Maine Democrats crown Troy Jackson as Platner replacement as fresh scrutiny clouds Senate reset

[mystery-ak]

Maine Democrats crown Troy Jackson as Platner replacement as fresh scrutiny clouds Senate reset
Troy Jackson now faces off against Susan Collins in a premiere Senate showdown
By Paul Steinhauser , Alexis McAdams , Jessica Sonkin Fox News
Published July 25, 2026 11:31am EDT

BANGOR, Maine - Maine Democrats on Saturday quickly coronated Troy Jackson as their party's Senate nominee — following this month's spectacular implosion of ex-candidate Graham Platner — in the high-stakes Senate showdown with longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Jackson, a former state Senate president, was elected in a landslide at the Maine Democratic Party's nominating convention in Bangor. He was on a glide path to the nomination after winning the vast majority of the voting delegates chosen last weekend by Democrats in the northern New England state's 16 counties.

Jackson's top rivals in the race to replace Platner backed him after dropping out of the race the past few days, leaving only one long-shot candidate for delegates to also consider at the convention. He defeated Saundra Pelletier, a pharmaceutical company CEO, by a 566-5 margin in Saturday's vote.

The Senate race in Maine, where Collins is the only GOP incumbent running for re-election in a state President Donald Trump lost in the 2024 election, is one of roughly a dozen midterm showdowns across the country that will determine if Republicans hold onto their slim majority or if the Democrats win back control of the chamber.

more
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/maine-democrats-crown-troy-jackson-platner-replacement-fresh-scrutiny-clouds-senate-reset

[Wingnut]

Rat coronation of another without the voters having a say.   How democratic of them.

[Hoodat]

Republican Lawmaker Asks Secretary of State to Investigate Whether Troy Jackson Is Eligible for Democratic U.S. Senate Nomination

Jon Fetherston  |  July 24, 2026

Just hours before Maine Democrats are scheduled to meet in Bangor to select a replacement nominee for the U.S. Senate, a Republican state lawmaker is asking Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to determine whether former Senate President Troy Jackson is legally eligible to receive the nomination at all.

In a letter dated July 24, State Rep. James White (R-Guilford) formally requested that Bellows immediately investigate whether Jackson—or any candidate who sought and lost a race for another federal, state, or county office in Maine’s June primary, is legally eligible to become a replacement nominee under Maine election law.

White argues the question should be answered before the Secretary of State accepts or certifies any replacement nomination resulting from Saturday’s Democratic convention.

The request comes as Jackson enters the convention as the overwhelming favorite  .  .  .

White cites multiple provisions of Maine election law
In his letter, White contends that Maine’s election statutes prohibit a candidate from seeking another office after already appearing on the primary ballot for a different office.

He points specifically to Title 21-A, Section 331, which provides that “a person may not file, whether by primary election or nomination petition, as a candidate for more than one federal, state or county office at any election.”

White also cites Section 351, which contains similar restrictions, and Section 363, which provides that a political committee filling a vacancy “shall choose a qualified person to fill the vacancy.”

Jackson sought the Democratic nomination for governor earlier this year, appeared on the June primary ballot, and was defeated by Democratic voters. White argues that Jackson’s subsequent effort to become the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate through the party’s vacancy process raises significant legal questions over whether he remains a “qualified person” under Maine law.  .  .

https://www.themainewire.com/2026/07/republican-lawmaker-asks-secretary-of-state-to-investigate-whether-troy-jackson-is-eligible-for-democratic-u-s-senate-nomination/

[mountaineer]

The Jackson Five: A Slew of Shady Troy Stories are About To Slam Into the News Cycle
Have Democrats "Platnered" themselves all over again by choosing a poorly vetted candidate? Ex-Senate President Troy Jackson's record now faces national scrutiny.
By Steve Robinson
July 24, 2026

Augusta resident Troy Jackson, the former Senate President from Allagash, has secured the Maine Democratic Party’s inside nod to take over the U.S. Senate nomination, a seat vacated by his disgraced communist-socialist bestie, Graham Platner.

The national media are now racing to figure out who Jackson is and whether he’ll offer a similar bonanza for political reporters. So what’s in store for readers of the New York and DC press when they get the pleasure of learning about Action Jackson?

Let’s take a stroll through the Book of Troy …

What follows is some strange, dishonest and thuggish behavior on Jackson's part. One of the strangest of the five stories is this:

... 3. The Great Potato Shakedown

On March 5, 2020, Sue McCrum, the matriarch of one of the oldest and largest potato empires in the state, walked into the Secretary of State’s office and filed papers to run for State Senate District 2. She was going after a vulnerable Democratic incumbent, Michael Carpenter. Carpenter, who was Maine’s attorney general in the 1990s, was also a Democratic ally of Jackson’s.

Less than 24 hours later, McCrum quit. She was out before her paperwork even showed up on the state ethics website. No reason for the about-face was given. No explanation that made any sense to the people who knew her. One day, a serious candidate with a serious name and serious money behind her; the next day, poof.

So what happened? Why did Sue McCrum abandon her plans for the state legislature?

The answer, according to half a dozen people familiar with the events surrounding her decision, lies in an obscure provision the Legislature enacted on June 19, 2019.

Nine months before McCrum’s overnight vanishing act, the Legislature rammed through an emergency bill creating a narrow, custom-fit tax credit for food processing. On paper, it was broad economic development: a 1.8 percent annual break on certain business investments between $35 and $100 million, stretched out over nineteen years. In practice, it was a provision that only applied to Penobscot McCrum’s investment in a major new facility in Washburn. For the McCrum family, the tax break was worth somewhere between $11.9 million and $34.2 million.

The sponsor of that multimillion-dollar carve-out was none other than the Senate President from Allagash: Troy Jackson.

According to people familiar with the matter, Jackson picked up the phone and called Jay McCrum, Sue’s husband and the man who runs the company. And the message, as it was described to me, was not subtle: pull your wife out of this race, or you’re going to have an eight-figure problem.

Just as Jackson told BIW “it would be unfortunate” if they didn’t reward his employer with more union members, sources say Jackson told McCrum that he would use his legislative power to nix the tax credit if he didn’t pull his wife out of the race. ...

More at the Maine Wire and at Steve Robinson's Substack.

[Cyber Liberty]

I think it's amusing that Troy Jackson was just appointed the Nominee when he is disqualified to run, by Maine law!