In his Dec. 21 column, “Janet Mills puts ICE cold ambition on display,” Jim Fossel accuses Gov. Janet Mills, who’s running for Senate, of ambition. Why is ambition a negative only when applied to female candidates?
The same edition has a lengthy article about Graham Platner, who, despite zero political experience, is also running for Senate. Nowhere does that article say that Platner’s renunciation of his past harmful language and racist tattoo is due to ambition to be elected. But the female candidate, with a lifetime of political experience and public service, who wrote an op-ed explaining her thinking behind her decision on the ICE legislation, has “cold ambition.”
She is ambitious. So is Platner. So is every candidate running for office. The tired double standard around ambition applied to female candidates holds women back from even attempting to run. Which, I suppose, may be the point. Do better.
Meghan Casey
Yarmouth
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