Bangor City Council Chair Cara Pelletier, who also serves as the city’s mayor, resigned from her position on Tuesday, citing “personal attacks” without providing details on the criticism she faced.
“I have refrained from discussing these matters publicly in hopes of keeping the focus on the council’s work, but the impact on my well-being and the strain on my family have been significant,” said Pelletier in a resignation letter obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
“Public service is an honor, yet I do not believe it should come at the cost of one’s health,” she added.
Pelletier has served on the city council since 2022 and as chair since 2023. In Bangor, voters elect city councilors who then select a chair, who also serves as the city’s mayor.
Pelletier did not go into any detail on the kinds of “personal attacks” that led her to resign and declined a request for comment from the Bangor newspaper asking for more specifics.
According to Pelletier, she knew to expect criticism when she was first elected, but the recent “personal attacks” surpass “what I consider to be the reasonable and expected demands of public office.”
She claimed that the “attacks” have had a significant impact on her well-being and that of her family.
Councilor Dan Tremble told the Bangor paper that he has never seen a councilor resign due to public backlash in all his 15 years on the council. He blamed the public.
“There are so many positive things people can do to contribute to the city and instead they choose to spend their time and energy to be negative and disruptive,” he said.
The Maine Wire reached out to Pelletier via her city email, which remains active, asking for more details on the “personal attacks,” but she did not immediately respond. The Maine Wire also reached out to another city councilor, asking for a copy of the resignation letter Pelletier sent to councilors and any insight on the situation, but he also did not immediately respond.
If the backlash came through Facebook, it can no longer be viewed, as Pelletier has deleted her Facebook account.
Whatever the mysterious “personal attacks” were, apparently Pelletier believed them to be emotionally taxing enough that she couldn’t finish the final months of her term, which was set to end in November.
Her resignation came a month after The Maine Wire called her out on social media for making trivial posts about her vacation, garden, and love of bookshops while Bangor struggled with serious crime issues.
Her Bluesky account, which remains active, does not shed light on the backlash she faces, but it does display some of her radical left-wing positions.
Pelletier used her account to promote anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policies, supporting proposals for a city ordinance banning local law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities.
The former mayor also posted a video of a speech she delivered at an anti-President Donald Trump protest in Bangor, in which she compared her defense of democracy in the face of President Trump to that of her ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War and World War II.
“Every American generation has the moment we have to look at ourselves and say will you show up? Will you defend democracy,” she said.
“80 years ago, my grandfather Ernie Pelletier from Lewiston earned five bronze stars fighting Nazis in World War II. He said ‘yes, I will show up and defend democracy.’ I’m working really hard to fill their shoes,” she added.
Pelletier also previously posed with Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Shenna Bellows.
According to her LinkedIn page, she served as the “Senior Director of Culture and Belonging” at Moderna, a pharmaceutical company responsible for one of the most prominent COVID-19 vaccines.
She also served on the City of Bangor Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Human Rights and was on the board of EqualityMaine, a radical nonprofit headed by self-identified Queer Trans Goth Princess Gia Drew, which promotes radical transgender ideology to children.
