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In group chats<\/span> of progressive activists and political operatives concerned with the state of the Senate race in Maine Wednesday morning, a link to an anonymous Google Doc was making the rounds. It disavowed Graham Platner, the disgraced Democratic nominee whose campaign was throttled by a rape accusation on Monday, and called to replace him with Troy Jackson, a recent gubernatorial contender the document deemed \u201cthe one candidate who can hold Platner\u2019s coalition together.\u201d<\/p>\n There are five days left before the deadline for Platner to get off the general election ballot in the Maine Senate race, and there is no clear alternative if he chooses to step aside. His campaign\u2019s swift downfall has presented Democrats and his primary supporters with several bad options: The party establishment could pick a candidate and inflame an already frustrated base that scoffed at its efforts to anoint Gov. Janet Mills<\/a> as the nominee, or it could bend to Platner\u2019s demands and let him influence the selection of his successor.<\/p>\n In either case, a base already exhausted by months of Platner scandals is at risk of fracturing and failing to consolidate behind a potential replacement \u2014 and Democrats are at risk of once again losing a key seat they need to pick up for control of the Senate to Republican Sen. Susan Collins.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With so much blame and anger to go around, the fear of poisoning the selection process was on display in the anonymity of the Google Doc pushing Jackson, the Bernie Sanders-endorsed third-place <\/strong>candidate in Maine\u2019s Democratic gubernatorial primary. Jackson, who has already been discussed in national progressive circles as a possible ideological successor to Platner, was first <\/strong>to file<\/a> paperwork on Tuesday to take the candidate\u2019s place. But the anonymous document, shared with The Intercept by a source who said its origin was unclear, was quick to distance him from Platner.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a state where Democrats have hemorrhaged rural support and where Collins has consistently overperformed, Platner has attempted to sell himself as the populist solution.\u00a0Jackson doesn\u2019t need to sell; his career tells the story,\u201d it says, citing a claim from centrist writer Matthew Yglesias that Jackson is more genuine than Platner.<\/p>\n There are still Platner supporters \u2014 and one progressive political operative close to the Platner campaign, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by his employer to discuss the race publicly, said they were divided in their reactions to the rape allegation against their once-powerful candidate.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some people who just immediately decided that they believed they believed his accuser and who feel very betrayed and are just like, \u2018Fuck this guy, now we\u2019re screwed,\u2019\u201d the operative said. \u201cAnd then there are some people who don\u2019t believe her, and there are some people who think that he can continue to run, and some people who think he should run as an independent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Platner has not withdrawn, though he is reportedly<\/a> expected to do so as early as Wednesday. If he does drop out, it\u2019s not entirely clear how the Maine Democratic Party plans to nominate a new candidate, either. Maine Democrats have said their state party committee, which has more than 100 members, will not choose the nominee. But the party has publicly feuded with Platner\u2019s campaign, releasing a statement<\/a> and an unusual video post<\/a> on Tuesday saying that the campaign had tried \u201cto put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like,\u201d after people close to Platner\u2019s campaign<\/a> told reporters<\/a> that he would only drop out if he could ensure that the new candidate shared his ideological and policy stances.<\/p>\n