Colin A. Young
State House News Service
Mass. Democratic Party Chairman Steve Kerrigan took his turn on the tightrope this weekend, navigating WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller's probing questions related to whether a political candidate's character can be a disqualifying factor.
After getting Kerrigan, a former staffer to U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy and a candidate for elected office himself, to agree that a candidate's character matters to voters, Keller then asked if Kerrigan thought it was OK for supporters of President Donald Trump to overlook supposed character flaws "because they want him in power."
Kerrigan responded, "No, I don't. Look, no one's perfect. No one's perfect. No one's character is perfect. But I think when you've got leaders like Donald Trump, who put themselves first and foremost above everybody else ... that to me is a critical character flaw."
So what about Graham Platner, the newly-minted Democratic nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Maine revealed to have exchanged sexual messages with other women while married, Keller pressed the party chair?
"Look, so, whatever someone does in their marriage and their relationship at home is between them and their partner or their spouse," Kerrigan said, adding that the issue "may matter to them."
"Is Graham Platner perfect? Absolutely not. None of us is. Does he have a lot of explaining to do on a lot of issues? Absolutely – to his spouse, to his family, to the voters of Maine. But Susan Collins has time and time again said one thing and gone to Washington and done another thing, and the people of Maine are sick and tired of it, and so what they need is at least a leader who is going to admit when they're wrong and step up and own their truth."
Kerrigan concluded with a show of support for Platner, who is running to flip a seat and potentially influence the power structure in the Senate.
"He is now the nominee of the Democratic Party in Maine, and we'll do everything we can to help," he said.
