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PORTLAND (WGME) — Both Senator Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson defended themselves from claims made in negative ads during Tuesday night’s CBS13/FOX23 U.S. Senate debate.
Collins began by addressing claims made in a ProPublica report alleging that her campaign was involved in a “pay-to-play” scheme in 2020.
“First of all, let me say that these allegations are completely false and they are very offensive. The University of Maine came to me with a proposal in 2017 that was in conjunction with a company called Navatek which had been around since 1978 and did engineering and technology work, research. It came forward with a proposal, it was one of the University’s top priorities. I worked very closely with the University, we advanced that proposal. The head of Navatek at the time, unfortunately, was a crook. He is now in jail where he belongs. He said that he could not get a meeting with me unless he made a political contribution. We have a picture showing him meeting with me to discuss the University’s plan with him that took place months before there was every a contribution.”
Jackson continued to press the Navatek issue, while also refuting ads that targeted his political relationship with his son.
“My son didn’t do anything wrong and independent fact-checkers have proven that time and time again, that there was nothing there. What we do know about Navatek is that, as late as 2024, the FBI was circling around Senator Collins, they had emails, they know about meetings, they got a check, a great big check for 100,000, a pay to play scheme, involving her office and our taxpayer dollars. Then whenever President Trump came back, his administration dismantled the investigation. Now she votes with Donald Trump 96% of the time. Look, I don’t owe Trump, I don’t owe the billionaires nothing, in fact I’ve spent my life fighting back against billionaires, but I do owe the people of Maine everything. I refuse corporate PAC money, I want to ban congressional stock trading, I fight for working Mainers every day. I’m not taking money from corporations like Senator Collins does. In this country, politicians are bought and paid for and the people that I know, don’t have enough money to buy them back, that’s why I’m fighting for them.”
Collins fired back, attacking Jackson over an FHA loan he took out on his home in Augusta while working in the State Senate.
“First of all, these allegations were thoroughly investigated by the Biden Department of Justice, the Federal Election Commission, the FBI. All of them said they were utterly false with regard to my staff or me. This is so outrageous. Later, when the head of the company was trying to get his sentence reduced, he spun this elaborate tale. It was rejected not only by the prosecutor, but by the judge. Now I think that Troy has a lot to answer for on a mortgage that he got for an FHA loan in which he said this Augusta house was going to be his primary residence. You can only get this kind of loan if it’s for your primary residence. How can he have a primary residence in Allagash for which he was reimbursed $160,000 for travel back and forth, and have a primary residence in Augusta?”
Jackson argued that living in Augusta was a normal practice for politicians from Aroostook County.
“Just like every other legislator in Aroostook County, I’m a long ways from home. My home is in Allagash, but I showed up every day to work, I made all my votes too and I had to have a place in Augusta. In the past, I’ve had hotel rooms, I’ve had apartments. We had a house and the FHA loan says that they understand the majority of the year is what primary residence is. I was in the House five days a week and I went home on the weekends just like every other time, like every other legislator. So I’m not going to apologize for standing up and fighting for my constituents because that’s what I did.”
