The astroturfed left-wing Chickadee Network shut down after the political insiders running it signed on to Troy Jackson’s Senate campaign less than a week after The Maine Wire exposed the failures of its social media scheme.
“The Chickadee Network has been operating as a project of a PAC, which is by law independent of the campaign. Therefore, effective yesterday, Natalie and BJ will have no more involvement with or communication with the Chickadee Network. As such, we have decided to suspend all Chickadee Network activities for the time being,” said network member Bill Lahey in an email to network members on July 26.
The Chickadee Network was spearheaded by FRAME Strategies President BJ McCollister and political strategist Natalie LaPlant.
The Network was composed of under 50 volunteer members who were encouraged by McCollister and LaPlant to interact with various social media posts in order to boost left-wing candidates and talking points online.
The Maine Wire infiltrated the network and exposed its failures on July 22. In the few days between that and the network’s shutdown, they made one of their Slack channels private and removed one member, apparently misidentifying that user as the Maine Wire reporter.
The organization has since entirely deleted its Slack along with its Facebook page.
They indicated that the network may continue under new leadership and told members they would be kept informed of any future developments.
It is no surprise that the FRAME Strategies team leading the Chickadee Network would join Jackson’s campaign. The candidate has a long history with the firm.
McCollister previously served as Jackson’s state Senate chief of staff before moving on to found the Resurgam Group lobbying firm that employed Jackson’s son and eventually merged with FRAME.
McCollister personally drew in $240,218 in 2024 and $252,200 in 2025 from his lobbying activities, according to his Maine State Ethics Commission disclosures.
