Unfortunately, news media were quick to report negative stories about Mr. Graham Platner, but somebody must speak to his friends too.

‘They don’t know Maine’

Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at his Primary Election event on Tuesday in Blue Hill, Maine.

Maine Writer opinion: Regardless of how voters will respond to Mr. Graham Platner as a US senate candidate from Maine, the facts about how his wife's friend went to The Wall Street Journal to betray a confidence shared by Amy Gertner, who is Mr. Platner's wife, was a terrible betrayal. The informant had no business invading the couple's privacy with her "probably a paid for" interview.  Of course, The New York Times was not to be outdone, so somehow the editors decided to interview a few girls who said they dated Mr. Platner when he was single, but they did not provide proof about the unusual behavior they reported in the Times. Meanwhile, of course, Donald Trump sits and sleeps in the White House as a 34 times convicted felon, a philanderer, an enabler of child sex trafficking with Jeffrey Epstein and as a military draft dodger who claimed to have "bone spurs" during the Vietnam war.  

Mr. Graham Platner/A friends view published on social media

by Larry Hayden 

This is updated, I posted a while ago - which I just sent via email to the two women who wrote the hit piece, I mean the article about the ex-girlfriends of Graham Platner in the New York Times - one of whom, Fifield, may or may not have been an old girlfriend of Graham, but does seem to have been an old Republican operative for a while. It is strange how that seems to have been overlooked…
Subject: My friend Graham. Regarding your recent piece on my friend: “This is nonsense…”- to the New York Times

My friend Graham a year ago was sitting on his dive boat about to fix my mooring chain. He may not walk on water but he can walk and work under water - so there is that ability he has, which is considerably more useful around here than what most of the politicians, pundits, and journalists can do that I know of.
I am a School Board Director in RSU24, which recently voted to violate the Maine Human Rights Act and to require the staff, teachers, nurses, counselors etc, to discriminate against gay & trans students. As a result of this and subsequent votes, my school district is now being sued by the State of Maine for violating the laws of this state.
I voted against these measures, with the numerical majority. As it was a weighted vote, based on the population of each the nine towns in the district, a weighted minority could outvote the numerical majority on the Board and they did.

Anyway, a year ago last May, Mr. Platner, who is from Sullivan, ME, one of the towns in our district, came to the School Board meeting on May 6th 2025, when the anti-trans/anti-gay policy was first proposed by a School Board Director. During the public comment time Graham spoke out strongly against the anti-LGBTQ policy that members of the Board were proposing.

“This is nonsense,” he began in his gruff voice.

He went on to point out to the Board and to the public in attendance that we had no trans athletes in our sports program, that the kind of discrimination the Board was considering was in violation of State and Federal law and that Executive Orders are not in fact law, that this proposal was not about protecting girls but about persecuting gay and trans kids.

There were many in the audience that strongly disagreed with him but he made it clear where he stood on this matter. His point was that instituting this policy would hurt all children, regardless of their gender identity.

This was months before he declared his campaign for Senate. He has continued to defend communities of color, women, trans and gay kids, and stand up for old and young people of this state during literally hundreds of public meetings he has attended. His candor about his past and his own failings is simply uncompromising.

Mr. Graham Platner is my neighbor and my friend. I know his mother who runs a local restaurant. His father was my lawyer and represented many of my neighbors until he retired, handling our title searches, divorces, bankruptcies, and wills. He was the closest thing to Atticus Finch we had in Ellsworth.

When I needed new top chain on my mooring last spring Graham simply said “No problem.” He drove his dive boat over from Sullivan to our harbor, suited up, dove down fixed things up
for me. That is the kind of neighbor he is.

We in Maine know a good man when we meet him. Thousands have now had that honor, although Mr. Graham would insist that the honor his, to be able to meet, to speak with, and listen to so many good people in these troubled times.

As for Graham’s friends old and new, we will stay the course we have embarked on. We will hold fast & do our best to elect this good man to do his best for all of us.

Oh yes, I saw that tattoo when he put on his wet suit - I saw a crude cartoon skull and bones. I saw a pirate tattoo. It looked nothing like the SS Nazi Totenkopf. The skull and bones is a symbol that appears on grave stones in every old graveyard in New England, often with “Momento Mori” written below it, or “Remember Death,” - not a bad thing for a soldier, or any of us, to remember.

Skull and Bones is also the name of the most famous secret society at Yale, whose symbol is: a skull & bones. It is or was for sale in the gift shop embroidered on neck ties. I do not recall hearing talk about their members being Nazis, nor the Knights Templar, nor the Free Masons, nor the numerous college fraternities that use that symbol.
The powers that be want desperately to discredit my friend Graham. They will have to do a lot better. I am sure they will do their best or their worst but we who know him and his wife will hold fast, like the new mooring chain Graham fixed for me.

Written by Newbold Noyes in Sorrento, Maine