By all appearances, it seems the saga of Graham Platner for Senate has fully concluded. The candidate has pulled out of the race, the Democrats are struggling to find a sane individual to replace him on the ticket, and the press is collectively pretending they had not backed a sociopath for the better part of the year.
Now a question emerges: that just as Platner was on his way out but looking to leverage something out of the party power base, was he chased away by the leadership in the DNC with another developing controversy?! The fact that he has become a pariah in the span of a week suggests it could be the case.
After a contentious campaign for much of a year, ending in a tumultuous fortnight in July, the scandal factory that was Der Oysterführer is no longer a going concern. The Democratic Party is now going through the process of vetting a raft of other unqualified headcases in Maine. Still, the question that lingers is, how did the problematic Platner so quietly and quickly fade from public notice?
Once the story of Jenny Racicot came out, the swift abandonment of Platner was stark to behold. Overnight, the Democrats and the press turned on the irascible candidate with more issues than an EV in a flood zone. That rapid abandonment after months of defensive posturing tells a story.
By all indicators, this was due to him finally sinking in the polls and was not a case of morality sweeping over his supporters. After all, these were people enthusiastically backing the man with no discernible record, a fraudulent biography, a disturbing web presence, and repeated tendencies toward Nazi policies. Sorry, selling us on the concept of party propriety is laughably inept.
The Platner Problem for Dems Isn't Just One Race - They've Killed Off Their Go-To GOP Attack Line
Once that dam of support burst, Platner began to lash out at the Dems. He made threats about not stepping down, and also if/when he did withdraw from the election he was demanding a say in who his replacement would be. (Sure, let the man with the dysfunctional record and anger management issues be part of your vetting team!) Graham—but the fact that he could refuse to walk away and remain on the ballot, was operating from a position of leverage, and declared the people of Maine were having their voices diminished.
And then…silence from Platner. He made his resignation from the campaign official, and there has been nothing more heard from the man. So where did the trust fund totalitarian go? All of the news items from the past week - including the debate with the prospects to take over the ballot - speak of Platner in the past tense. There could be an indicator of a local issue that led to him slinking off in quiet solitude.
Just as Graham was suspending his campaign, but making noise about making life tough for the party, another story was quietly leaked. Maine-based investigative reporter Steve Robinson has come across documents (passed to him?) showing that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, is being looked into by Maine investigators over potential Medicaid fraud.
The documents show this case was opened in November 2025, but this followed some previous protective measures. Earlier, that summer, the potential case was brought before the state Attorney General’s office, just before Platner’s announced candidacy, but that body indicated it was hesitant to take action. The AAG, Charlie Boyle, informed the investigators that should anything move forward he was reticent to pursue the matter.
Boyle then proceeds to tell the fraud investigators that he would grant subpoenas for them, but he’d never prosecute the case “as it was MaineCare only” and “there was no recoupment.” The record suggests that the Attorney General’s Office was seeking to downplay or keep quiet a welfare fraud scandal that might embarrass a top Democrat politician.
The detail that this investigation went live in November is interesting. This is when Platner’s Totenkopf tattoo was a huge news item and occurred just weeks after he covered that artwork with new ink, after declaring it was not controversial and that the touted military history was oblivious to the attachment of a Nazi death camp image. It could be speculated this was set up as a potential escape clause for the Democrats as his problems began to gain notice and there was a question about being able to sell him to voters.
The reason for the state welfare investigators to begin looking into this issue stemmed from campaign money, yet another problem for Platner that had been underreported. With his campaign underway it led to a possible conflict with his VA benefits, as he could possibly lose those payouts due to a salary exceeding his income threshold to qualify. So it was around then that Gertner became a paid employee in the campaign offices.
In the same fashion, however, once Gertner began collecting about $1,800 biweekly (the justification being she had been working at Platner’s oyster business and this was a compensatory income), that could have exceeded the MaineCare maximum income qualification standard. The cold irony is Platner had been dismissive of fraud cases seen in his state.
With shades of Tim Walz on display, Platner had been outspoken against the claims of fraud by select groups, including - yes, again - the Somali community. He campaigned alongside one figure, state representative Deqa Dhalac, who worked for a healthcare organization that is under investigation, as well as herself, for defrauding the government. And now he and his wife may be facing a similar accusation.
It is pure speculation that the DNC is behind the revelation of fraud involving Platner and MaineCare, but the timing, as well as the history of his campaign, suggests it is at least a possibility. It appears obvious the party was feeding him to the press to platform his campaign.
This is the man who garnered an extensive profile in the New York Times BEFORE he announced his campaign, when he was a complete political zero without a shred of experience. The New Yorker immediately gave him a 3,000+ word tongue bath feature, where it was established that he “devoured books on military history,”...while feigning ignorance of his death camp tattoo.
As things moved forward Platner was on the receiving end of DNC largesse. How else do you explain someone without an iota of political juice outgaining incumbent governor Janet Mills in donations to the extent she needed to bail out of her campaign due to lack of funds? Mills is so disregarded that she is not even among the names bandied about to replace Platner.
The Democrats tried to sell the voters on a guy as blank as a white board and sporting a history drawn up by committee. It is not hard to conceive that someone who was a breezy prefab candidate for the Democrats could be disassembled and sent to the curb just as easily.
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