Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner often touts his role as harbormaster of Sullivan, Maine, as proof of his “working class” bona fides, saying on his campaign website that he “serves the town of Sullivan as Harbormaster” and claiming during a February podcast interview that he’s “been the harbormaster for the last two years.” He actually held the role for roughly 18 months before quitting to launch his Senate campaign—and it was largely a “clerical” one, according to local records and people familiar with the position.
Platner’s predecessor as Sullivan harbormaster resigned in February 2022, the records show, and the town got by without one for more than a year. By April 2023, town officials began discussing whether there was a “need for Harbor Master (HM),” according to meeting minutes from Sullivan’s Harbor Committee. The committee noted that it was “not clear that a full time HM is needed” because “operations in the Harbors are handled by those who use the Harbors without dispute.” Platner then “offered to be identified as HM if required by law,” though the committee said it was “not clear that one is required” because the role’s “largest challenges are clerical” and “can be handled by the Harbor Committee.”
About six months later, in September 2023, the town agreed to hire Platner as “an interim Harbor Master until one could be hired,” records show. The local newsletter, the Town Crier, first listed Platner as “Harbor Master: Interim” in December 2023. At a March 2024 town meeting, Platner “announced that he is officially a qualified Harbor Master”—a designation that comes with the completion of a basic training course—and subsequent editions of the Town Crier dropped the “Interim” from Platner’s title. Platner served in the role until the summer of 2025, when he launched his candidacy, according to Sullivan town manager Ray Weintraub, who told the Washington Free Beacon that the role generally consisted of collecting rent fees for the town’s moorings and ensuring they were “allocated properly.”
“We don’t really have any working waterfront, so to speak, other than a couple of boat launches,” he explained.
Platner’s inflated description of his harbormaster tenure marks the latest instance of the left-wing Senate candidate and self-described “working class Mainer” misrepresenting his background.
Platner, for example, said he relied on assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs to purchase his home in Sullivan in 2017, but mortgage records show he borrowed $200,000 from his father, a prominent local attorney, to buy the house, the Free Beacon reported. Platner has also said he’s “never been close to money and power,” though he attended an elite Connecticut boarding school that costs upwards of $75,000 a year and is the grandson of a world-famous architect known for designing $20,000 chairs. And while Platner presents himself in campaign materials as a hardscrabble “oyster farmer,” his business partner also attended an ultra-elite New England boarding school, graduated from Dartmouth, boasts of drinking “foraged spring water with Redmond sea salt,” and is an owner of the secluded Maine island where Platner’s oyster farm is based. The primary purchaser of Platner’s oysters, meanwhile, is a “casual fine dining restaurant” owned by Platner’s mother, financial disclosures show.
Many of those details have been missing from fawning mainstream media profiles on Platner. A New Yorker profile published in September falsely stated that Platner purchased his house thanks to a “Department of Veterans Affairs low-interest mortgage” and described Platner as “local oyster farmer, harbormaster, and former marine.” Time also described Platner as “harbormaster of the bay” in a recent piece, while a Portland Press Herald feature published in December shows Platner “at the waterfront in Sullivan, where he is harbormaster and also runs an oyster harvesting business.”
Platner has more recently acknowledged that he no longer serves in the role. His original financial disclosure stated that he actively served as “Harbor Master,” but Platner filed an amended version on May 15 noting he had left the position. That was the same day a New York Times piece assessing Platner’s “working-class” image described him as “a former harbor master from tiny Sullivan.”
Indeed, when it comes to Platner’s harbormaster duties, Sullivan’s “tiny” size is noteworthy. Large harbors in Maine can have up to 2,500 moorings, where commercial or recreational boats can anchor offshore, explained the vice president of the Maine Harbor Masters Association, Daryen Granata. Platner’s harbor in Sullivan had 17 permitted moorings as of 2022, town records show.
“In Maine, there’s three types of harbor masters,” Granata, who also serves as Cape Elizabeth harbormaster, told the Free Beacon. “There’s administrative harbor masters that basically just do paperwork and tell people where to put a mooring. And then we have harbor masters that have some enforcement authority with summons authority under their ordinance. And then we have full-blown law enforcement harbor masters that are fully sworn police officers that carry firearms and have arrest powers.”
Platner appears to have been the first type.
“I’ve been the harbormaster for the last two years,” Platner said on the comedian Tim Heidecker’s podcast Office Hours Live in February. “What’s the harbormaster?” Heidecker asked. “I make sure people pay their mooring fees,” Platner replied. “And I make sure that their … mooring equipment is in good enough shape.”
Weintraub, the Sullivan town manager, said the town did not have many records related to Platner’s position.
“It’s not like a regular employee. There are no benefits,” he said. “There’s a small stipend that’s administered for, ‘Hey, we keep an eye on things.’ Nothing really official like that.'”
The “official” aspects of the role are generally discussed at meetings of the Town Harbor Committee, which Platner was required to attend, as well as those of the Select Board, the Sullivan town government that Platner was required to present periodic reports to.
Town meeting records are also sparse. Platner was required to attend meetings of the Town Harbor Committee and present periodic reports to the Select Board. But the Harbor Committee met only once during Platner’s tenure, and Platner was only listed as attending 4 out of 37 Select Board meetings, according to records.
Platner’s main initiative as harbormaster appeared to be implementing an online registration system for mooring permits that would have automated part of his responsibilities. But it was “a little too high tech for our folks in the water,” according to Weintraub, and the town recently returned to the paper system.
“It’s proven to be unnecessary,” he said. “Folks want the old paper thing.”
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