Historically, in the political world, incumbents have a huge advantage over challengers. Sitting politicians enjoy instant media access, name recognition, and generally lots of money. But every once in a while, the incumbent is so bad, the challenger has a real opportunity pull off an upset. That opportunity knocked here in Maine and Graham Platner has answered. And answered in a big way: the Oysterman is beating Janet Mills like a drum. In the latest poll, Platner has INCREASED his lead and is now up on Mills by a stunning 33 points. The Real Clear Politics average of all polls has Platner ahead by 22 points.

At this point, I don’t see Mills or, for that matter, Susan Collins beating Platner. Let’s hope the Oysterman turns out to be a moderate senator in the mold of John Fetterman. But first things first: why is Mills losing, and losing big, to a newbie? The answer, I think, is that over the last eight years, Mills has made so many bad decisions that she has succeeded in pissing-off just about every single Maine voter. That’s serving opportunity on a silver platter!

Let’s take a look back at the Mills years: When she was first elected, I felt okay about how Mills would be as governor. It didn’t take long for that optimism to dissipate! Here are just a few of the Mills Moments that opened the door for Platner:

1. COVID: Her policies were extreme. While Maine stayed locked down for two years, in many other states, including Florida, after a few months of panic, things returned to more or less normal. It was bizarre for Snowbirds like us to leave the open businesses and crowded beaches in Florida and return to closed-up Maine. And if that were not bad enough, when we returned, we were told to quarantine for 14 days!

2. Policies Driven by Fantasy: In case you have forgotten, early in her first term, Mills laid out a road map for how she would save Maine and the World from sea level rise and global warming. She called her plan Maine Won’t Wait (MWW) or as some people call it, Mill’s Won’t Wait. MMW has cost Mainer’s hundreds of millions of dollars with almost ZERO tangible return. I say almost zero because we did get those cute solar farms in the median of I-95!

3. Skyrocketing Electric Bills: The cost of electricity in Maine is either the highest in the nation or in the top three depending on how you do the math. According to MWW, which was codified along party lines by the legislature, Maine would generate cheap electricity via wind and solar. To make this happen, Mills invented the disastrous Net Energy Billing (NEB) program which has done the opposite. But NEB did make a few solar energy developers very rich on the backs of Maine taxpayers and ratepayers.

4. The Housing Crisis: When Mills took over from Paul LePage, the median price of a house in Maine was $219,00. Last year, the median price was $405,000! Again, MWW is part of the problem: new energy codes have driven up the cost of building homes. For most people, owning a house in Maine is now truly a dream. The reality is an unaffordable nightmare.

5. Immigrants over Americans: To put it bluntly, the Mills administration treated immigrants better than Maine citizens, providing free housing, free meals, and other benefits at taxpayer expense. And they turned a blind eye to massive MaineCare fraud, much of it committed by Somali immigrants. At the same time homelessness and drug overdoses among Americans has skyrocketed.

6. Boys in Girls Sports (and locker rooms). Mills has been big on LGBTQ “rights”, which probably led to her taking, and sticking to, the very unpopular position that boys competing against girls in sports is okay. A position that, to most Mainers, defies common-sense. To make it worse, Mills doubled down, picking a fight with the President of the United States over Title IX compliance. How is that fight going?

No wonder Platner is up 33 points. And the six pack of Mills Moments I listed doesn’t even include the Real ID debacle, IF&W sponsoring fishing derbies for kids hosted by Drag Queens, damning reports from the State auditor and massive Medicaid fraud committed by Somali immigrants. The upset door is wide open.