Several union leaders have reached out to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to urge him to withdraw his support for Maine Gov. Janet Mills' run for the Maine Senate seat against meek Trump supporter Sen. Susan Collins. The unions -- including the United Auto Workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Machinist Union -- say that Graham Platner, who's ahead of Mills in the polls, is more pro-union than Mills, and more electable. From NBC News:
"Union leaders in recent days have urged Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to end their support for Gov. Janet Mills in Maine’s Senate primary, pointing to what they see as her weaker record with labor.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain had a conversation with Schumer this month to discuss the race, among other topics, two people familiar with the call told NBC News. The UAW is supporting Mills’ opponent, Democrat Graham Platner, while Schumer and the DSCC are supporting Mills. [snip]
The Maine race is perhaps Democrats’ best opportunity to flip a Republican-held Senate seat this fall, and it’s a must-win for them to have any chance of taking over the chamber. While the national Democratic establishment has thrown its support behind Mills, labor’s push highlights some of the base’s discontent with that decision — and the resiliency of Platner, who has weathered controversies.
Platner announced his candidacy in August, and Mills jumped in two months later, sparking a primary that embodies Democrats’ generational and ideological divides." [snip]
A University of New Hampshire poll conducted in mid-February found Platner with a 38-point lead over Mills among likely Democratic primary voters, well beyond the survey’s margin of error. The Mills campaign disputed the survey in a memo, pointing to other recent misses the survey had in Maine and arguing that the sample, which skewed much younger than past Maine electorates, did not accurately reflect the state." (our emphasis)
Platner also has the endorsements of progressive stalwarts Sens. Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Sheldon Whitehouse. Platner has weathered a controversy over a tattoo that he had removed that contained a symbol associated with Nazis, which he's said he had no idea about. Interestingly much of his extended family is Jewish. Platner, 41, is a veteran of the Marine Corps and is an oysterman and harbor master by profession. He would seem to be the ideal Dem candidate: Iraq war veteran, union-backed progressive, small business owner, and a generational symbol contrasting with the plodding, ossified Dem leadership exemplified by Chuck Schumer et al. It's no surprise that fumbling Schumer's support for Mills runs counter to that, and to the polls.
(photo: Graham for Senate campaign)
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