, Maine Democrats can hold a convention and choose a different nominee,” she continued. “The answer to a broken political culture is not to accept it. Demand better from those entrusted with power or seeking it. Enough is enough.”

Platner is seen as the presumptive Democratic nominee to take on Collins, a Republican who has served five terms in the upper chamber.

Several other candidates, including Gov. Janet Mills (D), are on the ballot. Mills suspended her campaign in April as Platner consolidated primary support.

The oyster farmer has been under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks amid revelations that he previously sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women early on in his marriage — details that McDonald confirmed in her op-ed. The New York Times also recently published accounts from several of Platner’s past girlfriends, some of whom alleged physical roughness and that he knew a since-covered up tattoo of his was a Nazi symbol.

Platner denied the allegations in the Times’s story in an interview with MS NOW last week but acknowledged that did go through a difficult period after serving in the military.

“There are some allegations in this piece that, I just want to be kind of unequivocal about, are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was. These are the statements of someone who is politically motivated,” Platner told MS NOW, referring to one of the former girlfriends interviewed in the newspaper’s story who has worked on Republican causes.

“In this piece, there’s a lot about my struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol, and I’ve been very upfront since the beginning of this campaign that that was a pretty dark period of my life after I came back from my combat service,” he added.

Amid the controversy, Mills  notably reminded voters she’s still on the ballot, though Platner is seen as the favorite in Tuesday’s contest. Democrats in Washington have largely stuck behind the progressive.

Maine is as a must-win state for the party, and Collins is seen as the most vulnerable Senate Republican incumbent this cycle. The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates the Maine Senate seat as a “toss up.”

The Hill has reached out to Platner’s campaign for further comment.

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Janet Mills

Susan Collins

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