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Moraff’s backers call him a brilliant disrupter with a fresh perspective who doesn’t mind rubbing people the wrong way to win. But his work for Platner fits a pattern of management of previous campaigns, according to more than a dozen people who have worked with him over the last decade. In particular, candidate vetting has been a frequent source of tension. In Pittsburgh, he was involved in Turahn Jenkins’s 2018 campaign to take on the county’s district attorney, Stephen Zappala Jr. Less than a week into his campaign, progressive groups backed away from Jenkins when it emerged that he belonged to a church that held antigay views. Jenkins, who lost the election, declined to comment on the race or on Moraff. Moraff said he did a vet for Jenkins that was beyond what would normally have been done for local office. Brandi Fisher, who leads a police-accountability organization in Pittsburgh, where Moraff worked with progressive groups and a small corps of Democratic Socialists of America, called the campaign “a debacle.” But she said she holds Jenkins, rather than Moraff, responsible for not revealing the views of homosexuality that undermined his support. She acknowledged that Moraff’s work has caused friction with other activists. “Daniel moves fast,” she said. “Daniel makes mistakes, because he’s aggressive. Any time you’re a very aggressive, risk-taking person, things are going to come up.” In New York, Moraff worked as campaign manager for state Senate candidate Debbie Medina. Her 2016 admission that she beat her son as a child with a belt derailed her campaign. The revelation came after older testimony from the sentencing of her son in a murder trial surfaced. Moraff later touted her getting 40.5% of the vote despite “a major scandal in the middle of her campaign” in a 2017 op-ed for a progressive magazine, In These Times. Moraff told The Wall Street Journal he didn’t recruit Medina, who had previously run for office.
Statement from Hannah Pingree on Graham Platner MAINE — Hannah Pingree, Democratic nominee for Governor of Maine, released the following statement: “These allegations are deeply disturbing. Jenny Racicot is a woman who has shown real courage in sharing her story — what she's describing is serious, credible and cannot be dismissed. For Maine, for the future of control of the US Senate, and because no party should stand behind a candidate facing allegations of assault, Graham Platner should exit the race immediately. Democrats need a nominee who can beat Susan Collins in November. Graham Platner is no longer that candidate. Graham Platner tapped into something real — voters hungry for change showed up with real passion and energy. That energy doesn't have to go away. It needs a new candidate to carry it forward.”
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