April 10, 2026
"The lack of outside help for [Janet] Mills has left some Democrats in Maine with the impression that Schumer and other powerful Democrats are leaving her to twist in the wind..."
"... as she fails to make up ground in the polls. With Platner ads airing regularly on television, Mills supporters have begun complaining to Democrats close to the governor about the lack of a response, with some wondering why Schumer recruited the governor to run if no help would be provided when she did.... Republicans have needled Democrats on the apparent lack of support for Mills in the ad wars, using it to paint Schumer as out of touch with the Democratic base. 'Chuck Schumer is bailing out his preferred candidates across the map, but Janet Mills’ air support is nowhere to be found,' the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s regional press secretary, Samantha Cantrell, said in a statement. '“As Maine’s Democrat base turns to the radical liar Graham Platner, Schumer’s dream of beating Susan Collins is slipping further out of sight.'"
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89 comments:
Democrats don't need another octogenarian in the Senate. Maybe they're not too dissatisfied with Susan Collins, but why isn't Schumer worried about Graham Plattner, the Hotchkiss School oysterman with the Nazi tattoo rocking the Democrat boat?
Schumer is staying out because Platner has a better chance of winning. What’s difficult to understand about that?
"What’s difficult to understand about that?"
He pushed her — a 78-year-old woman who is currently the governor — into the Senate race and then did not support her. It is easy to see why he doesn't want her now, but he pushed her in now is letting her drift toward a loss to Platner in the primary and that seems to go along with abandoning the hope of unseating Collins. Now, the Mills people just want to hold Schumer's feet to the fire. Do you want to let him off the hook? Seems like he screwed up in a major way and used Gov. Mills.
May the Pain in Maine fall mainly on the Insane… Democrats
Pointing out the truth is negative?
I just want every single democrat to lose. The party has become an actual danger to the republic. Only Fetterman seems to be able to care about country on that side.
It simply appears that Maine is crazy for Nazis. Why not. They have the commie in Bernie and Graham would complete the fascist set.
That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
People are looking for a new generation of leaders to break from the status quo. Platner fits those desires. He speaks clearly on the issues people care about and stays focused, avoiding the cultural issue traps both sides get wrapped up in. If the party is looking to attract working class voters and independents, he is the candidate to go with. Mills may be a fine politician and a good candidate on paper, but with Schumers endorsement and her age just she feels like the same old thing we get every election cycle.
His story is basically "I came home from the military completely messed up. I'm appalled by the things I said during that period of my life and I've worked hard to put my life back together since then." I think that is going to be a much more compelling story against Collins in November than Mills's pitch, which is what, exactly? Age and experience? Not exactly what people are looking for these days.
Aklthouse: "He pushed her in now is letting her drift toward a loss to Platner in the primary..." True. Probably unplanned.
My hunch is Schumer thought he had political capital to "spend" on Mills but then his personal hold on office became less than assured and he seems to be flailing in many ways. She's collateral damage to his self-preservation.
If Schumer is pulling out, All it means is that he didn't anticipate the popularity of a radical Democrat veteran. Now that he sees that he backed the wrong horse it's appropriate to cut his losses, not waste money where it could be used elsewhere to actually win. If he kept supporting her, wouldn't that be throwing good money after bad? Isn't that called the fallacy of silk cost??
Go read Platner's campaign platform. It is the Democratic party's dream wish list - every single item conforms perfectly to the leftist narrative. America is an awful, sexist, racist, warmongering hellhole. Peaceful Gazans are being genocided. Billionaires are bad. Free speech is bad.
Why wouldn't Schumer support him? Most Democrats do.
Little Excursion™️ said...People are looking for a new generation of leaders to break from the status quo. Platner fits those desires. He speaks clearly on the issues people care about
Like hating Jews. Dems lap that stuff up to the point where even David Frum has been forced to acknowledge that antisemitism is the defining characteristic of today's progressive.
Platner is the PERFECT Democrat. In 2013 he downplayed rape reporting in the military saying victims should, "take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f—-ked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to." They dude gets a Nazi tattoo and brushes it off claiming he was drunk at the time. He has Bernie Sanders behind him. In New England, the more hypocritical you are, the more Democrat votes you can get. Why waste money on anyone else?
Schumer used to be a lot more astute, but he's running for his life now, too. The Temple of Fringe is being run by the younger set now, and maybe in their mind all white people are nationalist racists, even if they're Democrats. Winning is the thing, for Democrats, and Maine is vastly white. They'd run Hitler if they thought he could win, but they'll settle for a blue-blooded Nazi if he's not available.
The dems are extremists and radical. Planter is their perfect Nazi.
Platner recently said he wants to impeach two Supreme Court Justices. Probably something Schumer wants as well.
When the Platner tattoo controversy flared up, I was sorely disappointed that not one news outlet lead with a "MAINE FUROR!" headline.
Mike Wolf nails it
"She's collateral damage to his self-preservation. "
serious question:
in what states; would the democrats win?
If only citizens, over 18, that were registered, could vote?
AND if you could ONLY vote once?
It's not hatred of Jews to be repulsed and disgusted by what Israel has been doing in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, to name a few. In fact every Jewish person that I know personally, and I know a few, feels that way about Israel. They are ashamed of Netanyahu, is the only way to describe it. So stow the "antisemitism" charge, because it's compleete bullsheet.
Schumer is Jewish - not a point in his favor in today’s Democrat Party.
“In fact every Jewish person that I know personally, and I know a few, feels that way about Israel.”
American Jews are split on this issue with the more religious Jews showing a much higher support for Israeli actions over the past several years.
Will those older women who would otherwise vote for Mills switch to Collins?
Tim is right. My Israeli friends cannot stand Benjamin netanyahu and personally blame him for inflaming anti-Semitism around the world. Trump supporters make the erroneous assumption that the Likud Party in Israel represents the entire Jewish diaspora around the world. They use this in an attempt to cancel anybody who says anything against Benjamin Netanyahu and his agents of destruction.
In this way, the Trump deadenders are soulmates to the metoo transphobic commie-pinko extremists of the left. They are great champions of slaying straw men.
Must be hard finding Democrats willing to fund a Nazi opponent.
He speaks clearly on the issues people care about and stays focused, avoiding the cultural issue traps both sides get wrapped up in.
I'm old enough to remember when having a Totenkopf tattoo would be a cultural-issue trap.
Seems like he screwed up in a major way and used Gov. Mills.
Mongo: "Mills only pawn in Democrat game of life."
Howie has a Jewish friend.
I too have Jewish friends - and they support Israel.
The entire family is from there and some of them live there.
Howie said:
"In this way, the Trump deadenders are soulmates to the metoo transphobic commie-pinko extremists of the left."
American Jews are split on this issue with the more religious Jews showing a much higher support for Israeli actions over the past several years.
And the more religious they are the more they far out-breed the secular and leftist Jews hugely.
@Tom Servaux, that made me laugh. Maybe we'll see it in the Kennebunkerport Times.
According to the polls support for Israeli actions in Gaza and toward Iran is very high, notwithstanding your Jewish and/or Israeli friends. By the way get new friends. Those guys/gals sound like losers.
Polls on Israel - to be clear.
Polls in Israel - to be clearer.
I am rather surprised this piece makes zero comment on the polling, the one bit of empirical evidence we actually have about which candidate will be better positioned in a general election. The results are pretty unambiguous, too: Platner leads Collins by mid to high single digits in the vast majority of polls, while Mills is typically in a statistical tie or even losing. This seems as if it would be worth noting.
My old neighbor (I've since moved) are New York Jews.
The sister, who I befriended, just sold her home on North Boulder to re-unite with her family in Israel.
Several months ago - I learned this as I ran into her and her grown adult son. We gently eased into the political topics - not sure if trust was there. But as we established trust - it was very clear that the son was filled with anger towards the Iranian-Hamas-Hezbollah terrorists. Real agner.
Not the BS "Oh I hate Netenyahu" that we hear endlessly from the asshole left.
real anger - typo
Any rational, objective look at Platner would show that he's a massive flake. A nutcase with more than a little narcissism running through him. A far leftist with the additional foresight to show his Nazi side- permanently.
It is appalling how far the standards for Democrats have fallen. This is the best you got in Maine, people?
You wouldn't hire this guy to manage a loading dock, but you think he'd be just fine in the US Senate?
ImTay. I'm going to guess you're in New York.
Many Dem voters love the idea of Bernie Sanders and want a young Bernie to vote for. They're hoping Platner may become that guy and Platner is trying to be that guy.
After Hillary and Kamala, it seems like Dem voters are no longer insisting their candidates be a woman and or a person of color. They want someone who can win, but is still a left winger. IMHO it was their left wing politics that sunk Hillary and Kamala, not their sex or color.
Oct 7th repulsed me.
to many on the vile left and radical a-hole right - it either didn't happen or they claim without any evidence that Netenyahu staged it.
Bernie Sanders is a failure and a joke. the left want more.
That's because they are leaving her to twist in the wind.
Ann Althouse said...
["What’s difficult to understand about that?"]
"He pushed her — a 78-year-old woman who is currently the governor — into the Senate race and then did not support her. It is easy to see why he doesn't want her now, but he pushed her in now is letting her drift toward a loss to Platner in the primary and that seems to go along with abandoning the hope of unseating Collins. Now, the Mills people just want to hold Schumer's feet to the fire. Do you want to let him off the hook? Seems like he screwed up in a major way and used Gov. Mills."
No surprise. The (D) Party playbook is election manipulation, and whatever tactics accomplish that end are fair game. So, yes. Schumer's feet should be held to the fire - by sensible people in his own party. They're there, and they need to be noisier than the radicals who have co-opted their party.
The fact that the Republicans are goading Schumer to spend money in the Democratic primary tells me he shouldn’t. Mills is the two-term governor of the state, she should be able to win her party primary without outside help.
Right now, it looks like either Democratic candidate would beat Collins, so if Mills had an advantage over Platner on the issue of electability, she’s lost it.
If Platner can get elected and potentially hold the seat for 30 to 40 years, that’s an advantage for the Democrats over Mills, who might only serve one term.
On the flip side, Mills might do better campaigning in the primary on the notion that Schumer abandoned her than she would with Schumer’s support.
Meanwhile, Maine is on its way to electing Wisconsinite Nirav Shah as its next governor.
It won't be many years until there are no more purple states, states with both a Republican and Democratic senator. The states will be all red or all blue.
This does not bode well for the blue. It's why they've been trying to illegally import voters for the last couple of decades.
It was probably a tough list to unseat Collins anyways. They push out an option and when their loonie voters don’t bite…Nobody holds Democrats to account for their hypocrisy or inconsistency or contradiction or their backstabbing or traitorous behavior, so why should Schumer bother to pretend?
https://notthebee.com/article/muslim-man-who-pled-guilty-to-election-fraud-now-running-for-texas-mayor
Mills is toast- Schumer, if this was his decision to not pour more money into her campaign, made a good financial decision.
Schumer pushed Mills into the race because he didn't know at the time that a majority of Maine voters, including all Democrats, would happily vote for an actual Nazi.
Mills is an unlikable old incompetent hag. The drunken socialist is going to lose big to Collins, whom everyone (both left and right) hates. Maine is run by commies and idiots, but I repeat myself.
our leftists are all "But I know some Jews who hate Israel and cheer for Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah! That means it's okay for Democrats to do the same!" yeah, there are many Jews like Soros who willingly sell out their own people to be killed. Doesn't mean it is a good thing... but Democrats seem proud of supporting actual, literal Nazis nowadays.
Whatever happened to "never forget?" I guess people like imTay and Little Excursion are saying "When we said never forget, what we meant was never forget we stopped Adolf before he got the job done...."
Charlie said...
"The drunken socialist is going to lose big to Collins."
I would take that bet. The Republicans (Stupid Party) will run against Platner's tattoos, ignore his platform, and lose by 15 points.
Tilting at Janet Mills? Is she a viable candidate?
A communist, Nazi liar is the Democrat front runner? Okay. Schumer knows what his base wants and is acting accordingly. After Biden, AOC and friends, Mamdani, Schiff, Jay Jones, etc., why does anyone think there are levels to which Democrats won’t fall? Non-Democrats think because New Democrat values are immoral and insane that Republicans will win the midterms. Wrong! The mediaswine have done their work. Republicans and Trump are less acceptable than mutilating children, Islamic terrorists, open borders, rampant crime and human feces in the streets.
LeftBank: “If Platner can get elected and potentially hold the seat for 30 to 40 years, that’s an advantage for the Democrats over Mills….” There it is! The typical moral judgment by Democrats in a nutshell.
Howard thinks that defending Israel is inflaming anti-semitism around the world.
How are you any different than notorious anti-Semite RCOCEAN?
Jew hating fuckheads will always be Jew hating fuckheads.
Old and tired: "But I know Jews who hate Israel and Netanyahu" uh huh.
Thanks for making my point, Maynard. I see perimenopause hasn't been easy for you. Maybe fluoride mouthwash would help.
the REAL QUESTION is:
WHY can't the Maine Republicans find someone better than Susan Collins?
now, i DON'T mean "someone better to ME", i mean:
"someone better to MAINE" ??
last time, 2020 sue got 50.98%
that's NOT impressive.
she has super tenure (a phrase i just came up with)
she is SUPER liberal
she is a KEY vote, so holds ENORMOUS POWER for Maine
(Repubs HAVE TO have her vote)
and YET; half the people (nearly half the voters) in Maine wanted her GONE.
IF Maine gets a democrat senator..
What power (sway) would that person have?
I'm guessing NONE.
And yet, half the people in Maine wanted That.
Why? because sue is completely unimpressive
why couldn't the repubs find someone better?
the dems (schumer) wanted to replace her with a clone (mills),
and now are trying to replace her with a open nazi
R's don't run for office anymore. It's an insiders game. all of it.
Funny, the dems have plenty of money to advertise for re-districting down here in Virginia.
imTay: " . . . every Jewish person that I know personally, and I know a few, feels that way about Israel."
Pauline Kael: "I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them."
Peter Strzok: "Just went to a southern Virginia Walmart. I could SMELL the Trump support."
imTay: “So stow the "antisemitism" charge, because it's compleete bullsheet.”
Oh, absolutely. The Hamas Covenant declared: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it….” Israel is the only Jewish state on earth. It is the size of New Jersey with a population slightly more than New York City, mostly Jews. The surrounding Arab states occupy 60 times the land mass. The hostile, Islamic, non-Arab State of Iran alone has 10 times the population of Israel. The Covenant referenced above was the governing document of Hamas when the people of Gaza elected them to rule.
But clearly, the vitriolic opposition to Netanyahu and Israel defending itself against “obliteration, by Islamists, including Gazans, has nothing to do with Jews or antisemitism. Right, ImTay? /sarc.
Hezbollah howie has to show himself?
If the Republicans were smart (yeah, big "if") they would stress the Hotchkiss background of the "oyster farmer" and let the Nazi tattoo take care of itself.
This would have been a great line for Trump at the SOTU speech.
JAVIER MILEI:
"The Left can't applaud me, because their hands are in other people's pockets"
Maine has been overrun with retirees and those who were economically pushed out of southern new england. There ais no basal economy there it's all government derived.
Well, to all those people who voted for Trump because they wanted an end to foreign wars, and more effort on lowering the cost of living: aren’t you looking ridiculous today!
One has to hand it to Trump — to campaign on a platform of ending foreign wars and lowering inflation and ending up driving up inflation because of starting a foreign war….that would be too much winning for even the most accomplished Hollywood script writers.
47 years of war with Iran to come to an end.
TinyE® lives through the feckless Biden administration’s domestic and foreign policy failures - including the highest inflation in 50 years - and the dollar’s 20% diminished buying power and still he posts this claptrap.
What a moronic corksoaker!
Otto is stuck on the london underground
"Well, to all those people who voted for Trump because they wanted an end to foreign wars, and more effort on lowering the cost of living: aren’t you looking ridiculous today!"
Only to the short-sighted which is a common character flaw of many who talk rather than do.
The actions Trump is taking are aimed exactly at fixing both things for the long term. You might even know this, which is why you don't want him to succeed.
It's not an easy challenge when half the country, most of the media, and chattering class are against him, but his willingness to stand up to that is what we voted for, because it's what it takes to win, and unlike many of you, we want the U.S. to win.
What looks bad is rooting for the greatest, most generous nation in history to lose. It looks really bad, and that's not going to get better no matter what happens.
KKKak/Richsockpuppet/paidActbluetrollaccount said, "People are looking for a new generation of leaders to break from the status quo. Platner fits those desires."
Welcome to the modern Democrat/Nazi party!
Young, national socialists who never saw what socialism actually did, only heard the bullshit that their washed -up hippy , drug-addled, pedophile public school told them now pushing for Nazi democrats totenkopf Einzatzgruppenfuhrers like Platner, Der Starmer, and Wermacht Waltz.
This should come as no surprise, since we were all years old when just a couple of months ago, KKKak was calling (participating? Never heard a no when asked...) and cheering the Reichstag Fire storming of Minneapolis churches.
Every Democrat in the Senate votes with Schumer 95 percent of the time - whatever their "Campaign rhetoric". It doesnt matter who it is, whenever you vote for a D Senator you're voting for Chuck Schumer. Despite this you can be sure dumb normies will vote for a "moderate Democrat" and win another "Fell for it again award".
Boatbuilder: it's not a real oyster farm: he's not a real oyster farmer. He gives a few boat tours and sells a few oysters to his mommy. But by all means, run him.
Well the esser wing (represented by the SA) most assuredly wanted nationalization
But hes the wurst candidate in a long while
Collins has been in the Senate longer than Schumer. Schumer put up Mills and Collins put up the Trust Fund Nazi Communist.
Give her credit. She’s much smarter than Chuck
Ann Althouse said...
"What’s difficult to understand about that?"
He pushed her — a 78-year-old woman who is currently the governor — into the Senate race and then did not support her. It is easy to see why he doesn't want her now, but he pushed her in now is letting her drift toward a loss to Platner in the primary and that seems to go along with abandoning the hope of unseating Collins. Now, the Mills people just want to hold Schumer's feet to the fire. Do you want to let him off the hook? Seems like he screwed up in a major way and used Gov. Mills.
So another woman wasn't set up for success by the awful jerk man?
What does she need to do the work herself? A cookie?
Howard said...
Tim is right. My Israeli friends cannot stand Benjamin netanyahu and personally blame him for inflaming anti-Semitism around the world. Trump supporters make the erroneous assumption that the Likud Party in Israel represents the entire Jewish diaspora around the world. They use this in an attempt to cancel anybody who says anything against Benjamin Netanyahu and his agents of destruction.
In this way, the Trump deadenders are soulmates to the metoo transphobic commie-pinko extremists of the left. They are great champions of slaying straw men.
At some point Israelis will figure out that Trump has used them to get what the US wants.
Many Israelis wanted the same deal that Europe got for 50 years. They wanted to sit on their thumbs and smell their strawberry flavored farts like the Europeans as the US covered for them.
Netanyahu had a choice between acting like an ally and acting like whatever you want to call the western european leaders.
I am sure there are a lot of Israelis that are cowardly worthless pieces of shit like the average democrat in the US or european coward class.
They should all be moved to Europe and allowed to live in the coming muslim paradise.
“… those people who voted for Trump because they wanted an end to foreign wars, and more effort on lowering the cost of living….” Who knew that an end to foreign wars meant letting the ayatollahs develop Obamanukes? Who knew that the “cost of living” would be defined after less than 18 months of Trump? Who are these morons posting this bullshit and what are they doing posting amongst their intellectual superiors?
Okay, so on Pod Save America, they showed the video of the drunk Platner singing at a party to Katy Perry, shirtless. And he had a Nazi tattoo. The vibe I got from this video is that he was a kid, and a drunk moron, and the exact sort of person who would get a tattoo that "looked cool" even if he had no idea what it meant. Like those people who get a cool Japanese tattoo without knowing what it means. Dumb tattoos for $100, Alex. So that's my honest conclusion. He's not a Nazi.
Politically, of course, it's very embarrassing that he had to have a Nazi tattoo removed. Particularly since every Democrat and her mother have been calling Trump (and Republicans) Nazi for most of my life. It's actually escalated, from "racist" to "Nazi" to "Hitler." Hitler is peak stupid. The American people resoundingly blew up this tactic in 2024, by putting Trump back in office. The Democrats still haven't recovered from this. Calling Republicans racist/Nazi/Hitler has been their standard m.o. my whole fucking life. I would love it if they would stop doing this shit.
Obviously, Democrats in Maine don't think Platner is a Nazi. I don't either. The Maine Democrat primary is like the 2024 national election. He's a mini-Trump in that sense. A guy with obvious baggage. So I would not assume that he's an automatic loser against Collins, who has her own problems.
My other thought is that Platner is a typical leftist who hates Israel. This is anti-Semitic, and it's widespread in the Democrat party now. I know it's a common belief on the left, that you can hate the Jewish state while you love the Jews. I think they're deluding themselves. The anti-Zionists slip into anti-Semitism without even noticing. This is why Bari Weiss left the NYT, founded the Free Press, and now is running CBS news. The October 7 attack, which featured the murder and rape of 1,200 innocent people, was exactly like 9/11 to Israel, and to American Jews. It was a shocking atrocity.
She's started a new column: This Week in Jew Hate. She's giving a platform to the rabbi whose synagogue was the target of a terrorist attack. She's giving her the opportunity to speak.
Contrast NPR, who didn't speak to anybody from the synagogue. Didn't give a damn about this horrific crime. Instead, NPR went out to whatever country this asshole came from and interviewed his friends and family to "explain" why he was trying to murder children in Michigan.
Number of Democrats (or Republicans) who have Nazi tattoos? Very, very small number. A ridiculously small number. But number of Democrats who hate the Jewish state? That's a big number.
To me, this is not an 80-20 issue. It's more like a 60-40 issue. A significant number of people blame Israel for violence in the Middle East. Among young people, it might be higher. They've been indoctrinated to think that way.
This is a huge opportunity for Republicans, in my opinion. What's driving all the violence in the Middle East is the failure to recognize Israel's right to exist. Signing the Abraham Accords is the most important thing for peace in the region. My hope and prayer is that Saudi Arabia, and other Islamic countries in the region, will follow Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, and recognize the right of Israel to exist.
Platner, like many Democrats, is a dummy on this subject. Anwar Sadat signed a peace accord with Israel, many years ago, under Jimmy Carter. Egypt and Israel have had zero problems since then. Sadat was brutally murdered, because that's what Islamic terrorists do. They hate peace. They don't want it.
Janet Mills is an outspoken supporter of Israel. Platner is an outspoken supporter of the people of Gaza (i.e. Hamas). Mills is mad at Chuck Schumer, because the weasel refuses to say anything about Israel and how many anti-Semites are raging on the left right now, in Maine and elsewhere. This is a huge opportunity for Republicans.
"I support Israel, and my opponent is a drunk dummy who had to have a Nazi tattoo removed."
He defends himself from the charge that he is a Nazi by saying that he's a communist.
I believe him.
His communist beliefs cannot be explained or excused by alcohol.
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