“Is that you? Is it? Wait a minute. Let me put you on speaker,” said the voice squeezing out of my left wrist.

Actually, I think the voice was coming from the watch that my kids shamed me into buying after I tripped over a lawnmower in the garage. They said this Dick Tracy thing could notify them if I fell again. I appreciate their concern, and love them dearly, but wonder what they could do as they live about a thousand miles away, but that’s another story.

“Now,” said the voice, “What is the inside scoop on that cute former Marine running for a chance to be the latest Democratic victim of the Susan Collins political juggernaut,” said the voice.

Of course, it was Ms. Pigette, a local icon and mailbox holder on Route 27 on the way to Wiscasset.

Somehow she had talked someone into charging her phone and she wanted to know the latest inside skinny on the Senate race.

I told her I didn’t know, as polling this early in a May primary is a bit shaky by definition. But I told her that her allegedly cute former Marine, Graham Platner, has had some internal and external problems.

A trio of his campaign staffers bolted after inappropriate and stupid Reddit posts surfaced. And, there is his tattoo said to resemble a nasty Nazi meme which he said he got years ago.

Is this bad stuff enough to torpedo his campaign? Will he just go back to Sullivan and farm oysters?

“Wait a minute,” said Ms. Piggette. “If he is in trouble, why did some 700 or so folks pack Damariscotta’s Great Salt Bay School to listen to him a week ago? Heck, the crowd was so big some 50 or so folks who couldn’t get into the venue waited outside. And, he stopped to chat with them. Torpedo, scheme-do, some folks seem to like him and his message.”

“Remember, you old dog, a few weeks ago, there were thousands of real people, not just the knuckleheads on the left and the blockheads on the right, demonstrating in No Kings events in Wiscasset, Damariscotta, Brunswick, Bath and the rest of Maine. Is that a sign?”

It is a sign alright, but a sign of what? I replied.

Unlike most Maine politicians, Platner has gotten the attention of the boys and girls in national TV and Newspaper land. They like to chase the shiny objects, like an oysterman.

Even the NYTimes sent Michelle Goldberg, one of their key columnists, to Damariscotta to test the viability of his campaign. After the GSB event, she wrote a long piece headlined: ”I Thought Graham Platner Was Finished. What I Saw in Maine Changed My Mind.” She called his stage presence magnetic. Wow.

“So maybe the pundits got it wrong? Maybe he ain’t dead, after all,” said Ms. Pigette.

Look, I replied. It is way too early to pass judgment on any candidate seven months before the primary. Gov. Janet Mills is a tough and successful campaigner. And, she earned a lot of Democratic party and independent friends when she flashed a symbolic one-fingered salute to POTUS on national TV. If Platner (and it is a big if) wins the Democratic Party senate nomination, he will still have to beat Republican Susan Collins, who has held that seat since 1997.

Over the years, she has attended thousands of local coffees, Rotary and veterans events, and delivered beaucoup pork for the state. It is no secret she has protected the paychecks of thousands of Bath Iron Works shipbuilders. Her seniority earned her the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations committee and that ain’t chopped liver. To win again, she must fight off the taunts of Democrats and disdain of MAGA Republicans.

“So you are saying the election is a toss up?” Ms. Pigette said.

Of course it is. You never know what may lurk around the next corner. The present political climate is filled with land mines. And it may have nothing to do with the candidates.

Remember the reaction when the Ohio National Guard opened fire at a Kent State anti-war rally, killing four and wounding nine. We have a bunch of shooting wars around the world. Congress is nervous over POTUS’ orders to splash South American speedboats. The government shutdown is crippling air travel, the loss of SNAP food benefits puts the needy in peril and thousands of federal workers, including the armed forces, have lost  their paychecks. The Epstein bomb could scramble the table on both sides.

“OK, OK. It is early. I get it.” she said. “Still, just maybe, my senate campaign has a chance. Right? I think I saw a Ms. Pigette for Senate bumper sticker on an SUV at the Hannaford market in the Harbor. At least, I have one fan."