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Janet Mills Is Attacking Graham Platner. Will It Work?

Plus are there too many lawyers in Congress and what's next for the SAVE Act

Dan Pfeiffer

Mar 28

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Welcome to this week’s mailbag.

A quick reminder: these mailbags run every Saturday as a special feature for paid subscribers. Subscribe to get full access and drop your questions for future mailbags.

One note: No mailbag next Saturday, but if you have questions, I’ll try to get to them later in the week.

Bethany Reynolds

How effective is negative campaigning in party primaries?
The Maine Senate campaign took a hard turn this week, as Gov. Janet Mills released a couple of negative ads on her primary opponent, Graham Platner. I’m watching this play out in my social media feed, which is about 50% Maine Democrats. Most of them had already staked out a side, but there’s a lot of speculation about whether this is appropriate or effective, or if it will backfire. While I think a candidate’s past comments are fair game in a primary, it seems risky for a primary candidate to go negative, rather than perhaps leaving that to allied PAC’s. What does polling suggest about such tactics?

Answer

The Maine Senate primary has gotten nasty quickly. Even though the election isn’t until June, Janet Mills’ campaign launched a barrage of negative attack ads against Graham Platner.

Even for a high-profile race like this one, the timing and tone of these ads is notable. An Emerson poll shows Platner with a massive 27-point lead in the primary. Whether that poll is accurate or not, everyone seems to agree that Platner is ahead, and a slew of negative ads this early suggests the margin isn’t razor-thin.

It’s clear that Platner has the momentum, and Janet Mills is trying to stop it.

Will it work?...