It’s Time for Graham Platner to Release His Records

When I talk to people about Graham Platner’s campaign, many wonder if there are other controversies to emerge and what Susan Collins and her allies might put out to go after the senator’s opponent.

Among close politics watchers on the left, the fear is an October surprise, a late leak that Graham Platner would find hard to counter or recover from. And they often bring up two types of documents: Platner’s service records and his military disability records.

Nothing of this sort has been released other than this:

Screenshot from Graham Platner’s military release form (DD214) from the Marines. Later he enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard. In total, Platner served four tours overseas.

That basic document has absolutely nothing negative in it. And when it comes to other records, there very well may be no there there for opponents to legitimately attack.

So why should Platner release his service and disability records?

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They’ve shown no interest in political restraint and pull out all the stops, legal and otherwise, to go after anyone who tries to challenge or stop President Trump.

The White House is trying to make it harder to vote because Trump really, really doesn’t want Republicans to lose the midterms.

And in this race, the stakes are very high.

While Democrats have a strong possibility of winning the House, flipping the Senate almost certainly depends on defeating Collins. If Republicans control the Senate, they can confirm Trump’s nominees, even potentially Supreme Court nominees.

Meanwhile, Graham Platner never ran for office before and was only lightly vetted before he declared.

Platner can release all his military and service disability records or get them released.

This would defang a late-season ambush.

Rather than having his campaign deal with the pressure to do so or have to react after they come out, they should put them all out now and be prepared to respond.

It’s smarter strategically.

Voters deserve to see these before the deadline in Maine law for replacing a nominee, which is fast approaching and would require the candidate to step aside. Thus doing so would show a commitment to transparency, which is a value Platner espouses.

My bet is that the Platner campaign is really annoyed that anyone would talk about this sort of thing when they want to talk about their big message about who has power and how we can pass big policies and make fundamental change. Platner’s also right that we all should be concerned with the largely open self-dealing of Susan Collins.

But releasing service and medical records now prevents potential future issues.

Do it, Graham. The sooner the better.