United States | News & Politics

The Maine Democratic State Committee has voted for a 600-person nominating convention, not a statewide caucus, as the method to select a replacement nominee for Graham Platner. Five hundred of the delegates will come proportionally from Maine’s counties, and then include the 100 state committee members.

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This could easily torch whatever remaining goodwill exists between the party and supporters brought into Platner’s campaign, and brings back all of the unsavoriness associated with perceived backroom dealing. There is no real way to make a 600-person convention representative, and accusations of insiderism will proliferate. It also appears to conflict with the party’s stated goals for an inclusive process where supporters can participate, unless by “participate” they meant “watch online.”

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The decision damages hopes for reconciliation and potentially affects Platner’s decision to withdraw from the race.

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Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson said on Wednesday that the party is developing “a representative, transparent and inclusive process to select a new nominee,” and added that Platner supporters “are a vital part of our Party and deserve to participate in an open process to select [his] replacement.” That statement was buried in between a good deal of invective over the past two days about Platner trying to “manipulate this process” and vowing that he will “have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process will look like.”

Spencer Toth, organizing director of the party, resigned on Wednesday over the latter remark, saying that “the future of this race and this Party should not be decided without the people who made [Platner’s] movement possible.”