An Allagash man who has known Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson for decades says he personally witnessed Jackson strike his longtime partner, Lana Pelletier, in an incident outside a St. Francis retail store years ago, an allegation that comes as Jackson faces renewed scrutiny over a separate 1988 assault documented in a police report.
Kim McBreairty of Allagash recently sat down with The Maine Wire for an interview in northern Aroostook County, where Jackson has built much of his political identity around his roots as a logger and working-class advocate.
During the interview, McBreairty described an encounter he said he witnessed outside a small pub in neighboring St. Francis. McBreairty could not recall the exact year of the alleged incident, but said he remembers clearly what he saw.
According to McBreairty, the establishment had once been a general store before its owner converted the basement into a private pub frequented by locals on weekends.
McBreairty said he was approaching the entrance one evening when he saw Jackson standing outside with Pelletier, Jackson’s longtime partner, second cousin and the mother of his two children.
What happened next, McBreairty said, caught him completely by surprise.
“He just open-hand slapped her beside the head,” McBreairty told The Maine Wire.
McBreairty said the force of the alleged blow caused Pelletier’s head to move and her hair to fly before she turned and began walking toward the vehicle the couple had arrived in.
“Her head tilted a little bit and her hair flew,” McBreairty recalled. “She turned and started towards whatever vehicle they had.”
McBreairty said he did not hear an argument or shouting before the alleged incident and therefore could not say what, if anything, preceded it.
Asked specifically whether he saw Jackson use a closed fist or an open hand, McBreairty was unequivocal.
“Open hand,” he said. “Just whacked her.”
McBreairty said Jackson then followed Pelletier toward the vehicle. Neither Jackson nor Pelletier entered the pub that evening, according to his account.
The Maine Wire has not independently corroborated McBreairty’s account of the alleged incident. His allegation is separate from a 1988 incident reported Wednesday by the Bangor Daily News involving Jackson and Pelletier.
The BDN reported Wednesday that a police report from 1988 shows Jackson, then 19, broke down a door and punched another man at a Fort Kent residence. According to the newspaper, Jackson does not dispute assaulting the man and the misdemeanor case was ultimately resolved with a fine.
But the nearly four-decade-old police report contained another allegation.
According to the BDN, Pelletier told the responding officer at the time that Jackson had “pushed her around” following the confrontation and that she intended to seek cease-harassment papers against him. The newspaper reported that it found no record showing Pelletier ultimately sought such an order.
Both Jackson and Pelletier now dispute that portion of the police report.
Pelletier, who has been Jackson’s partner for roughly 40 years, told the BDN through Jackson’s campaign that she does not remember making the statement attributed to her by police and denied that Jackson pushed her.
Jackson acknowledged the fight with the man but categorically denied ever committing violence against Pelletier or any other woman.
“Nearly [40] years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now,” Jackson said in a statement published by the BDN.
Jackson added that the decades-old incident does not represent the person he became.
McBreairty’s account, however, raises a separate allegation: that another northern Maine resident says he personally witnessed Jackson strike Pelletier on another occasion.
McBreairty’s allegation also comes amid broader scrutiny of Jackson’s temperament during his years in Augusta. Former colleagues have described Jackson as having a fiery temper, with national and Maine news outlets recently revisiting a 2021 confrontation at the State House involving then-state Sen. Heather Sanborn, a fellow Democrat. During a heated disagreement over legislation aimed at lowering prescription drug costs, Jackson threw a plastic water bottle in frustration. Sanborn later described the episode as upsetting, while other former lawmakers have cited Jackson’s yelling and confrontational style as a concern. Jackson has acknowledged throwing the bottle, telling The New York Times that he should not have done it and conceding that he has yelled when frustrated. His campaign, however, has disputed portrayals suggesting the bottle was thrown at Sanborn, saying it was thrown away from those in the room and struck no one. The incident has nevertheless become part of a wider debate over Jackson’s temperament as he campaigns for the U.S. Senate, with Jackson characterizing his approach as passionate and saying he has taken responsibility and apologized for past outbursts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/us/politics/troy-jackson-maine-senate.html
McBreairty also challenged another central piece of Jackson’s public biography during his interview with The Maine Wire: Jackson’s portrayal of himself as a fifth-generation logger.
McBreairty said he has deep family connections to Jackson’s family and disputed the generational characterization.
“I know that for a fact because his grandfather and great-grandfather were trappers because they’re my uncle and grandfather,” McBreairty said.
McBreairty acknowledged that Jackson worked around logging equipment but drew a distinction between operating machinery and working as a traditional woodsman who felled trees with a chainsaw.
He said he has asked longtime residents and logging contractors around Allagash where Jackson actually worked cutting timber and has been unable to find anyone who remembers him doing that work.
“Where did Troy ever take a chainsaw and go out and fall a tree?” McBreairty asked. “Not one tree.”
McBreairty said Jackson operated equipment, including a delimber, but argued that describing that work as traditional logging gives voters an incomplete picture.
“He didn’t run a buncher, he didn’t run a chainsaw, he ran a limber,” McBreairty said.
The criticism strikes directly at the political identity Jackson has cultivated during his career in Augusta.
Jackson represented the northernmost reaches of Maine in the Legislature and eventually rose to become president of the Maine Senate, one of the most powerful positions in state government. His political image has long emphasized his Allagash roots and connection to Maine’s logging industry.
McBreairty said that history makes Jackson’s record in the region fair game as he seeks to represent the entire state in Washington.
Standing in Allagash, McBreairty pointed to a community that has lost businesses and economic opportunities over the decades and questioned what Jackson’s rise through Augusta ultimately delivered for the people who live there.
“He has done very little for the people of Maine, let alone Allagash,” McBreairty said.
The allegations from McBreairty come at a consequential moment for Jackson, who is seeking to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
They also create a direct factual dispute.
Jackson has publicly stated that he has never been violent toward Pelletier or any other woman. Pelletier has likewise denied the allegation contained in the 1988 police report. McBreairty, meanwhile, is now publicly putting his name behind an allegation that he personally witnessed Jackson strike Pelletier on a separate occasion.
For voters, that leaves sharply conflicting accounts surrounding events from decades ago in the small communities of northern Aroostook County, communities where Jackson’s personal history has become inseparable from the political biography he is now presenting statewide.
Has anybody ever seen a chainsaw in Troy’s hands,..??..??
Unfortunately an eyewitness could say they saw him murder someone and the brain dead TDS Mainers would still vote for him and the others who have totally wrecked this state.
Does Troy even know how to start a chainsaw??