Maine rabbi: We’re relieved Platner dropped out, but ‘damage has been done’

Rabbi Bill Siemers of Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor, Maine, says his community is relieved that Democratic candidate Graham Platner dropped out of his Senate race following an allegation of sexual assault, but that his candidacy has unnerved many Jews in Maine.

Platner dropped out of the race yesterday after Politico reported that he sexually assaulted a former girlfriend. The development came after a series of scandals, including Platner’s sporting a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo for years that he has since covered.

Platner was harshly anti-Israel and repeatedly attacked the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC and accused Israel of genocide during the campaign.

While he was fending off a sexting scandal last month, for example, Platner attacked AIPAC and said his opponent, incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, was “bought and paid for by Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Siemers notes that the Nazi tattoo and Platner’s demonization of Israel did not sink his campaign.

“People have been following this and have seen their neighbors excited about this man’s candidacy. That still happened, and going forward, yes, it’s obviously positive that he will not be the nominee, but the damage has sort of been done,” Siemers, a Conservative rabbi, says.

“That he made it as far as he did, and was popular, that still happened, and the Jewish community is still going to have to deal with that,” Siemers says. “It makes us wonder how they look at us.”

He adds that his community is mostly Democrats, but that Collins is relatively popular because she has been an effective senator for constituents during her nearly three decades in the office.