Two quotes from the report on Gov. Janet Mills speaking to the Rotary Club in Waterville last week: “She’s in a tough position,” Mills said of (Susan) Collins. “I appreciate everything she is doing.”

And: “I hear people all over the state saying the price of coffee is going up.”

Is it bold statements like these that has Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pushing for Mills to enter the Democratic primary for the Senate seat that Susan Collins has been occupying since 1996? Maybe Sen. Schumer can encourage Mills to issue a “strongly worded statement,” his preferred way of dealing with the national emergency that is Donald J. Trump.

I’m pretty sure that Janet Mills wasn’t at the Bernie Sanders rally on Labor Day in Portland, but if she had been she would have heard thunderous applause from a huge crowd for Graham Platner’s vigorous, blunt assessment of what Susan Collins hasn’t been doing for the state of Maine. 

One might think that the overwhelmingly positive response to 40-year-old Platner would give pause to a person who would be 90 when her second term in the Senate ends — if you weren’t aware of the mindset of our Democratic leaders in Congress.

I truly hope that Janet Mills will survey the landscape and retire, and that the Democratic primary will produce a strong candidate to finally send Susan Collins into retirement. But if Mills does enter the primary, she’s going to have to offer more than bland comments about the price of coffee.

Renee Cote
Auburn