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ACCORDING TO LIZ - The railroading of Graham Platner has been front page news this week. And for a while.
If I lived in Maine, I would have been angry about pooh-bahs around the country weighing in on what Platner should have done.
Even more-so at how pundits at the New York Times and other purportedly moderate news media have piled on, along with his nationwide supporter base for whom he was a progressive poster-boy until this most recent charge of rape.
His backing by both lukewarm corporate-driven DNC adherents and left-wing politicos including Bernie Sanders, Ro Khanna, and Elizabeth Warren jumped ship earlier this week as a more damning rape allegation by the “girlfriend” whose previous sexual assault claims weren’t substantive enough to disrupt Platner’s primary triumph, although no charges have ever been brought and there has been no conviction by a jury of his peers.
Not like La Donald who was caught on tape about grabbing women’s pussies and, in 2023, convicted of sexual abuse in a New York court. A conviction that was de facto confirmed by the Supreme Court in its decision not to review the president’s appeal of the $5 million-plus-interest awarded to E. Jean Carroll.
When Platner announced his decision to drop out of the Senate race on Wednesday, he called on state Democrats to select a replacement who could inspire and replicate the spirit of his Pine Tree State primary voters: “The next Democratic senator for Maine needs to belong to the people of Maine.”
I am sad to see Graham go, but Platner astutely took the high road by dropping out to avoid his campaign being played out against tabloid-driven venomous commentary from both the left and the right.
That’s not what his supporters need to go through: “For the movement to continue, it can’t be me.”
Picking an alternate for the November election should definitely not be determined by the federal Democratic establishment which Platner blames, along with corporate talking heads, of being “judge, jury and executioner” in blowing Jenny Raciot’s allegations out of proportion to force him and his progressive views and energy from the race, to stop him from representing “the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to… and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
The Maine Democratic party said on Wednesday it will hold a nominating convention to select a new candidate and harness the energy and enthusiasm of Maine’s Democrats who have been inspired by Platner.
The crash-and-burn of Platner’s oyster farmer-to-primary-winner is a shame. And raises many questions.
Although evidence of Raciot’s claims is mounting, it is still little more than hearsay – complaints to a subsequent lover, text messages she sent to an acquaintance, and what she says she told her therapist. Break-in? Forcible rape? No police report was ever filed.
Platner had rejected the Politico allegations in a social media video posted on Monday. “Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically untrue.”
Even if there are more than a few grains of sand – those that make pearls in oysters – they show him as an imperfect human being – but who isn’t?
Certainly, almost all sexual abuse complaints contain he said-she said finger-pointing.
All of which are subjective. But, if you don’t want an on-again-off-again lover dropping in, why leave the door open? How many of us have acted in the moment only to have regrets later.
Platner called suspending his campaign “… incredibly difficult, because I know that some will think it's an admission of guilt, and it most certainly is not.”
Is this yet another attempt by the corporate Democrats and the DNC to reassert their power and take down progressives… which will only hand the Senate back to the Republicans?
This certainly looks like and smells like a blame game, captured by political and oligarchic Machiavellians to manipulate the narrative to their own ends.
At a time when corporations are increasingly becoming the deer-in-the-headlight targets of many ordinary Americans on the left, middle, and right.
Almost exclusively I am supportive of women’s claims of sexual abuse but this stinks like a rancid oyster with the measured timing of Raciot’s allegations shoring up the vituperation of the DNC elite who keep fighting to maintain the status quo, guaranteeing them the support of Wall Street. Even if it doesn’t win elections.
And garnering the ex a place in the follow-spot of national publicity – something for which she begrudged Platner while endorsing his political convictions.
Watching someone who assaulted and, in replaying a memory, raped you rise to national prominence can galvanize a complaint, but how many people of all sexual identities have confronted degrees of unwanted advances by a lover who is high, drunk, or emotionally upset and done nothing? With self-recriminations rising afterwards?
It also boosts the limelight on Cheyenne Hunt, the attorney and advocate who made a name for herself in tanking Eric Swalwell’s run for Governor of California, and now the oysterman’s reach for Maine’s open seat in the Senate.
Raciot probably did what was right for herself and ditched Platner at the time. But is now the time to ride that resentment and tank a promising political career? For her very-ex… and for the people he inspired?
Especially if her claims prove baseless, stepping away now grants Platner the opportunity to fight it out unhindered by the demands of the race and the millstone Raciot has hung around his neck.
Then he can run for Senate in 2030 for independent Senator Angus King’s seat. Sooner if the 82-year-old decides to step down.
In the meantime, he can still throw his weight behind Republican-turned-progressive former State Senate President Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger with deep working-class roots, who recently lost the Democratic primary nomination to Hannah Pingree in Maine's race for governor, and would probably be the easiest replacement for Platner supporters to accept.
In the end, Platner thanked the voters who helped propel him to the nomination as a political newcomer, and stand to lose the most:
“You never turned your back on me, and I will not turn my back on you now,” he said. “Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition, and see Susan Collins defeated, and we will use every tool at our disposal to do so. As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”
Meanwhile, with his empire-building collapsing, all Trump can do is wiggle and squirm like a worm on a hook of his own making.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
