Well, dear reader, I had thought this might, perhaps, be a quiet week.

While the Legislature toils on, it hasn’t done much this session thus far. Many of the major issues plaguing the state of Maine remain unaddressed, confined to the sidelines during an election year.

There hasn’t yet been major action, for instance, on housing costs, opioids, energy prices or really anything else of import. There are a lot of big discussions going on, but it looks as if we’re barreling toward the April adjournment date with a flurry of last-minute moves — as usual.

Until recently, it looked like the only thing to address this week was candidates turning in signatures, and there were no surprises there. Former Gov. Paul LePage, Rep. Chellie Pingree and Sen. Susan Collins all face no primary challengers, as expected; all of the major gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates qualified for the ballot. It seemed like we’d all enjoy a quiet week watching the snow slowly dwindle away outside (for now, at least).

Then, Janet Mills and Graham Platner (who, we must not forget, had to have a Nazi tattoo covered up) decided to get into it. Mills, not particularly known for being a political brawler, launched her first attack ad against Platner, and boy, was it a doozy. The ad featured a series of women reading his misogynist Reddit posts from several years ago, with comments from them along the lines of “I didn’t know about this” and “This is unforgivable.”

The ad then showed a picture of Platner bare-chested displaying the aforementioned tattoo, without directly referencing it otherwise — an interesting choice, I thought. Then, because it was a Mills campaign ad rather than one run by a PAC, it ended with Mills intoning that she approved the message.

The ad immediately caught the attention of, well, everybody. Locally and nationally. Many Democratic activists immediately denounced Platner, either again or for the first time, while local media immediately covered the ad, giving it free air time while it also blankets their airwaves. Platner, for his part, responded with a four-paragraph statement and on X reiterated his supposed apology from last October, when news of his posts first came to light.

That wasn’t the only thing Platner did last week, though. He released a new ad himself, obviously planned long before Mills’ negative ad. It was a general narrative piece, talking about the road he’d traveled — featuring him walking down a snow-covered forest road — and praising the hardworking people of Maine in various ways.

It was obviously intended to be a positive, vaguely biographical piece, even if it didn’t exactly expand upon his biography. It’s interesting that he went with such a positive ad. In prior ads, Platner portrayed himself as proud to be a fighter. The ad was clearly intended to characterize him in a sympathetic, positive light to counter that earlier messaging. We’ll see whether it’s a true tonal shift in response to consultants warning his angry message wasn’t working, or if he’s pursuing both tracks.

All of that is well and good. The only problem is that he launched the ad on X, with the pronouncement that his campaign was a love letter to Maine. Unfortunately for Platner, that “love letter” phrase had been used previously by Haley Stevens, another young Democrat running for the U.S. Senate.

If one is attempting to portray oneself as a grassroots, authentic candidate, copying the phrasing of another candidate from another state flies in the face of that. If Platner’s earlier angry ads fell flat, his attempt at a positive ad did as well. Furthermore, it’s interesting that his positive ad didn’t mention his military service, as Rep. Jared Golden’s campaign ads always did.

Mills didn’t just release an attack ad, however. She also highlighted a series of endorsements from prominent current and former female Democratic legislators. If she’s smart, she’ll follow that up with another television ad featuring them. Meanwhile, Platner’s supporters claim her attack ad is a sign of desperation on her part; their reaction suggests otherwise.

All of this shows that the Democratic primary campaign for the U.S. Senate will be furious and hard fought. If you’ve already counted out Mills in the race, you might want to reconsider. The campaigning exchange shows not only that she’s unwilling to pull her punches, but that she knows what she’s doing. We’ll see plenty more of that in this race before June.