teasing their interest<\/a>.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s what we know about the Maine Senate race and what could be next:<\/p>\n
The clock is ticking<\/p>\n
According to Maine law, there\u2019s a narrow provision for replacing general election candidates. Platner would need to ,step aside voluntarily by 5 p.m. July 13 before any other contender can be considered. So far, Platner has only committed to pausing his campaign.<\/p>\n
Should he quit the race, the law then says the Maine Democratic Party has the authority to choose a replacement, which must be done by July 27.<\/p>\n
However, what that process would actually look like remains unknown. It could come down to a vote by the state committee, a caucus, or even some sort of state political convention.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s incredibly rare for a general election candidate to bow out of a race, in Maine or elsewhere, meaning party officials are scrambling to complete a plan if and when Platner announces he\u2019ll withdraw.<\/p>\n
The Maine Democratic Party said Tuesday it will make the process public as soon as Platner officially withdraws.<\/p>\n
Platner campaign denies trying to influence the process<\/p>\n
A key question surrounding whether and how Platner is replaced has come down to just how much leverage the oyster farmer and Marine veteran has in this situation.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Maine Democratic Party\u2019s executive director, Devon Murphy-Anderson, released a statement accusing Platner\u2019s campaign of repeatedly trying to \u201cput their thumb on the scale\u201d in determining the next Democratic nominee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner\u2019s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Platner\u2019s team responded with a statement saying \u201cat no point has the campaign tried to \u2018put its finger on the scale\u2019\u201d but instead is trying to understand the process. Thousands of Maine residents voted and volunteered for Platner, a progressive who outlasted establishment-backed Gov. Janet Mills, which the campaign believes should count in the decision.<\/p>\n
List of possible replacements continues to grow<\/p>\n
One possible contender, Nirav Shah, former director of Maine\u2019s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has said he was \u201cevaluating\u201d whether to join the race. Shah said he\u2019s been in contact with the Maine Democratic Party about ensuring a possible replacement process is based on \u201copenness, transparency and robustness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another possible replacement is Troy Jackson, Maine\u2019s former state Senate president, who unsuccessfully ran to be the Democratic nominee for governor earlier this year with the backing of Platner and Our Revolution, the political organization started by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Jackson filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday to launch a Senate exploratory committee.<\/p>\n
Jordan Wood, a former U.S. Senate candidate who then switched to run for Maine\u2019s 2nd District and lost, posted Tuesday that he was \u201ccontinuing conversations\u201d with voters about joining the race.<\/p>\n
Other names circulating include Shenna Bellows, the current Maine secretary of state; Dan Kleban, founder of Maine Beer Co.; and Hannah Pingree, now Maine\u2019s Democratic nominee for governor.<\/p>\n
Voters say they are disillusioned<\/p>\n
Platner\u2019s campaigned galvanized hundreds of volunteers around the state. This week, they\u2019ve been expressing disappointment about the behavior Platner is accused of and pondering the right course of action.<\/p>\n
Many have called for him to drop out.<\/p>\n
Paul Attardo, 64, of Scarborough, said he can\u2019t continue supporting Platner after the allegation, though he still has a sign promoting the candidate at the end of his driveway. He called the accusation \u201cdisappointing\u201d as well as \u201cindisputably sincere,\u201d and said the party needs to get to work finding a replacement.<\/p>\n
The scenario reminded Attardo of the hasty replacement of Joe Biden during the 2024 election campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rally behind somebody, and not unlike the Biden administration, when everybody rallied behind Joe Biden, at the eleventh hour that failed,\u201d he said. \u201cI sort of feel we\u2019re in a similar boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kruesi reported from Providence, R.I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and PATRICK WHITTLE SCARBOROUGH, Maine (AP) \u2014 Democrat Graham Platner has so far been mum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[126425,157365,157364,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-390912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-graham-platner","tag-is-platner-dropping-out","tag-maine-senate-race","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}