Let’s get real about the real failure in Maine and it’s not us voters

Despite the fact Paul LePage is going to almost certainly be elected to CONGRESS, the national and Maine media is obsessed with Maine’s 2026 election because of our Senate seat. Everyone has a take and it’s mostly that Mainer’s don’t have a conscience, or are racist, sexist and antisemitic, or easily duped by political strategists, or don’t understand the importance of our senate seat. On a state level our politicians and policies are more progressive than New York or wherever the other political commentators reside, but they wouldn’t know that and none of their outlets really care about Maine politics so refuting their takes is pointless.

I studied Political Science at Tufts University. I have two master’s degrees and decades of policy and government experience here and abroad. I’ve volunteered in my community since I was a teenager. Hey, I even worked for Senator Susan Collins and her campaign when I was in college. I’ve also more recently worked for the Maine Senate Democrats and am a registered lobbyist in Maine. I’m angry and outspoken. Some say I’m a good public speaker and I have been in public service most of my career and even owned a small business. I’ve even used to drink too much and like to swear. I have a small harmless tattoo. I don’t have any lurking weird secrets. Strangely no one has ever asked me to run for office.

What I do have is an ex-husband and two teenagers and that is enough to make me more vulnerable than Platner. Women, especially mothers, are judged for the way men treat them and for the men they choose in a way the actual men are never judged. There’s a reason no one recruited Amy Gertner to run. I’ve accepted I’m unlikeable and unloveable to most men because I’m smart and like Platner don’t want to play by the established rules, but in a forty-something-year old woman, that’s a liability, not an asset. Like most women I would need some sense of domestic safety and security before I could enter the coliseum that is party politics right now. And this is where our future lays if we want electoral and policy success in the Democratic party.