Remember how Democrats pushed rapey commie Nazi Senate candidate Graham Platner off the ballot not because he was a rapey commie Nazi, but because polls showed him losing to RINO Susan Collins in November?
Well, the “we don’t need no stinking voters” nominating committee has picked his replacement. Tiny problem: he may not be eligible to run.
Maine Democrats gathered in Bangor on Saturday to select a replacement for Graham Platner, whose Senate campaign collapsed under allegations of sexual assault – which he denied – that surfaced after his June primary win. Former Senate President Troy Jackson formally won the nomination. He will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races, a race that Democrats have deemed critical if they hope to win the majority in the Senate.
However, one inconvenient detail threatens to complicate Jackson’s coronation: a Republican state lawmaker says Jackson may not be legally eligible to accept the nomination at all.
State Rep. James White (R-Guilford) sent a letter to Secretary of State Shenna Bellows asking her office to determine whether Jackson, or any candidate who lost a primary for a different federal, state or county office in June, qualifies as a replacement nominee under Maine law. White wanted the question settled before Bellows certifies whatever comes out of Saturday’s convention, but that didn’t happen, which could be a problem.
According to White, Jackson’s own ballot history might make him legally ineligible. Jackson ran for governor earlier this year, lost that Democratic primary in June, and became his party’s Senate nominee through a replacement process rather than a primary vote of his own.
Under Title 21-A, Section 331 of Maine election law, “a person may not file, whether by primary election or nomination petition, as a candidate for more than one federal, state or county office at any election.” He also points to Section 351, which imposes similar restrictions, and Section 363, which requires that a political committee filling a nomination vacancy “shall choose a qualified person to fill the vacancy.”
Whether Jackson still counts as a “qualified person” after losing a statewide primary is the crux of White’s argument. “The Department should resolve this question before accepting or certifying any replacement nomination,” he wrote.
White reaches back to 1974 for precedent, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Storer v. Brown, which described primary elections as “an integral part of the entire election process.” His argument is that treating June’s primary and November’s general election as two separate contests cuts against both the Court’s reasoning and the Legislature’s stated intent to keep candidates from seeking more than one office “at any election.” White’s letter frames this as standard sore loser logic. Laws of this type exist across the country to stop a candidate who loses one race from reaching the general election through a side door.
As the 2024 selection of Kamala Harris to replace tofu-brained-but-nominated Joe Biden at the top of the ticket showed, the shadowy cabal that actually runs the Democrat Party seem to feel they can dispense with primary nominees selected by actual voters when inconvenient. But Maine Democrats’ desire to correct their own screw-up by tossing the legally nominated Platner may have screwed themselves. “The filing deadline for replacement candidates is July 27, 2026, by 5:00 p.m.” So theoretically, after Monday it will be too late to pick someone else if Jackson is indeed ineligible. Of course, Democrats in the past have shown that actual election laws are no obstacles to their Will to Power, as when they substituted Frank Lautenberg for the disgraced Robert Torricelli in the 2002 senate race, even though it was way past the statutory deadline when Torricelli dropped out.
But if Democrats end up not being able to field a nominee after having tossed Platner off the ballot, there’s not a “Ha ha!” big enough to celebrate the schadenfreude with.
Tags: 2026 Election, Democrats, Elections, Graham Platner, James White (Maine), Maine, Shenna Bellows, Susan Collins, Troy Jackson, Zero Hedge
“[T]hey [NJ Democrats] substituted Frank Lautenberg for the disgraced Robert Torricelli in the 2002 senate race, even though it was way past the statutory deadline when Torricelli dropped out.”
Who can forget that shameful chapter in NJ politics, when Robert “The Torch” Torricelli was displaced by Frank “The Lout” Lautenberg?
[…] MAINE MESS: There’s Not A ‘Ha Ha’ Big Enough. […]
So precedence is OK to toss out the window because they can ignore State law and SC rulings because “We can”?
Funny way to run a Democracy.
In gratitude, NJ Dems named the new Secaucus rail station after Ol’ Frank.
Remember that Sheena Bellows (WBAGNFARB) removed President Trump from the ballot in ‘24. The law means nothing to her nor the parti.
He’s not legally eligible.
The nomination of a candidate, other than by a party, for any federal, state or county office must be made by petition, as provided in this subchapter.
1. Limited to one office. A person may not file, whether by primary election or nomination petition, as a candidate for more than one federal, state or county office at any election, except as provided in subsection 3.
2. Limited to one method. A person may file as a candidate for any federal, state or county office either by primary election or nomination petition, except as provided in subsection 3, but not by both methods.
3. Exception. A candidate for membership in a county charter commission must be nominated by petition, and may file as a candidate for one additional federal, state or county office at that same election. A candidate for presidential elector may also file as a candidate for one additional federal, state or county office at that same election.
What they’re doing here is a “nominating petition”, and he can’t do that because he ran in a primary
All the above is at legislature.maine.gov/statutes/21-a/title21-Asec351.html
But when I tried to include the URL it wouldn’t let me post
Can they re-establish the commie-nazi-rapist goon as their nominee? Can they slip him in under the wire, in hopes that they can drag him over the finish line, in spite of his, er, less than ideal résumé? I wouldn’t be surprised if they a) tried; and b) succeeded in winning the Senate seat with him.
I weep for this country.
I speculate that it will be easily enough ignored by simply arguing that the “obvious intent” of the law is to prevent a single person from holding more than one elected office. Since Jackson has already lost the primary for Governor, he is not in a position to be potentially elected to two offices simultaneously, and thus they will argue that there is no issue with him being selected by nomination petition. They will also argue that Graham Platner’s decision to drop out should not unjustly deprive Democratic voters in Maine of a candidate who represents their policy desires.
It’s all theatre. If they could replace Biden with Harris as a Presidential candidate without anyone objecting forcefully enough to stall the process, nobody’s going to gripe about a Senate seat in Maine.
Truly pitiful the depths to which the Maine Dem party has descended. The party that gave us giants (whether you agreed with them or not, they had the gravitas) as George Mitchell, Ed Muskie, and Bill Hathaway and still has 306,000 registered voters now comes up with these jerks?