Maine votes as scandal-ridden Graham Platner seeks Senate primary win

Voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday for primary elections that include a crucial Senate race involving the scandal-haunted Graham Platner.

In Maine, Platner is favored to win the Democratic primary after his main opponent, former governor Janet Mills suspended her campaign. Incumbent senator Susan Collins remains safely at the top of the Republican ticket – just slightly behind newcomer Platner’s lead in polling.

But the oysterman and marine veteran’s string of controversies, ranging from alleged “toxic” behaviour towards women to a tattoo recognised as a Nazi symbol, have plunged Democrats into debates about double standards, purity tests and not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

There was a final twist on Monday when Genevieve McDonald, a former political director of Platner’s campaign, published a column denouncing Platner as unfit for office.

“Graham Platner is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country,” McDonald wrote in the Washington Post. “He exhibits a pattern of dishonest behavior that is impossible to ignore.

“Despite being exposed by a series of scandals beginning last October, he kept assuring voters and the Democratic Party that there were no more skeletons in his closet. Then more emerged – the latest, in recent days, have involved former girlfriends’ serious accusations of physical mistreatment.”

Even so, all the signs on the ground are that most Democratic voters are sticking with Platner, and he has some vocal supporters.

At a campaign event on Sunday, a supporter presented him with a hand-drawn card that included the message “we’ve got your back”.

At the Cross Insurance Center building in Bangor, Maine, on Tuesday women represented both sides of the argument for Platner.

“I like him,” said Jesenia Soler, 39, who describes herself as a transformational self-love practitioner. “He’s very for the people. That he wants to make it more for people instead of corporations is the biggest thing for me.”

She added: “For me it’s like everyone has shit that they’ve done. It’s human. No one’s perfect. The Nazi tattoo: I know he was a marine and you don’t know everything you tattoo on yourself at the time and then you find out and like, ‘Oh, shit!’ and then there’s regret.