Portland, Maine — The US Senate campaign is full of hope Governor Janet Mills She issued an ad on Tuesday criticizing online comments made by her rival, Graham Blattner, intensifying their Democratic primary battle in Maine.
Mills and Plattner compete for… Democratic nomination She will face Republican Senator Susan Collins, whose seat is key to Democrats’ plans to regain the Senate.
Mills’ campaign released a video in which women read some of Blattner’s old social media posts in which she denounced sexual assault. Blatner once wrote on Reddit that people shouldn’t get so drunk “they end up having sex with someone they didn’t mean to have,” says one of the ad’s narrators.
The women concluded that he was a “bully” and that it was “impossible” for them to vote for him. The video ends with a voiceover saying: “Graham Plattner: The closer you look, the worse it gets.”
Plattner, an oyster farmer and U.S. Marine veteran from rural Maine, apologized Deleted comments Months ago when it first resurfaced, he said he posted it while he was struggling with mental health issues after leaving the military. the I showed him the comments Supporting political violence, rejecting rape in the military, and criticizing police officers and rural America.
Ben Chen, Blatner’s campaign manager, called Mills’ ad a “desperate attempt at relevance.”
“This is why people hate politics and why not enough real people are running for office: D.C. workers who are so obsessed with their power and so threatened by someone who is building an actual workers’ movement that they are launching a barrage of attacks to try to destroy Graham,” Chen said in a statement.
Mills’ campaign said in a statement that Blatner’s comments show he “downplays sexual assault and blames survivors.” The campaign also sent out a statement including comments from several Maine women criticizing Blatner.
“Graham Blattner’s comments are not only disgusting or disturbing, they disqualify the candidate,” Peggy Schaeffer of Vassalboro, a former vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party, said in a statement distributed by Mills’ campaign. “These comments make him unelectable in any general election.”
The race pits Mills, 78, a powerful Democrat who has the support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, against a much younger and less experienced opponent who has packed city halls across the state with a populist message focused on the cost of housing and health care. Blattner, 41, took Approvals From Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego.
Plattner also faced questions about his skull and crossbones tattoo Reminiscent of the Nazi symbol. He said he got the tattoo during a night of drinking and did not know until recently that it was linked to the Nazis. He covered the tattoo with a different design.
Mills criticized Blattner earlier this month when she posted on social media, saying, “For what it’s worth, I don’t have any tattoos.”
Blatner released an ad of his own on Tuesday that included an endorsement from a Maine woman named Susan Collins who is no relation to the Republican senator. She describes the senator as a “D.C. insider” and says Blatner is a “Democrat with a backbone.”
The Collins campaign declined to comment on the dueling ads or the controversy between her potential opponents. Collins, 73, was elected in 1996 and overcame numerous challenges from Democratic opponents over the years.
Democrats need this Net four seats To regain the Senate majority, they see a path to doing so in Maine, North Carolina, Alaska, and Ohio.
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Associated Press reporter Kimberly Crosi in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed.