Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
I’m hugely encouraged by data from the latest Pine Tree State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire. U.S. Marine Corps veteran Graham Platner is rocking Maine’s political establishment by telling it like it is: Americans are losing our unalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness to unending, insatiable greed and corruption. Mainers understand this and it’s why they support him.
Platner’s 34-point edge over Gov. Janet Mills in this same poll back in October has only increased over the past four months, despite what I consider smear campaigns attempting to tear him down.
As a longtime registered Democrat, I implore Mills to read the room. She has done great work for the people of Maine during her lengthy career in public service as a state representative, attorney general, and governor, and we are grateful. However, I believe Democratic leadership in Washington, including Chuck Schumer, is failing to protect us and our democracy from an unprecedented assault. Moneyed elites and massive corporations are wresting control from the people and ceding it to the billionaire class.
We’ve reached an inflection point. I think Sen. Susan Collins must be defeated, and Mills claims she is “the only one” who can. I believe this is proven objectively false by UNH’s poll results showing Platner beating Collins outright by double while Mills is mired in tossup territory.
I think it’s time for Mills to offer a final meaningful act of public service to Mainers; retire and let Platner help chart a new direction for the United States.
Peter Cookson
Glenburn
