BANGOR, Maine (JTA) – When Jamie Isaacson received an application in his mailbox earlier this month to help choose the Maine Democratic Party’s next US Senate nominee at Saturday’s nominating convention, he wasn’t interested.

If accepted as a delegate, Isaacson, a 72-year-old Jewish Portland resident, would have joined 601 Maine Democrats at the party’s convention in Bangor to select a replacement for Graham Platner, the staunch Israel critic who bowed out of the race earlier this month following sexual assault allegations, which he has denied.

Instead, Isaacson sat it out, vowing not to have anything to do with the party that had chosen Platner as its nominee in the first place.

“I thought it wasn’t worth my time, to be honest with you,” Isaacson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I mean, we’ve been blindsided by the Democratic Party here and nationally, and I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. I don’t know what I am right now, and I just feel really let down and don’t feel a part of that party anymore.”

Isaacson’s decision reflected one end of a spectrum across Maine’s Jewish community. Platner’s collapse has prompted reactions ranging from anger at the Democratic Party to renewed engagement with the unusual delegate process that will lead to his replacement.

Isaacson said he had been “relieved” when Platner dropped out of the race, though he, like many Jews, believed other scandals, including his Nazi-linked tattoo, that had rocked his campaign prior to the final allegations should have disqualified him.

“I think that people in Maine would have voted for the devil rather than voting for Susan Collins — Democrats, I mean,” Isaacson said, referring to the incumbent Republican senator who is seeking her sixth term. “I can’t believe that Platner went as far as he could with all the unelectable problems that he had, like his tattoo and a dozen other things, but people were just very forgiving and didn’t care.”

The Democratic primary race has reverberated through Maine’s small Jewish community. The state has roughly 19,000 Jews across 10,600 households, with the population highly concentrated in and around Portland, according to the 2024 Maine Jewish Community Study, conducted by Brandeis University in partnership with the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine. The study found that nearly 70% of Maine Jews identify as liberal or very liberal, and 42% describe themselves as minimally involved in Jewish life.

While Platner’s exit has left some Jewish Democrats relieved, it has also forced them to quickly assess Troy Jackson, a former logger........

© The Times of Israel