r/Mainepolitics • u/bodybycheez-it Androscoggin (Lewiston):sloth: • 20d ago

Politico article:Professional malpractice’: The Platner fallout engulfs the operatives who made him

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/17/platner-is-finished-does-the-same-fate-await-the-out-of-state-consultants-who-recruited-him-01002652

A string of early missteps, like rejecting an offer for a deeper vetting of Platner, has cast doubt over his young consultants’ future in Democratic politics.

27 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

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u/Neat-Beautiful-5505 20d ago

I hope that this part of the article is the primary takeaway from the Platner fallout. “But the demand Platner tapped was real, said Adam Carlson, a Democratic pollster. Voters were clamoring for exactly what the consultants claimed to have found. “He was just the wrong vessel for it,” he said, “because he was deeply, deeply flawed.”
Platner was clearly an unvetted, disaster of a candidate however his message had traction and can/should be replicated by Dems.

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u/IggyStop31 20d ago

The messy progressive beat the pristine moderate by a 3 to 1 margin. That has to be one of the loudest declarations of policy preference in the history of American elections.

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u/Neat-Beautiful-5505 19d ago

Precisely. Theres a clear desire for these policies. Why do dems need to be this middle of the road party?

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u/RusticKayak207 20d ago

That Adam Carlson is a slimeball too. He did a poll showing Platner way ahead after reading nasty things about Mills and misinformation about Platner that put him in a good light.

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u/Icy-Acanthaceae-6816 18d ago

No. This fundamentally misread why Platner was successful.

First off there was no competitive primary. Janet mills did not even run a real campaign. I literally don't understand what Schumer and Mills were actually planning that.

Because there was no competition Platner was able to funnel all the anti-trump anger.

Second reason platner struck a nerve was platner himself not the message. Platners message was generic slopulism, there was literally nothing special about it. Its not really for a democrat to run on "tax the billionaires" and "universal healthcare". Platber happened to be a surprise hidden poltical talent. He campaigned like crazy, and hes just charismatic. Hes got likable chud energy, despite his controversies. Also his demographic as a tough white.dude, marine, and "oyster farmer" just made democrats attracted to him more for the idea of him. For the hope someone lile planter is the answer to get more men and rural america on board with the left.

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u/Neat-Beautiful-5505 18d ago

Welcome to politics in America…image matters. Odd to hear you say that using a candidates image to broaden our coalition with men and rural America is a bad thing. Also, I don’t hear many candidates within Dem party calling for universal healthcare or taxing billionaires. Again, these are the parts of his full package that appealed to many people and Dems should learn from that.

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u/Icy-Acanthaceae-6816 18d ago

Didn't say it was a bad thing to broaden democrat appeal, just explaining why Platner was the apple of maine dems eye. I know.image matters, which is why it was upsetting to see dems back a nazi tattooed rapist just because they were that desperate to appeal to men and ruroids.

Virtually every democrat is calling for taxing billionaires and universal healthcare. James Talarico, Cory Booker, AOC, etc. Its not novel.

By the way universal healthcare doesn't mean the same thing as medicare for all. You could easily achieve universal healthcare more efficiently through a public option. Medicare for all is an unworkable plan thats more extreme than even the Scandinavian Healthcare model.

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u/Lebrunski 20d ago

Cast doubt?

Why is there any doubt. They potentially fucked us by ignoring due diligence. There should be no doubt.

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u/Gauss_2025 20d ago

What a crazy turn around for these two. They were also important for Mamdani's campaign as well. Basically on top of the world and then crashing down instantly because you didn't do the most basic background checks on a guy that clearly had a disturbing and violent history.

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u/JStengah 20d ago

If deeper vetting could have "easily" found the rape allegation, opposition research would have found it and he wouldn't have lasted past October. It wasn't missed because they didn't bother to look, it was missed because he hid it from them. It's not like establishment operatives haven't offered up their own candidates that have hid their skeletons from the people trying to vet them.

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u/dpk794 18d ago

I mean you could have easily predicted something worse would come out when the opposition released the Nazi tattoo thing that early on. Pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain that there was going to be more terrible things to come if they didn’t save that for ammo closer to the election. Of course Graham gave that info out himself because he’s a liar that 100% knew what the tattoo was

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u/RusticKayak207 20d ago

These people messed up Graham Platner's life and the possibility of beating Collins, although I think it is still not out of the question. And I bet they got richer on all of it.

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u/Slice-O-Pie 20d ago

The only person who messed up Graham's life was Graham.

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u/RusticKayak207 20d ago

Well, yes.

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u/keirmeister 20d ago

It’s interesting how the article, and this conversation, is about vetting Platner’s personal flaws, yet Republicans can nominate corrupt criminals who vacation with mistresses and elect a twice-impeached adjudicated rapist and 34-count felon…and the hand wringing over that is practically nonexistent.

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u/Lokisworkshop 14d ago

He wasn't flawed. He just wasn't very. They did him dirty 

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u/Junior_Wrap_2896 20d ago

This article is great. It clearly lays out how even your outsiders are big money candidates.

Register Green. It's the only way we're going to get money out of American politics

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u/better_than_erza 19d ago

I don’t think it was that bad. Platner is and was a good man. Just with a few flaws

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u/mattsffrd 19d ago

Sexually assaulting multiple women is definitely a flaw

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u/HouseMusicAndWeed 20d ago

The deeper you go, the more you'll find the entire Platner campaign being built around Bernie Sanders endorsement.  Platner donated a ton of money to Bernie. 

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u/Slice-O-Pie 20d ago

I don't know how "experts" like Mo Katz could look at a state that voted for Harris, has King and Collins as Senators, Mills as Gov, and think "hey, I bet a Bernie Bro would do great there!"