David Kurtz is a Maine lawyer and member of the Biddeford City Council.

I’d only been a lawyer for a few days before I had to do my first trial. The attorney I was up against had been in practice for decades. I was nervous off the Richter scale. 

The judge called us both in for a pre-trial conference. She had us each walk through our cases. Then she took off her glasses, leaned forward, and said, “Alright, here’s what I would like to hear from you.” 

And she gave us each a list of all the things we hadn’t addressed — including a bunch of holes in both our cases.

It didn’t make me feel great to be reminded that I was brand new to this and had overlooked a bunch of things. It did make me feel a little better that even the other long-practicing attorney had also overlooked a bunch of things.

But mostly I was just impressed with how helpful the intervention was. It wasn’t adversarial. It was impartial, it was constructive — and it sure was honest.

In that same spirit, I’d like to appeal to the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination for Senate. Mr. Platner, Gov. Mills, here are the things that I would like to hear from you.

Mr. Platner:

You’ve never run for office before. For your first office, you’ve chosen the U.S. Senate. Why haven’t you started with, like, state rep? Or city councilor like me?

You’ve given your stance on a number of issues. But you’ve never held elected office before. So how do we voters know if you actually believe these things — and will actually stand up for them?

Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed you to run for Senate. One of the last Bernie-endorsed Senate candidates was John Fetterman, who most of the left thinks of as a disappointment (at best). How do we know that you won’t be another Fetterman?

You’ve talked about your reasons for joining the Marines during the Iraq War. And then reenlisting to go to Afghanistan. And then taking a contract with Blackwater. Bro, you literally worked for Echo Papa. If you can do that and say you’re an anti-war lefty, couldn’t you basically rationalize anything? Couldn’t a young person today give the exact same reasons for joining ICE?

I mean, I think I’m kind of in a similar place as you. I’m a lefty. I’ve never gotten involved in government, but finally I decided to stop just listening to podcasts and actually get involved. So I spent a year going to City Council meetings, serving on committees, meeting with officials and community leaders, going out canvassing, volunteering places — putting just a lot of time into it!

After an entire year of this, I’m just barely at the point where I think I can do good at City Council. You’re in about the same position as I am, but you’re running for Senate. Are you confident you can do a good job? And if so, my dude, why?

Gov. Mills:

Polling suggests that Maine’s liberals have moved significantly to the left. Most of my friends are very progressive. And it’s not like we’re kids. I’m 38. Most of my friends are middle-aged like me. Most of us have careers, mortgages, families. We’re still very progressive. Heck, most of our parents have become very progressive. If you don’t share our values, why should we vote for you?

You have a long record of accomplishments as an executive and administrator. You’re running for senator. The main role of a senator is to vote on things. If you’re not going to vote the way I want you to vote, does anything else really matter?

From Dianne Feinstein to Joe Biden, the increasing age of our elected officials has been a huge topic of discussion. If elected senator, you’d be sworn in shortly after your 79th birthday. Your first term would end when you are 85. You are already older than Brezhnev was when he died. Do you think this is normal? Do you think it should be normal?

I just did a lot of canvassing in my neighborhood. A lot of the people I met are seniors. Some are older than you. I’ve been frankly surprised to hear seniors say, over and over and over, that they think you are too told to run for Senate. Do you think they are all wrong?

You’ve said that, if nominated and if elected, you will only be a one-term senator. Susan Collins has 30 years of seniority in the Senate, and as a result is chair of the Appropriations Committee. Are your political differences wide enough to justify losing that huge asset to the people of Maine? 

You’ve made strong statements in support of the state of Israel. You’ve condemned towns that voted to divest from Israel. Current polling shows that the vast majority of Democrats across the country are strongly opposed to the state of Israel. Polling suggests that a growing number of Republicans are opposed to the state of Israel.

The vast majority of Mainers I have met say that Israel is a Nazi state, engaged in genocide, and they just simply won’t vote for anyone who supports that. Do you think that you can win a primary — or even a general — when you disagree with the majority of the electorate on a massively salient issue?

A lot of your objections to the Trump administration seem to be procedural, as embodied by your phrase “See you in court.” A lot of my objections to the Trump administration — and to the Republican Party’s agenda for my entire lifetime — are not just procedural. They are substantive. If the administration follows all the correct procedures, and the Supreme Court affirms, is that more important to you than the lives of my friends?

Anyway, I’m one Maine voter, and these are the things I would like to hear from you.