Jon Reisman

Chief Deputy Secretary of State Katherine McBrien found that objections raised by Planned Parenthood and the Maine People's Alliance were sufficient to invalidate some 5,000 previously verified signatures and remove the Protect Girls Sports in Maine initiative to ban biological males from girls’ locker rooms from the November ballot. 

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows will decide whether to approve the recommendation by Tuesday, May 26. I’m betting she will agree with her subordinate and signature objectors/witnesses, Planned Parenthood and the Maine People’s Alliance on what is central to them, namely, that allowing the biological boys in girls’ locker rooms referendum on the ballot is just too dangerous to Democratic election efforts — especially with such promising Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, governor, and the legislature and accountability for eight years of one-party rule at stake.

Planned Parenthood and the Maine People’s Alliance are Bellows supporters and Democratic party donors/stalwarts. Shenna is overseeing and manipulating an election she is running in. She has a record of abusing her power for partisan and personal political gain, including removing Trump from the ballot, refusing to issue undercover license plates to federal law enforcement officers (ICE and DEA), abusing the English language, and referendum clarity with misleading and convoluted language on voter ID and the Protect Girls Sports in Maine initiatives. She’s doing it again. 

According to Maine’s legacy media, there’s nothing to see here. If you’d like a slight vision/blinder adjustment, try https://www.themainewire.com/2026/05/maine-boys-on-track-to-be-allowed-full-access-to-maine-girls-locker-rooms-bathrooms-showers/

I believe that for Shenna and the left, this election is about power, pure and simple — retaining it so as to continue to pursue woke socialist identity politics, avoid any accountability for the fraud and misery they have been inflicted on Maine, and to screw over stupid rural Maine Republicans/Trump voters who really need to be put down, and certainly not to be listened to or encouraged to vote. 

Shenna and the left only want illegal aliens, fraudsters, Karens, and AWFL’s (Affluent White Female Liberals) to be encouraged to speak out and vote, not the clueless rural rubes who don’t recognize their colonizer oppressor status and don’t agree that the government is the source/creator of rights, regardless of the Declaration of Independence and the declarations of illegitimate Justices like Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Bret Kavanaugh.

The left wants to expand the Court to include more geniuses like DEI appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Given her inability to define what a woman is, she’s a prime candidate to develop a politically correct jurisprudence on biological boys in girls’ locker rooms. It will be Transformational.

The focus on power is bipartisan, and both parties are investing in critical get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts, with somewhat different priorities and moral grounding, in my opinion. Democrats are registering illegal aliens, protecting fraudsters, and actively trying to suppress what they view as racist, sexist, transphobic voters and Trump supporters. Republicans are focused on bringing in unreliable/irregular voters with a local town committee outreach/emphasis (thank you, Dave Whitney) and on accountability for the fraudsters and their Democrat enablers.

Much as I’d like to suppress the malicious lies and misinformation spewed out by the left and their allied media, I don’t have a hypocritical commitment to “Democracy” that would allow me to do that, as tempting as it would be. I will admit to seriously considering filing a yellow flag Extreme Risk Protection Order request, seeking to relieve Mr. Platner of his firearms. A nazi- tattooed serial liar with PTSD and a record of vile, hateful, and creepy behavior sounds a lot like a potential mass shooter to me. If Platner were a Republican, the Democrats would red flag him.

Republicans may have to emulate the Democrat-by-any-means-necessary pursuit of power to protect the Republic — ironically, that’s a big part of the Secretary of State’s job.

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at jreisman@maine.edu.