BS Summary: This article contains 20 faulty reasoning types, including False Dilemma, Representativeness Heuristic, and Biased Writer Voice, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 30.5% saturation with 182 hits. Analysis detected 1,176 faulty-reasoning hits from 596 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 46% and a BS Rank of 55% (12,715 of 27,714 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 54.10% of the article peer group.
After former State Senate President Troy Jackson won the vast majority of delegates in county meetings over the weekend, his rivals for the Democratic U.S.
Senate nomination dropped out of the race, leaving his path clear to face off against Sen.
Susan Collins in November.
The winner-take-all process for selecting delegates by county favored the superior grassroots organization of the Jackson campaign—his slates of delegates swept county after county over the weekend, with only a few delegate spots going to supporters of other candidates or non-aligned delegates.
By the end of the first round of county meetings on Saturday, Jackson had already won enough support to claim more than 301 delegates, enough to be elected on the first ballot at a party convention scheduled for this coming Saturday, July 25.
By the end of the contests on Sunday, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former public health director Nirav Shah, Maine Beer Company owner Dan Kleban, and former congressional aide Jordan Wood had all exited the race.
“I’m grateful to every volunteer who worked around the clock for this movement,” said Bellows in a statement.
“That energy is exactly what we need to beat Susan Collins in November – and Democrats don’t have a day to waste in unifying around that shared goal.”
Jackson delegates at the Kennebec County caucus | Jackson official campaign photo
Jackson’s strength was obvious early in the process.
Sentiments on social media ran heavily in his favor before the votes were cast, with many Maine Democrats pointing to him as closely aligned with former Democratic nominee Graham Platner and the obvious successor to his progressive movement.
Jackson was also heavily favored in the statements delegate candidates submitted to the state party, with many who weren’t listed on his eventual slate also publicly declaring their support for the former logger from Allagash.
His campaign was the first to announce a slate, with a full count of delegate candidates for nearly every county.
Jackson asked his supporters to only vote for the candidates on his list and no others, which maximized the votes for each of his candidates.
With this strategy, Jackson’s campaign was able to elect almost all of their slate as delegates, leaving the non-voting alternates at each meeting to be elected by their competitors.
The other campaigns sent out smaller slates later in the process, with some of the delegate candidates they listed featured on multiple slates or not having pledged to support any candidate.
Combined, Jackson’s rivals elected only around 20 delegates out of the 500 selected over the weekend.
The biggest factor in Jackson’s victory may have been the decision made by Democratic Party leaders shortly after Platner exited the race to open up the contest beyond the 101 members of the State Committee and elect an additional 500 delegates through the county-level caucus system to select a new nominee.
Jackson’s volunteers, who had just honed their skills over a year-long race for governor, could turn their attention to a contest where organizing muscle obviously made a greater difference than in the statewide gubernatorial primary.
It’s not yet clear what the nominating convention on Saturday will look like now that all other qualified candidates have dropped out, but if it goes forward, it will be more of a coronation than a contest.
“Our campaign has always been powered by ordinary Mainers – not corporate PACs or wealthy special interests, but neighbors organizing neighbors because they believe we deserve better,” said Jackson on Monday morning.
“In November, we are going to defeat Susan Collins and reclaim our Senate.”
Speakers
2speakers15%attributed speech505writer words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageJackson
45 attributed words49% of attributed speech64% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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