Janet Mills opts for a funeral while Dems pray for miracle alternative to Graham Platner in Maine
PORTLAND, Maine — Democrats’ hopes for an alternative to Graham Platner were laid to rest.Gov.Janet Mills trekked down to Boston to attend the late Rep.
Barney Frank’s funeral as many national Democrats quietly prayed for her to rescue Maine Democrats by reviving her Senate campaign against scandal-plagued Platner.Mills, the one-time Democratic frontrunner for Senate, abruptly ended her campaign in late April after trailing the controversial oyster farmer by double digits in some polls.
Mills, 78, recently reminded the public that she’s still on Tuesday’s ballot as Platner’s campaign has been dogged by a wave of misconduct allegations, including from former girlfriends.Yet, Mills opted against resurrecting her campaign and giving jittery Democrats a viable alternative — and spent election eve at a funeral.
“People have the impression that I ‘withdrew’ or ‘dropped out,’ but I simply suspended active campaigning,” Mills teased to the Lewiston Sun Journal earlier this month.“I am still on the ballot.”Ironically, Frank himself had backed Mills in the Senate race and, while in hospice, publicly expressed his qualms about Platner.“I worry a little bit about the tendency on the Democratic side to fall for the flavor of the month,” Frank told Politico.
“There is this flirtation or this attraction of people who are new and who are very good at articulating a response to the anger, but without talking about what you do about it.”Under state law, candidates have to file to withdraw from the ballot 70 days before a primary, which, in this case, was the end of March.“Mills sits vetted and scandal-free, with her only baggage being a list of accomplishments and a record of effective scorn for the president,” one Democratic operative noted, referencing the Maine governor’s battles with Trump executive actions.Mills has refrained from endorsing anyone in the Maine Senate race.
Multiple allies have privately urged her to get back in...