If the meek David Costello ever wants to be taken seriously as a statewide candidate, he needs to, well, get serious.
The Democrat from Brunswick was defeated June 9 in the party’s U.S. Senate primary, receiving 17,560 votes.
Now that primary victor Graham Platner has withdrawn from the race amid a rape accusation, Costello could, should and rightly claim the mantle as Platner’s ballot replacement.
As it stands now, he’s among eight announced contenders wanting to be chosen by the state party as its default choice to compete against five-term GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
That means he needs to gather 500 signatures to even be officially in the mix for the party’s upcoming nominating convention.
Strangely, Costello is making no case for his inheriting the nomination even though he’s been vetted by a sanctioned primary election.
Actually he’s twice put in the hard work to get on a statewide ballot, first two years ago against Angus King, the state’s junior senator.
So he’s already the putative choice, having done far more than any of the other seven other hopefuls to gain recognition as a legitimate candidate.
In fact, he received 17,560 more votes than anyone now hankering to become Platner’s detritus.
If Costello can’t advocate for himself as the obvious successor nominee, he’d be no more than an ineffective bump on a log in the world’s most politically competitive club.
He weakly says no more than that his primary effort “demonstrated sufficient voter support.”
Sufficient for what. He never completes the thought.
Moreover he indicates he is more than willing to be forced to collect the required 500 signatures to get back on the ballot.
Despite two statewide defeats out of two efforts, meaning he’s “batting a thousand” in losses, Costello still hasn’t learned that tepid doesn’t work.
When Costello announced against King in 2024, the first thing he said was that he had no beefs with the incumbent.
He still hasn’t learned that wallflower doesn’t work.
No fire in the belly equates to bye bye.
How the heck are they going to verify those signatures?
Let Bellows and her gang validate the signatures .
She can throw out just enough of everybody else’s so that SHE IS THE ONLY one to have the required 500 .
Just like they did with the men in girls sports .
Verify them all Sheena ….its YOUR job as Secretary of State ….LOL
Wouldn’t THAT be a hoot ……Only in Maine !
Why does MW want a credible candidate on the Dem side? Collins isn’t perfect but she’s the best we can hope for and she’s a known quantity who brings home the bacon for Maine. We should be pulling for the weakest possible Dem candidate. I was hoping Platner would stay in but there are a bunch of other bozos who are worse.