Ronnie Pelletier is starring in a new attack ad against the Maine Democrat who once officiated his wedding.
Pelletier, a firefighter from Allagash, Maine, has endorsed Republican Sen. Susan Collins and appears in a campaign spot blasting former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson over a cellphone tower secured in their tiny hometown during the pandemic. The 30-second commercial turns a once-friendly relationship into political ammunition in one of the nation’s tightest Senate races.
In the ad, Pelletier, who is not related to Jackson’s partner Lana Pelletier despite sharing the surname, recounts how representatives from a cell tower company initially told him the best coverage would come from a schoolhouse lot owned by the town. “A few years ago, I was working for the town, and a couple of gentlemen came into the office,” he said in the spot. “The gentleman from the cell phone tower company had told me that the best reception and coverage would be from the schoolhouse lot that the town owns.”
What happened next, Pelletier claims, shifted the project toward Jackson’s family. “Maybe a day later, Troy Jackson had pulled into my driveway,” he continued. “He was riding them around, showing them the sites. So after Troy Jackson got involved showing them the sights. The tower was then built on one of Troy’s family members’ properties, and the tower went down there.”
The property belongs to Louis and Patricia Pelletier, parents of Jackson’s longtime partner Lana Pelletier and the mother of his children. The couple are Jackson’s de facto in-laws, though he and Lana Pelletier are not married. The Maine Wire has reported that the two are also second cousins, sharing great-grandparents.
Telecom companies typically pay landowners monthly rent for hosting cell towers. Industry estimates suggest rural towers can generate between $500 and $1,000 per month, though the exact amount the Pelletiers receive has not been disclosed.
Robert Parsloe, owner of Wireless Partners, LLC, which installed the Allagash tower, forcefully rejected any suggestion of improper influence. “It’s just really expensive to build new towers. It’s a pain. You alienate people,” he explained in an interview. Parsloe said his company knew nothing about landowners when it first surveyed the area.
“We found this area … we knew nothing about landowners at that point,” he said. “We found a willing landowner. God forbid! I doubt you would want to put one of these ugly towers on your land, and I certainly wouldn’t want to put one on my land. And so we were grateful that somebody said, ‘Sure, put it up there.'”
Parsloe acknowledged that his company had examined multiple locations, including the schoolhouse, before settling on the Pelletier property. He stressed that carriers make the final call on tower placement based on engineering needs, not political connections. “Nobody can talk us into [something] because we’re not going to talk the big carriers into [going] on to Billy Bob’s land and make a decision because that’s a long-term financial commitment for those carriers,” he said.
Jackson’s allies have similarly disputed Pelletier’s account, insisting the Democrat exercised no undue influence over the tower’s placement. Jackson, 47, grew up in Allagash, a remote town of 234 people about 25 miles from the Canadian border, and attended the local school system there. The tower project came during the pandemic, when residents previously had to route their calls through Canada because cellular service was so sparse.
The ad marks a sharp turn for Pelletier, whose wedding Jackson officiated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pelletier has since become a vocal Jackson critic, gaining national attention after a September interview with MS NOW where he bashed the Democrat’s debate performance against Collins and credited the Republican with the stronger showing.
“I watched it, and then I read all the comments, and it was not good,” he told the outlet. “You looked at Troy’s attitude, and it’s like he was insulted to be there. He got pissed. He either does not do well under pressure, or he does not get along with others.”
Pelletier predicted broader troubles for Jackson if he reaches the U.S. Senate. “He’s going from a small pond into the big ocean, and it’s not going to end well,” he added.
The Collins campaign has seized on Pelletier’s defection as evidence of Jackson’s vulnerability in rural Maine. The incumbent holds a razor-thin 0.2 percentage point edge over Jackson in the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate, making the race a toss-up in a year when control of the Senate hangs in the balance. Collins has a documented history of outperforming polls, dramatically so during the 2020 cycle when she won reelection by more than eight points despite surveys showing a dead heat.
Jackson and Collins are scheduled to face off in their final debate before Election Day.