BILL SCHER: Janet Mills Should Unsuspend Her U.S. Senate Campaign.
Polls aren’t votes. And on June 9, the day of Maine’s primary, Democratic voters deserve to have a say before rolling the dice on a candidate who has been a controversy magnet. It may be that Maine Democrats still want Platner as their nominee, but that should be a choice they make, not a fait accompli foisted upon them.
As Mills is still on the ballot, she can—and should—unsuspend her campaign and give Mainers a real choice.
That’s silly, you might understandably say. Platner’s checkered social media history and covered-up Nazi-themed tattoo have already attracted tons of media coverage. Yet he remains ahead of Susan Collins, the Republican incumbent U.S. senator, in general election polling. The obvious conclusion: Maine voters don’t care. Platner weathered the political storm and is in a strong position to deny Collins a sixth term. Why inject fresh intra-party division now?
That is a reasonable argument, and Maine Democrats should avoid any move that risks a permanent schism. Two weeks from now, Platner likely will be the official nominee, and the party will need to unify around him to maximize its chances of capturing not only Collins’s seat but control of the U.S. Senate.
That’s an awful lot of words to tell Democrats to vote for the Nazi in November.

