By Ray Cardello for May 1, 2026, Season 35 / Post 13

The news was welcome this morning as Governor Janet Mills has withdrawn from her quest to replace Susan Collins in the U.S. Senate. I say it is welcome news as we can finally have a goodbye party to send Mills off to retirement and out of our pockets. In her stay in the Governor’s Mansion in Augusta, Mills has found every possible aspect of Mainer’s lives to tax, and she has given businesses many reasons to leave and none to take their place. She and her brother have overseen and profited from the invasion of Chinese Cartel-owned pot farms that are harming many of the cities and towns in Central Maine. Thanks to Janet and her love of POT, we have more retail marijuana dispensaries in Maine than Dunkin’ Donuts. If you take the short ride on Route 4 from Turner to Jay, a distance of 17 miles, you will pass 12 retail pot shops. It really makes you feel safe driving on what is already Maine’s most dangerous highway. She has put out the welcome mat for any minority group willing to come to Maine and incentivized them with many handouts and access to funds by defrauding government programs. She has picked a fight with President Trump over men in women’s sports and illegal aliens on our voter rolls. And she has made Maine a sanctuary state for adolescent abortions and gender reassignment. She is leaving a legacy that will take years to erase, yet she wonders why she cannot raise enough money to stay in the Senate race. No money equates to no one wants you representing us any longer.

The flip side of Mills not running is a free ride for U.S. Marine-turned-communist Graham Platner. The only thing consistent with Platner is the Nazi tattoo on his chest. He has flip-flopped his views 180 degrees in his adult years and offered this feeble explanation this week. Platner claims that when in the Marines, he was exposed to a macho male environment, and this gave him a very conservative outlook. When he got out of the service, he was exposed to a wider range of people, and this is where he adopted his far more radical Left-wing thinking. Maybe he should have surrounded himself with more freedom-thinking friends. What this indicates to me is someone who is easily influenced by his aquaintences and surroundings and has no commitment to his own thinking. This does not sound like someone of strong enough character for the Senate, plus the last thing we need is for the second coming of Bernie Sanders coming from and representing Maine. We have lost the major cities of Portland, Augusta, the York/Kittery area, and much of the beautiful coastline, but the remainder of Maine remains old-school traditionalist and true patriots. They want to enjoy the beauty of Maine with the least amount of government input as possible. This is not the vision of Maine that Graham Platner enjoys.