By
Ed Kilgore,
political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015
Graham Platner’s implosion as a U.S. Senate candidate is dragging on as the clock ticks down to the Monday deadline to replace him on the November ballot. There’s no way he can continue as the Democratic candidate against Susan Collins. Now that he has been credibly accused of criminal sexual assault, he’s been quickly abandoned by all of the national party figures (most crucially by Bernie Sanders) who helped him become the Democratic nominee.
Even as the foundation of his candidacy crumbles, Platner has some control over how he exits the race, as he cannot be forced off the ballot. There are reports that he may be trying to leverage this power to dictate the identity, or at least the ideology, of his successor. Or so says the executive director of the Maine Democratic Party:
