The longtime partner of the Democratic Senate hopeful Troy Jackson has weighed into the Maine race, accusing Senator Susan Collins of launching “upsetting” attacks on her and her family during the “ugly” campaign.
The competitive race, considered one of the most critical in this year’s elections, has increasingly given rise to scathing and personal attacks against both Collins and Jackson, some of these coming from the candidates themselves. Jackson has repeatedly called the five-term senator “corrupt” and accused her of profiting from her political office, while Collins has made mention of reports that Jackson’s partner, Lana Pelletier, is his cousin.
“I never imagined U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and her allies would stoop this low,” Pelletier wrote in an op-ed for the Bangor Daily News this week.
...
“Collins has brought our family into this campaign herself,” she wrote. “She has ridiculed us publicly, invoked my children in debates and treated deeply personal parts of our lives as fair game for political attack.”
Collins has distanced herself from some recent ads attacking Jackson, including one which calls the former Maine Senate president a “creep” and which she said should be pulled from the airwaves.
Newsweek has contacted Collins’s campaign for comment.
Who Is Lana Pelletier, Troy Jackson’s Partner?
As outlined in the Bangor Daily piece, Pelletier is a licensed clinical social worker from Allagash, Maine. She and Jackson have been together for nearly four decades, and have two adult sons together.
His personal financial reports have listed her as a spouse, though The Maine Wire—which published a detailed profile on her—could not locate a marriage license.
The notion that the pair are cousins first appeared in The Maine Wire in July, shortly after Jackson secured the Democratic nomination, which said that genealogical records revealed that they share great-grandparents. Newsweek has not independently verified this family relationship, as the underlying records are not currently publicly available.
What Has Been Said in the Maine Senate Race
“Our children have been dragged into this campaign,” Pelletier wrote. “Our relationship has been mocked. Our family has been talked about as though there is something shameful about who we are or where we come from.”
The article linked to a number of examples of what Pelletier said were “upsetting” attacks from Jackson’s opponents, including when Collins discussed the pair’s relationship in an interview with Politico in September.
“I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin,” Collins said. “I don’t know whether people know that or not.”
When the interviewer pointed out that Collins had effectively brought the issue up, the senator said that people in the county were already aware of the claim and that it was not something her campaign planned on “emphasizing.”
...
But the most direct attacks have come from groups outside of Collins' campaign but which are backing her re-election bid.
The Senate Leadership Fund—a super PAC tied to GOP leadership, and one of Collins's main financial backers—has run a satirical song on Maine radio which mocks Jackson, calling him a “freak” who has “two kids with his cousin.” Another ad, reported on by the Bangor Daily News, calls Jackson a “crook and a creep.”
Collins on Wednesday said that she had “nothing to do with” the radio ad and called for it to be taken down. And the senator has also complained of being personally targeted during the race, which she called “unique in Maine’s history” given “the number of personal attacks.”
During their debate on October 8, Jackson accused Collins of profiting off of the Iran war. His campaign and the Maine Democratic Party has also brought up Collins’s husband, Thomas Daffron, in their criticisms—several times noting his past ties to and work for AI-linked firms and defense contractors.
Troy Jackson vs. Susan Collins: The Latest State of Play
The latest Polymarket odds give Jackson a 66 percent chance of winning the Senate seat, and the Democrat has held an edge in the majority of polls since he entered the race in late July. The most recent from InsiderAdvantage showed Jackson with a two-point lead over Collins.
However, Jackson’s leads have in most cases fallen within the poll’s margins of error, and Collins has throughout her career demonstrated a capacity to overcome significant polling disadvantages by Election Day.
Ahead of the 2020 elections, the final polling averages had Collins trailing Sara Gideon by nearly four points, but the Republican went on to win the race easily, 51 percent to 42 percent.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Daniel Orton and Emma Lee-Sang