There IS gonna be a run off in a nominating convention…..
Democracy at work….
Said an adviser on another campaign: “No one planned for this. Even anyone that thought, ‘okay, Graham might be in trouble’ … the idea that anyone actually put a ton of planning into this scenario seems unlikely.”
By July 27, 600 delegates must be selected and then decide on a candidate to replace Platner via an unprecedented nominating convention. Five hundred of them will be chosen by the state’s 16 county parties later this month at individual county meetings, with the number of delegates allocated to each county based on population. Delegates will be officially unpledged to any candidate at the convention, leading to what could be a raucous and unpredictable free-for-all.
The process for choosing delegates has not been formally announced, although a meeting announcement obtained by POLITICO for the Oxford County Democrats said it was planning a county caucus on July 19 with all Democrats invited.
It’s all taking place in the most important state for Senate Democrats this cycle. The party’s road to a Senate majority runs directly through Maine, where Collins is the only Republican running for reelection in a state carried by former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
“It’s gonna be crazy,” said Adam Cote, a longtime Maine Democrat who lost to Mills in the 2018 primary for governor, before referencing an ugly contested convention that haunts Democrats more than a half-century later: “Geez, I hope it doesn’t turn into the ’68 convention in Chicago.”
The candidates previously all faced off in ranked-choice voting primaries, an election system that limited some of the negative campaigning and deep factional divides that have played out in other primary contests across the country this year as candidates sought to at least place second with voters. In the gubernatorial primary, Jackson and Bellows had a loose alliance with eventual winner Hannah Pingree, and were backed by Platner as his first and second picks — though they both finished behind Shah.
All the newly minted Senate candidates shunned Platner as his campaign imploded, and Democrats both nationally and in Maine turned their backs on him. But now they have to thread the needle of keeping their disgraced former ticket-topper at arms-length while winning over the supporters who rocketed the progressive oysterman to a resounding primary win — in spite of a series of scandals…..
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