They are both angry, flamboyant partisans with plenty of skeletons in their closets. But are they different in other ways?
Platner, as I understand it, was discovered and groomed to be a candidate by consultants who thought he had the look and the personality to win over working-class voters in Maine. He was abandoned by the Democratic Party when his liabilities became overwhelming. Paxton, on the other hand, is a self-created politician with views on the right edge of the GOP mainstream who succeeded in holding on to his support in the party in spite of his personal failings.