Politics
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Gov. Janet Mills’ U.S. Senate campaign has no advertising booked in her Democratic U.S. Senate primary after Wednesday in a notable dropoff following her blitz against frontrunner Graham Planter.
Mills’ reservations totaled more than $1 million between March 1 and Wednesday, and last month she unleashed a blitz of ads seeking to reignite criticism of Democratic primary frontrunner Graham Platner. Those ads haven’t curbed the Sullivan oyster farmer and military veteran’s lead in polls.
The governor’s campaign has $445 in ads — essentially nothing — booked for Wednesday and nothing after that, standing in stark contrast to $229,000 for Platner this week. The spending gap highlights an increasingly uphill battle for Mills for the right to face five-term Republican Susan Collins in one of the most pivotal U.S. Senate races in the country this year.
The Mills campaign, which declined to discuss its spending strategy, has emphasized in recent days that it’s not going anywhere. On Wednesday morning the campaign released first quarter fundraising figures, arguing her $2.6 million haul helps place her in a strong position for the Democratic nomination.
Her team also noted a policy platform released Tuesday and that she was the first to commit to five Democratic debates and forums back in February, though she is skipping two separate events while citing scheduling conflicts.
“Janet Mills knows how to win tough battles and deliver results — and that’s why she’s the best candidate to beat Susan Collins in November and is running full steam ahead to defeat her,” campaign spokesperson Tommy Garcia said.
Mills supporters have painted Platner as untested and unvetted, especially when potentially squaring up against Collins and a well-funded Republican machine in the general election.
In a series of ads beginning last month, Mills put the spotlight on Platner’s 2013 Reddit posts condemned as blaming sexual assault victims, and she has also criticized his tattoo of a Nazi-linked symbol that he covered after it was first reported in the fall.
Platner, who booked more than $2.9 million in ads between March and this week, heavily outspent Mills in recent weeks with his own countering spots featuring supporters and casting him as a changed man and outsider poised to defeat Collins.
On Tuesday, a survey paid for by an offshoot of the progressive Maine People’s Alliance, which has endorsed Platner, showed him leading Mills by 33 percentage points among likely Democratic primary voters. Nearly 2% backed David Costello, a former government official in Maine and Maryland who ran against U.S. Sen. Angus King in 2024.
