By Nolan D. McCaskill
BIDDEFORD, Maine, July 14 (Reuters) - As bewildered Maine Democrats face a deadline to replace Graham Platner after his U.S. Senate campaign imploded, a fatal ICE shooting has raised the stakes.
Community organizers quickly assembled a rally near the site of the shooting, drawing scores of protesters who marched from City Hall and Republican Senator Susan Collins' office, disrupting local traffic as they chanted for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to get out of Maine.
Zach Heiden, chief counsel at the ACLU of Maine, told rallygoers that their small town had joined the likes of Houston, Minneapolis and other communities where encounters with federal immigration agents have been fatal. Investigations into the shooting are ongoing.
The killing has thrust immigration enforcement into sharper focus in Maine as Democrats grapple with selecting a new candidate to run for the Senate in November's midterm elections. Platner, an oysterman and progressive outsider, formally withdrew his candidacy on Friday after hemorrhaging support amid sexual assault allegations, which he denies.
"I voted for her myself many years ago," Carla Yount, a self-employed 63-year-old in South Portland, said of Collins. "I will never, ever vote for her again, and I don't think I'm alone in that."
DEMOCRATIC FIELD TAKES SHAPE
Seven candidates have already filed ahead of Wednesday's deadline to declare their intent to seek the nomination, including former gubernatorial and congressional candidates who lost in last month's primaries: Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah, ex-congressional aide Jordan Wood and social worker Paige Loud.
Dan Kleban, co-founder of Maine Beer Company and a former Senate candidate, said he filed his paperwork on Monday.
Bellows, a former executive director of the ACLU of Maine who attended Monday's protest and spoke at a vigil on Tuesday, recalled a time when ICE did not exist.
"Good people, regardless of what side they are on, should stand up for the principle that the government does not kill people in the streets," she told Reuters.
Other top candidates, such as Jackson and Shah, have since called for abolishing ICE while criticizing Collins for helping fund the agency with nearly $70 billion.
Collins' office did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement earlier on Tuesday, she said the shooting "raises sufficient critical questions" and that she urged Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin "to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops."
In interviews, voters who had supported Platner lamented that he is gone and said they miss his message focused on the working class.
Christine Huber, a 51-year-old appraiser in Saco, said Mainers "are so fed up right now that they're just going to vote for the next Democrat available."
"I'm looking forward to somebody like Platner because of him rooting for the average working person," she said. "The Trump administration is all about creating billionaires and how much money he's made so far."
Platner volunteers posted an open letter calling on the next nominee to publicly and explicitly adopt his progressive policy platform, which includes supporting the Medicare for All public healthcare proposal, refusing corporate donations, and opposing protracted foreign wars and mass deportation drives.
"The volunteer infrastructure that this movement built — the organizers, the door-knockers, the small-dollar donors, the hosts, the people who will make phone calls and staff tables between now and November — does not transfer automatically to whoever the party selects," they said.
The Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 to select a new nominee. The party will hold its nominating convention on July 25 in Bangor.
Chris Hourcle, a 50-year-old from Gorham, said it will be an uphill battle for Democrats to unseat Collins, who has held her seat since 1997. Hourcle said he was highly supportive of Platner but was less enthusiastic about the candidates vying to replace him.
"Um, excited?" he said, taking a beat to think. "There are some that I will accept." Hourcle said that would include Jackson or Bellows.
Holly Culloton, director of Biddeford Community Gardens, described herself as a "diehard" supporter of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who was "really excited about Graham Platner."
"I loved his message, but you know what? He really messed up," said Culloton, 70. "If we don't get on that bandwagon and find a suitable replacement candidate for him, we're going to be in trouble."
William Connolly, a 23-year-old from Scarborough who strained his voice leading protest chants, said he hopes Jackson, Bellows or Loud wins the nomination.
"I swear," added Connolly, a democratic socialist, "all I want is something better than this."
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Edmund Klamann)
