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Collins v. Platner: hold your nose and vote for him? by Marjorie Arons-Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Unless some new major scandal leads the Democratic establishment to replace Graham Platner on the ballot in the next 30 days, the choice for U. S. Senate from Maine is between Democrat Graham Platner,44, and Republican Susan Collins, 77. Yet again, voters in November will be presented with two bad choices, but for quite different reasons.

Collins has served since her first election in 1996. A Republican in a state that has supported the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1992, she has always been a formidable candidate, regularly underestimated. Constituent service has been her strong suit. She “shows up” locally. Her Senate Appropriations Committee chairmanship has translated into even more money for Maine’s firehouses, roads, housing and other projects.  Traditionally, when voters are faced with two bad choices, the advantage goes to the incumbent. This year, given public hunger for change, the outcome could be different.

Collins touts her independence, but she never deviates from her party when her vote would change the outcome. The one exception seems to be her opposition to repealing the Affordable Care Act, a nod to Maine’s greatly under-served rural voters. (Her concern about health did not extend to rejecting RFK Jr for Human Services Secretary.)

Her siding with the Democrats in rejecting the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense and in approving liberal Justice Ketanji Jackson were inconsequential to the outcome. But, if she had not voted with her party on Brett Kavanaugh, he would not be an Associate Justice on the nation’s highest court. Now Collins – and the rest of us – must live with the results of his embrace of the Dobbs decision, eviscerating Roe v. Wade and the right to choose an abortion. She also voted for Neil Gorsuch. She voted with Trump 95 percent during his second term. (Note: this is not your grandfather’s Senate. According to Congressional Quarterly, since the 1980’s both Republican and Democratic Senators have shown that high level of unity when in the majority.)

What is most exasperating about Collins is that, in the name of being “deliberative,” she’ll kabuki-dance and wait till the last minute on crucial votes – and then she’ll cave. Equally performative was when she was photographed holding a Maga hat in the Oval Office at the signing of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill. Holding the hat rather than wearing it doesn’t forgive her having sided with Trump nearly all the time during his current term.

Much hangs in the balance. It’s not insignificant that a vote for or against Collins could decide who controls the Senate itself. Donald Trump is, in effect, on the ballot. In 2024, people scoffed when presidential candidate Kamala Harris warned that the future of democracy was at stake. Today’s reality has provided concrete evidence of the risk.

Platner comes with his own baggage. Oyster farmer and marine veteran, he presents himself as a rough-hewn progressive populist with serious appeal to working class Mainers. At first glance, he was the fresh face “from here” authentic challenger Dems dreamed of. But in recent months Maine voters have been exposed to a cascade of  well-publicized issues of his highly questionable personal character, the Nazi tattoo,  his misogynistic social media posts, his  sexually explicit texts, and women coming forth with charges of his toxic behavior. He’s also had to disavow a history of  earlier outrageous Reddit posts. On Tuesday night, he won only 72 percent of the Democratic primary vote, with no organized opposition.

To be sure, people with disreputable pasts can change and go on to creditable careers. Remember that long-serving West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd organized the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and illustrious Supreme Court Justice Hugo Block was, in his youth, a Klan member. Young Texan Lyndon Johnson accommodated segregationists at home but, as Senator and President, went on to create some of our most enlightened national policies.

“Believe the women” is an important first step.   But doing so should not preclude sifting truthful charges from those embellished or weaponized for wrongful motives. We should remember  the Me Too movement’s over-the-top criticism of Minnesota Senator (and former SNL comedian) Al Franken’s comedic staged  photo and too touchy feely behavior. His behavior was wrong but should not have driven him from office.

In Tuesday’s victory speech, Platner  said he believes in redemption and is trying every day to be a better person. His wife stands by him.  I too believe in redemption for some people, but achieving it will involve his being more forthright in his answers, not defaulting to blaming the media, and not having even more damaging –once disqualifying– skeletons in his closet.

There are reasons to take a deep breath and support Platner, but at least we must be honest about our lowering of the bar. Trump’s “shoot someone on Fifth Avenue” electoral success has so diminished the threshold for candidate qualifications that perhaps now almost anything goes. Indeed, there’s now a so-called “dude-bro culture” nationally that could redound to Platner’s benefit with male voters, including some Republicans, in November.

In the general election, the outcome may hinge more on older independent female voters, who didn’t vote in the primary.While I live in Massachusetts, I’m tied to Maine by fond memories of summers as a child and yearly trips as an adult and know some of these cross-pressured independent women.  To them I say the policy calculus ultimately dominates the personal conduct assessment, particularly when physical abuse allegations are denied and a lead accuser has documented connections to the Heritage Foundation and other GOP-related groups that at least raise the question of motivation.

Some of Platner’s policy positions may be naïve or simplistic, but the most important question is what he as senator will be able to do compared to what Collins has already done. A vote for either is a choice of which party controls the chamber, which bills get voted on, and which nominees get confirmed.

Platner is still not fully formed politically. He has never served in a legislative body.  He may have less-sophisticated policy instincts than does Collins, but would they not produce better outcomes for Maine voters than hers on health care, reproductive rights and economic security?

Pine Tree State voters in November will have to choose between Platner’s unknowns,  flawed personal morality and simplistic slogan-based policies versus Collins’s 95 percent support of Donald Trump – and the President’s wanton corruption, illegal actions and authoritarian instincts. Between a relatively young man who, out of patriotism, did four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and was severely harmed by PTSD, and a woman who supported the war in Iraq and refused to support a war powers resolution limiting military action against Iran. Between a man who, having rejected PAC money, gets his funds mostly from small donors online, and a woman who gets about one-third of her money from billionaires and large donations from health care, finance and defense industries, Wall Street private equity/hedge funds, AIPAC  and other political action committees, including her own Pine Tree Results  PAC, and other dark money sources

Brace yourself for a growing onslaught of negative ads especially designed to turn off women, especially independent women, from voting for Platner or just staying home. Yes, a vote for him is uncomfortable. But today’s situation requires voters to separate personally distasteful behavior from gross wrongdoing in one’s official capacity, affecting right and wrong in the public arena.

It’s also important to remember that 2018 Collins vote for Justice Kavanaugh.  If Justice Samuel Alito or Sonia Sotomayor resigns due to illness or infirmity, do we want Platner or Collins again to be in the position of casting the deciding vote on a Trump nominee? A bill to restore Roe v. Wade rights won’t happen without a Democratic Senate majority.

Elections have consequences.

As the saying goes, don’t compare me to the Almighty; compare me to the alternative.

Lowell Politics: June 21, 2026

The Lowell City Council met on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. The substantive portion of the meeting led off with a motion by Councilor Rita Mericer asking the city manager to provide “a monthly report to the council as to the overtime spending in the fire department.”

In speaking on her motion, Mercier was harshly critical of the fire department, saying the amount of money spent on overtime was “shocking”, that it was “highway robbery”, that the “taxpayers are being held hostage”, that some firefighters “abuse the system for their own personal gain”, that they are “greedy”, and that “she won’t stand for it.”

Councilor Vesna Nuon said he agreed with the motion, especially considering the 4.6% tax increase councilors have imposed on city property owners. Councilor John Descoteaux said it was “a very timely motion.” Councilor Sidney Liang said he agreed with the motion.

Councilor Corey Robinson said he agreed with the motion, but that councilors “shouldn’t kid ourselves.” He laid the blame for high overtime on insufficient staffing, saying that if the city increased the number of firefighters employed by the city, there would be less need for overtime.

Councilor Sean McDonough said that while he, too, is concerned about overtime spending, he didn’t want to create unnecessary work for someone in preparing a new report since the information requested is already being provided to the council each month by the city auditor. He pointed out that the report for last October (just four months into fiscal year 2026 which ran from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026) showed that the fire department had already spent 67% of the money that the council had budgeted for fire department overtime for the entire year. (McDonough’s unstated inference being that if councilors had been paying attention to the information they were already receiving, the large amount of money spent on overtime should not have been surprising.) McDonough added that unlike other city jobs where when a person is out sick the job can be left unfilled, the fire department has “minimum staffing requirements” which require the use of overtime.

Councilor Mercier took umbrage at McDonough’s comments, responding:

“I’m not trying to make work for people. And if it’s already being done, then how hard is it to print that out and give it to 11 people? Is that a burden? It’s a burden to me to see at the end of the budget time and spring it on us. I don’t have the privilege to keep looking and I mean, you know, when you’re not working, maybe you have time to do all these things, but I just would like her, the auditor, to print it out. I don’t know how much more difficult it is. I want to see it in my hand to know that, yeah, it’s getting higher. I don’t think that’s asking too much.”

[Taken from the YouTube transcript of the meeting at 23:18.]

The reference to “not working” was aimed at McDonough who earlier this year resigned his teaching position at Lowell High due to the number of times he had to abstain from city council votes due to the conflict-of-interest rules. McDonough later added, almost plaintively, that he’s starting a new job in September, presumably in another school district.

Mayor Erik Gitschier spoke next, saying that while the overtime spending information was indeed in the auditor’s monthly report, the council needed more information than that. He said the council should more deeply analyze the reasons for high overtime. For instance, how many extra firefighters are there per shift, how many get called in on average per day, how many are out on workers’ comp and for how long, how many are on maternity or paternity leave?

Councilor Dan Rourke pointed out that as the city manager explained several months ago, 110 fire fighters use little overtime, 45 are out a moderate amount of time, and that 30 use every minute of sick time they earn. Rourke said he favors “a full fiscal audit” of the system if that’s what councilors want. He said Mayor Gitschier was correct in the factors he identified. Rourke said the council “should be looking at everything” including vacations and “union leave” (time spent on union activities for which the participants are paid their normal salary, but who are absent from duty which requires replacements to be called in and paid overtime).

Rourke then quizzed the fire chief who explained that the minimum staffing level required 41 firefighters per shift which included three firefighters for each of the city’s 13 trucks plus two deputy chiefs per shift. If all the city’s 213 authorized firefighters were available for duty, there would be 45 or 46 available per shift. This would provide a cushion for each shift meaning that up to four individuals scheduled for duty could be out sick and still leave sufficient personnel – 41 – to meet the minimum staffing level.

However, the city does not have 213 firefighters available for duty now. According to the chief, that number is closer to 200, which leaves the bare minimum on one shift and a single spare person on the other two shifts. In other words, there is no cushion before off duty personnel are called in and paid overtime.

One reason it is difficult for the city to maintain the 213-staffing level is a continuous stream of firefighters filing for retirement. The chief said that as soon as the department bring a new firefighter onboard from the twice-annual fire training academy, it seems that someone else retires.

I assume that long term injury leave is also a factor. Between working on ladders and roofs or slipping on ice that coats everything in the aftermath of a winter fire, or straining to lift a stretcher, “normal” working conditions for fire fighters inevitably lead to more injuries than among the average municipal worker.

Still, the distribution of sick time usage among fire fighters is not even. Are the 30 or so fire fighters who use all their sick time more prone to injury than their peers who use little sick time? There has long been suspicion – never proven as far as I can tell – that some fire fighters game the minimum staffing rules by coordinating their sick time usage with colleagues so that when Fire Fighter A calls in sick on Day 1, Fire Fighter B gets called in to replace them and is  paid overtime, then on Day 2, Fire Fighter B reciprocates by calling in sick, causing Fire Fighter A to be called in a paid overtime. Both A and B have worked a normal number of hours, but both have been paid overtime for one of their shifts.

A “full fiscal audit” that either documented such abuses or proved that they were not occurring would be helpful. But that’s unlikely to happen for at least two reasons. First, collective bargaining rules protect employee confidentiality to a degree that likely would paralyze such an inquiry. Second, it’s doubtful that (some) councilors really want to dig into this issue.

There was a Rip Van Winkle quality to Tuesday night. Just three weeks ago at the May 26, 2026, council meeting, City Manager Tom Golden made an impassioned plea for support in his efforts to curb what he framed as the abuse of sick time that was driving the exorbitant cost of fire department overtime. The council not only failed to back up Golden but also instructed him to go back and work it out which he did. That sent a clear message that there would be no meaningful pushback from the council on fire department overtime. Now with the time for any meaningful response already passed, we suddenly have a pack of born again fiscal watchdogs on the council.

That said, the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the fire fighters by which the city agreed to minimum staffing levels regardless of the cost ties the city’s hands in this conflict. That was apparent when, under the threat of fire fighter layoffs last month, the union obtained a judicial restraining order that essentially prohibited layoffs and any reduction in per shift staffing. Anyone who says, “the city should negotiate that provision out of the contract” has never been involved in union negotiations since, once a benefit as lucrative of that makes it into a contract, it’s nearly impossible to get it out.

In the end, public opinion counts for a lot so the more light can be shed on staffing procedures and fire fighter absenteeism, the better voters will be able to assess performance of councilors on this issue.

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In other matters, councilors discussed the practicalities of providing air conditioning in city schools that don’t already have it; debated how Community Preservation Act funding has been allocated; and discussed an upcoming public forum on data centers which will give residents an opportunity to ask questions and share feedback with the city’s Planning Department. That forum is Monday, June 29, 2026, at 6pm at the Butler School at 1140 Gorham Street.

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As challenging as Lowell’s fiscal road ahead may be, it perhaps got a little less dire on Thursday when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court invalidated the proposal scheduled to be on this November’s state election ballot that would reduce the state income tax from the current 5% down to 4%. City Manager Golden previously had warned that if this referendum passed, the effect on the city of Lowell’s budget would be catastrophic. With the SJC now invalidating the question, that risk seems to have been removed, at least until the next fiscal crisis arises.

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Lowell’s Franco-American Festival Week kicks off today. I’m especially interested in an event tomorrow night (Monday, June 22, 2026) called “Across the Years: Three Franco Poets from Lowell” which begins at 5:30pm at UMass Lowell’s Coburn Hall, Room 255, at 850 Broadway (on South Campus). The three poets featured are Dr. Joseph H. Roy (1865-1931) and contemporary poets Suzanne Beebe and Paul Marion. The event is free, open to the public, and will be moderated by Dr. Mercedes Baillargeon of the university’s Department of World Languages and Cultures.

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This week in my Seen and Heard column I wrote about a recent visit to the Boott Cotton Mills Museum; shared my thoughts on the NBA Finals including why I was cheering for the New York Knicks; commented on a Dan Shaughnessy column speculating on why the World Cup isn’t treated as a big deal around here; and noted the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Freedom Trail in Boston and reminisced about efforts to create something similar in Lowell.

Gates Block Garden

Gates Block Garden

By Leo Racicot

Every year, I can hardly wait to shake off the ice and snow of winter and head down to Gates Block Garden on Market Street to see what the soil has yielded. Gates Block Garden is an enchanting aerie located at 307 Market Street, sandwiched between Mochinut Bakery and Cafe and The Arts League of Lowell Gallery (ALL). I stumbled upon the garden one Spring Day not knowing it was there and was amazed, as I am to this day, by the ever-changing variety of flora and fauna the caretakers manage to plant. No week is ever the same in this little piece of stretch of heaven. In fact, no day is ever the same, given whichever daily slant of light is infusing the place, depending on the weather. I’ve spent hours in its company, enjoying my own company with a book and especially with a camera raised to snap photos of the many different flowers, bulbed wonders, climbing ivies I find. No summer is the same as the previous summer. I liken the space to a kaleidoscope with its ever-revolving colors, each turn of the cylinder revealing something that wasn’t there a moment ago, In fact, at times, the garden has showcased large shards of mirror that catch the day’s sun and through which I’ve aimed my lens, capturing the reflection of the shops opposite, the cars driving by. The location is ideal as a starting point for a walking tour; the Whistler Museum & Whistler Park are a stone’s throw away, as is North Common Village with its own pretty garden plots. I also point my camera at these. They put me in mind of quaint old English villages such as the ones you find in Miss Marple mysteries. Lowell National Park’s Headquarters isn’t far in the other direction. I never get tired of stopping in there for its free recordings of Jack Kerouac reading his work. Just put on a headset and listen to your heart’s content to literary history.

The appearance a couple of years ago of gigantic murals hovering above Block Garden are breathtaking though I sometimes think they’re too big and dwarf the wonders below. I do like them and always like taking as many photos of them as I can.

Nobody for years seemed to know about this garden. I knew it as a place I could go any time of day and unwind. There are times I’ve been so bowled over by what I saw there, the different configurations, a tiny group of bluebells hiding in a corner, a sculpture, a single rose that I literally took a picture of everything, one-by-one. I’d get swept away by these moments of joy and not want to leave. Of special note was finding my friend, Lowell artist and poet, Stephan Anstey’s poem inscribed on a cinder block in one corner, a lovely free verse that perfectly summing up the city of Lowell in a line or two.

Hidden urban gardens have always delighted me.  When you’re walking along taking in what is maybe too much city, too much red brick, too little view of the sky, there’s a quality of surprise when out-of-nowhere, you spy a pocket of sudden color that roots you to the spot. Instantly the tenor of your day is changed. You literally find yourself again…

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A riot of color

Garden mirrors, 2020

Gates Block Garden entrance

Mirror reflection

Peony

Sunflower

The garden, 2021

Trompe-l’oil windows wall

Mural of woman drumming

Poem by Stephan Anstey

Happy Juneteenth 2026

This post originally appeared on this site on June 18, 2023.

Juneteenth traces its roots to June 19, 1865, when United States Army General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, a full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln. With General Order No. 3, Granger proclaimed that all slaves in Texas were free.

In the years following the initial announcement, Juneteenth became a time for African Americans to gather and celebrate their newfound freedom. These celebrations often included community gatherings, church services, parades, music, and speeches.

Juneteenth symbolized the end of slavery in the United States and was a reminder of the long struggle for freedom endured by enslaved African Americans. Juneteenth also signified the Post Civil War beginning of what was seen by many as a new era of equality and civil rights began to materialize for African Americans.

Despite being observed in African American communities for over a century, Juneteenth did not gain widespread recognition until recent years. Efforts to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday gained momentum in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, driven by activists, community organizations, and political leaders.

On June 19, 2021, Juneteenth took a significant step forward as the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. The bill was later signed into law by President Joe Biden, officially designating Juneteenth National Independence Day as a federal holiday. This historic decision acknowledged the importance of Juneteenth as a national commemoration and recognized the need to reckon with America’s complex history of slavery.

Juneteenth is also an appropriate time for all of us to acknowledge the insidious role that slavery played in the development of the United States, and of how the country still struggles with that reality. Furthermore, starting with the Reconstruction Acts that followed the Civil War and continuing up until the present, every time the United States has moved towards becoming a true egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic democracy, reactionary forces rise to defend traditional hierarchies of race (and of gender, religion, and wealth). We’re amid one of those struggles now, and the outcome is far from certain.